Dirksen, Julie. (2016) Design for How People Learn. Berkeley: New Riders. 260 pages.
ISBN 978-0-321-76843-4.
According to her website, Dirksen became an instructional designer because she “likes to learn” (Dirksen, 2012). The significance of this statement becomes clear when considering her argument that “(i)f you don’t start with the gaps, you can’t know that your solution will bridge them” (Dirksen, 2016, 25). Throughout the book, Dirksen takes this approach to new learning as someone who is trying to bridge knowledge gaps in the areas of “knowledge, skills, motivation and attitude, habit, environment, and communication” (Dirksen, 2016, 24).
Design is PSYCHOLOGY
Using the metaphor of a journey, Dirksen reminds instructional designers to keep the learner at the forefront of our work. The difference between being “human”-oriented versus “product”-oriented makes a difference in creating the types of experiences that move the participant along the path to learning. The twelve chapters in the book take into account all facets of the people in our courses, from basic getting-to-know individuals to the psychology of learning and motivation. One of my favorite chapters, “Design for Habits,” echos The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (2012). Although I read Duhigg’s book for personal reasons, I never thought about habit-as-instructional-design until Dirksen pointed it out (Dirksen, 2016, 231). Just as I want to create a healthy eating habit, I want my students to create a more effective way to read texts, write amazing pieces, and for others to produce a yearbook. But do they come to my class on purpose? Do I design our daily learning in a way that shows them that the habit of learning something new and applying it to novel situations just of the sheer joy? (An echo of Dirksen’s love of learning).
Dirksen’s writing evokes feelings of listening to a master storyteller--showing through anecdotes and interacting with the reader/audience rather than telling about dry research. She includes diagrams and stick-figure drawings to keep the reader interested and constantly reflecting on her suggestions. Additionally, she relates deep, possibly confusing, psychological issues to plain metaphors such as our brains as a closet (Dirksen, 2016, 47). This tongue-in-cheek reference (along with the humorous drawings!) reminds readers that our lives are chaotic and learning is rough. When a participant is in the habit (automaticity) of a behavior -- such as responding negatively to any change of routine -- having to participate in “another” professional development/training can be overwhelming. So, when designing those courses or interventions, the more they can be individualized, the better for the learner. For example, Dirksen shows strategies to help learners “build shelves” for their “closets” through “the experience filter” (Dirksen, 2016, 48-51). Here, designers can build courses at various levels that match their learners’ prior knowledge and understanding of the topic.
The last chapter of the book describes various ways of evaluating the learning design (Dirksen, 2016, 271-285). Dirksen relates many practical strategies found in traditional teacher education courses such as the use of surveys, peer feedback, and starting with the evaluation in mind. However, Dirksen’s spin grounds our habits/automaticity in the psychology behind “showing and using” what the designer needed the participant to learn. This is where the feedback (peer to peer, self evaluation/reflection) can be powerful to the learning process. For a student teacher learning to teach the alphabet to kindergartners, this means that the classroom peers, the cooperating teacher, and the university supervisor will each have their own experiences to draw on when giving him/her feedback/advice. Likewise, when the student teacher takes time to reflect on the lessons, that personal feedback helps create the habit of comparing what they did to the criteria of an effective teacher learned throughout the education courses.
High School ELA & Design
Being a novice curriculum designer, I do not have much experience in the ins and outs of effective design, especially when it comes to e-learning courses. After reading this book, however, I found myself making check marks beside sentences where I felt that I at least had some experience. The ubiquity of technological devices have affected English/Language Arts in many ways, but specifically in questions I couldn’t help reflecting on as I read: How can I give you (the student) the feel/experience of 1920s New York if all you need to do is watch The Great Gatsby on Netflix? Why read the book? Why write a blog post about your understanding of the reading? It is these questions that keep me up too late most Sunday nights as I work to make ELA more palatable to teenagers.
One of the most essential ideas I learned from this book is the elephant metaphor for getting students’ attention (Dirksen, 2016, 124-127). A long time ago, I wrote a blog post comparing teenagers to zombies, so I get the cool metaphor usage. This one, though, made me laugh, nod, and take more notes! In this metaphor, the elephant represents all the fun things that distract us in our daily lives, while the rider represents what we are supposed to do (so, move over Freud -- there’s a new id in town!). Because the brain craves novelty and instant gratification, we are in a constant flux of “I want to have fun” versus “I have to do this work or I won’t get paid/graduate/insert-your-own-goal-here.”
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| https://spanishplans.org/chistes/memes-for-teachers/ |
For all the ideas and strategies in this book, I think the elephant metaphor may be the most useful for educators (well, for me, anyway). When I’m trying to get class started, or I’m writing up what I think are interesting activities for my online course, do I wait for attention or create the attention? The number one strategy Dirksen details for “ways to engage” the elephant side of students’ brains is to use storytelling (Dirksen, 2016, 132). Maybe I love this most because I’m an ELA teacher and an avid reader, but life is just more interesting in story. Dirksen reminds her reader that stories “go on existing (closet) shelves”, flow logically, are suspenseful, and “aren’t boring” (Dirksen, 2016, 134). But when the designer “makes people the heroes of their own story” (Dirksen, 2016, 134), the magic starts to happen. We feel we have more agency over how our learning proceeds and what it looks like, echoing the game-based learning that is all the rage.
The more I read the book, the more psychology I knew I needed to incorporate into course design. Without a doubt, psychology and how our brains contend with learning is as, if not more, important than merely content delivery. Dirken’s book is an important addition to my professional library, and I will continue to find ways to implement strategies into my teaching.
References
Dirksen, J. (2009, January 15). About. Retrieved from http://usablelearning.com/about/
Dirksen, J. (2016). Design for how people learn (2nd ed.). New Riders.
Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. NY: Random
House.
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