How People Learn: Looking at Novices and Experts.
Friday, February 24.
John Bransford, James W. Mifflin University Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle.
John Bransford is an internationally recognized leader in the field of learning research. His work in the areas of human learning, cognition and technology began in grad school at the Center for Research on Human Learning at the University of Minnesota, and has led him to the University of Washington, Seattle, where, besides his university professorship, he is principal investigator of the LIFE Center (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments).
Bransford is particularly interested in understanding how learning happens in informal as well as formal environments, and in how findings in brain sciences can contribute to better lifelong learning. He also has said that the concept of "adaptive expertise" will become more significant in the coming decades.
Bransford served as co-chair of two committees of the National Research Council that produced /How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,and School/ (2000) - an expanded volume incorporating two related studies published in 1999. Around 40 St. Olaf faculty read /How People Learn/ in January and February, using the book to support discussions of student learning. Another 18 faculty in the sciences also used the book in work groups two years ago.
For those faculty who were not able to participate in a book group, the text of /How People Learn/ is available free online at http://fermat.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html/ - book group discussions have focused in particular on chapters 2 and 3, "How Experts Differ from Novices" and "Learning and Transfer."
