Spring 2022 Teaching & Learning Talks – The Science of Learning

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A User’s Guide for Human Memory in the Classroom [1st Session]

Facilitated Dr. Peter Vishton | February 24, 2022 

Dr. Peter Vishton starts many of his Psychology courses with a discussion of human memory research. Performing well in any course involves understanding and encoding information into the brain, and then being able to retrieve and use that information later. Human memory is fantastic at certain information encoding tasks and strikingly bad at others. By understanding how human memory systems work (or don’t) students can get more out of their own brains and master course material more efficiently and completely. Dr. Vishton will present an overview of how he presents this material in his courses. He looks forward to talking with an assembled group about how they address these issues.

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Virtual Reality: Moving Away From Chocolate-Covered Broccoli

Facilitated Jason Chen | March 30, 2022 

Virtual reality: What exactly is this form of “fake” reality and why is it so compelling as a teaching and learning tool? In this TLT, Jason Chen from the School of Education will discuss the educational psychology of virtual reality. What can VR do for us as teachers and as learners, which other forms of technology cannot do? More importantly, how do we avoid the common pitfall of using the “cool” and “fun” features of VR simply as a way to trick students into being excited about learning? VR is often used as chocolate poured over broccoli to convince children to eat their vegetables. But doing so makes children resent broccoli. So, how do we take features inherent to the “broccoli”, and accentuate them so that it is delicious on its own merits?