The Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education identified and translated psychological principles that could be used for K-12 education. Principles four and six resonated the most for me. Principle four states “learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated” (p. 10). Simply put, when students learn a new topic or concept, it is ‘stuck’ in that context unless someone guides the learner and helps them see the similarities between the original context the student learned to the new context presented. Principle six states “clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning” (p. 12). This means feedback that goes beyond ‘great job’ is critical. Also, feedback needs to happen quickly and in detail on what the student did right or where their errors are.
In order to assist in generalizing learning to new contexts, teachers should “identify and build on strengths that students bring to a learning situation and thereby making connections between students’ current knowledge and the teachers’ learning goals [and teach] a topic or concept in multiple contexts” (p. 10). This could look like giving a preassessment in a Google Form to identify strengths. Presenting a topic as a video one day, reading about the topic the next day, or having students work together on Project Based Learning (PBL) with real-world connections and applications are all examples of how teachers can teach a topic in multiple contexts.
Technology provides a great way to give timely feedback to students. Most ed tech tools provide a way to give audio or written feedback on an assignment. For example, in Schoology, teachers could type, highlight, record their voices, or record a video of themselves in order to give feedback. As a teacher, I would differentiate my feedback based on the student's preferences. Some students liked when I would write an explanation (using a compliment sandwich, one area of improvement between two things you did well) while others preferred to see my face in a video using the same compliment sandwich format.
Some additional examples of technology tools that could help teachers meet these two principles are Mote, Google Docs, Google Forms, NewsELA, or Google Arts and Culture.
Keeping these principles in mind will help students think and learn.
References
American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK–12 teaching and learning. Retrieved from http:// www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf
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