Science of Learning

Impacts to Date

Participants in the Science of Learning Colloquium:

  • identified course-level changes as a result of studying the science of learning.
  • credited themselves for using teaching practices supported by the literature on student learning.
  • developed workshops open to new and experienced faculty across the University of Michigan campus.
  • learned from each other, the readings, and the presentations given by the scholars of the sciences of learning.

Please bookmark this site and check back for instructional resources developed from the fellows’ contributions (e.g., podcasts, teaching tips, and/or research reports).

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How Faculty Applied the Science of Learning

Index of topics

Distinguishing between novice and expert learners

Karen Rhea, Mathematics Read more »

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Science of Learning Fellows

Index

Faculty Fellows (2008-2009)
Faculty Fellows (2009-2010)
Graduate Student Fellows (2008-2009)

Faculty Fellows (2008-2009)

Mark Banaszak-Holl Professor

Department of Chemistry
Macromolecular Science and Engineering, College of Engineering

Liz Cole
Associate Professor

Psychology, Afroamerican and African Studies, & Women’sStudies

Maria Cotera
Associate Professor

Program in America Culture, Latina/o Studies, & Women’s Studies

Vicente Diaz
Associate Professor

Program in American Culture & Asian/Pacific American Studies

Angela Dillard
Professor

Afroamerican and African Studies & Residential College

Read more »
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Science of Learning Colloquium Topics and Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography PDF

Colloquim Topics

Novice vs. Expert Learners
Lecture Learning and Recall
Mood and Cognitive Performance
VisuoSpatial Learning
Identities and Innovation
Developmental Aspects of Learning
Drawing on Student Diversity

Novice vs. Expert Learners

Brookfield, S. (1996). Through the lens of learning: How experiencing difficult learning challenges and changes assumptions about teaching. To Improve the Academy, 15, 3-15.

The author challenges faculty to cast themselves in the role of learners for tasks or subjects which, unlike their areas of expertise, do NOT come easily to them. The purpose is to better understand what it is to experience the struggle shared by many students to grasp new material. The author recounts his own efforts to master a daunting new skill and the many lessons he learned about teaching and lecturing in the process.

How experts differ from novices. (2000). In J. D. Bransford, A. L. Brown, & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience & School (pp. 31-50). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Read more »

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