Promoting Durable and Efficient Learning: Useful Insights from Cognitive Science

Do tests only measure learning, or can they also promote learning? Should students review/practice the material they are trying to learn soon after they encounter the material or should they wait a while? During practice, should items of the same type/topic be grouped together or should they be interspersed among items of other types/topics? How we learn best may not correspond to how we think we learn best. This workshop will highlight how basic research in cognitive psychology has yielded (nonobvious) principles about human learning and memory that have practical implications for pedagogy. Participants will have the opportunity to compare their intuitions about learning and instruction against findings from cognitive science research, and discuss how they might apply instructional strategies derived from cognitive science in their own teaching/discipline.

Dr. Sean Kang from Dartmouth College (USA) will be leading this interactive workshop.  Dr. Kang, an assistant professor in the Department of Education directs Dartmouth’s Cognition & Education Laboratory, which is focused on applying the cognitive science of human learning and memory towards improving instructional practice. His research examines how testing (or practicing retrieval from memory), spacing/distribution of study opportunities, and interleaving of practice can enhance diverse forms of learning. He received his undergraduate education at the National University of Singapore, and subsequently obtained his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining Dartmouth in 2012, Sean was a post-doctoral research scholar at the University of California, San Diego.

Date:               Friday, April 10   1:30 pm – 3pm
Location:         Ellis Hall, Room 319