Posted to Diigo 06/25/2010

1031. Gaining Factual Knowledge « Tomorrow’s Professor Blog

• The foundations of any discipline are its definition, knowledge base, terminology, structure, methodology, and epistemology
• While traditional teaching methods, especially lecture and readings, are quite efficient at “delivering” this kind of information, the question is whether “delivery” is enough
• there are two essential tasks to foster student achievement: help students see the relevance and importance of the information, and make it understandable
• the dimensions of teaching that are the strongest correlates of student achievement are: 1) preparation and organization; 2) clarity of communication; 3) perceived outcome of the instruction; and 4) stimulating student interest in the course content
• Teachers must possess a great deal of different kinds of knowledge:
• The first is “content knowledge,”
• The second is “pedagogical content knowledge,” or understanding of pedagogy, teaching and learning, and its application to the discipline
• Finally is “curricular knowledge,” an enhanced version of the latter where the teacher has a repertoire of strategies, materials, approaches, and alternatives that are called on to help students learn
• the teacher provides both the organizational structure and the appropriate level of complexity for the students
• However, structuring and organizing information and activities does not mean exercising complete control over all aspects of the course
• Incorporate motivational strategies into your teaching, using activities that allow students to find information, to organize it in meaningful ways, or to use it, all have the potential to provide opportunities for success and intrinsic motivation
• When students passively sit and listen to 50 minutes or more of a lecture, they have little investment in learning except to do it in order to pass a test and get a grade
• You can exhibit skills that help students to see structure, to relate topics, and to organize information
• A teacher who says, “This is how we approach a problem in our discipline” or “This is how I would go about answering this question,” is showing students a process that is transferable
• Even when dealing with knowledge level objectives, a teacher can show students how topics relate to and build on each other
• Content-heavy courses may not seem to be the right places for instructional methods that have been shown to enhance conceptual learning, but conceptual understanding can often help students make sense of the facts, terms, and organization of the subject
• When you ask students to organize information or place it in context (and that, in itself, can be a team assignment) you help them to construct more complete knowledge
• Concept maps (14) are useful at this level because they provide a structural picture of the relationships of information and concepts
• When the objective is for students to learn basic facts, the assessments you choose should provide direct evidence of knowledge
• they should also link that knowledge to deeper understanding of the material
• Courses that most often require students to learn basic information are frequently offered in the first year and in large-enrollment settings
• Your students probably have little experience with the content and they may not have sophisticated learning skills
• You cannot wait until mid-semester or later to assess learning
• When you and your students know what needs attention, both teaching and learning become more efficient
• assessment with feedback is most beneficial for student learning
• the objective is not simply to determine right or wrong, but rather to focus on why a given answer is correct and on the process used to arrive at that answer