Chapter 1, page 4
throughout the chapters of this book. Each time we see how a theory is related to a new educational
application, we will gain new insights into that theory; we will also gain new insights into the application.
Unit 2: Influences on Learning
The second unit of the book contains three chapters about important influences on learning.
Chapter 5 discusses individual and group differences and how these differences can influence learning.
Chapter 6 addresses students’ prior conceptions about academic topics and how these conceptions
influence learning. Chapter 7 addresses the strategies (such as study strategies) that students use and
how their choice of strategies influences learning. Only by understanding all these influences can
teachers design instruction that is maximally effective in helping students learn.
Chapter 5 (Individual and Group Differences) discusses individual and group influences on
student learning. Individual differences include factors such as students’ gender, their intelligence, and
whether they are learning disabled. Group differences include factors such as cultural norms and the
language spoken by a community. It is important for teachers to understand how individual factors such
as having a learning disability can affect how students learn. It is also important for teachers to
understand how group factors such as a student’s cultural background can influence students’ learning.
Chapter 5 develops initial ideas about individual and group influences on learning that we will continue
to expand upon throughout the textbook.
Chapter 6 addresses students’ prior conceptions about what they are studying in school. Prior
conceptions refer to the ideas about the physical, natural, and social worlds that students have before
they begin new instruction on these topics. For instance, many students have the conception that water is
made up of drops of water. For a student who thinks that water is made up of drops of water, the notion
that water is composed of hard, elastic, not-wet molecules is a strange idea that is extremely difficult to
understand (Andersson, 1990; Liu & Lesniak, 2006). How could something wet like water be made of
hard molecules that are not themselves wet? It makes no sense to these students. Students’ prior
conceptions can thus make it difficult to learn ideas that conflict with these conceptions. Conversely,
when students’ prior conceptions are congruent with what they are learning, their prior conceptions can
make learning new ideas easier. When students already know some key ideas about the industrial
revolution, they will learn more from a lecture about the industrial revolution than students who knew
nothing about it.
Students’ knowledge of strategies is also important. Strategies are the actions that people take
to achieve goals. For example, when students have the goal of learning the key ideas in a textbook
chapter, they may use strategies such as outlining the chapter or summarizing the main sections of the
chapter. When students have the goal of solving a difficult problem, they may use strategies such as
brainstorming possible solutions, trying out different alternative solutions, and checking the answer to
make sure it makes sense. Students’ strategies are an important determinant of what they learn in class
(Zimmerman, 1998). Many students use ineffective study strategies instead of the more effective
strategies that we will discuss throughout this textbook. An important job for teachers is to help students
learn to use more effective strategies.
Together, prior conceptions and prior strategies strongly affect learning. When teachers gain a
deep understanding of students’ prior conceptions and strategies, they typically find that they cannot
teach in their old ways. One of the middle school teachers I have recently been working with said in an
interview, “I used to think that my job was to pour information into my students’ heads. And then one
day I realized that their heads weren’t empty. There was already stuff in there! And once you realize that
there’s stuff in there, your life changes!” Her life had changed because she realized that students’ prior
conceptions and strategies meant that she needed to teach in new ways that took those conceptions and
strategies into account. She found it fascinating to find out about her students’ initial conceptions and
strategies, and then to figure out how to help them learn new conceptions and strategies that were
sometimes dramatically different from their initial conceptions and strategies. A deep understanding of