If you’ve ever traveled to another country, you’ve likely experienced some disorientation. And perhaps a few surprises. We tend to expect a bit of the unexpected when we travel far and immerse ourselves in a vastly different culture. But for teachers, it’s important to think about those small ...
What is Cognitive Task Analysis?
Cognitive Task Analysis helps you unpack the thought processes of experts, so you can teach them to others. Have you ever needed to train novices to perform well on a real-world task or job that’s complex and poorly understood? Some of your experienced people do it well. But you don’t have a ...
Giving Effective Feedback to Foster Understanding
A good classroom teacher looks like a well-oiled student feedback machine. Student responses are analyzed, feedback is given, and the loop repeats. Whether this is done verbally in an all class discussion, or in marginalia scrawled on a stack of quizzes, good teachers know that giving students ...
How to Promote Transfer of Learning
Can an eighth-grade math student apply her knowledge of geometry to estimate the square footage of the family’s new home? If so, then she has experienced transfer of learning. Transfer of learning means to extend knowledge you’ve gained from one situation to new ones. Parents and educators hope ...
Building Spatial Thinking Improves STEM success
You fall off of a ledge, dropping through a hole in the floor, only to find yourself hurtling out the side of a wall like a cannon ball. If you can imagine that easily, you have great spatial thinking skills. Or you’ve been playing Portal 2. Perhaps your spatial thinking skills got a boost from ...