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Terrence
Doyle-Ferris State University
“Not another thing you want me to add to my teaching! I
am already trying to stuff ten pounds of content into to a five pound class
period.” This is often the response I receive when I talk with faculty about the
need to teach students the learning strategies that can best assist them in
learning the skills and content of their courses. I have to say that I
understand the concern—education is known to have its “fads”. However, helping
students develop the learning strategies that best fit a specific content will
result in more effective and efficient teaching and learning.
Lion Gardiner in Redesigning Higher Education said
“One of the most valuable actions we could take to improve learning and thus the
productivity of both our students and our institutions would be to teach our
students how to learn.” A great deal of time and energy goes into the
preparation of a content class. Since the goal of the class is for students to
learn the material presented, any factors that impede that learning serve only
to diminish the efforts of the instructor. The degree to which students learn
the course content and/or skills depends a great deal on their repertoire of
learning behaviors. If our students don’t understand the learning process—the
chief engine of education—they aren’t going to learn very much in our courses no
matter what we do (Gardiner 1996).
Many students are what my college mentor fondly referred to
as “one trick ponies.” They have a strategy or two (trying to memorize
everything being the most common strategy), and if that strategy doesn’t work or
is inefficient they have nothing else in their repertoire to turn to. By
instructors teaching students learning strategies that best fit their content
course, they are creating a win-win situation. Their preparation and delivery
efforts are better rewarded, as more students are able to learn the course
material, which is the goal of teaching. The students win because their learning
becomes more efficient and effective, resulting often in greater academic
success and a larger repertoire of learning strategies to use elsewhere.
The process of integrating learning strategies into content
teaching begins with deciding what kinds of thinking, learning and studying
students need to do to be successful in a particular course. This process takes
place before the course begins and can be accomplished by answering the seven
questions listed below. Each question is designed to determine what strategies
are needed for students to learn the course content, as it will be presented.
Once an instructor makes those important decisions it’s a relative easy task to
pick an appropriate strategy, like a note taking method or how to use summary
writing as a comprehension tool, and show students how to use it. Any academic
support person on your campus will gladly help you with this process.
Question one has three parts:
What background information do my students need to have to be prepared for my
course? How can I best assess their background knowledge? and What resources
are available to help students that need background enhancement? The process
begins with these questions because, by definition, learning is connecting new
information to a student’s prior knowledge resulting in the growth of new
synapses (Lynch, 1997).
By letting students know what prior knowledge you are
assuming they already have and by suggesting ways to review or fill in missing
knowledge you are increasing the likelihood for students’ learning to occur. In
addition, by assessing students’ prior knowledge by using a background
questionnaire (Cross and Angelo 19XX), a pre-test or other method you are taking
a learner centered approach to your teaching (How People Learn 1999). If you
know what they know, you are much better able to connect the course content to
their prior knowledge.
Question two is: What
cognitive levels of thinking do my students need to operate at to be successful
in my course? This question seeks to have an instructor think about the levels
of thinking students need to learn the course material. If much of the course is
just factual learning then students will probably need little assistance. If,
however, students will be required to apply, evaluate or synthesize information,
then teaching them ways to effectively do this may be vital to their learning
success.
Question three is: What
types of thinking skills and strategies do my students need to use to be
successful in my course? If an instructor expects students to be able to
summarize, use mind maps, or use a specific problem solving system, these may
all need to be taught. An instructor needs to determine what strategies
students will need and whether or not most students will have these strategies
when they enroll in the course. If these strategies are important to the
students’ ability to learn the course content, then showing students how to use
these strategies is a needed step toward reaching the goal of student learning.
Question four is: What
information gathering skills do my students need to be successful in my course?
It is not safe to assume all students know how to use search engines or
databases. If you are going to assume that all students have these skills, you
need to indicate such and give resources for students to review or learn these
skills if they don’t have them. Otherwise, include information-gathering skills
as part of what you will show the students how to do when you make assignments
that require these skills.
Question five is: What
types of fix-up strategies do my students need to be successful in my course?
Fix-up strategies are learning behaviors that help a student to know what to do
when they don’t understand. A student’s ability to know that they don’t
understand is part of a their metacognitive skills, metacognitive meaning being
aware of the learning strategies the learner has available to them and having
the ability to monitor the effectiveness of each strategy. These metacognitive
skills help students determine when to switch from one strategy to another or
even when to stop and ask for help. If your course content is difficult and
presents many situations where students may get lost or not understand (very
common in math, the sciences and other numbers-based courses like economics,
statistics, etc), it may be necessary to teach students the steps to take, the
questions to ask, the resources to use that can lead to understanding.
As experts in our content areas where we rarely need fix-up
strategies. It is easy to forget that our students are novices and may not know
what to do when they get lost or fail to understand.
Question six is: What
study skills do my students need to be successful in my course? Will students
need to organize large amounts of information, summarize information, use rote
memory techniques, or prepare for essay exams? Assisting students in developing
study strategies that fit the type of testing (or other forms of assessment)
used in the course and reflect the amount and nature of the information that
must be learned will go a long way to promoting academic success.
The seventh question is:
What types of learning strategies do my students need? Will students need to
collaborate with others in small or large groups? Will students need to listen,
maintain their attention for long periods of time or take a great number of
class notes? Students often need to be shown how to learn in class, how to work
effectively in a group, how to engage in a discussion or debate, how to take
notes or even how to ask questions. Don’t assume students know how to learn in
your class. Students’ failure to actively engage in the learning process may
have much more to do with not knowing how to learn or feeling uncomfortable than
being lazy or unprepared.
Having thought about these seven questions, an instructor
is much better prepared to focus his/her students on the important strategies
that can really aid learning in the instructor’s course.
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