Deep and lasting learning results when we teach human brains in ways responsive to how theyre structured and how they function, which is not how we imagine they work or wish they would work. This book proposes a radical restructuring of teaching so that it conforms to how people learn. Spence maintains that teaching cannot and should not be aimed at transferring knowledge from teacher brains into student brains. In his words: Decades of experience have made perfectly clear that this approach frustrates teachers, bores students, and results in minimal learning.
This is a book that challengesit will poke and prod your thinking. The author writes near the end of Chapter 4, I wanted to write a book that asked real questions and explored possible answers. I am not concerned that you agree with my answers or ideas, but I fervently hope the questions Im raising will lead you to questions about habitual teaching practices and the resulting failure of students to learn.
This book proposes a radical restructuring of teaching so that it conforms to how people learn. Spence maintains that teaching cannot and should not be aimed at transferring knowledge from teacher brains into student brains. .
Deep and lasting learning results when we teach human brains in ways responsive to how theyre structured and how they function, which is not how we imagine they work or wish they would work. This book proposes a radical restructuring of teaching so that it conforms to how people learn. Spence maintains that teaching cannot and should not be aimed at transferring knowledge from teacher brains into student brains. In his words: Decades of experience have made perfectly clear that this approach frustrates teachers, bores students, and results in minimal learning.This is a book that challengesit will poke and prod your thinking. The author writes near the end of Chapter 4, I wanted to write a book that asked real questions and explored possible answers. I am not concerned that you agree with my answers or ideas, but I fervently hope the questions Im raising will lead you to questions about habitual teaching practices and the resulting failure of students to learn.
IntroductionMaryellen Weimer
1. Early Learning Experiencing in School
2. Early Teaching Experiences in College
3. It's Time to Put Lectures on the
Shelf
4. What is the Role of Questions in Learning?
5. Content. Does All That
Information Lead to Knowledge?
6. Teaching Realities. Conflicts, Assumptions,
and Approaches
7. What Is Learning?
8. Rethinking Failure and Ignorance
9.
Criticism. The Key to Learning
10. Teaching That Promotes Learning from
Mistakes and Failure
11. Practice Makes Perfect but Not Unless It's
Deliberate EpilogueMaryellen Weimer About the Author Index
Larry D. Spence was an associate professor of political science at Penn State, where he was recognized for distinguished teaching with two University-wide teaching awards during his career. After 25 years teaching, he became the founding director of the Universitys Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning. Upon his retirement, he directed a series of learning initiatives in Penn States School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Smeal College of Business.