Cognitive Design

Learning and teaching are clear cases of activities that very much depend on how our minds work. You would expected cognitive design efforts to reign supreme in education and training. Interestingly, applying the latest thinking in cognitive science and neuroscience to pedagogy and facilitating student and employee learning has not really gotten much traction.  So I am always on the lookout for studies that demonstrate its value.

Take for example, the recent study conducted at the University of British Columbia on the use of interactive teaching methods versus the traditional lecture model in undergraduate physics. They found students that experienced the interactive teaching methods scored twice as high on an exam that tests for understanding of complex physics concepts. In addition, the course using interactive methods had 20% better attendance.

 “There is overwhelming evidence how much teaching pedagogy based on cognitive psychology and education research can improve science education,” says co-author Carl Wieman. “

Interactive methods are simple and well known. They include techniques

“… such as paired and small-group discussions and active learning tasks, which included the use of remote-control “clickers” to provide feedback for in-class questions. Pre-class reading assignments and quizzes were also given to ensure students were prepared to discuss course material upon arrival in class.”

Such techniques are far more congruent with how minds work when learning new material as compared to the sit-and-listen mode in lectures. Clearly this just scratches the surface of what we can do to optimize educational services for how minds really work.