Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Teaching
James Lang has provided a book that you will want to take on vacation! I highly recommend this book because of how easily digestible and immediately useful it is. I encourage you to try every recommendation that James puts forward because every idea in the book is backed by a plethora of evidence. As an educational developer, this is one of the books I recommend to all instructors, no matter where they are in their academic career.
In higher education we tend to go into class with our content guns blazing: I HAVE SOME STUFF TO TEACH YOU, LET’S GET STARTED! But the research on human learning that we will consider in this chapter suggests that the first step in the learning process should be to follow Anne’s lead— not necessarily through her specific activity of asking pre- reading questions–but by asking students to engage in predictive activities of some kind or another before we expose them to new course content. Such activities could include inviting students to answer questions about what they are about to learn or experience, but could also include asking students to solve problems that are beyond their current ability level or to try their hand at a new skill before they have been given any formal instruction. This approach can seem counterintuitive since it turns the normal teaching sequence on its head. The operating assumption of many teachers runs like this: First I teach them the material, then I have them answer questions or solve problems with it. Read the story about polar bears, and then ask them where polar bears live. Give students a lecture on poetry, and then have them interpret a poem. Show students how to solve a particular type of math problem, and then give them one to solve on their own. But learning research suggests something quite different. It tells us that asking students to use their existing knowledge and skills to struggle with the material before we teach it can provide a robust foundation for deeper learning.