Designing Courses for Significant Learning Part 2

Step 3. Worksheet Procedures for Educative Assessment 1. Forward-Looking Assessment Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue. 2. Criteria & Standards Select one of your main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria. 3. Self-Assessment What opportunities can you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance? 4. “FIDeLity” Feedback What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give students feedback that is: • Discriminating, i.e., based on • Frequent clear criteria and standards • Immediate • Lovingly delivered 15 Step 4. Teaching/Learning Activities Often as college teachers thinking about what should happen in a course, we have used the traditional pattern of “lectures and discussions.” Some courses are heavy on lectures; others lean more toward discussion. But to create the kind of significant learning advocated in Step 2, we will need new tools, new kinds of teaching and learning activities. Where can we find these? We need to understand, and then learn, how to incorporate more active learning into our courses. Active Learning. One of the more powerful ideas to emerge in the literature on college teaching in the last decade or so is the concept of active learning. In essence, the concept of active learning supports research that shows: students learn more and retain their learning longer if they acquire it in an active rather than a passive manner. What do we mean by “active learning”? Active-learning advocates Bonwell and Eison (1991) describe active learning as “[involving] students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing.” By “doing things,” they are referring to activities such as debates, simulations, guided design, small group problem solving, case studies, etc. My way of illustrating that definition is shown in Figure 3. When students listen to a lecture or read a texbook, they are receiving “Information and Ideas”—an important part of the learning process but also one that is relatively passive. To make the learning more active, we need to learn how to enhance the overall learning experience by adding some kind of experiential learning and opportunities for reflective dialogue. Figure 3 INITIAL VIEW OF PASSIVE AND ACTIVE LEARNING ACTIVE PASSIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE DOING LEARNING REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE, with: SELF RECEIVING INFORMATION & IDEAS OBSERVING 16 OTHERS An Enlarged View of “Active Learning.” In order to create a complete set of learning activities capable of achieving significant learning, we need an enlarged and more holistic view of active learning—one that includes “getting information and ideas” as well as “experience” and “reflection.” Figure 4 illustrates a new conceptualization of active learning, one that makes all three modes of learning an integral part of a more complete set of learning activities. Figure 4 A HOLISTIC VIEW OF ACTIVE LEARNING Experience • • • Doing, Observing Actual, Simulated “Rich Learning Experiences” Reflective Dialogue Information & Ideas • • Primary & Secondary • Sources Accessing them in class, out of class, online • Minute Papers, Learning Portfolios, Journaling About the Subject and/or Learning Process Two principles should guide our choice of learning activities. First, an effective set of learning activities is one that includes activities from each of the following three components of active learning: information and ideas, experience, and reflective dialogue. Second, we should try to find direct kinds of learning activities, whenever possible. Indirect, or vicarious, forms may be necessary in some cases. But when we can find direct ways of providing active learning, the quality of student learning expands. From my own experience and from reading the literature on what effective teachers actually do in terms of this holistic view of active learning, I have found that good teachers incorporate all three components of active learning in a variety of ways. As shown in Table 2, sometimes teachers provide information and ideas, experience, and reflective dialogue directly; at other times it is done indirectly or even online. 17 Table 2 LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR HOLISTIC, ACTIVE LEARNING GETTING INFORMATION & IDEAS DIRECT • Primary data • Primary sources • INDIRECT, • VICARIOUS ONLINE Secondary data and sources Lectures, textbooks • Course website • Internet EXPERIENCE "Doing" • • “Real Doing,” in authentic settings Case Studies • Gaming, Simulations • Role Play "Observing" • Direct observation of phenomena • • Reflective thinking Journaling • Dialogue (in or out of class) • Stories (can be accessed via: film, oral history, literature) • Teacher can assign students to "directly experience _____.” • Students can engage in "indirect" kinds of experience online. 18 REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE, with: Self Others • Students can reflect and then engage in various kinds of dialogue online. To help you explore ways of developing more powerful learning experiences for your students, I suggest some ideas for each of three components of active learning: Rich Learning Experience, In-Depth Reflective Dialogue, and Information and Ideas. Rich Learning Experiences. As you try to add an experiential component to the learning experience, look for “Rich Learning Experiences.” Certain learning experiences are “rich” because they allow students to acquire several kinds of significant learning simultaneously. What are some ways this can be done? The list below identifies in-class and out-of-class activities that promote multiple kinds of significant learning—all at the same time. In Class: • Debates • Role playing • Simulations • Dramatizations Outside • • • of Class: Service learning Situational observations Authentic projects Action: Identify some learning activities to add to your course that will give students a “Doing” or “Observing” Experience. What “Rich Learning Experiences” are appropriate for your course? In-Depth Reflective Dialogue. Another important ingredient of active learning is giving students time and encouragement to reflect on the meaning of their learning experience. There are various forms of reflective dialogue (See Table 3, next page). One can reflect with oneself (as in writing in a journal or diary) or with others (as in engaging in discussions with a teacher or others). Another key distinction is between substantive writing, in which one writes about a subject (e.g., a typical term paper), and reflective writing, in which one writes about one’s own learning. In reflective writing, students address a different set of questions, such as: What am I learning? What is the value of what I am learning? How am I learning? What else do I need to learn? 