talk about the wonderful topic of
learning one that engages many people I
am a learner like we are all I’m also
learning scientist and as such I have an
agenda well I have several but today I
want to challenge simplistic and
one-sided ideas about learning and the
kind of polarized thinking that often
comes along one example there is the
idea hold forth by several educators and
scientists that learning works best when
if given the problem the learner herself
explores and searches for an answer we
talk about active learning discovery
based learning and query based learning
on the other hand equally strongly put
forward by others is the claim that
learning works best to the teacher one
who knows the domain tells explains and
shows and thereafter the student can
practice and there are trances from one
side about the other that this is naive
this is old-fashioned this doesn’t work
but why should we choose one indeed
there is strong evidence that learning
is most likely to be boosted when those
two approaches are combined in
well-composed ways well scheduled smart
ways indeed there is strong evidence
that activity generative activities
central to understanding and learning
but relevant things have to be generated
and you can prepare students for active
activities and possible discovery by
smart lecture elements and then again
channeling and explaining is of an
adequate because some benefits of
discoveries will only occur when you
receive an explanation of those
discoveries so instead of defending one
position and criticizing the other the
energy ought to go to the real task and
challenge for researchers and
practitioners to find out how to compose
those more differentiated and complex
solutions another example this involves
frontline educational technology which
is central to my group’s research we
so-called virtual reality based
environments you can learn in novel ways
imagine you should learn about glaciers
so instead of listening to slideshow
presentation you can go there and
experience for yourself you can actually
virtually visit a glacier and there are
the claims this is learning of the
future that is engaging and meaningful
so we can throw out old-fashioned
methods listening to people reading
boring books this is more powerful this
is learning of the future and on the
other hand the claims that we’re allit
is not which school needs this is what
key to do outside of school so more than
ever we need to work on well-established
redefined educational approaches
listening to skill people reading
discussing analyzing that is the road
forward virtual reality is no help in
again this is a really meaningless
debate no doubt there are important
assets there are benefits with one
approach as well as the other
the important and arms on questions
regard how to combine elements from the
two approaches in smart and productive
ways and this is what we need to
systematically investigate and I wish
that students researchers and teachers
together set out to do this now I say
now because we all remember about the
iPad that all of a sudden was just there
in schools in preschools and so many
teachers asking themselves what shall we
use this for i want researchers students
and teachers to go first and lead the
development and decide what is going to
come over the threshold to the classroom
and think in terms of learning not in
terms of management administration not
in terms of technology per se yeah I
would like learning research to work
before not come behind and describe what
happened to happen which is a waste with
taxpayers money so these were two longer
examples now some quick your examples of
simplistic ideas about learning it’s all
about engagement if you’re engaged
you will learn if you’re not engaged you
will not learn versus it’s about
perseverance learning is hard work
making an effort learning is not fun
it’s not about engagement none is right
or learning is a group activity you
should focus on the group versus the
individual is a core of learning you
should focus on the individual none is
helpful none is right and the third and
last one it’s all about the brain if
you’re not studying the
you’re not starting learning versus the
brain has nothing to do with learning if
you study the brain you’re not studying
learning my message is that when we deal
with issues of learning and education we
should leave all simplistic ideas about
learning behind they are threats to
education and possibilities that are
learning prosper because they stand in
the way for the real more complex
composed solutions simplistic
pedagogical ideas sometimes have
bulldozer force and can harm accordingly
and in Sweden we are particularly
vulnerable because our small population
comparable to a large European city
together with a strong consensus
orientation simplified one-sided ideas
can have a tremendous impact we have
some current really harmful ones the
idea that goal orientation is the
solution there is so much talk in
Swedish schools about goals final goals
sub goals and ever goals fulfillment
goals competence goals attitude goals
each lesson chapter task has its goals
related is the idea that evaluation is
the solution even evaluation equals
learning I would say that 75% of all
discussions at Swedish schools today
among teachers between teachers and
students among students concern
evaluation evaluation matrixes
evaluation criteria that are often very
abstract in general instead of talking
about tasks and content you talk about
how to evaluate students attempts at
Augen about
content content that has become
another thing about simplistic ideas
about learning is that they are often
ideologically colored I want learning to
work this way and they can be personally
colored I would have done better with
another kind of school my plea to all
people who have power over present and
future learners is that we examine
ourselves if I put forth a strong shame
about learning put all the basis for it
and most important is their ideology
behind them I want to give credit to
those practitioners and learning
scientists who have been part of strong
one-sided movement invested much in a
simplistic idea of learning and then at
some stage examined evidence reflected
and backed off all cred to them I just
said evidence and I want to fold that up
to my last clause now what should we do
and with we I mean teachers and
researchers well we should back off from
simplistic ideas about learning from
ideology and from abstractions instead
you should go close to learning and
teaching situations and explore them so
close
be concrete and be creative so create
those novel more differentiated composed
solutions and test them compare them
compare them to existing good practices
compare them among themselves it’s
because students time at school and
teachers time is limited so when you
choose one approach you discard others
and that’s what it’s why it’s so
important to ask what is the benefit
with this approach how does it compare
in terms of learning to other relevant
alternatives from a learning perspective
remember so it’s not sufficient to say
hey here is some technology it can be
used to teach kids about genetics so
let’s use it because that’s not fair to
learners you have to ask how does this
compare in terms of learning to relevant
alternative approaches so my take-home
message we have responsibilities towards
learners and therefore three things one
we should not simplify what they do not
put forth simplistic ideas about
learning – you should be creative and
create novel well-composed learning and
teaching method methods and test them
towards alternative towards one another
so that three we can truly say to
learners that the activities we make
them engage in instruction they get or
from a learning perspective good ways to
spend their time this the old owners
you [Music]