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Turn On the Natural Gifts of Learners

Paul R. Scheele
Learning Strategies Corporation
Paul Scheele@LearningStrategies.com

and body, so that people can acquire information, knowledge, and skills better, faster, cheaper. Here I will examine three innovative trends in education that can be successfully implemented in any setting.

Make it Relevant
What were your most meaningful learning experiences in life? Did they take place in the classroom? We come into the world as truly gifted learners, gathering massive input and organizing it into useful patterns. Track the speed and pro ciency of the preschooler acquiring information and skills. Learning occurs naturally as a part of engaging in life activities. Learning is relevant, learner directed, oriented to problem solving, offers unlimited repetition, and allows for trial and feedback (Gordon, 1995). Then school starts and much of the naturalistic learning opportunities give way to prescriptive and contrived lessons. Many learners begin to switch off (Grinder, 1991). As educators, our job seems clear deliver the information students need to succeed. If the learner does not succeed, do we claim we are teaching disabled or do we contemplate the students learning disability? Ty pi ca lly, ou r job description fo cu ses on the teaching, not on the learning (Barr and Tagg, 1995). So we try again; establish the necessary competencies, design appropriate instruction, deliver the content, facilitate building knowledge and skills, measure the attainment of competencies based on pre-determined performance criteria. But again, in our efforts to make sure the students learn, we have left the learner out of the process when designing relevant instruction. When we beg in to fo cu s on making lea rning relevant, a new choice emerges for effective design and delivery of instruction. Think multiples: multiple intelligences, multiple sensory systems, and multiple learning styles. New trends in affective education (Society for Effective Affective Learning) and learner-

y son Ben, a high school sophomore at the time, complained one evening, I dont know why I go to school.

I knew this as the classic sign that a brilliant mind was about to switch off, while attending an institution whose mission was to turn that mind on. I was all ready for my soliloquy on the value of education when he continued, I sit in class wanting to learn a subject I signed up to learn, and the teacher spends a third to half of the time trying to get kids to shut up and pay attention. Its a total waste. We explored the post-secondary enrollment option at his school. Ben went for it. He earned his high school diploma during his junior and senior years while attending a local college, and completed almost two full years of his college transcript in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system at the same time. He had found a better way for himself. His path through high school characterized the best of what can happen for the learner: choice, exibility, advocacy, focus, positive interdepende nce, access to rich resources, respect of learning style and educational opportunity.

Finding a Better Way


Ben was not the rst to look at education and lament, There has GOT to be a better way! Throughout our society people are demanding new options to boost traditional educational approaches. Over the past two decades, my professional life has focused on helping stu de nt s, educa tors, corporate t ra iners, a nd administrators nd better ways to facilitate learning. Working internationally, I have witnessed that when a better way emerges, the magni cence of the human being as learner can achieve marvelous potentials. Innovations in education have come from diverse sources. These include advancements in cognitive neuroscience; learner-centered classroom instruction that promotes active, collaborative, accelerative, braincompatible lea rning; ch eaper, rea di ly ava ilable technology; authentic assessment that provide rich feedback to the learner; and shifting roles for all the stakeholders in the educational process. My passion for codifying and disseminating new approa ches to teaching and learning intends to recapture the natural brilliance of the human brain

In our efforts to m ake sure the students learn, we have left the learner out of the process w hen designing relevant instruction
centered instruction (The Learning Paradigm) are attracting growing numbers of interested educators and producing remarkable results with students. A good theory in practice example can be found at the School for Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Following the New Designs model put forth by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) (Copa, 1998), the school was built from the blueprints of an ideal school environment.
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Students there work harder than they might have ever imagined yet they find the challenges extremely rewarding and worth the effort. Educators have recog nized tha t when the learner perceives the relevance of what they learn, they stay attentive, interested and motivated.

Focus on the Highest Purpose: Learning to Learn


What do you remember from history classes in school? I asked a history professor Do you care if I learn names, dates, and places? No! he insisted. Names, dates and places are not important. The importance of history is to be able to think with an historical perspective. Interesting competency. Makes me wonder why that was never made explicit to me in school? When we make such goals explicit, they are easier to accomplish. This is the domain of metacognition and it facilitates learning how to learn.

say No! Ask someone who loves essays if they like doing math problems. Dig deeper and you will nd that neither has the others effective approach to taking the tests. And as it goes, once a student has failed to learn, they often learn to fail. Instead of discovering new learning strategies, they default to a belief, Im just no good at and you can ll in the blank. I have found that most people who switch off to a subject do so for lack of effective metacognitive strategies (Scheele, 1997). You have heard the wisdom, When you teach a man how to sh, you feed him for a lifetime. Never has this been truer than in the classroom. Teach someone how to learn it and they can become lifelong learners.

Make it Active
Roger Johnson, Director of the Center for Collaborative Learning at the University of Minnesota, said that he has over 800 studies referenced that show collaborative learning is a better way to learn compared to traditional lecture-based teaching. Yet, he claims, less than 5% of teachers use collaborative learning. That statistic might not surprise you. Many of us have come to believe when the instructor does not know what to say, they put us into a small group discussion. However, the proper use of collaborative, active learning methods can serve as potent tools to engage a learners full mental resources. Passivity puts the brain in the wrong gear for effective performance (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). The classrooms where learners become busy, active and communicative tend to be far more rewarding and effective (Johnson, 1998; Cross, 2000). The use of simulations, decision cases, games, group problem-solving, collaborative projects and presentations can be quickly designed and easily integrated into a lecture-based program. But like any technique you use, plan to learn from your rst few trials with it. Use feedback from course participants to enhance instructional methodologies. Be an active learner yourself and what you model for your students will come back to you abundantly.

