Summary: How Learning Happens by Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick

Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice. Dive into the transformative insights of “How Learning Happens,” a groundbreaking exploration of educational psychology that reshapes our understanding of effective learning strategies.

Continue reading to discover the pivotal teachings that can revolutionize your educational approach and outcomes.

Genres

Educational Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Teaching Methods, Instructional Design, Learning Sciences, Professional Development, Educational Research, Academic Achievement, Curriculum Planning, Teacher Education

“How Learning Happens” by Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick is a comprehensive guide that delves into the works of 28 influential figures in educational and cognitive psychology. The book provides a detailed examination of seminal research and its practical implications for teaching and learning. It covers a range of topics, including how the brain works, prerequisites for learning, supportive learning activities, teacher roles, learning in context, and common educational myths. The authors aim to bridge the gap between complex psychological theories and classroom application, offering educators actionable insights to enhance their teaching methods.

Review

The book stands out for its clear and concise presentation of complex ideas, making it accessible to educators at all levels. It successfully translates academic research into practical strategies without oversimplifying the science behind learning. However, some may find the lack of quick-fix solutions a drawback, as the book emphasizes a deeper understanding of educational psychology over simple pedagogical hacks. Overall, “How Learning Happens” is a valuable resource for educators seeking to ground their teaching in solid psychological research, fostering a more effective and evidence-based approach to education.

Recommendation

Learning experts Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick explore dozens of works on learning and teaching in educational and cognitive psychology. They offer a road map of the past five decades of important discoveries in how learning happens. Each chapter includes advice on how to use the information in primary school classrooms, plus key take-aways for teachers. The authors emphasize the importance of primary research and testable hypotheses. The book’s final chapter debunks myths of learning that have no basis in evidence.

Take-Aways

• The way teachers work to improve student learning relies on decades of educational and cognitive research.
• Set the stage for better learning by creating the right conditions.
• Support learning through the right mix of techniques and activities.
• The most important factors in the learning process for students are their teachers, and the methods their teachers use.
• Learning is both cognitive and social.
• Resist the pervasive myths and legends around teaching and students that can lead learning astray.
• Reject ideas and advice that have no backing from evidence and research.

Summary

The way teachers work to improve student learning relies on decades of educational and cognitive research.

Teachers craft their techniques through practice and experience, but can’t always describe what works for them in a way that might benefit other teachers. For the past century or so, educational theorists and researchers have worked to turn implicit knowledge of what is effective in the classroom into explicit, usable instructions.

“As the novice is not a miniature expert, it’s extremely important to realize that what may work very well for an expert usually doesn’t work well or is even harmful or counterproductive for the novice.”

It starts with the human brain, which receives inputs from the body’s senses – filtering the important from the trivial, and storing what’s useful for later retrieval. But the brain of a novice differs from an expert’s. Novices don’t have the experience to see patterns. Experts know and understand the relevant knowledge – the laws of physics, for example. They move quickly to a strategy for solving a problem by automatically categorizing it against a framework, without having to relearn the rules. Novices often don’t know what they don’t know – which means that a problem-solving approach that works for experts won’t work for them. Teachers should take novices through each step in a process to solve problems systematically.

Teachers may fall into the trap of assuming others know something simply because they, the teachers, know it so well. Reduce the novice’s cognitive load by breaking concepts down into steps. Then, teach those steps separately. This requires teachers to arm learners with the knowledge and procedures they need before asking them to solve a problem. Use multiple types of examples and activities to encourage “deep learning.” Try to build on what students have already learned and know. Avoid superficial learning, such as covering complex subjects in a few PowerPoint slides or having students search a concept on the internet.

Leverage natural learning and “primary knowledge” – knowledge people almost automatically have and pay attention to, because it aligns with their survival instinct. Try to connect what you teach with real situations in students’ lives. Ignore any notion that people have “learning styles” and that you must match your teaching to their preferences. Instead, incorporate images and text, diagrams, illustrations, animations and video into your teaching where they’re appropriate. Everyone learns better when you use multiple formats.

Set the stage for better learning by creating the right conditions.

