FEATURED EDUCATOR: Alison Stone — The Learning Scientists

Alison Stone teaches Biology and Human Anatomy and Physiology at Central Bucks High School – West in Doylestown, PA. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher and the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from Stephenson University. Alison is a Distinguished Modern Classroom Educator and Modern Classrooms Mentor. Alison has a passion for using evidence-based practice to improve student outcomes in her classroom. She can be found on Bluesky @alisonstoneBIO.

What is your favorite thing about teaching?

My favorite thing about teaching is watching a student realize their learning potential. It is so gratifying to see a student succeed at learning difficult concepts and gain the intellectual confidence that will carry the through the rest of their academic career.

Do you have any fun facts about yourself that you’d like to share?

I originally decided to become a teacher so that I could coach field hockey. I’ve since left coaching, but I continue to play field hockey. I’ve played with the same adult field hockey team since 2003. We play 8-10 games on Saturdays throughout the fall, and we play half-field games on Sundays in the spring.

How do use the science of learning in your classroom? Describe one activity in detail so other educators can use it too!

Both biology and anatomy and physiology are vocabulary rich courses. Without the foundational vocabulary, it is difficult for students to gain true understand of the big concepts. At the beginning of each unit students receive a list of vocabulary words that they will be responsible for knowing by the end of the unit.

I supply students with teacher created Quizlet decks rather than having them create their own. I don’t want students searching for their own definitions and studying a definition that might not fit within our context. Additionally, making flashcards feels like work to students, often, it is time consuming but not cognitively interactive. Most students tend to mindlessly copy down definitions which isn’t useful for learning. At the beginning of the year, I explicitly teach students about retrieval and about the common mistakes students make when using flashcards (like turning a card over before they’ve struggled to remember the term). I encourage students to use the test and learn function in Quizlet because those functions encourage retrieval.

I have also developed a low stakes retrieval vocabulary quiz that I give toward the end of each unit. In AP Biology, this quiz is composed of 30 definitions. Students have 10 minutes to complete the quiz. Initially, students are not provided a word bank, and I instruct students to use a pencil. Every correct vocabulary term the write in pencil is worth 2 points. When students feel like they’ve answered as many questions as they can without a word bank they come up to my desk and trade in their pencil for a colorful pen and I hand them a word bank that contains all the vocabulary in the unit. Students return to their seat, and continue the quiz, now with the word bank. Any words they write in pen are worth 1 point. The maximum possible points a student could receive are 60 (if they did not need the word bank at all). However, when I calculate their grade, I calculate it out of 45 and then ultimately convert it to a 10-point formative assessment grade (minimal in the gradebook). Any student who scores over 45 points receives a 10/10.

This format allows me the opportunity to discuss the trap of familiarity. I believe it is essential for students to understand the difference between being familiar with a term or idea and truly knowing a term or idea. This quizzing method is a great visual demonstration of what terms students know (terms in pencil), what terms they are maybe familiar with but have not fully learned yet (terms in pen), and what terms they still have not incorporated into their long-term memory. This quiz is also a way for me to see which students have been doing the necessary work of studying and which students have not because, again, vocabulary is the backbone of their understanding of biology.

What are your favorite resources for learning about learning?

The Learning Scientists of course! The podcast in particular. Episodes 2-14 are masterpieces, all teachers should take the time to listen to them. At the beginning of each semester, I include links to episodes 16 and 17 in my letter home to parents. I show my students the video, “How to Study Effectively for School or College.”

I love the book “Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make it Easy” by Daniel Willingham, PhD

Blake Harvard’s Blog The Effortful Educator

Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain’s book “Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning”

Adam Boxer’s book “Teaching Secondary Science: A Complete Guide”

Stephen Chew’s video Learning in Pandemic Times is such a great explanation of the information processing model. I also really love the way he’s identified choke points and pitfalls in studying (he has a full article about this but it is behind a paywall. Blake Harvard wrote about it in his blog, “Choke Points and Pitfalls in Studying” I believe these are some of the most helpful insights that I’ve learned from a cognitive scientist.

What obstacles have you faced when trying to apply the science of learning in your classroom? How did you overcome them?

Getting students on board can be a challenge. Retrieval practice is cognitively taxing, students would rather complete tasks that don’t ask them to work as hard or make them feel as vulnerable. The most important thing I can do is to get them to see their own success using these strategies. Unfortunately, the effects aren’t often immediate. It’s not uncommon for students to slip back into bad habits like peaking at a neighbor’s answer before they’ve even attempted to remember. I sometimes feel like a parrot repeating my expectations repeatedly.

Tracking student progress on assessment can be helpful as can pointing out effects in real time. For example, after I have students complete a challenge grid (color coded by how recent the content was taught), I might ask students to reflect upon which color was the easiest for them and why. More often than not, the most distant content is the easiest for them because they’ve had multiple opportunities to retrieve those concepts, so they are more secure in their long term memory. Being explicit about the “why” behind this effect can really help students see the value in the work they are devoting to study.

What advice do you have for other educators?

Start small and begin incorporating one retrieval practice into your classroom at regular intervals. Learn how to execute this practice well before adding more. Also, take the time to really reflect upon the learning activities you are assigning to your students. Are these activities aligned with what we know about how students learn? Can we tweak them to be more powerful for students? Are students frequently struggling on the same task or topic? Perhaps by looking at foundational ideas about learning science you can find the source of why the topic or task is a struggle and refine your practice accordingly.

Apr 3 FEATURED EDUCATOR: Alison Stone