Dr. Gail Shroyer provided information about the learning process and explained how to teach for understanding. As one moves up Bloom's heirarchy, one is addressing more meaningful learning, deeper learning, and higher level thinking. From birth, we attempt to make sense of the world around us. The positive side to this is that students come to classes with existing ideas, beliefs and understandings. These misconceptions are intact and very resistant to change.
Students tend to retain what they have spent a lifetime building.
This presents a challenge for educators. Dr. Shroyer summarized a research study presented in a series of videos titled Private Universe . This series documents interviews with college students. One set of interviews involved graduating seniors from Harvard University. The students typically responded with anything except the scientific reasons.