T-543 Applying Cognitive Science to Learning and Teaching
Tina Grotzer
This course explores specific principles from cognitive science that hold important implications for instructional approach and curriculum design. It considers how recent research findings on topics such as transfer, analogy, metacognition, conceptual change, explanation, mental models, novice-expert shifts, causal reasoning, and the nature of beliefs about intelligence interact with instructional design choices. It investigates current thinking on how findings from cognitive development research impact teaching and learning. Discourse ranges from learning theory to grounded classroom examples, focusing on examples that elucidate both how theory and research inform practice and how practice informs research questions and broader theory. This course builds on and complements but does not require participation in T-540, Cognition and the Art of Instruction. T-540 is a broader survey of key concepts and findings and their relevance to education, while this course is more focused on specific principles from research and the analysis of examples from classrooms, curricula, and other forms of instructional design that embody those principles. There are weekly readings. Class format includes activities, discussion, and brief lectures. Students complete a term project, typically the development of a curriculum topic, the choice of which is based on individual interest. Students may choose to continue the development of projects carried out in T-540 as long as the projects demonstrate substantial thought and effort beyond the earlier submission.
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