Creating Significant Learning Experiences Chapter 1
I’ve been doing some thinking lately about better preparing myself for a job in an academic environment, specifically as faculty. It’s a few years off, but thinking on my experiences I really need to work on gaining skills as a teacher as well as a researcher. I have the research thing down, but as many might imagine, academics don’t always get explicit training in how to teach, or lesson plan, etc. etc. So, I picked up a book which I’ve heard mentioned a few times, L. Dee Fink’s “Creating Significant Learning Experiences”, and I’m going to write down some of my thoughts as I work through it.
The first chapter of the book was on… creating significant learning experiences, and making this an explicit goal of teaching. While working through this chapter I started to think back to my own college education, and what it is I retained from my courses. Of course, there is a lot that has gotten dumped out of my brain, but I’m trying to recall now what has stuck with me several years later.
I don’t recall much from classes that were mostly lecture based: learn and regurgitate. This is pointed out in the book as one of the least effective strategies to teaching, and in my experience as a student this is true. I seem to remember more details from courses where I was actively doing something. Geology often naturally lends itself to that kind of learning, I think, because so much of it can be doing the thing you’re learning. This might be why I retained more from my field based courses. I feel like I still could walk up to a rock outcrop and partially interpret it, even though I haven’t done that in years. I could probably still produce a rudimentary strat column. I very much doubt I could do anything relating to the math involved with my geophysics class. All of that is gone, 100% of it.
Role playing, simulation, debate and case studies: I’m having a hard time recalling if I ever did anything like this in college. I attempted a little bit of role playing with some of the biology labs I taught in graduate school, where each students played out a part in a complex set of reactions that occurred in a biological system. I think these activities would be more meaningful if the students had been given more time, it was a relatively short class period and without enough time for them to really think about what we were doing I think some students missed the point.
Writing to learn: One of the most effective exams I ever took in college was entirely essay based. We were given questions, and a sheet of images and figures from throughout the semester to draw from. We had to write essays and include the figures in our answers. And we were told ahead of time that this was how the exam would go, so I really emphasized in my studying trying to understand the significance of images and figures we were shown throughout the semester. It was a take home exam, but it wasn’t by any means “easy”.
Small group learning: I think this can be effective when done well, but can be a giant pain when not it’s not. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this as I work through the book and ruminate on it more.
Assessment of learning: I do not recall ANY assessment based learning from my college education. This is problematic.
Problem-based learning: The most effective instance I can recall from this was a project the entire class had to work on together. We were given a problem, told to go find data, and write a paper. This was really asking a lot of the students, but it was a mixed class of both undergraduates and graduate students. I think having really motivated students in the course helped this work. One student set up a Wiki online for the course project, and it really helped organize the project.
Service Learning: I never experienced this in college.
Online learning: Online Wikis have been useful in my experience. I’ve found blogging to be hit or miss. I don’t think asking students to blog, or comment on a blog for a course, will always work without explicit guidelines. The discussion can really range from insightful to completely generic. I think all too often students will forget to do those kinds of assignments and remember at the last minute and the effort that goes into the discussion then suffers.
I had heard at one point of a course in which the students maintained a Google Document of notes for the class in which everyone in the class participated. I could see this being really useful and an effective implementation of technology and peer teaching. This is definitely something I was to suggest to future students and make accessible for them.
DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION is something that concerns me most moving forward with becoming a useful faculty member in the future, and if the focus of this book, so I am hopeful. The three big things the book mentions that I hope to improve on: getting students to prepare before class so that they are ready to participate, student boredom, and poor retention of knowledge. That last point really hits home for me, it makes me kind of sad how much I’ve forgotten over the years.
