Discovery b ased learning Scott La Joie Health

Discovery b ased learning Scott La. Joie Health Prom otion & Beh av ioral Scienc e

What is DBL? 0 A learning approach characterized by active exploration and integration of experience and ideas. 0 Constructivist; Inquiry-based. 0 Fundamental assumption: students remember best if they learn on their own rather than taught directly. 0 Jerome Bruner (1961)

What is DBL? 0 Scaffolding: building off the information that is already mastered. Instructional scaffolding: Support 0 Problem-based learning: students analyze problems, determine solutions, evaluate results. Deeper understanding, retention.

What is DBL? 0 Mind as an extension of the hands; a tool. Exploration and manipulation of ideas. Struggle and stress. Experiment. Knowledge, after all, is justified belief -J. Bruner, The Culture of Education

Components of Learning “Students need enough freedom to become cognitively active in the process of sense making, and students need enough guidance so that their cognitive activity results in the construction of useful knowledge. ” (p. 16) R. E. Mayer, 2004 American Psychologist

Behavioral Activity Cognitive Activity Low (guided) High (unguided) Low High (passive learning) (active learning) Lecturing, textbooks Hints, corrective feedback, scaffolding Group discussions, internet search Unassisted, pure discovery R. E. Mayer, 2004 American Psychologist

Behavioral Activity Cognitive Activity Low (guided) High (unguided) Low High (passive learning) (active learning) Lecturing, textbooks Hints, corrective feedback, scaffolding Group discussions, internet search Unassisted, pure discovery R. E. Mayer, 2004 American Psychologist

Novice Learning Long term memory Long term Unformed memory mental model Novel Information in the Environment Working memory Limited capacity, short duration, slow “The aim of all instruction is to alter long term-memory. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned. ” (p. 76) P. A. Krischner, J. Sweller, R. Clark (2006) Educational Psychologist

Expert Learning Long term memory Richly detailed mental model Reinforcing Information in the Environment Working memory Unlimited capacity, long duration, fast “The aim of all instruction is to alter long term-memory. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned. ” (p. 76) P. A. Krischner, J. Sweller, R. Clark (2006) Educational Psychologist

Novice vs. Expert Learning “Controlled experiments almost uniformly indicate when dealing with novel information, learners should be explicitly shown what to do and how to do it. ” (p. 79) P. A. Krischner, J. Sweller, R. Clark (2006) Educational Psychologist

Novice vs. Expert Learning Contrarily, experts rely on long-term memory to recognize previously learned patterns and apply solutions that have been shown to be successful in the past. G. Klein, founder of Naturalistic Decision Making, calls this Recognition-Primed Decision Making G. A. Klein & C. Zsambok (eds. ) Naturalistic Decision Making; 1996; Erlbaum

Novice vs. Expert Learning 0 Novices lack proper experience to integrate new knowledge. 0 Unguided discovery learning results in heavy cognitive burden, especially for novices. 0 Experts do not suffer from guided research. R. Mayer (2001) Multi-media learning. Cambride Univ Press

Unassisted Pure Discovery Learning 0 Students are given no guidance. 0 Cognitive workload is burdensomely heavy. 0 Working memory limits prevent long-term memory change. 0 False starts are prevalent. 0 Learning is ineffective, inefficient, and frustrating

Assisted Discovery Learning 0 Students are given as much guidance as needed. 0 Because discovery is content based, rather than content + process, cognitive workload is less. 0 Long-term memory can change as new knowledge is found and fit into existing mental model. 0 Fewer false starts. 0 Learning is effective, efficient, and rewarding

Concluding the debate META ANALYSIS of 164 studies: 0 Pure discovery learning rarely works; especially not with novices. 0 Assisted discovery learning, including feedback, worked examples, scaffolding and elicited explanations, works with novices and experts L. Alfieri, P. J. Brooks, N. J. Aldrich, & H. R. Tenenbaum (2011) Journal of Educational Psychology

Using Technology (guided) DBL 0 Assumptions: 0 Students are familiar with technology 0 Students are familiar with subject matter 0 Instruction includes: v. Scaffolding (e. g. , instructions, rubric) v. Examples exist v. Social feedback is available 0 Students have ample time to explore

Using Technology (guided) DBL 0 Examples from my experience with DBL (not so good & good)

Decision Analysis 0 Students simulate a risky decision, use software to model the decision, incl. , risk and cost/benefit, and analyze results to make recommendations for optimal choice of decision alternative (“Expected Utility Decision Making”)

“I … feel that not enough ‘guided’ time was spent working with groups on the decision tree projects, especially as it represents such a significant portion of the final grade. ” - unknown student, Course Evals

Health Communication 0 Students choose a health topic, research it, and create a ‘wiki’. 0 All have experience doing this type of research paper, and it was covered again in class. 0 All have seen wikis before, but none have made one. 0 All were comfortable with tools on wikispaces. com

Student wiki HIV AIDS Awareness by Caitlin W. I’ve never made a wiki before but I learned so much by doing this homework assignment … this class is so relevant to me! - known student, paraphrase from comment after class!

Twitter Campaign 0 Assignment during National Public Health Week : generate awareness of what public health is. Go! 0 Mid-semester, digital technology & health comm 0 Student group decision making 0 Chose to do a campaign on twitter

Twitter Campaign 0 Student Robin (@Robin. Pregnancy) was an EXPERT! 0 0 Robin provided scaffolding Class recruited tweeters, generated 200+ tweets Campaign was launched during #NPHW from @ulsphis; Students evaluated the twitter campaign using a number of different programs, including su. pr 0 Completely organic!

Public Service Announcement 0 In Health Comm, students were asked to develop a PSA relating to a public health topic. 0 Digital Media Suite (Ron Schildknect) provided technical instruction. 0 You. Tube and Ad Council offered examples. 0 Instructor provided feedback at various stages (script writing, storybooking, etc. ) PHPB 612 -01: HEALTH COMMUN CAMPAIGNS-Spring 2009 - Student PSA

Lastly 0 Students seem to like the opportunity to explore new ideas using digital technology. 0 Hear it from doctoral student: Todd Misener http: //youtu. be/agb. MTVWHi. YU