Take the time to assess what your students already know, so that you can build on it and connect that prior knowledge to what you want them to learn. Gauge prior knowledge by assigning students pre-tests or assignments. If they have little prior knowledge of the topic you hope to teach them, provide them with the basics. Start with generalities, and then move to the specifics. Incorporate prior knowledge and new learning into instructional material for easy connections and comparisons.

“The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.”

Create the conditions for learner self-efficacy, where students have the confidence and abilities to learn independently. But don’t assign independent learning in the hope that you will create independent learners. Help learners break their learning objectives into short-term goals, and guide them to the knowledge and skills they need for independent learning.

Encourage students to adopt a growth mindset toward their capabilities and intelligence. When students believe that their intelligence is fixed or innate, they prove less likely to strive in their learning. When they believe they can learn anything, they achieve more. Those with a growth mindset more readily achieve a belief in their own abilities. As an instructor, you should build learners’ confidence by starting with easier tasks and moving gradually to the more difficult ones. Help students get used to pressure and stress by focusing on the small steps that make up complex tasks or learning.

Recognize students for behaviors that lead to success in learning. Praise their effort and persistence when it’s appropriate, even when it does not lead to success. Though students can and should practice in order to improve their performance, focus them more on the goal of mastering a topic or skill rather than on performing well on a test. Avoid criticizing mistakes. Instead, ask questions about a student’s approach. Then, listen and make suggestions.

Support learning through the right mix of techniques and activities.

From multiplication-table drills to thought exercises, align activities to the types of learning you seek. Meerkats teach their young to safely kill and eat scorpions by introducing them first to dead scorpions with their stingers removed. Then they move on to dead scorpions with stingers attached, and finally to live scorpions. Learning experts refer to activities like this as “scaffolding.” First, gain the student’s interest. Next, break the problem down into simple chunks. Hold the student’s interest even while you increase the difficulty of the steps. Offer close guidance and support as students build on their skills, so that they can gradually accomplish the complete tasks on their own.

“Well-executed scaffolding begins by luring the child into actions that produce recognizable-for-him solutions.”

Though costly, one-to-one tutoring produces the best learning results. However, few societies can afford to teach through tutors. Alternatives like “mastery learning,” however, can come close to tutoring in their effectiveness. Mastery learning tailors the instructional approach and the pace of lessons to each student, requiring more time than traditional group teaching but less than tutoring. Teachers keep instructing students until they score at least 90% on tests.

After equipping students with the right knowledge and guidance, teachers should encourage them to work on problems independently, and practice what they’ve learned. Teachers must observe and distinguish between the behaviors and activities that aid students’ learning, versus those that don’t. This leads to a “student-centered” approach to instruction. It includes the use of a variety of materials, including embedded problems, questions, presentations and simulations.

The most important factors in the learning process for students are their teachers, and the methods their teachers use.

In addition to possessing deep knowledge of their subject, teachers must exert authority while also demonstrating care. At the same time, they have to master the art of feedback and be able to gauge each student’s progress. Teachers can use several techniques to aid them in these challenges. First, students might look at a topic or challenge holistically, and then “zoom in” on its constituent parts to achieve a better understanding of the whole. Imagine looking at Picasso’s Guernica for the first time. You might see a jumble of images. Zooming in, you see a horse, a bull and screaming people. As you learn about the symbolism of horses and bulls in Spanish culture and the history of what happened in Guernica, you begin to understand the whole painting and its meaning.

“It’s better to give your students a number of small (homework) assignments distributed over time than one large assignment.”

Teachers must constantly consider working memory capacity in students so as not to overload them. Techniques such as spaced repetition and practice can facilitate the transfer from short-term to long-term memory. Other proven principles of instruction include using introductions and reviews of learning materials, offering material in small chunks followed by practice at each step, and asking questions that connect the steps. Additional approaches include providing clear explanations and demonstrations (or models), offering guided and then independent practice once students are ready, and monitoring their progress through assessments, regular reviews and feedback.

“Learning, simply stated, means that there has been a change made in one’s long-term memory.”

