What do we think we know about student learning, and what are the implications for improving that learning? by Chris Rust · March 28, 2013 There is a lot of published research about student learning and this is an attempt to summarise that literature and to take stock of what we think we know already. But it comes with the following ‘health warning’. It is a personal viewpoint and, while I have tried to summarise ideas that I think are widely accepted across the sector, that is not to say that they would be unanimously supported. I have grouped the theories under four headings, starting with students as learners, as student learning is after all our central focus, and then moving out to consider the ways that teaching, course design, and the wider environment can all affect the quality of the students’ learning (plus an additional final ‘tension’ at the end). Because of space, these theories have been significantly distilled and so subtleties and different nuances within each main idea may have been lost. It should also be noted that while the ideas have been separated out to make them easily accessible, many overlap and aspects merge. The theories are going to be published here as a series of blog posts, but are also available now collected as a free eBook from the OCSLD shop, where there are now four titles available. Our new book, Assessment Literacy: The Foundation for Improving Student Learning is available in paperback and kindle formats. Tags: ebook / learning / what we know
What we know: Designing courses for learning: Assessment is a very powerful context that can affect intentions 1 May, 2013
What we know: Designing courses for learning: Course design and activities built around threshold concepts and the use of concept inventories, can help students deal with “sticky” and “troublesome” knowledge 10 May, 2013
What we know: Students as learners: Students are likely to have preferred learning styles 19 Apr, 2013