Uncommon Sense Teaching

Uncommon Sense Teaching by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., Beth Rogowsky, Ed.D., and Terrence J. Sejnowski, Ph.D. is about using neuroscience to construct better pedagogy. Understanding how students’ brains learn allows teachers to employ more effective teaching strategies. While the examples throughout the reading are most relevant to K-12 teachers, the information is relevant to all ages and fields of study as everyone who learns something uses a human brain.

No student is the same. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, backgrounds, and learning styles. Different capabilities give students different advantages. The authors break students down into slow learners, who are referred to as hikers, and fast learners, called race-car drivers. The difference between the two is the amount of working memory they have.

Information is stored in the neocortex when the hippocampus indexes it there while it is in working memory. When something is learned the brain can retrieve it from the neocortex without help from the hippocampus. This understanding is called declarative learning. The stress placed on working memory is eased the more knowledgeable a person is on a topic. An experienced plumber is going to be able to have a declarative understanding of a new gasket quicker than an accountant because of their more relevant knowledge base. When learning a new concept, a declarative understanding is gained before a procedural one.

Procedural memory is a nonconscious understanding of something. Something learned in procedural memory is like an instinct. The way people can read or understand words without having to take the time to understand them. Having a procedural understanding of a concept demonstrates a deep understanding of the material. For procedural learning, the basal ganglia and associated structures take information from the cortex and develop links in the neocortex. Students with a weaker working memory (hitchhikers) are often forced to slowly learn things through the procedural pathway rather than the declarative. Procedural learning is strongest when people are young and learn biologically primary material like recognizing faces and learning a first language.

Learning is done through active retrieval. This strengthens the pathways in the neocortex to store information. Active retrieval is not the same as restudying, which isn’t very effective. Active retrieval is needed for both declarative and procedural learning.

The brain has a focused and diffused mode. Stepping away from concepts allows the brain to organize a concept outside of working memory. This takes time so it isn’t possible when information is crammed in at the last second.

Learning should move from teacher-directed to student-directed. The authors use an I do, we do, you do model to show how the transition works. Checks for understanding are done at each stage to monitor students' retention of information.

Creating desirable difficulties are ways to get students to learn better. Instead of content being blocked into groups and then being forgotten about later, it should be interleaved. Interleaving means alternating it with other related and nonrelated content. Instead of giving students 20 problems on the Pythagorean theorem in a row, throw in some parabolas and have them solve the area for triangles as well. If there isn’t interleaving, then a student can just store a formula in their working memory the entire time they are working, feeling as if they have a good understanding of the material at the end when they may not remember the formula in an hour. This method forces them to retrieve the formula from their neocortex throughout the problem set. Spaced repetition is returning to a concept after a break. This allows the hippocampus to offload information to the neocortex where it is refined.

Unexpected rewards can also increase learning. Dopamine allows the brain to better retain information for a short time. Punishment will have an inverse effect. Teachers who are quick to insult and negatively critique their students prevent them from learning.

Learn it, Link it describes the transition from teacher-directed to student-directed learning. In the learn it stage, instruction is more teacher-directed. I do and we do. In the link it stage, learning is more student-directed. I do. For a concept to be learned procedurally, students must delve deep into the content, asking their own questions to explore the subject. This extends past the I do portion and can only be done if the student has successfully developed a foundational understanding of the content. I wish there was a service that helped aid this.

I didn’t cover everything the authors mentioned in the book just what I found most interesting or useful to me. There were whole sections I didn’t touch including habit formation, procrastination, and the art of teaching online. There were also numerous examples of active learning like brain brakes and think-pair-share. I don’t see myself teaching middle school anytime soon but if I do, I’ll circle back for those parts.