What We Know About Learning

Traditionally, engineering research and teaching have been approached in very different ways. To prepare for research we undergo years of rigorous training, both in scientific knowledge and in methods of gaining new knowledge through experimentation and analysis. To prepare for teaching, we acquire the same knowledge, but, except for a stint as a teaching assistant, we receive almost no training in how to impart it to students. Fortunately, there is now a well developed science of human learning which has strong implications for the ways in which our students should learn and we should teach. This paper comments on some of the things we know about human learning that can substantially improve our university instruction.