19 Table 3 IN-DEPTH REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE With Whom? • Oneself (journaling, learning portfolios) • Others (teacher, other students, people outside class) About What? • Subject of the Course: (Substantive writing) What is an appropriate and full understanding of this concept or topic? • Learning Process: (Reflective writing) ٠ What am I learning? ٠ Of what value is this? ٠ How did I learn: best, most comfortably, with difficulty, etc.? ٠ What else do I need to learn? Written Forms? • One-minute papers • Weekly journal writing • Learning portfolios (end-of-course, end-of-program) The literature on college teaching identifies numerous procedures to promote reflection. In the one-minute paper, the teacher poses a short, but well-focused, question for students to answer once a week or at the end of each class. Sample questions include: “What is the most important thing you learned today? What is the “muddiest point” of this class?” Slightly more ambitious is the practice of having students write weekly learning journals. Ask students to periodically reflect on their learning experience. You may need to guide this effort by providing some questions like the four listed above (or more specific versions of them). Another excellent practice is for students to put together a learning portfolio at the end of the course. This is an 8-12 page narrative with an appendix of materials to support and illustrate the content of the narrative. In the narrative, students write reflectively about their learning experiences, again addressing questions like the those listed above. Action: What kinds of Reflective Dialogue can you incorporate into your course? 20 Information and Ideas. In order to free up some class time for the experiential and reflective activities identified above, you will probably need to explore alternative ways of introducing students to the key information and ideas of the course, i.e., the content. This might involve having them do more reading before they come to class. Or it may mean creating a course-specific website where you put content-related material. Or you can direct students to go to selected websites that have good content related to the course. Action: Other than lectures, what ways can you identify to cause students to get their initial exposure to subject matter and ideas (preferably outside of class)? Step 5. Integration In this INITIAL DESIGN PHASE (Steps 1-4), you have created strong primary components for the design of your course. In order to complete this initial phase, you need to check how well these four components are aligned. Step 5 Worksheet gives a detailed explanation of how these four components can be integrated with each other. Step 5: Integrating Steps 1-4 1. Situational Factors • Assuming you have done a careful, thorough job of reviewing the situational factors, how well are these factors reflected in the decisions you made about learning goals, feedback and assessment, learning activities? • What potential conflicts can you identify that may cause problems? 21 • Are there any disconnects between your beliefs and values, the student characteristics, the specific or general context, or the nature of the subject in relation to the way you propose to run the course? 2. Learning Goals and Feedback & Assessment Issues to address include: • How well do your assessment procedures address the full range of learning goals? • Is the feedback giving students information about all the learning goals? • Do the learning goals include helping the students learn how to assess their own performance? 3. Learning Goals and Teaching/Learning Activities • Do the learning activities effectively support all your learning goals? • Are there extraneous activities that do not serve any major learning goal? 4. Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback & Assessment • How well does the feedback loop work to prepare students for understanding the criteria and standards that will be used to assess their performance? • How well do the practice learning activities and the associated feedback opportunities prepare students for the eventual assessment activities? A good tool for checking on integration, especially on Steps #2-4 above, is to use the Worksheet 1 on the following page. First, fill in a list of your learning goals for the course. If possible, have one for each kind of significant learning in the taxonomy. Second, for each major learning goal, identify how you would know whether students have achieved that kind of learning, i.e., what kind of feedback and assessment can you use? Third, again, for each major learning goal, identify what students will have to do to achieve that kind of learning. You will often find that the assessment and the learning activity are the same or very similar. But working through this exercise can be very valuable by ensuring that you in fact have specific kinds of assessment and learning activities for each of your learning goals and that you don’t just give “lip service” to them. After you finish your final check (below), then you can start the process of assembling these several activities into a coherent whole (Phase II, starting on p. 28). 22 Worksheet 1 Worksheet for Designing a Course Learning Goals for Course: Ways of Assessing Actual Teaching-Learning Helpful Resources: This Kind of Learning: Activities: (e.g., people, things) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 23 Final Check and Review of INITIAL DESIGN PHASE. A major benefit of this planning model is that it provides specific criteria for assessing the quality of course design. There are five primary criteria, four of which are illustrated by the highlighted areas of Figure 5 on the next page. It suggests that good course design meets the following criteria. The basic design for this course is good if it includes… 1. In-Depth Analysis of Situational Factors It is based on a systematic review of all the major situational factors, in order to define the situational constraints and opportunities of the course. 