Teaching Learning While Learning to Teach

Abstract

joining the Dartmouth College faculty in 1967, George Christian Jernstedt has been teaching a course called Psychology 22: Learning. It has to do with the fundamental principles of learningwith what it is, and with how and why it takes place. As an intermediate course open to undergraduates who have taken Psychology 1 : Introductory Psychology, Jernstedt' s course usually attracts a large number of students, both majors and nonmajors. Enrollment has at times exceeded 200. One way to teach Learning is through the traditional method of lectures and examinations, and Jernstedt has taught it that way. But there are other ways as well, and he has over the years experimented with a good many of them. In fact, he has made the teaching of Learning an experiment in learninga continuous application of laboratory findings to life situations. He says people like himself interested in knowing more about the teaching-learning process have something in common with model-train builders: We're never finished, we never have all the answers, we're constantly making modifications and Jernstedt has built his model train piece by piece, with the help of many of his students. He is still making modifications and adjustments. What has evolved thus far is an intricate system of instruction that includes a specific statement of course objectives, division of course content into units, and sequential mastery of each unit at a flexible, individualized pace. Several factors have encouraged Jernstedt's experimentation. He is, first of all, an experimental psychologist, with a particular interest in human learning and cognition and in behavior modification. These interests have stimulated his curiosity about the learning process, and how best to apply it to individuals as individuals. Second, he realizedthrough the perceptive questions of some of his studentsthat exclusive use of the traditional lecture-examination format in a course on the principles of learning precluded application of the very principles he was seeking to communicate. (If you're trying to teach us about the ways people learn, why are you using only one of those ways yourself?) And finally, finding himself in front of 100 or more students at a time, Jernstedt was dismayed by the lack of opportunity for personal exchange, the heavy dependence upon oratorical skill, the difficulty of gaining and holding the attention of all students, and the essentially passive nature of the students' role.