Making adjustments to your courses can seem like an overwhelming task. However, it may only take a few minor adjustments in order to promote a deeper level of learning within your own courses. According to Tyler Griffin, PhD, associate professor at Brigham Young University, there are six “A” categories to consider in order to broaden student understanding a promote a healthier learning experience within your courses.
Adjustments
Most courses don’t need a complete overhaul, but instead
need just a few minor adjustments for a smoother experience. Consider the common complaints or top
frustrations you hear from students year after year, then ask yourself if there
are any small things that you could address that would make a big impact. Where do students tend to struggle? What can you do to support students through
the most difficult sections? In most
cases, it’s not possible to remove every single obstacle to learning, but there
are things you can do to better support student learning.
Audience
Begin getting to know your students by asking them to tell
you a little bit about their backgrounds, struggles, and successes. This could be done via a survey at the
beginning of the semester or through one-on-one meetings scheduled with you before
the semester gets in full swing. Another
important concept to consider is why the students enrolled in your class are taking
it. Is it to fulfill a graduation requirement? Is it because they have a specific interest
in the topic? Have they heard good things
about the course from other students, prompting them to try it out for
themselves?
Learning more about your students provides a large ability
to conduct your course in a way that is beneficial for the learning of all of
your students. Do they get sleepy if you
dim the lights for too long? Are they
easily distracted by technology or other students? Are there times when they zone out during
class that you could choose to implement an active learning technique to keep
them engaged?
Applicability
Be sure to consider how your course is going to help
students not only succeed in your class, but in their life and careers. Then, let them in on these things. Students who are able to see relevance of a
course and the content covered within it are more motivated to succeed. Also do this for each assessment you assign,
notifying your students the sort of things you hope this assessment to accomplish
for them.
Adaptability
We’ve all heard the classic research that students tend to
lose grasp on their concentration after seven to 15 minutes of lecture. In fact, more recently, research has shown
that the time frame for concentration may be even close to three to five
minutes. Delivering bite-sized chunks of
information interspersed with appropriate active learning exercises and context
builders is one way to keep students interested and engaged throughout the
entirety of the class. Griffin specifically
states the importance of using the “three Ex’s” of instruction: explanations,
examples (and non-examples), and experiences.
Accentuation
Providing students with the opportunity to process important
information in multiple ways over a longer period of time promotes deeper
learning and comprehension. Therefore,
since students are most apt to accept cramming as an inevitable way of
studying, explain and demonstrate other more effective studying techniques like
exposing crucial information in steps and revisiting it often to build upon
their knowledge about it. This can lead
to deeper understanding and overall better comprehension of curriculum. Griffin suggests making sure students are
exposed to critical items more than once or twice in your classes for optimum
retention.
Assessments
Students often see course content as a bunch of disjointed
units rather than information that builds upon itself over time. Therefore,
when designing your course and course assessments, consider the big picture
that you’d like your students to leave the course with. Create relevant, increasingly complex
assessments in order to help them demonstrate the ways in which information
continues to build upward and outward into a broader and deeper understanding
of material.
Adapted From: Faculty Focus
Written By: Jessica Moser