2. Significant Learning Goals It includes learning goals focused on several kinds of significant learning, not just “understand-and-remember” kinds of learning. 3. Educative Feedback and Assessment It includes the components of educative assessment: forward-looking assessment, opportunities for students to engage in self-assessment, clear criteria and standards, and “FIDeLity” feedback. These allow the feedback and assessment to go beyond auditive assessment. 4. Active Teaching/Learning Activities It includes learning activities that engage students in active learning by incorporating powerful forms of experiential and reflective learning, as well as ways of getting basic information and ideas. 5. Integration/Alignment All the major components of the course are integrated (or aligned). That is, the situational factors, learning goals, feedback and assessment, and the teaching/learning activities all reflect and support each other. If the course design rates “High” on each of these five criteria, then the basic components of good design are in place. 24 Figure 5 Criteria for Assessing Course Designs (The major criteria are shown in bold) Significant Learning Learning Goals Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL FACTORS In-Depth Situational Analysis 25 INTERMEDIATE PHASE (Steps 6-8) Assembling the Components into a Coherent Whole After you have created the basic components of the course, identify ways of organizing these activities into a powerful and coherent whole. This is done by creating a course structure, selecting or creating an instructional strategy, and then integrating the structure and strategy into an overall scheme of learning activities. Step 6. Course Structure Creating a course structure simply means dividing the semester into 4 to 7 segments that focus on the key concepts, issues, or topics that constitute the major foci of the course. Then you arrange these concepts or topics into a logical sequence and decide how many weeks or class sessions to allocate to each one (See Figure 6). One major value of doing this is seeing more readily how to create questions or assignments for students that gradually become more complex and more challenging. Figure 6 A Structured Sequence for the Content of a Course For each new topic, students need an introduction to the topic (white box) and then opportunities to apply and use the concepts and ideas in assignments (shaded parts of the columns). Topic 5 Topic 4 Topic 3 Course Assignments As each new topic is introduced and studied, assignments and projects can become more complex, dealing with more interactions among topics. Topic 2 Topic 1 Week: 1 5 10 26 15 Action: • Identify 4 to 7 major concepts, issues, or topics for your course. • What is the appropriate sequence for introducing these to the students? • What initial ideas do you have for assignments or problems that would reflect the increasing complexity of the subject as students move from topic to topic? Step 7. Instructional Strategy One important conceptual distinction needs to be made between teaching techniques and an instructional strategy. A teaching technique is a discrete, specific teaching activity. Lecturing, leading discussions, setting up small group work all are teaching techniques. An instructional strategy, on the other hand, is a set of learning activities, arranged in a particular sequence so that the energy for learning increases and accumulates as students go through the sequence. This usually requires, among other things, that you set up some activities that (a) get students ready or prepared for later work, (b) give them opportunities to practice—with prompt feedback—doing whatever it is you want them to learn to do, (c) assess the quality of their performance, and (d) allow them to reflect on their learning. To assist in this, the diagram below can help you develop a sequence of in-class and out-of-class activities. I affectionately call this the “Castle Top” diagram (Figure 7). The question marks ask you to identify the learning activity for each in-class and out-of-class block of time. The goal is to create a sequence of activities that build on each other. Figure 7 - The “Castle Top” Template for Creating an Instructional Strategy In-Class Activities: Out-of-Class Activities: ? ? ? ? Action: Sketch out a sequence of varied activities using some of the learning activities you identified in Phase I. 27 Step 8. Creating the Overall Scheme of Learning Activities At this time you need to dynamically integrate the course structure and the instructional strategy for the whole course. It can be helpful to create a diagram of the course structure and the instructional strategy—and then find ways to enhance how these two components work together. Your scheme might look like this: Figure 8 Instructional Strategy Major Topics in Course: I________ In-class Out-class II_______ In-class Out-class III______ In-class Out-class IV______ In-class Out-class Course Structure (for whole semester or term) Figure 8 above is an example of only one possibility. It would obviously need to be adjusted to fit the circumstances of a given course. This diagram allows us to see one more important principle for good course design: the need for both differentiation and integration of learning activities. Differentiation can be reflected in these ways: • Variety in the type of learning activities from day-to-day, within each 1-3 week block of time. • Development in the complexity and challenge of the learning, from course topics I-IV. Integration should be reflected both within each topical unit of time and in the progression through each of the topical units. 