The Student Cognition Toolbox: Empowering Students to Become Better Learners
October 29, 2020 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
| FreePlease join us for a Simon Initiative event on Thursday, October 29, when Catherine Overson and Victor Benassi of University of New Hampshire’s Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning will present a webinar on the latest edition of the Student Cognition Toolbox (SCT).
Students enter college with a variety of past experiences and beliefs about how to prepare for assessments of their academic performance. Considerable prior research supports that most students prefer and use study strategies that are ineffective relative to strategies supported by applied research on cognition. In addition, this research shows that different study strategies are needed for different learning goals—one size does not fit all.
In response, we have developed, implemented, and assessed the impact of a comprehensive set of online instructional lessons within a ‘course’, the Student Cognition Toolbox (SCT), situated within the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) that informs students about cognitively-supported effective and efficient study strategies. A distinctive feature of the Toolbox is that the lessons include a practice component that will assist students in mastery of that study strategy.
This session will comprise a tour of the latest edition of the SCT that incorporates multiple opportunities for student reflections, from which we are able to collect information vital to make iterative improvements and refinements for subsequent editions of the SCT. In addition to the ‘standard’ (default) introductory psychology version of the SCT, we are also developing SCT discipline-specific versions (e.g., statistics, biology, chemistry).
In addition to the tour of the SCT, we will discuss how the SCT may be used by Independent Learners or by instructors who choose to have students enrolled in an academic course (including courses that use OLI course materials) complete the SCT as part of their course requirements and/or optional activities.
Catherine Overson earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire (UNH), with a specialty in social psychology and science of learning. She is Associate Director and current Interim Director of the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning and Affiliate Associate Professor of College Teaching (Graduate School). Her research focuses on the application of science of learning principles to teaching and learning in college and university courses. In her work at the Center, Catherine assists faculty and teaching graduate students from across the university in designing their courses in a matter that incorporates science of learning principles. She conducts faculty development presentations and workshops at UNH and other New England universities and colleges on applying the science of learning. In addition, Catherine coordinates and teaches courses for the UNH College Teaching Programs.
Catherine is a member of Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology; STP) of the American Psychological Association (APA). Catherine is co-editor (with Victor Benassi and Christopher Hakala) of Applying the Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science into the Curriculum (2014, STP).
She has worked on four Davis Educational Foundation (DEF) grants over the last 10 years. She worked as a research associate for The Cognition Toolbox grant (2009-2012), a project director for the Teaching and Learning with Multimedia grant (2012-2015), and a co-PI with Victor Benassi on the Applying the Science of Learning Across the Biological Science Curriculum to Increase Student Persistence and Academic Achievement grant. (2015-2018). Catherine is PI, along with Victor Benassi, of the The Student Cognition Toolbox: Teaching Students Study Skills Informed by the Science of Learning, Davis Education Foundation Grant.
Victor Benassi was a faculty member at the University of New Hampshire from 1982 to 2018. He is Professor Emeritus (Department of Psychology) and Professor of College Teaching (Graduate School). During the early 2000s, he served as vice provost for undergraduate studies. He was director of the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning from 2007 to 2018. Professor Benassi’s current research interests focus on applications of science of learning principles in college and university courses. He was the principal investigator from 2009 to 2018 on three grants from the Davis Educational Foundation (DEF). He is currently Co-PI, with Catherine Overson, on a DEF grant titled The Student Cognition Toolbox: Teaching Students Study Skills Informed by the Science of Learning (2018-present). He is co-editor (with Catherine Overson and Christopher Hakala) of Applying the Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science into the Curriculum (Division 2, APA, 2014). In 2003, he received an American Psychological Foundation career award–the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology award. He was the 2013 President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2, American Psychological Association).
See previous recordings about the SCT to get a deep-dive into these resources:
