Effective Assignments: Facilitating Learning

1. Effective Assignments:Facilitating Learning

2. Higher Education’s Dark secrets • Despite our rhetoric about teaching higher order skills—critical thinking & problem solving many faculty focus on the acquisition of knowledge (Cashin & Downey, 1995) • Students learn what the professors emphasize

3. A week has 168 hours • Full-time students spend about 16 hours a week in class • That means 90% of the time students are NOT in class When, where, and how does most the most effective learning take place? Eder

4. Typical undergraduate • …studies less than 10 hours per week for a full-time load • …graduates with a B+/A- average What explains this remarkable pair of findings? Eder

5. Why Give Assignments • Students acquire and refine skills • Reinforce lecture and other materials • Preparation for future learning activities • Assess what students have learned • Apply previous learning in new situation • Acquire the discipline’s conventions

6. Why Give Assignments • Allow students to explore their interests • Allow students to work at their pace • Able to use resources not in the classroom • Encourage independent learning • Encourage self-discipline • Makes the best use of class time

7. Effective Assignments • Have a specific understood purpose • Create a positive learning experience • Make the best use of student’s time • Value utilization of information resources • Alleviate the instructor’s workload • Increase understanding of the subject • Are worth doing

8. Effective Assignments • Have clearly written learning objectives • Have clear parameters, directions, terminology & schedules • Match students’ interests & prior knowledge • Require students to use information skills & resources in meaningful ways • Foster evidence-based reasoning & higher order skills

9. Effective Assignments • Break down large projects into smaller tasks • Reflect the discipline & potential careers • Identify the expected characteristics • Inhibit academic dishonesty • Are “do-able”

10. Check Your Assumptions

11. It makes a Difference: Teaching Subject vs. Students • Teaching the subject focuses on covering course content • Teaching students focuses on the context for individual learning

12. Teaching Students • What do they know? • What do they expect? • What do they misunderstand? • What experiences do they have that I can use to connect them to content • What study skills do they lack?

13. What is Prior Knowledge? • Knowledge, skills, or abilities brought to the learning process • Dynamic, explicit and tacit, includes various types of knowledge organized in schemata • Includes correct understandings and misunderstandings Gonsalves & Lyke 2006

14. Why Assess Prior Knowledge? • Effective teaching connects new content to prior knowledge • Learning is the integration of new information into existing knowledge • Better able to facilitate learning when you know what students know • Misconceptions stand in the way of learning • Learning outcomes are best evaluated relative to prior knowledge Gonsalves & Lyke 2006

15. Why Assess Prior Knowledge? • Students understand prior knowledge is important • Class time can be spent more efficiently • Students understand their deficiencies and can take responsibility for repairing them • Can avoid making decisions based on assumptions Gonsalves & Lyke 2006

16. Active Learning What I hear, I forget What I hear and see, I remember What I hear, see, and discuss, I understand What I hear, see, discuss, and do, allows me to acquire knowledge and skills

17. Active Learning Tell me, I will forget Show me, I may remember Involve me and I will understand

18. Questions & Handouts