Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information.

A quote from Albert Einstein.  A quote that spoke to me as I believe it summarized well the concept of Illusions of Comprehension presented by Dr. Robert Bjork.  Illusions of comprehension is the idea that we confuse performance with learning.  Performance is described as that which we can observe – learning as that which we must infer.  I looked up the word infer to make sure I had the exact definition.  To infer is to deduce or conclude from evidence and reasoning.  It is that step beyond memorization where you actually apply the knowledge gained.  What do our intuitions tell us about learning?  Messages we get going through school tell us that learning means doing well on that test or getting a good grade.  I got an ‘A’!  I must have learned the content!  The structure of school contributes to this sense that learning happens and is assessed within four walls.  I thought this – for a very long time.  Until I was challenged to think of a time when I really learned something.  And it had nothing to do with a classroom or tests. 

 

Structured Reflection

So, if learning involves the ability to deduce and conclude from evidence and reasoning, what behaviors should we engage in towards the goal of gaining true comprehension?  And what behaviors are counterproductive?  Dr. Bjork describes a typical student behavior of furious notetaking during lecture as a behavior that leads to the illusion of comprehension.  Other behaviors might also include reading and re-reading, cramming, and blocking.  These behaviors might give the student the sense – or illusion – that they know and understand class content.  What are behaviors that truly aid in comprehension?  I would suggest experiential learning and structured reflection activities as possible examples.
 
Structured reflection is the process of creating narrative around knowledge or experience.  It involves a cycle of description and analysis that includes the following stages:
-       Describing an experience – what actually happened?
-       Describing one’s feelings about the experience – what were you thinking and feeling about the knowledge or experience?
-       Evaluation – what was good and bad about the experience?
-       Analysis – what sense cany you make of the situation? 
-       Text – how do class readings and lectures relate to your understanding?
-       Action – new understandings, change in behavior, and/or commitment to action.   
As a learning methodology, structured reflection is actively used in some settings including medical training and community engaged courses.  It is a pedagogy that requires the learner to actively consider and engage in course content through a lens of application.  Is this a learning behavior that could be applied to other courses that don’t have an experiential component as a way to synthesize content and move knowledge beyond performance into the realm of deduction and conclusion based on evidence and reasoning?