Much of educational and cognitive research can be reduced
to this basic principle: People learn by creating their own understanding.
That does not mean, however, that they must or
even can do so without assistance. Effective teaching facilitates
that creation by engaging students in thinking deeply about
the subject at an appropriate level and then monitoring that
It would be quite effective to put every student, including
undergraduates, into a research lab to work one-on-one with
a faculty member rather than taking classes, but obviously that
is not practical as a widespread solution. Economic realities
dictate that we have to use courses and classrooms, so the
question is, how can we use these ideas to improve classroom
teaching? The key is to incorporate desirable cognitive activities,
as revealed by research, into normal course activities