7 Principles Translated For TAs
7 Principles Translated For TAs
from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance
learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.
7
Herbert Simon, a founder of the field of cognitive science,
Nobel Laureate, and former professor at Carnegie Mellon University
Research‐based
Principles of Learning
What we know about learning and how to translate it to the classroom.
Adapted from How Learning Works: Seven Research‐Based Principles for Smart Teaching (2010, Ambrose et al.)
1 Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Administer low or no‐stakes diagnostic to get a sense of student
preparedness.
Gauge prior knowledge • Have students brainstorm a topic in groups to uncover beliefs, assumptions,
and associations (e.g., "What do you already know about ..." or "What comes
to mind when you think of ...").
• Explicitly link new material to prior content from the course ("Where have we
Activate accurate prior knowledge seen this before?").
• Use analogies to connect course content with everyday knowledge.
• Be sure to differentiate declarative (knowing what and why) from procedural
Address insufficient prior knowledge (knowing how and when). Your students may know certain facts but may not
know how to use them.
• Have students make and test predictions. When evidence contradicts beliefs
or expectations you can help students see source of error.
Correct inaccurate prior knowledge
• Provide checklist or set of rules to help students determine if prior
knowledge is relevant to a given problem or question.
2 How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Show "big picture" organizational structure of course ‐‐ how key concepts of
class inter‐relate ‐‐ and refer to this structure explicitly over the semester.
• Have students draw a concept map. This will illustrate not only their prior
knowledge but how they are organizing it.
• Have students complete a sorting task (e.g., sort different problems,
Reveal and enhance knowledge
concepts, or situations into categories.
organizations
• Pay attention to the patterns of errors to see if a student is consistently mis‐
applying a formula or strategy.
• Have students work with multiple organizational structures by asking them to
categorize items in one schema and then another.
3 Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Provide authentic, real world tasks so that students can see the usefulness of
what they're learning.
• Connect course content to student's interests.
Establish the value of class activities and
goals for your students • Show your own passion and enthusiasm for the subject. (It can be
contagious!)
• Identify and reward what you value. If you value group interactions in a given
project, identify what that looks like and include evaluation so it's integral in
grade.
• Create assignments with the appropriate level of challenge.
• Provide your students with early opportunities for success (e.g., shorter
assignments that build to a larger project).
Help students develop a positive • Provide rubrics that will explicitly represent your performance expectations.
expectancy (to believe they can achieve
success) • Describe, model, and coach your students on effective study strategies. This
gives them alternatives to those habitual study routines that result in poor
performance.
• Identify and applaud successful student behaviors.
4 To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know
when to apply what they have learned.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Enlist the help of someone outside your discipline to decompose a complex
task. This can help to reveal your blind spots – those things you may have
skipped over assuming that students will “just know.”
Expose and reinforce component skills
• Diagnose weak or missing component skills and provide isolated practice for
them. This will focus student energies on those parts of a task that most need
additional attention.
• Assign exercises that are specifically designed to increase students’ efficiency
Build fluency and facilitate integration of and automaticity. Be explicit about the level of fluency you expect students to
skills achieve (e.g., “Practice these sorts of problems until you can complete one
question in about 10 minutes.”).
• Discuss conditions of applicability (e.g., when an equation is relevant, in what
situations a concept applies, when a technique can be used).
Facilitate transfer of skills • Help students connect what they’ve learned to other contexts. Be explicit
when moving from one context to another; don’t assume that students will just
see how something translates.
5 Goal‐directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Be explicit about what you want students to be able to do at the end of an
assignment so that students can use your expectations to guide practice (i.e.,
use your learning objective to drive the purpose of the class!).
• Give examples or models of target performance so students have an idea of
Identify the skill to be developed and
what this skill looks like. You might even contrast those examples with what
define the target level of performance
you do NOT want.
• Use a rubric (scoring tool) that specifies performance criteria and share the
rubric with your class. Students will be able to monitor their progress when
they know what is poor versus satisfactory versus superior.
• Build in plenty of low‐risk opportunities for practice so students can develop
requisite skills over time. For example, if there’s a significant oral presentation
to be delivered at the end of the course, help students prepare with activities
Provide opportunities for goal‐directed that develop component skills along the way.
practice
• Provide an appropriate level of challenge for students by scaffolding their
practice. Give instructional supports early on and then gradually remove these
supports as students develop greater mastery.
• Design frequent opportunities for feedback, and think carefully about what
information you can provide that will be most helpful to the student. Focus
your feedback on key aspects of the assignment so as not to overwhelm and to
let students target their practice.
• When you incorporate peer feedback, provide clear instructions to students
Provide targeted feedback
on how to give feedback and what to note in order to make it meaningful. (And
remember that giving feedback is also a skill that requires practice!)
• Require that students specify how they incorporated feedback into
subsequent work. This helps students make connections between different
assignments and aspects of the course.
6 Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate
of the course to impact learning.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Make uncertainty safe and resist the temptation for a single right answer by
validating different viewpoints, avoiding over‐simplification, and reinforcing
that a key purpose of discussion is not consensus but to enrich thinking.
Create a productive learning climate and • Facilitate active listening by having students paraphrase what someone else
support student development said, and checking‐in about interpretations.
• Establish and reinforce ground rules for interaction to create an inclusive and
respectful environment. You might even include students in the development
of rules or standards of behavior for your classroom.
• Don’t ask an individual to be a spokesperson for a group (e.g., race,
generation, nationality).
7 To become self‐directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to
learning.
What you can do in the classroom Examples
• Be more explicit about task definition than you may think necessary. Be clear
about course goals and why they are important, what students need to do to
meet the objectives of an assignment, etc. Share samples of work
(anonymously, from a previous semester) and highlight strong and weak
features, or do’s and don’ts.
• “Think out loud” and describe how you would approach a problem or task.
Help students assess the task at hand and
Model your own metacognitive processes to demonstrate that even experts
evaluate their own strengths &
reassess and adapt their thinking.
weaknesses, plan an approach, apply
strategies and monitor their performance
• Provide simple heuristics for students to assess their own work, identify
errors, and self‐correct. For example, “Is this a reasonable answer?” or “What
assumptions am I making here?”
• Have students analyze work of their classmates and provide feedback. This
not only yields helpful ideas from others, it helps students monitor and
evaluate their own work more effectively.
• Disabuse students of unproductive beliefs (e.g., “I can’t do math .”) by
highlighting the positive effects of practice, effort, and adaptation.
• Show how different types of knowledge are needed for different types of
tasks. For example, distinguish procedural knowledge (HOW to do something)
Attend to student beliefs about from conceptual knowledge (WHY is that important? What does it mean?). Or
intelligence and learning walk students through the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and note the difference
between being able to recall a fact, discuss a concept, solve a problem, etc.
• Help students set realistic expectations for their learning. When students
have a truer sense of just how much time and effort is required, they’ll be
more likely to persevere when they encounter challenge or frustration.