28 At the conclusion of this Step 8, you should be ready to lay out a week-by-week schedule of activities for the whole semester. Worksheet 2 on the following page can be a useful form for creating this schedule. As you do this, consider these questions: • What activities need to come first, i.e., how should the course begin? • With what activities do you want to conclude, i.e., how should the course end? • What sequence of activities will enhance learning in the middle of the course? Action Using Worksheet 2 (on the following page), pace out the sequence of learning activities for the course. Planning out the schedule concludes the INTERMEDIATE DESIGN PHASE of the course design process. You now have an integrated set of components assembled into a coherent whole. You are ready for the FINAL DESIGN PHASE, in which there are a few additional tasks to complete. 29 Worksheet 2 Sequence of Learning Activities ____________S e s s i o n s Week Class Between per Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Final Exam or Project 30 W e e k Between _____ Class Between FINAL DESIGN PHASE (Steps 9-12): Important Remaining Tasks Four important remaining tasks need to be undertaken in order to complete the design of your course. Step 9. How Are You Going To Grade? At this time, you are ready to develop your grading system. It should reflect the full range of learning goals and activities, but it is also important to remember that you do NOT have to grade everything. In addition, the relative weight of each item as it affects the course grade should reflect the relative importance of that activity. Action: What are the key components of your grading system? Action: What will be the relative weight of the grade components? Are you going to determine that yourself, or will you involve the class in this process? 31 Step 10. What Could Go Wrong? Now "de-bug" the design by analyzing and assessing your "first draft” of the course. Among other things, this means checking for possible problems. For example: • Will the students have time to do their out-of-class assignments? • Will they be able to obtain the necessary resources? (e.g., How many students will be trying to obtain reading material reserved in the library at the same time?) Action: What problems might arise in the course design as you envision it at this time? What might you do to solve these problems? Step 11. Let Students Know What You Are Planning (Syllabus) Now it is the time to write the syllabus. This should include, among other things: • General management information—instructor, office hours, phone, etc. • Goals for the course • Structure and sequence of class activities, including due dates for major assignments/tests/projects • Text and other required reading material • Grading procedures • Course policies: attendance, Honor Code, work turned in late, make-up exams, etc. Action: What information do you want in the course syllabus? Action: How do you want to communicate the syllabus to students— on paper, online? 32 Step 12. How Will You Know How The Course Is Going? How It Went? It is very important to plan an evaluation of the course itself and of your own teaching. This is the only way you can get the information and insights you need in order to make the course better and to improve your own teaching over time. As you do this, remember these points: • You can collect feedback throughout the semester as well as at the end. • You can use a variety of information sources: ٠ video/audio tape of the class sessions ٠ student ratings of instruction ٠ student interviews and/or questionnaires ٠ outside observers (e.g., colleagues, instructional consultant, Students Consulting on Teaching) ٠ test results Also consider specific issues: • the degree to which your goals for the course were achieved • the effectiveness of particular learning activities • your ability to interact effectively with students Action: What sources will you use to evaluate the course and your teaching? Action: What questions are you trying to answer with this evaluation? 33 Concluding Counsel. Congratulations! You have now finished designing your course. There are two closing caveats for you to consider. Stay Flexible. The first point to remember is that, although developing a good design or plan for your course is very important, it is only a plan. Like all plans, you need to keep it flexible and subject to change as it is implemented. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Order Changes. If this is your first attempt at designing a course based on this model, don’t be discouraged if your design does not rate a “10” on all the steps and criteria. It is wise to think of making 1st order, 2nd order, and 3rd order changes. This simply means that on your first attempt to improve the design of your course, focus only on a few changes. But be sure to make some changes in each of the three phases because each affects and reinforces the other. For example, start by making changes to the strong primary components (INITIAL DESIGN PHASE): • Do a somewhat more in-depth analysis of the situational factors; • Add one new kind of significant learning to your list of learning goals; • Add one additional kind of educative assessment; • Add one new kind of active learning in which the students engage; and • Check to make sure the components are integrated/aligned. Once you have strong primary components, then you can work on assembling these into a more coherent whole (INTERMEDIATE DESIGN PHASE): • Clarify or simplify the structure of your course; • Create a differentiated set of learning activities (perhaps using the “Castle Top” diagram, Figure 7); and, • Lay out some kind of scheme for the overall set of learning activities. When you have a coherent scheme of learning activities, you can finish the remaining tasks (FINAL DESIGN PHASE): • Coordinate your grading system with the design of the course; • De-bug potential problems; • Put together a syllabus that communicates the design of the course more clearly; and/or • Plan a more thorough evaluation of the course and of your own teaching. Each time you teach, make an assessment of how well the design worked; then next time, make another, more ambitious set of changes. This way, you can work through 2nd order changes, followed by 3rd order changes, and so forth. Again, congratulations! When you work seriously on making the kinds of changes described here, you gradually become more and more competent as a course designer. By committing to Designing Courses for Significant Learning, you increase your power and effectiveness as someone responsible for the quality of other peoples’ learning experience! 34