SALTISE Renowned Scholars Series – Paul Kirschner – February 17
February 17th, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00
Paul Kirschner聽is the author of over 400 scholarly articles and one of the most highly cited scholars. His 2020 publication, How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice, has been a bestseller. And his 2022 follow-up, How Teaching Happens, promises to be an equal success.
In this webinar, Professor Kirschner will discuss what learning is (as opposed to achievement), some of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand and what they have done for us as teachers and researchers, what their effects are on pedagogy and how we (should) teach.
Title: What Has Educational Psychology Ever Done for Us?
When I鈥檓 asked what have educational- and cognitive psychology given us as teachers and educational institutions I always must think back to Monty Python鈥檚 Life of Brian. While planning a 鈥榯errorist鈥� action, John Cleese as Brother Reg asks the, seemingly rhetorical, question 鈥淲hat have the Romans ever given us?鈥�. After a few minutes of debate, he utters the immortal line: 鈥淎lright! 鈥� but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?鈥�
Why? Because since the cognitive revolution in psychology where what happens in our heads while learning moved from a behaviouristic black box (e.g., Thorndike, Skinner) to a translucent/transparent view of learning. Starting with George Millier鈥檚 famous paper, 鈥淭he Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two鈥︹�� that humans can effectively process no more than seven units, or chunks, of information, plus or minus two pieces of information, at any given time. we鈥檝e had breakthroughs with respect to meaningful learning (David Ausubel), information processing (Atkinson & Shiffrin / Baddeley & Hitch), dual coding (Alan Paivio), elaboration theory (Charles Reigeluth), mathemagenic activities (Ernst Rothkopf), cognitive load (John Sweller), and desirable difficulties (Robert and Elizabeth Bjork) just to name a few giants and what they have done for us as teachers and researchers. And I鈥檓 not including what educational- and cognitive psychology has done by busting the myths of multitasking, learning styles, learning pyramids and so forth.
