Samford University psychology professor Stephen Chew has produced a new video that builds on the extensive public resources he has created to help improve learning and teaching. How to Learn in Pandemic Times offers reassurance that although education might look different in coming months, the way humans learn will not.
“Regardless of the place you find yourself in, learning only takes place in one location, and that’s inside your brain,” Chew notes in the video. “If you understand the principles of how the brain learns, then you’ll be able to adapt to whatever situation you might find yourself in.”
Those principles will be familiar to anyone who has taken advantage of his acclaimed series of videos for students on how to study effectively, but the single new video provides an excellent overview for teachers, parents and students suddenly feeling adrift in the shifting education landscape. In it, Chew describes the science of information processing and warns against common choke points and pitfalls in learning.
Chew is one of the nation’s most celebrated psychology professors and currently serves as chair of the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology. His many honors include the American Psychology Foundation’s (APF) Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award, Distinguished Member status in Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s state and U.S. Professor of the Year honors and Samford’s Buchanan Teaching award. He also has served as a Carnegie Scholar and Fellow of the American Psychological Association.