Now that we have our toolboxes, what do we build? How do we go about it?
Design and Development.
Designing a course is a bit like creating a recipe. The idea is to come up with the steps you need to end up with a desired outcome. You use a variety of tools and techniques, add in a collection of ingredients, and end up with a meal - sorta.
The problem is that while we approach teaching as if it were a recipe - use these ingredients in that proportion and the outcome is assured - the problem is that learning is too much like eating. Even if the cook does everything right, some meals just aren’t to everyone’s taste.
What are some strategies for dealing with that? How much “just hold your nose and eat it!” can a teacher get away with?
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I think that we have to teach lessons with different learning styles in mind. I might teach “place value” to my students and show them five different ways to look at it. Do they need to understand them all, No. They only need to understand the one that will help them. It’s like a vitamin, everyone needs them, you just get them different ways. Feed everyone the same ingredient, just prepare it a different way.
We may use: partners, written, oral, video, activities, games, or technology to show a concept, but in the end they are all learning the same thing (just to their taste).
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I agree with Ronn to make a lesson reach the students show them multiple ways to get to the same answer. We don’t all think the same and shouldn’t be expected to take the same path as long as we all reach the same point.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
in the modern educational landscape, there is pretty much no longer any room for a “because I said so” approach to educational design. The fifth grade teacher I work with spent two weeks going over six different strategies for doing long division, only one of which I learned during elementary school. We’ve moved on to volume, and the kids are using manipulatives to build a corresponding shape and then figure the volume. I was just given a line art drawing and was told figure it out yourself. I think there is an undercurrent of distrust and rebellion amongst our students that assumes that a teacher is an idiot all along, that may play into it. When I was in elementary school, if the teacher said “here’s how to do long division”, then that was all I needed to hear. Today, the teacher has to constantly prove his/her worth to students who, in all actuality, don’t have anything to bargain with in regard to the skillset and knowledge to be aquired.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 am
I like the analogy of comparing the design of a course to a recipe. We must definitely start with our content and goals in mind as the “ingredients”. Then we move on to how we “mix” the ingredients. This can be done in many different ways….and needs to be done differently to address the learning styles of various students. Next, we move on to the “baking”. This could be the assessment. Finally, the “dish” (outcome of assessment) is reviewed. We decide what the children learned and reflect on our teaching.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 am
The problem is that “recipe” is a mistake.
In a recipe, if you do the same steps with the same ingredients the same way, you’ll get the same outcomes every time.
With teaching? You don’t have the same students from one day to the next. What worked yesterday may not work today. What works for Jimmy doesn’t work for Johnny. What worked for Mary last week, leaves Alice confused.
It’s one of the reasons I say there are no “best practices.”
September 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I have always questioned the statement “best practices” too. I ask myself, best practices for who. Just like someone else mentioned, what works for one student, certainly does not always work for another, and what worked for one student one day does not work the next. I have found that even lesson plans are becoming more generic becuse I don’t know what works everyday. The recipe for designing a cource should be much like my recipes…follow the original and throw in whatever you find that makes it better.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I would hope that teachers wouldn’t try to get away with it. I know that it is hard work but we need to reach every child. Your right each child can not learn from the same recipe. Every child is different. I worked with a little guy in kindergarden that could not name his letters or make the sounds. His teacher really wanted me to help him with letter names. So I used anything I could think of that could help him. I saw that using his hands helped him. So we made up little hand motions together or sayings. Working together he learned some of the letter names. Not a recipe from any book, but a creation from scratch.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I think that is what many teachers forget, the students are different. You may find a method of teaching that works best for you, but if it does not work for the students, what’s the point. Teachers should not have to prove themselves but when you are “wishy washy” and you do not conform your teaching methods, or recipe, to what will help the students learn better, then what do you expect. I think the biggest difference (Tim) from when we were in elementary school is the level of respect given to the teacher, but that is a whole other bucket of worms.