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  2. EDU H110L

Becoming an Expert Learner in the Age of AI: Engaging in Parallel Metacognition
EDU H110L

Course Information

Description

Expert learners understand the power and limitations of their embodied minds and know how to deploy them towards their best learning and optimal performance. When operating new technology, a vehicle, or other devices, we might read a user’s manual, take a tutorial, or work with a mentor. We spend our lives learning and while much of what we do suffices, many of us don’t know how our minds work. This is more critical now as learners decide how to use the power of AI in ways that complement and extend human expertise instead of undermining our ability to think deeply, innovate, and work at our learning edges. Thought partnering effectively with AI requires an understanding of its affordances and limitations and engaging in a process called “parallel metacognition.” This module focuses on what is known from research about human embodied minds and cognitive architecture. It considers research on perception, attention, memory, comprehension, and classical and adaptive expertise. It also looks at the mechanisms of Gen AI and systematically invites consideration of the intersection of human minds and AI and the affordances and limitations of each. Students submit a weekly two-page reflection on how they applied the course concepts to their learning that week. Grading will be based upon the weekly reflections; there is no final project. The course pedagogy centers on active processing and utilizes the course principles with a strong focus on application and transfer. 

School Graduate School of Education
Credits 2
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Regular Course
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Student Option (Letter Graded, Sat/Unsat)
Learning Goals Students will understand how research findings in cognitive science, the learning sciences, and neuroscience can inform how we behave as learners. They will consider the mechanisms of Gen AI in comparison to the mechanisms of human minds. The course helps to develop learners who understand the affordances and challenges of our cognitive architecture and become reflective learners who want to learn how to attend, think, and learn more effectively.
Career Focus <p>This course aims to help us use our minds effectively. This is especially relevant to career choices that invite continued innovation, agency, and life-long learning. It is also relevant to navigating AI in a changing world,particularly as AI continues to evolve. The impetus for developing the course is an assumption that these features increasingly reflect careers of the future, that innovation may invite multiple, serial “careers,” and that it will be essential for people to be able to engage in optimal learning across their career trajectory.</p>