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“Learn through Inquiry” (LTI) describes Clark’s commitment to hands-on learning and problem solving. The skills needed for problem solving in the discipline are developed sequentially, through a pervasive pedagogy of engagement. Use the links at left to explore resources and examples of LTI at Clark.
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Course Design for Learning through Inquiry
A typical student’s educational career consists of courses, of which the most
extensive and most structured sequence is in the major. In the courses that
comprise a major resides an important opportunity for students to progressively
build a scaffold of discipline-specific problem solving strategies. Majors and
the courses within them are typically defined in terms of content--of knowledge
to be acquired--and indeed a base of knowledge is an important first step to
problem solving in the discipline. But of at least as important to students
embarking on a career or on further education is the development of fundamental
skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and communication. Hence, in the
design of courses and curricula it makes sense to devote at least as much
attention to the development of important skills as to the mastery of content.
Designing a course that promotes the learning of critical skills consists of
three major steps:
- Clearly articulate your goals for student learning.
- Develop course activities that will help students achieve those goals.
- Develop tests and assignments that measure whether learning goals have
been achieved.
1. Clearly articulate your goals for student learning.
Clear learning goals are a tool for communication with students: when
students know what they are expected to learn, they are more likely to focus
their efforts so as to meet faculty expectations. The process of writing
learning goals helps faculty to clarify for themselves what they want students
to learn in their course. The best learning goals describe what students are
expected to know and be able to do at the end of a course or curriculum in terms
that suggest how their learning will be assessed. For example, “Students will be
able to analyze symbolism in a short literary work” or “Students will identify
an unknown compound by measuring its physical and chemical properties” are
clearer than “In this course, we will cover literary symbolism (or qualitative
analysis).” A manageable number of course learning goals is about 3 to 5; within
the confines of a semester course, it’s difficult to do a good job of addressing
more. Content goals, (e.g. “Students will be able to explain basic sociological
concepts”) will most likely be represented in your list of goals, but in a learn
through inquiry course they probably should not comprise more than half of
course goals. Of course, goals need to be appropriate to the students’ level and
experience. The goal for a four year curriculum is the development of
discipline-specific skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and
communication, but students will need numerous opportunities to learn and
practice those skills, sequenced with respect to degree of difficulty, and
provided with frequent and detailed feedback in order to develop those skills.
Departments may wish to conduct discussions to define their expectations for
what skills, and at what levels, they wish to develop in the first, second,
third, and fourth years in the context of their major.
2. Design course activities that help students achieve those goals.
Knowledge of course content can be developed through reading and listening to
lectures. Development of complex skills, however, requires frequent practice of
those skills, and detailed feedback with opportunities to try again. There is no
one-size-fits-all formula for designing course activities that promote skill
development, but in general it’s helpful to think in terms of course activities
that give students practice and feedback in the skills you want them to develop.
It may be helpful to break down desired skills into smaller components. For
example, developing the ability to design and conduct a research study can be
made more manageable by first assigning students to interpret data that you
provide; then asking them to collect data according to a predetermined protocol;
then assigning them to develop research methods for a question that you provide;
and finally (perhaps as juniors or seniors) asking them to review a body of
literature, or even their own results, and identify a research question or
problem. Certainly lecture has its place--sometimes it is the most efficient, or
the only, means for organizing complex material. But literally thousands of
studies have shown that students learn best by doing, and much less well by
listening or watching.
In designing course activities, it’s helpful to think about the use of class
time. Walvoord (1998) points out that traditional course design uses class time
for students’ “first exposure” to material by means of lecture, but she
encourages faculty to think about spending class time on activities that
capitalize on the fact that a group of people are in a room together (for
example, discussion and feedback). Moving “first exposure” outside of class time
requires motivating students to do reading or other forms of first exposure
(e.g. watching videos, interviewing) on their own, perhaps by requiring and
grading a written assignment or online quiz that is due before class. Samples of
classroom learning activities in various disciplines have been collected (link),
and the list will grow with your contributions!
3. Develop tests and assignments that measure whether learning goals
have been achieved.
Once you have clearly articulated for students what you want them to know and
be able to do by the end of the course, it’s time to design a grading scheme
that reflects those goals in proportion to their importance. For example, if one
of your three course goals is that students will be able to write a historical
research paper, then it only makes sense that a significant portion of the final
grade will be allocated to the writing of historical research paper. Because
in-class tests tend to be less reflective of skills in disciplinary problem
solving than student papers or projects, you might consider asking students to
collect and reflect on their work in a course portfolio. For example, if a
certain genre of writing is a significant component of your course, and if
students have had multiple opportunities to practice and improve in that genre
during the course, they might submit a final portfolio that contains their three
best papers, revised on the basis of feedback they received during the semester,
and accompanied by a narrative that reflects on their progress as writers.
References:
Walvoord. B. E., & K. J. Pool (1998). Enhancing pedagogical productivity. In
J.E. Groccia and J.E. Miller (Eds.), Enhancing Productivity: Administrative,
Instructional, and Technological Strategies. New Directions for Higher Education,
no. 103. Volume XXVI, Number 3. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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