As a community of learners, our Specials teachers are focused on learning more of what research tells us about learning in the intersection of neurology, psychology, and education. There’s a course plan, outline, differentiated resources, and the learning has begun. Session 1 was asynchronous and planned so that we had time to read, study, and experiment with new ideas. For Session 2, we gathered to discuss and share what we have learned and how our students have responded. Here are the goals and shared agenda.
As a warm-up, we continued playing Face the MBE Facts: A Neuromyth Busting Activity from The Center for Transformational Teaching and Learning at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. In small groups, teachers discuss the statements and decide if it is research-affirmed or not. I really like these cards. They are written to provoke thought and discussion. Often, our faculty are split between true and false. The back of each card gives the True/False result and some supporting information for faculty to consider. It creates a need to know. (You should run – not walk – to get these to promote learning.) Here’s a sample.
After the warm-up, we reviewed the Primacy-Recency effect.
We then learned a little about retrieval practice, along with spaced and distributed practice, from Olaf Schewe and Barb Oakley. This is the new focus for the next asynchronous session for the Academic Path. However, all teachers should consider the impact of formative assessment for retrieval practice. Spaced and distributed practice should be considered and how we might teach our students to learn smarter.
To finish our session, we divided into small groups based on our selected resources. We shared our 3-2-1 notes. We discussed what we have learned. Additionally, we talked about what we’d like to try next.
All resources are posted in our Mind, Brain, Education Google Classroom for teacher convenience. Specific tasks for the previous asynchronous session are outlined in our Google Classroom.
As this is an 8-session series, I’ve shared links to previous plans.
Experiments in Learning by Doing 
[…] Session 2: F2F […]
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