Educators w ho understand the strategies needed for effective learning m u s t nd ways to engage students at that level
As the complexity of society continues to increase, as information continues to explode, no teacher will ever be able to keep up with the most current content in a eld. But if a student learns how to learn in a subject area, they can use their skills outside the classroom to succeed wherever they go. Whenever learning occurs, learners need to know how they learned it. When they have access to models and insight that provide s for metacog nitive understanding, they become more skilled at continuing such learning long after any formal instruction is over. The learner has an opportunity to become a lifelong learner in that subject area. Educators who understand the strategies needed for effective learning must nd ways to engage students at that level. For example, many people who spell poorly use a dysfunctional strategy a phonetic spelling strategy. Try spelling phonetics phonetically. It cannot be done. How about the word Albuquerque? No way. The proper strategy for spelling is visual. When a person learns how to spell a word, have them visualize the letters in the minds eye and spell the word backwards. The full strategy is to rst check the picture, and then check the feelings (Van Nagel et al, 1985). Similarly, there are different test taking strategies for handling de terminant problems (math) a nd indeterminate problems (essay). Ask someone who loves math if they like doing essays. They will usually
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Conclusion
In the coming week, enter your own laboratory of life to gather empirical evidence. Notice how issues of relevance, metacognition and collaboration affect the

O ur goal as educators and policym akers should be to turn on our natural gifts for learning
educational settings in which you find yourself. Discover how much an experience suffers from the lack

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of those educational devices, and how much more successful the experience is when they are included. Consider the three strategies as inexpensive ways to offer more choice, exibility, advocacy, focus, positive interdependence, access to rich resources, respect of learning style and educational opportunity. Encourage an ongoing exploration for how to do more with less. Human beings come into the world as truly gifted learners, gathering massive input and organizing it into useful patterns. Rather than letting learners switch off, our goal as educators and policymakers should be to turn on our natural gifts for learning and rekindle the passion for developing our genius capacities.

Cognititve Arts Aims for New E-Learning Paradigm


Adam Newman
Eduventures.com
ANewman@eduventures.com

REFERENCES
Barr, Robert B., and Tagg, John. From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education. Change, 1995, 27(6), 13 25. Bennett, J. Michael. Four Powers of Communication: Skills for Effective Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991. Copa, George H., and Ammentorp, William. New D esig ns for the Two -Year Institu tion of Hig her Education: Final Report . Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, 1998. Cross, K. Patricia. Collaborative Learning 101. Mission Viejo, CA: League for Innovation, 2000. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Gordon, F. Noah. Magical Classroom: Creating Effective, Brain-Friendly Environments for Learning. Tuscon, AZ: 1995. Grinder, Michael. Righting the Educational Conveyor Belt . Portland, OR: Metamorphous Press, 1991. Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom . Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company, 1998. Rose, Colin and Nicholl, Malcolm. Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century: The Six-Step Plan to Unlock Your Master-Mind. NewYork: Delacorte Press, 1997. Scheele, Paul. Accelements Playbook: Key Elements of Accelerative Learning and Teaching . Minneapolis, MN: Learning Strategies Corporation, 1998. Scheele, Paul. The PhotoReading Whole Mind System . Wayzata, MN: Learning Strategies Corporation, 1999. Scheele, Paul. Natural Brilliance: Move from Feeling Stuck to Achieving Success. Wayzata, MN: Learning Strategies Corporation, 1997. Van Nagel, C., Siudzinski, R., Reese, E., and Reese, M. Me gateaching and Learning: Neuro Linguis tic Programming Applied to Education. Rock Beach, FL: Southern Institute Press, 1985. l

ead most of the popular press articles regarding the potential for online learning, and youd think you were reading about a sure thing. In the 21st century knowledge economy, an individuals education will never end; the Internet provides the most ef cient and (one of) the most engaging delivery channels for distributing lifelong learning. However, few of todays participants in the online learning arena realize that their products can not simply be a repurposing of instructor-led courses and pr int publica tions for the Web, b ut a radical reconceptualization of web-delivered education. Dr. Roger Schank, founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Cognitive Arts, believes his organizations approach to web-based learning achieves this objective. We want to change education to make it more relevant, Schank told Eduventures.com. We are creating emotional, visual experiences for learners. Cognitive Arts develops both customized courseware and off-the-shelf products, delivered via the Web or CD-ROM, primarily for Fortune 500 clients. However, Schank reports that that company is increasingly looking at opportunities in the post-secondary, 9 12 and adult consumer markets. The company creates interactive simulations that place individuals in real business situations where they must lter information, confront problems that arise and make decisions that impact the outcome of the scenario. The courseware employs a goal-based learning methodology that Schank has developed across 25 years as director of the Yale Arti cial Intelligence Project, and since 1989, as director of the Institute for Learning Sciences (ILS) at Northwestern University. People learn by doing, said Schank, and each of our courses begins with a speci c goal. For example, were developing an economics course where the learner serves as an advisor to the President and must help him make decisions. For the economics course, Cognitive Arts staff are canvassing the country, meeting with professors and experts in the eld to generate nearly 40 hours of video and audio. This content will be integrated and archived into a course that will feel like a full, stop-action video, accordi ng to Scha nk, who est imates course development costs will run between $1 and $1.5 million. With the company looking to sell more
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