Weighing--and Weighting--our Options

As part of his workshop on problem-based learning last Thursday, Dr.  Mark Serva, a professor of information systems  at the University of Delaware, discussed a variety of issues relating to course design in general, whether using a problem-based format or not.  One question he raised that made me stop and think perhaps more than any other was, “How do we spend our class time?”

The following options were listed:  

• Content knowledge
• Design and creativity
• Real-world context
• Communication skills
• Student intrinsic motivation
• Hands-on skills
• Critical thinking
• Disciplinary integration
• Teamwork/collaboration
• Self-directed learning

All must be present to some degree.  The tough question is which ones are more important than others?  

For any given class, the options (developed by Jonathan Stolk and Robert Martello of Olin College) can total  no more than 100%.  So if we value critical thinking, for instance, at 20%, then we have to devalue something else to maintain the 100% total. There was rich discussion about what percentage we would give to each when designing a course, as well as what percentage we might give to them when planning any individual class session.

To me this discussion brought home the point that we often spend all, or most, of our time thinking about what content knowledge we want students to acquire, giving much less attention to the other equally--sometimes perhaps more--important nine concepts.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the items in this list.  Would you add any additional options?  Which one(s) would you weight more heavily than others? Why?

Teaching Actively

One of the books in the “New CETL Books Available” section of our library is Mel Silberman’s Teaching Actively: Eight Steps and 32 Strategies.  Since I am always a sucker for things that promise I only have to do a specific number of things to be successful, I opened that one quickly. 

Silberman’s eight steps are logical, basically the things any good teacher tries to do: 

1. Engage your students from the start 
2. Be a brain-friendly teacher 
3. Encourage lively and focused discussions 
4. Urge students to ask questions 
5. Let your students learn from each other 
6. Enhance learning with experiencing and doing 
7. Blend in technology wisely
8. Make the end unforgettable

It was interesting, though, to consider the specific strategies described for each step and consider some new options.  For example, one of the strategies for “making the end unforgettable” --in other words, for helping students to extend their learning beyond the course itself-- was asking students to create an action plan saying how/when/where they plan to use their new skills and knowledge in the future.  Students submit these plans to the teacher, who in turn returns them to the students via email a month or so later, at which point students can revisit the plan, check which actions they have taken, and hopefully reinforce some of the course content. 

Have you ever tried something like that to reach beyond the end of the semester?  Did it work?  If you've had a chance to look at the other 31 strategies, are there any that stand out as particularly useful to you?

It’s a Wrap

If your students are like mine, they tend to look at exams and papers for one main thing:  the grade. And that’s where the contemplation either stops or focuses in general terms on how the grade doesn’t really reflect how hard the student worked.

As I was reading Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, one of the new books on the pedagogy shelf in the library, I found the chapter on “exam wrappers” insightful on this problem.* In that chapter, Lovett defines exam wrappers as “structured reflection activities that prompt students to practice key metacognitive skills after they get back their graded exams (p. 18).”  These reflection activities require students to respond to three kinds of questions:

1. How they prepared for the exam
2. What kinds of errors they made on the exam
3. What they might do differently to prepare for the next exam

As Lovett explains, “Currently, most students seem to think of exams as the 'end' of learning.  Instead they could be opportunities to reflect, compare and adjust their strategies” (p 19).  Her point is that students, at most, look to see what facts they got wrong, when it is much more important to reflect on why they missed those particular facts and what they might do differently the next time so as not to miss them.  Requiring them to think about the study process helps build the students’ sense of metacognition, over time developing them into more self-directed learners.

Teachers benefit as well, since they get a much clearer picture of how students are performing with respect to the course learning objectives, and thus are able to make changes in their instructional plans as needed.

The article reminds us that metacognitive skills

• are developed through practice and feedback,
• are not automatically transferred across contexts, and
• while extremely important for students just beginning their college experience, are NOT best learned as generic “study skills” but instead must be grounded in the course content.  

Lovett also points out that teachers can use other “wrappers”—homework wrappers, lecture wrappers, small group discussion wrappers, etc., and provides examples from a variety of disciplines in the appendix.

What do you think?  Have any of you had success with this sort of reflective assignment?  

*Note:  Other chapters were equally interesting, giving case studies of how teachers can enhance student metacognition and reflection in different disciplines, e.g., Chapter 3:  Improving Critical-Thinking Skills in Introductory Biology Through Quality Practice and Metacognition or Chapter 4:  Reflection and Metacognition in Engineering Practice.

That 0ngoing Textbook Problem

A common complaint heard pretty much any time two faculty get together is, “My students won’t buy the textbook. What do I do?”

Might one possible solution, Professor Pettaway asked in a recent email, be to have all students purchase iPads with their textbooks already loaded?  “Since most faculty complain about students not purchasing text books,” he wrote, “I have long espoused the ideas of all freshmen being required to purchase I Pads for a fee (included in the tuition bill) that would include the text book materials for all first year courses. After the freshman year, this cohort  would pay a textbook fee only for textbooks.  In four years Lincoln’s entire student body would have all textbooks delivered electronically.”

With his permission, I am posting the issue here, along with a link he provided to an article in Inside Higher Ed  about how some other universities are using iPads.

What do you think?  Could something like this work at Lincoln?  Are there other ways (cheaper, lower tech?) to solve the “they won’t buy their textbooks” dilemma? Have you tried anything that works in your classes?