A student might wonder "What are the best strategies for learning?". The activities they engage in during every class or homework assignment constitute an implicit answer to this question. This website communicates insights from research on learning with the goal of producing measurable benefits for students in improving their answer. Teachers similarly wonder about how their students (and they themselves) learn, and fortunately have training and experience to draw upon. This website aims to present concepts that will complement the insights most teachers currently possess and implement. are research we review and focus on, the emphasis on evidence-based insightsthe efforts to link research and practice more directly, the can easily find online? Certainly, but the website aims to present evidence-based insights from research, and further to evaluate how effective this information actually is in changing teachers. This statement by the Editor-in-Chief at Science capture the motivation for this interest: “The World Wide Web is a fantastic information resource, but it can be overwhelming. Many had hoped, for example, that the U.S. National Science Digital Library Project might go a long way toward solving this problem. But the collection of science education Web sites that resulted, although a valuable resource, contains so many entries that additional guidance seems warranted.” For researchers, this website offers resources to help guide basic research by both theoretical and practical issues. Given the circumscribed nature of research, the site also presents an (opinionated) organization of research across a variety of fields, all aimed at the problem of substantially improving learning. Again quoting the Editor-in-Chief at Science: “When I began my academic career as an assistant professor at Princeton University in 1966, I sought to learn everything about what others had discovered previously, before beginning my research on chromosome replication. Yet when I taught, I rarely sought to build on what other teachers had developed before me.” Even though there’s extensive research on learning across many fields, this is often not synthesized and presented in a form that teachers, developers of educational technology, or even researchers can use, evaluate, and extend. And while the internet provides extensive content, developing a website or wiki focused on scientifically supported and practically proven learning principles can organize online content, make it readily accessible, and allow a forum for different approaches to interact and multiple opinions to be expressed. For example, at the moment, is there a single website you could confidently endorse for a busy educator or researcher? While making a website like this might seem daunting, contentious, or grandiose, the point isn’t to definitively answer the question of how to improve education, but to help others improve their answer to that question, by using the resources, and by discussing and developing them. Moreover, as overwhelmingly broad as this question seems, it is arguably being answered every day, implicitly, in the efforts of every teacher, instructional designer, and policy maker. Welcome to the Cognitive Science of Learning Portal (CSLP)! Your trusted source for evidence-based teaching and learning techniques. The same way we strive to make teaching and learning as easy as possible, we also strive to make your browsing as easy as possible. Therefore, we created this section to help you navigate efficiently through this website. Our suggested use of CSLP: First, take a moment to read our 'About' section to learn more about WHY you should be interested in education-based teaching and HOW it can help you. Then, browse through 'Top Research' section to learn more about what we deem the most important learning and teaching principles followed by links on their practical application. To learn more about a specific teaching / learning topic of interest to you, go to 'Practical Advice' and take a look at our quick information sheets. Finally, if you want to learn more, consider the suggested links in 'Similar Sites' section and see how similar sites to ours present teaching and learning techniques. Also, if you are interested in collaborating with us or have suggestions for improvements to our website, contact us or join our reading group. We are always grateful for your input! 1111111111. |
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