A Learners’ View (ALV) Is Of Choices On The Shortest And Fastest Path To Learning, The Oxygen Of Social Life.

Theme: Blending what teachers do with how people learn.

Incomplete Draft

Preface

If teaching was just fun, it would be easy. Planning and instructing lessons requires choosing ways to blend the fun of teaching with how students learn. In this way, teaching lessons is like composers conducting their heartfelt symphonies. They work with a finite number of options. Learners make a finite number of choices to learn. Human anatomy, musical instruments and traditions limit the frequencies of audible sounds and thus the number of notes for composers to use. Teachers and composers must each blend their options to capture the attention of and benefits for others. Such blending makes teaching problematic, technical, and usually predictable, even for the most gifted independent teachers and learners. In these ways, teachers join the ranks of bards, comedians, physicians, scribes, and others over the ages who have blended the discipline of their craft with humor to benefit those who pay attention. (Robert W. Heiny)

Greetings from Learner

Hi Teach. … I give you conditional permission to teach me. You choose what, where, and when I should learn. I choose if and how I will learn and how it benefits me to do so. Them’s the rules. Please respect that teachin’ me is that simple. With respect, if you don’t believe me, try it your way as my other teachers done an’ see if you learn me as much as you can my way. (Ima Learner, 2011)

Introduction

If you’re like us, at some time in your life you’ve probably said to yourself something like Ima Learner’s quote. You’ve also probably asked yourself what to do differently, so students learn more from your lessons. You’ve argued that you invested significantly in what you do. You’ve seen and heard about other ways to teach, but have put off making more investments until “a better time”.

After all, schools, teaching, and political talk about education keep changing. The volume of professional development experts and literature about learning have become too large to handle in addition to teaching. And, the din against educators has become so shrill that it detracts from the good things teachers do daily. This leaves you uncertain about which investments will be reasonable, so you can teach as you believe appropriate.

We decided, in this context of uncertainty, to summarize behavioral science descriptions of learning for your use. We try to edit each module of each summary down to 20 seconds of reading, figuring that you read at least 150 words a minute. Please give us more time to meet that criterion; some of the modules aren’t that size yet, but that’s the direction we’re heading. More than one module may appear on a page under multiple subheadings. We’re stringing modules together, so these summaries can serve as shortcuts for when you compose lessons that include what people do to learn. We leave discussions about education to others.

We use the term a learners’ view (ALV) to refer to behavioral research reports that describe what you can see and hear people do when they learn, likely including learning from your lessons. We also include summaries of behavioral research descriptions of how teachers have used these observations to increase learning promptly.

We think that there has never been a better time than now to offer these suggestions for you to try as you plan, instruct, and assess your lessons.

About This Guide

Here are some highlights that describe how to use ALV:

1. Hands-on steps to composing and conducting lessons
2. Sample forms, checklists, and lessons
3. Essential behavior patterns you can see and hear as people learn.
4. Glossary of terms and logic patterns behavioral scientists use to describe what you can see and hear people do as they learn.
5. Tools that make lesson planning and instruction more productive.
6. Links to an evolving, increasing library of tips, examples, technical notes, original research sources, and case studies of learning in and out of schools
7. Troubleshooting tips, but that’s lower on the list of priorities; look for them in future posts

How This Guide Is Different From Others

This guide features descriptions from behavioral and social science research of steps you can see and hear people use as they learn. This feature brings a new flavor to teaching and learning.

To get you up and running as soon as possible with this feature, ALV goes to the core of learning. In other words, experimental behavioral and social science research indicates that learning does not occur without these events that you can see and hear.

You will likely be pleased with how simple it is to use ALV as you plan, instruct, and assess lessons with these essentials for learning to occur. This simplicity contrasts with conflicting demonstrations and discussions “about” ways to increase learning.

At over 200 pages, this guide plus supporting pages may give you the impression that we’ve gone overboard describing learning as simple. But, as we see it, most lessons contain too few essential principles of learning that experimental scientists describe. Thus, too many lessons do not fulfill their promises.

Only by attempting full-blown use of ALV do you begin to see the simplicity of what you can do to increase learning. Of course, when you’re done, you’ll have a substantial set of lessons that likely result in increased learning, sometimes dramatic, prompt increases that please even the most defeated learners.

Assumptions

We and you know what they say about people who make assumptions. However, this site would not exist if we did not make them anyway:

1. All of the learners with whom you work do not learn everything you intend from all of your lessons. (If they do, please tell us, so we may learn what you do.)
2. You want your lessons to result in prompt increased learning as well as more learning later.
3. You have limited time to read anything about teaching and learning.
4. You will try at least once to use behavioral research results that describe what to see and hear people do when they learn, and duck taping it to your lesson plan book hasn’t increased anyone’s learning. (But, printing it on a 10 foot banner hung across a high school chemistry classroom wall has! Yes, really.)
5. You don’t need to become an expert with ALV, but you’re welcome to try, at least once.
6. You have at least one point of access to the Internet.

We’ve Got Your Back

Whether you are a novice or veteran teacher, use this guide as your default reference when your lessons do not result in the learning you want. We’ve all taught those lessons. All, that is, except one mythical secular perfect teacher (MSPT) none of us have met. So don’t let embarrassment keep you from using this guide. We’re (except one) all in this together. We want this guide to be your helpful back-up, if you ever have another unsatisfactory lesson.

Start Increasing Learning Now

Use this guide to make sure you include features in lessons to which people respond in order to learn. You add and blend the art and passion of teaching to these essentials, so they fit the subject and level of academic performance you expect from learners. With this guide, you can use ALV:

1. To plan, revise, and present lessons with formats based on research findings of choices learners use to learn.

2. To use tools that let you take advantage of your experience and intuition.

3. To use ALV formats to increase learning with more confidence as you want it increased.

4. To distinguish between the design and decoration of lessons.

5. To create alerts for yourself when your lesson and their learning do not match what you want.

Perhaps most importantly, with ALV, learners will show you what to do differently for them to learn more the next time you present a lesson.

CONTENTS OF A LEARNERS’ GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

Related Sources

Related Reading

1.  A Learners’ View (ALV) of Choices during Teaching and Learning – A Two Minute Read
2. Welcome to CLASSIC EDUCATION

Last Edited: January 27, 2015