Centering Our Humanity to Ensure Deep Student Learning
How do we design classes and curriculum to support student learning? With the advent of the internet and now the public engagement of AI, our students can easily access all information everywhere all the time. But the questions remain: Are students building knowledge? Are they developing deep understanding? Are they achieving disciplinary competence? Are they able to “judge claims, recognize patterns, ask better questions, notice errors, and make connections?” (Julie Stern, Education to Change the World). Because access to information is not the same as possessing knowledge. How do teachers ensure that we aren’t just creating more access but facilitating deep learning?
Neuroscience and cognitive load theory tell us what to do. The research on how humans learn reveals two things: We need to center our humanity, and design classes and curriculum that enable the knowledge building necessary for our students to think deeply and expansively, so they can flourish in a world none of us adults can fully imagine.
Neuroscience research reveals that learning is biological. Dr. John T. Almarode describes learning as cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral — it is a permanent change in behavior due to the acquisition, consolidation, and storage of information in the brain. In fact, humans have evolved over millennia to learn from one another. According to neuroscientists, our genes drive our learning through a biological process called affective empathy, which is a major predictor of learning. Dr. Jared Cooney Hoorvath explains that empathy is transpersonal because it is the ability to physically and emotionally share or mirror another person's feelings. When neuroscientists explore different kinds of learning, an empathetic relationship between a teacher and a student has the biggest impact on student learning. When students learn from teachers, understanding is attained. And it is also true that a teacher empathizing with a struggling student motivates the student. Neuroscience reveals that at least two humans are needed for learning to occur.
One of the biggest misconceptions today is that access to information is enough for learning. However, as Dr. Hoorvath contends, higher-order thinking only builds upon what we already know. Information has to be internalized into our long-term memory to become knowledge. If we don’t know anything, we can’t think creatively, exercise judgment, collaborate effectively, etc.
This brings us to the three parts of Cognitive Load Theory: Sensory, working, and long-term memory. “Sensory memory filters out most of what happens around us and only passes select information to our working memory. Working memory typically processes 5-9 pieces of information at any given time and decides whether to discard or categorize information for storing in our long-term memory. Our long-term memory stores information in structures called “schemas,” which organize information based on how we use it. The more we use these schemas, the more developed they become and the easier it is to recall information” (Medical College of Wisconsin).
Teachers, due to our knowledge, have well-developed schemas for the disciplines we teach. We understand how the parts fit together and can transfer knowledge and skill when we perceive it is appropriate for the context. Students, however, experience class differently than us. What looks like a well-organized sequence of units can feel like a collection of disconnected topics. This is why at CSW, we start our mods (semesters) by explaining the learning objectives, content, skills, and major assignments. We also begin each class day with a daily agenda of what will be learned that day. This habit helps students to make the needed connections to know what information to move from sensory to working to long-term memory.
Another excellent practice is for us, teachers, to tell students what to pay attention to, make connections between units/topics when we transition, pose questions that require use of the information covered in class, and point out what students should learn from an activity (Dr. Daniel T. Willingham, Outsmart Your Brain). This helps students know what information to move from sensory to working to long-term memory. In practice, we explicitly connect the content, skills, class activities, assessments, and grading practices to the learning objectives.
Best practice would also facilitate connections across grades and departments, which is the work I am currently doing with the academic department chairs. While teachers live in departments, students experience the entire curriculum. We can help students see the bigger picture of what they are learning by recognizing patterns and making connections–seeing the familiar in the unfamiliar. When students transfer knowledge, they practice deep thinking and build deep understanding.
How we, the adults, show up in the classroom determines whether our students learn deeply. We take this charge seriously at CSW.
CSW — a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12 and PG — is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.