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One of the best parts of teaching at Denison is finding time to think through ideas with colleagues. In June, we had 55 faculty join book groups for some summer learning together. Over the next weeks, we’ll share some of participants’ key takeaways from each group. This week’s book is, Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky, and Terrence Sejnowski. Some of the conversation points that stuck with people were:
- Understanding the differences between working memory and long-term memory leads to understanding how different students are learning in class. “Race-car” learners have fast processing speeds. “Hiker” learners have slower processing speeds. Processing speed does not equate to intelligence.
- Realizing that the brain organizes information after it stops consciously engaging with it, making not just having breaks, but the types of breaks in the ebb and flow of classes important.
- Providing students more reflection time before having to answer a question or add to a discussion is not just about helping shy or less confident students be ready, it is a technique that can also be an important opportunity to cement the content being presented into a student’s working memory.
- Giving more concrete instruction to students before they engage in group work so that those small groups function in a way that is consistent with good pedagogy.
- Learning more about how the brain works helps us understand our own learning which in turn helps understand why certain teaching strategies work in their classroom.
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