Student Learning Patterns

Introduction

Since we have been discussing patterns that teachers use in preparing their lessons, it should not be much of a surprise to find out that students also use patterns when they engage in academic work. When they open a book and begin to read, they follow a certain pattern as they work through the material. Likewise, taking notes, studying for exams, analyzing problems, preparing presentation are all activities that involve following certain behavioral steps. These are called learning patterns.

Another observation that should not prove too surprising is that some learning patterns are effective while others are not. For example, the patterns a student uses to prepare for an exam differ between high school and college. The college exam usually covers far more information and requires different preparation strategies. However, first year students are not likely to know about college patterns and thus continue to use strategies that worked for them in high school. This error will result in a student who may work hard but in wrong ways. Ironically, this student will appear to the teacher like someone who does not care or isn't capable.

Many college teachers assume that they are not responsible for the quality of the students' learning patterns. In fact, our conventional teaching patterns assume students have already mastered the intellectual patterns they need in order to follow our assignments (and to help our lessons flow smoothly); conventional teaching patterns include few phases for checking to assure that students can actually follow learning patterns that are effective enough to master the tasks we set before them. Few professors actually study the patterns of action that students must use.

I will leave aside the larger issue of just how much responsibility a teacher should accept when it comes to instructing students in effective learning patterns. Whatever degree of responsibility a teacher accepts for his or her regular class, in the narrower case of teaching in a distance learning environment, requires that teachers provide more direct guidance in the steps of learning. Learning through the media is unique enough from traditional classrooms that the teacher who leaves students on their own to figure it out will inevitably place them at a learning disadvantage. By contrast, a teacher who takes the time to establish clear teaching patterns will also have a good foundation for determining the best set of learning patterns to accompany the lesson. The teaching task, then, becomes one of deliberately assuring that students learn the right pattern.

Below is an overview of some of the main kinds of learning patterns that are required for success in the academy. They are clustered into areas based on which kind of ability you are requiring from your students. Consider which ones are most likely to influence students' success in your lessons.

Basic Skill Patterns

The basic process for selecting main ideas or organizing information can be mystifying to struggling students. They are likely to read words in sequential order, like a story, with no breaks for reflection or intellectual organization. When they finish a reading, they may believe that they now know all that they are likely to know. They think that smarter people are luckier because they get more from this kind of reading; they do not understand that smarter people use a different approach altogether. Mary Bixby's Learning in College, for example, explicitly describes efficient reading strategies for students to follow (pp. 27-56).

Effective basic study patterns include steps in which the student translates material into cognitive maps, diagrams, matrices, or outline. It uses a strategy that converts a mass of information into a set of memorable intellectual structures. It uses these new mental maps to prepare for exams or to draft written work.

We can actually look at detailed ways for constructing basic study patterns. For instance, Kiewra and DuBois' Learning to Learn teaches students how to identify key words that alert them to the kind of intellectual organizer that can be used (a table, matrix, sequence, or diagram). This text shows them when and how to construct each kind of organizer (pp. 160-193). When students master these steps, they have a way to sort through linear text that is far more powerful than narrative reading.

When students struggle to accomplish teacher assigned tasks, an analysis of which basic skills are assumed may reveal where students are not using effective learning patterns. More important for the distance educator is the case where students do not seem to respond to or successfully accomplish the educational task. In such cases, the teacher may have to intervene and deliberately introduce an effective learning pattern.

Thinking Patterns

The expected skills may not involve basic abilities but more advanced problem solving or critical thinking abilities. There are many models about how people use higher order thinking patterns to address complex affairs. In higher education teachers often mistakenly expect higher order patterns than the students are capable of using. A teacher needs to have a solid grasp of what patterns their students can use before setting the expectations for course work.

There are a number of well-researched thinking patterns found in college students. William Perry defined a series of stages of moral and cognitive growth. Students who use "dualistic" thinking are not capable of evaluating competing value positions; they can't see how you choose among various paradigms (even if the comparison is fairly evident to the professor). Since this stage represents about 2/3 of freshmen entering a university, college teachers must be prepared to design tasks that are not over their students' heads.

Craig Nelson's workshops have provided some clear models of how teachers can adjust their expectations. Robert Kloss has written an essay called "A Nudge is Best" that provides an overview of how teachers can help students advance through these stages. Kitchener and King also detail stages of critical thinking and the best teaching responses to each stage.

