Teaching by Design - Session 1 Slides

Editor's Notes

1. As we begin, I invite you to think about a quotation from the early pages of Teaching for Quality Learning at University as frames thinking about learning and teaching in this Teaching by Design Series: Teaching is a matter of changing the learner’s perspective, the way the learner sees the world and how learners represent knowledge. [Prosser and Trigwell 1998 – cited in Biggs and Tang; see final slide for references/citations.]I introduce this quote to acknowledge a framework of “learners” as participants motivated by attributes of responsibility and collaboration rather than “students” primarily motivated by obligation and competition. And to frame “learning” as a practice of “change” in capability, understanding, knowledge, practices, attitudesorvaluesrather than a process of “accumulation” of information.The handout “Are They Students or Are They Learners” supports further thinking about learners and learning. Image: Hills outside Llangollen, mid-Wales, viewed from atop Dinas Bran.All Environmental Factors Images by http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilenedawn/unless noted.
2. TRANSCRIPT:Return to the beginner’s mindArticulate the multiple goals and layered contexts shaping teaching and learning.Step away from the computer to begin course designImage: Street sign in Llandudno, North Wales. September 2010.
3. ‘constructive’ refers to the idea that students construct meaning through relevant learning activities. ‘alignment’ refers to a learning environment where teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks, are aligned to the intended learning outcomes of a subject. Principle one: Ideal impactWhat is it you want to have the students know, two years, five years afterward? What should they be able to do because they were in your unique class? What’s the life-long learning that they will gather here in the orientation to learning complex problem solving beyond your course? What are the tasks you can build on, the high impact things that you can do in this course that will aid the complex learning students need to pull together in order to show that they have mastered the course and the concepts? And finally, how will you build throughout the course on core concepts so that when they are outside of the course they can make that transition into next levels of learning and practice? Principle two: Backward designOr, starting at the end: working from Ideal Impact hopes, backward design begins with consider what might become the essential cognitive, effective, and skills based outcomes that learners will engage to produce learning and that you will draw on in creating classroom activities, course assignments and assessments? At the University of Minnesota teachers might align their course outcomes with the articulated student learning and development outcomes. In backward design, the goals is to name possible outcomes early in the design of a course in order to select teaching and learning activities as well as assessments.Principle three: Constructivism.Isthetheorythatstudentsconstructtheirownknowledgebyincorporating new ideas intoanexistingframework, thatindividualsconstruct new understandingbasedonwhattheyalreadyknow and believe. “Therefore,” Biggs & Tang note, constructivisttheoryarguesthatwe can expectstudentstoretainseriousmisconceptionsifinstructionisnotspecificallydesignedtoelicit and addressthe prior knowledgestudentsbringtoclass.”What is it that you are putting together so that learners come to construct meaning through relevant learning, unlearning and relearning? Principle four: Alignment.I like to think of alignment as being about setting out transitions and making connections. In writing, we transitional words, phrases, sentences to build coherence, to indicate relations, to discern difference, to highlight movements in thought, argument, positions, subjects, concepts, understanding. Transitions make record changes, make connections transparent, guide learning and building of ideas. Alignment in course design is the course of transitions in formal writing.
4. Link session to overall Teaching by Design theme learning as foundation for design design as stepping back to consider essentials essentials in terms of simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories = savvy learning and teachingImage and Alt Text Description: Lone, abandoned snail shell siting on a mossy rock with pool of water in the upturned shell reflecting the afternoon sky on a quiet afternoon in Haulfre Gardens, Llandudno, North Wales. September 2010.
5. This is the basic visual representation of the Aligned Course Design framework:begins with mapping the teaching/learning Environment that provides a context for the course you’re developing or re-designingmoves into development of student Learning Outcomes to ground the course Curriculum. move onto (1) developing SMART assessments (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and targeted), and (2) selecting teaching/learning presentations, classroom activities, out-of-class assignments, and supporting resources.Breaks in the cycle
6. http://plunaleadgate.blogspot.com/Patti Lather – Why pedagogy? from David Lusted (1986). “Lusted defines pedagogy as addressing ‘the transformation of consciousness that takes place in the intersection of three agencies – the teacher, the learner and the knowledge they together produce….’According to Lusted’s definition, pedagogy refuses to instrumentalize these relations, diminish their interactivity or value one over another. It, furthermore, denies the teacher as neutral transmitter, the student as passive, and knowledge as immutable material to impart. Instead, the concept of pedagogy focuses attention on the conditions and means through which knowledge is produced” (15).
7. Outcome statement - how we would recognize if or how well students have learned what is intended they should learn, not a prompt list of topics for a teacher to ‘cover’ Learning and teaching activities - done in such a way as to increase the likelihood of most students achieving those outcomes. Talking about the topic, as in traditional teaching, is probably not the best way of doing that. We need to engage the students in learning activities that directly link to achieving the intended outcomes.  Assessment - how well the outcomes have been achieved. Usually this means using an assessment task that requires the student to perform the intended outcome itself.  1. describe intended outcomes in the form of standards students are to attain using appropriate learning verbs. 2. create a learning environment likely to bring about the intended outcomes.  3. use assessment tasks enabling you to judge if and how well students’ performances meet the outcomes. 4. develop grading criteria (rubrics) for judging the quality of student performance.
8. create a learning environment likely to bring about the intended outcomes.   Image and Alt Text Description: The photograph is of a late May sunset on Cardigan Bay as seen from the boardwalk in Aberystwyth, Wales.; May 2008.
9. “Environmental Factors” resource referenced in this slide are available in the “Teaching by Design: Making a Difference Course Design in Small Bites” section at http://z.umn.edu/idaportal. Alt text description: This slide includes the “Environment” header and box of information (Environmental Factors: Institutions, Disciplines, Cultures, Communities, Classrooms) from the general Aligned Course Design graphic featured in the Overview segment of the Teaching by Design Series. Below that header, two boxes stand side-by-side with curved arrows at the top and bottom to suggest interconnection between Students and Cultures contexts on the left, and Classroom and Co-Curricular contexts on the right.
10. “Environmental Factors” resource referenced in this slide are available in the “Teaching by Design: Making a Difference Course Design in Small Bites” section at http://z.umn.edu/idaportal. Alt text description: This slide includes the “Environment” header and box of information (Environmental Factors: Institutions, Disciplines, Cultures, Communities, Classrooms) from the general Aligned Course Design graphic featured in the Overview segment of the Teaching by Design Series. Below that header, two boxes stand side-by-side with curved arrows at the top and bottom to suggest interconnection between Department and Institution contexts on the left, and Discipline and Community contexts on the right.