Assessment and feedback prove essential in learning, but must dig deep enough to inform both teacher and student about what to do next. Outside of tests, assess not to rate or score the learning, but to further it. Assess so that you can offer better feedback to promote further learning. Consider returning some student work with comments and questions, but without grades.

Feedback is vital, but if you use it incorrectly, it can harm learning. Calibrate your feedback to each student’s level of learning. Give specific feedback that students can act on and that might promote reflection. “Epistemic feedback” aims at motivating the learner to consider the “who, what, when, why and how” of a problem. Corrective feedback offers just one dimension — the “what” — and is less effective.

Teachers should also consider and employ various learning techniques designed to better explain concepts through summarization, mnemonics and, especially, distributed or spaced study, repetition and practice. By encouraging students to reread materials, practice problems and apply techniques at regular, spaced intervals, teachers build robust study habits that enable long-term memory formation and true learning.

Learning is both cognitive and social.

Children learn first by observing others and through imitation. Later, they learn from others contextually – through the right behaviors, depending on the situation. Teachers should create the context and environment for students to learn the right things from each other. For example, through peer-to-peer learning and coaching, students can learn by observing others performing tasks in small steps. Teachers should take care to engineer this type of social learning by thoughtfully assembling groups and teams.

“Learning is more than knowing what to do. It also involves knowing how to do it.”

Teachers should also consider context in the development of their activities and exercises to produce authentic learning with a basis in real situations. This can range from whole-class discussions to group or team applications of knowledge or skills in a real-life context – much like adults working together to solve problems in organizations.

In the past, much of learning occurred through doing, as with apprenticeships. By making concepts and learning more visible to students, teachers can gain many of the advantages of apprenticeships and experiential learning in the classroom. This means letting students observe first, ask questions, and then engage in the tasks themselves through experimentation.

In organizations, social learning proves even more vital. Organizations and their people learn mostly from each other, including those inside the organization and across the industry or profession. In schools, this can apply through subject-specific “communities of practice,” in which teachers share best practices and ideas.

Resist the pervasive myths and legends around teaching and students that can lead learning astray.

Myths about teaching best practices often prove difficult to dislodge, even with extensive research. Despite thorough debunking, some notions persist – for example, that old theories and teaching practices don’t apply to the new crop of “digitally native” students, or that teachers must cater their instruction to each person’s preferred learning mode (the “learning styles” theory).

“The beliefs that a person holds persist in the face of data that disproves or even contradicts those beliefs.”

Teachers should use technology, mix up their use of learning types, and encourage independent study and practice when appropriate. All of this requires guidance. Teachers must calibrate feedback and assessments in a way that builds confidence and wards off stress. A one-size-for-all approach often harms students, as does an attempt to get too specific in what medium to use for each student. Novel approaches like virtual reality may engage students, but also might create cognitive overload. No teaching medium proves superior in all cases over another. Choose carefully on the basis of your goals and on your understanding of the technology. Then you will be able to determine whether it might make your lesson more efficient, engaging and enjoyable.

Reject ideas and advice that have no backing from evidence and research.

Reject the notion that you should break your teaching into precise percentages of reading time, demonstrations, practice, and the like. Again, ignore learning style theory, and the notion that you must teach digital natives differently. Avoid asking students to multitask on anything involving any complexity. Don’t buy into the idea that because students can find knowledge easily on the internet, they don’t need to learn it. Students need a base of knowledge to build on.

“Without knowledge and skills which we acquire at school it’s impossible – except in the case of luck – to come up with something of value.”

Guide students – don’t throw them into independent study or practice until they’re ready. Don’t confuse engagement and motivation with learning. Let learning itself build engagement and motivation. Don’t let commentators who criticize teaching dissuade you. Everything doesn’t have to be physical, exciting or experiential to hold kids’ attention. Trust educational theories that have foundations in research.

About the Authors

Paul A. Kirschner teaches educational psychology at the Thomas More University of Applied Science in Belgium and is a past professor at the Open University of the Netherlands. Carl Hendrick teaches at Wellington College in the UK.