David Gooblar writes, “No matter how much students value
your course, or how supportive your classroom environment, they won’t be
motivated to do the work if they don’t think they can succeed at it. And of
course the solution is not about making things easy for them. As a new academic
year gets underway, I’ve been thinking a lot about student motivation.
Specifically I’ve been rereading a 2010 book How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, which offers a compelling chapter
on the three main pillars that underlie student motivation. Continue reading here.
WHAT GOOD LEARNING LOOKS LIKE
This blog post by Anya Kamenetz for NPR has some pretty useful
information. So print it out; get out your highlighter and take off the cap. Ready?
Now throw it away, because highlighters don't really help people learn. We all
want for our kids to have optimal learning experiences and, for ourselves, to
stay competitive with lifelong learning. But how well do you think you
understand what good learning looks like? Ulrich Boser says, probably not very
well. His new research on learning shows that the public is largely ignorant
of, well, research on learning. Boser runs the science of learning initiative
at the left-leaning thinktank the Center for American Progress. He has a new
book out, also about the science of learning, titled Learn Better.
