The following principles are drawn from How Learning Works, a compendium of current, well-supported research on what we know about learning. These principles are applicable acrossall disciplines and learning contexts, and are intended to illuminate why certain approaches to teaching support student learning.
- Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.
- How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.
- Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
- To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
- Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.
- Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
- To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.
For a succinct but more detailed summary of these principles, read more here, or borrow the book from the DCAL Lending Library.
Citation:Ambrose, S. A. et al. (2010).How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.