Office of Faculty Development
Critical Topics
Enhancing Student Learning
It is all about learning. Every action we take as instructors is based on our expectation that our students will be able to change something that they know, feel, or can do. Peter Beidler (1986), CASE Professor of the Year in 1983, writes, “Teaching is a complex art, if only because there is no teaching unless those being taught actually learn” (p. 51). Or, as Angelo and Cross (1993) say, “Teaching without learning is just talking” (p. 3).
Learning happens and is seen on at least two levels: there are physical changes in the brain as a person is processing information and there is a potential change in behavior that the learner can perform. Because we do not have the opportunity to attach sensors to our students’ brains while they are in our courses (although some professors are working on that), we rely on students’ behaviors, such as how well they score on tests or how well they can resuscitate a patient, to signify learning.
Cognitive development is the progress of learners from simple to more complicated schemes of knowing. Gardner (2004) describes the cognitive perspective as
based on emerging scientific understanding of how the mind works, courtesy of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and other neighboring disciplines. It takes into account our inborn or early representations, and it acknowledges their debt to both cultural and biological factors. But most mental representations are neither given at birth nor frozen at the time of their adoption. In our terms, they are constructed over time within our mind/brains and they can be reformed, refashioned, reconstructed, transformed, combined, altered, and undermined. They are, in short, within our hands and within our minds. Mental representations are not immutable; analysis or reflective individuals are able to lay them out, and, while altering representations may not be easy, changes can be effected. Moreover, because we have at our disposal so many mental representations that can be combined in so many ways, the possibilities are essentially limitless. (p. 46)
Course design must take into consideration the developmental stages of our students and provide opportunities for students to move into more complex ways of knowing. There are several theories that are useful for developing appropriate learning objectives for each course in a curriculum, and for the curriculum as a whole:
- Zull’s Biological Connection
- Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle
- Gardner Multiple Intelligences
- Learning Styles
-Grasha
-VARK
- Perry Cognitive Development Scheme
- Belenky, Clinchy, Goldenberger, & Tarule Developmental Steps
- Blooms Cognitive, Affective, & Psychomotor Taxonomies