Problem-solving and analytic work are similar complex-thinking tasks that require effective patterns for intellectual work. Depending on the model the teacher feels is most appropriate to the disciplinary demands, the teacher can construct a set of patterns to follow. Guy Bensusan has published several analytic tools that he uses to organize his students' analytic process in humanities courses.  Look for the "hexadigm," the "escalator," and the "ladder." I have also placed in this folder an outline of analytic skills that I use in my course. Activities can be organized to sharpen particular skills or to enhance the overall patterns students use when conducting analyses.

Personal Patterns

Sometimes the habits that students bring to their work are personal patterns that go deeper than particular skills; they deal with deep-seated approaches to themselves and the world. Students follow patterns of thinking and behavior that profoundly influence their chances of success. From the time they first get an assignment until the time they receive an evaluation, the way in which students understand and respond will guide their productivity.

Willie Brown's Reaching Your Full Potential does a nice job explaining to young college students how the patterns that move them from perception to action can lead them to failure or success. In a series of steps that amounts to cognitive retraining, he shows how students can change self-defeating values and beliefs into productive ones. (His text also provides a variety of other strategies, from problem-solving -- where he uses Bloom's taxonomy -- to basic skills). I have also included in this folder a brief activity I have written for addressing the Perfectionist Virus.

Many college teachers do not see that teaching students to alter their personal patterns is part of their job. Nonetheless, it is at least useful when they can recognize that students are not performing well, there are certain patterns involved so that they can refer students to appropriate services. One of the patterns that disrupts potentially high-performing students, for instance, is the perfectionist-procrastination cycle. In this case, the learner imagines the task a teacher assigns in far more grandiose terms that the teacher intended and often one far beyond the student's capacity. This establishes a "failure gap." In order to avoid producing something that falls into this gap -- something which would satisfy the teacher but falls short of the student's imagined goal -- the student tries to avoid responsibility for the work. Often he or she will look for any excuse to save face while avoiding the task: "I didn't have enough time" or "I could have done better but . . .." By contrast, most good learning is done incrementally. A pattern based on quality improvement allows a student to make an error and then begin a cycle of making improvements. Of course, making an imperfect first step is an anathema to the perfectionist, which keeps them from getting to the step-by-step improvement pattern.

Being able to recognize extreme cases of personal learning patterns allows the teacher to recommend "performance" counseling at the student counseling center. In less dramatic cases, the teacher may want to deliberately teach a pattern like the continual improvement process (see Glasser's The Quality School Teacher).

Teaching Learning Patterns

Why should teachers care about a student's learning patterns? The deeper answer is grounded in history. Ironically, the conventional patterns of our era never aid the student in mastering the very skills that we expect stem have. The result is high rates of student failure and lowered academic standards. For distance education teachers, however, the question is more immediate. Students who do not get the regular face-to-face contact with the teacher have to rely on skills that they may not have picked up in their regular education settings. In essence, there will be no one to help them now.

As a teacher, you can identify those "expected" student abilities that are necessary to complete the academic tasks you set for your students. (Or, you may identify clusters of students who are unable to perform at key points in your course.) You can then plan specific lessons to deliberately teach students the best learning patterns.

Once you decide to incorporate learning pattern instruction into your lesson, your choices for effective teaching patterns are similar to your other instruction. You may find the skill patterns (like EDICT) helpful for basic skill training, ability patterns (like Kolb) for teaching critical thinking, and growth patterns (like SHOWeD) for personal development. Yet, many of the scholars who write about these competencies also recommend teaching strategies that focus on helping students discover more effective learning patterns. As always, if you are not sure how to work out a plan to address problematic learning patterns that your students are using, contact us. We'll be glad to work through ideas with you.

Once you are this focused on what you are trying to help your students do, you will be able to decide which electronic medium will provide you with the best method for doing it.

References

Mary Bixby, Learning in College: I Can Relate. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Willie Brown, Reaching Your Full Potential: Success in Collge and Life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

William Glasser, The Quality School Teacher. New York: Harper, 1993.

Kenneth Kiewra and Nelson DuBois, Learning to Learning: Making the Transition from Student to Lifelong Learner. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

Patricia King and Karen Kitchener. Developing Reflective Judgment. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1994.

Robert Kloss, "A Nudge is Best: Helping Students through the Perry Scheme of Intellectual Development," College Teaching. Vol. 42, No. 4.

Craig Nelson, "Critical Thinking and Collaborative Learning" New Directions for Teaching and Learning. No. 59 (Fall, 1994) pp. 45-58.