Effective Instruction for Stem Disciplines: From Learning Theory to College Teaching

by Edward J. Mastascusa, William J. Snyder, Brian S. Hoyt

This groundbreaking book offers information on the most effective ways that students process material, store it in their long-term memories, and how that effects learning for long-term retention. It reveals how achieving different levels is important for "transfer" which refers to the learner's ability to use what is learned in different situations and to problems that might not be directly related to the problems used to help the student learn. Filled with proven tools, techniques, and approaches, this book explores how to apply these approaches to improve teaching.

Genres: Education

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2011

Reviews

[Ken Rideout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about what the best research out there about how learning takes place in the student's mind. No anectdotal, sounds good advice on teaching - just cold hard facts about what we do and don't know about what is effective. Learning theories are presented with the right balance of approachability and rigour. I'm reading this book for a class, but it really has me thinking about the tacit assumptions that go into our teaching and how we really need to re-evaluate what we do in the classroom in light of what we now know about how the brain lays down memories and forms complex representations (schema). We have to think about short term and long term memory; chunks of knowledge; rates of learning; lead the students to form complex schema representation in their minds; attack pre-existing notions head-on; mix up approaches; surprise the students upon occasion; change formating and sequencing; and more! The title says for STEM disciplines and the specific examples are drawn from STEM college classes, but the applicability is universal to teaching I think.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright. I had a hard time with it, mostly because it is written for college level STEM instructors and my focus is more elementary and secondary. I should have realized that a book with "Learning theory" in the title would be kind of a dense read.