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"Knowledge vs. Knowledge Structures: Implications for Teaching and Learning"
Ruth Day, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University

Abstract:
It is relatively easy to determine how much students know about course concepts using traditional testing methods. However even when students score 100% correct on such tests, there is no guarantee that their knowledge is structured. They could be able to define key concepts but see them as unrelated pieces of information instead of part of a coherent and structured pattern.  A useful way to examine knowledge structures is to use a brief sorting exercise  – students see a set of terms from a course and sort them into piles based on perceived similarity. The results reveal both the overall amount and type of structure students possess. This exercise works well across the disciplines – in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Students enjoy it and report seeing new connections among concepts. Instructors learn about the effects of their teaching on knowledge structures – what is working well and what might benefit from modification.

About Ruth Day
Professor Ruth Day was on the faculty at Stanford and Yale before coming to Duke, and was also a Visiting Scholar at Carnegie-Mellon and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. She taught a course on “Cognition and Teaching” to thousands of college professors across the country in all disciplines, sponsored by a National Science Foundation faculty development program. She was designated one of the Ten Best teachers at Yale and Trinity Distinguished Teacher at Duke. In addition to her research on knowledge structures, she also conducts research on basic cognitive processes, medical cognition, courtroom cognition, and memory for movement.

https://duke.zoom.us/j/96557194330?pwd=amp4UG5VWThsZ3RlSXl4cHgvRzlFUT09
Meeting ID: 965 5719 4330
Passcode: 886634