SALTISE Renowned Scholars | Paul Kirschner on "What Has Educational Psychology Ever Done for Us?"

Paul Kirschner is the author of over 400 scholarly articles and one of the most highly cited scholars. His 2020 publication, How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice, has been a bestseller. And his 2022 follow-up, How Teaching Happens, promises to be an equal success.

In this webinar, Professor Kirschner will discuss what learning is (as opposed to achievement), some of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand and what they have done for us as teachers and researchers, what their effects are on pedagogy and how we (should) teach.

Title: What Has Educational Psychology Ever Done for Us?

When I’m asked what have educational- and cognitive psychology given us as teachers and educational institutions I always must think back to Monty Python’s Life of Brian. While planning a ‘terrorist’ action, John Cleese as Brother Reg asks the, seemingly rhetorical, question “What have the Romans ever given us?”. After a few minutes of debate, he utters the immortal line: “Alright! – but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

Why? Because since the cognitive revolution in psychology where what happens in our heads while learning moved from a behaviouristic black box (e.g., Thorndike, Skinner) to a translucent/transparent view of learning. Starting with George Millier’s famous paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two…” that humans can effectively process no more than seven units, or chunks, of information, plus or minus two pieces of information, at any given time. we’ve had breakthroughs with respect to meaningful learning (David Ausubel), information processing (Atkinson & Shiffrin / Baddeley & Hitch), dual coding (Alan Paivio), elaboration theory (Charles Reigeluth), mathemagenic activities (Ernst Rothkopf), cognitive load (John Sweller), and desirable difficulties (Robert and Elizabeth Bjork) just to name a few giants and what they have done for us as teachers and researchers. And I’m not including what educational- and cognitive psychology has done by busting the myths of multitasking, learning styles, learning pyramids and so forth.

In my webinar, I’ll be discussing what learning is (as opposed to achievement), some of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand, what their effects are on pedagogy and how we (should) teach.

There will be time for a Q&A with me for those who are so inclined.

SALTISE thanks Concordia University’s Department of Education for working alongside us to invite Prof. Kirschner and make this presentation a reality. We look forward to this primer presentation, and the launch of this new topic, adding it to our Winter 2023 webinar lineup.