Happy New Year!

Next, here is an equation for 2004:

 

Better Organization = Better Learning.

 

Those skeptical of the statement can consult a particularly revealing document (Feldman, K. A. (1998). Identifying exemplary teachers and teaching: evidence from student ratings. in Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom 2nd edition, K. A. Feldman and M. B. Paulsen, (Eds.) Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster, 391-414) complete with a murderous array of statistics that proves that the most important way we can spend our time to generate improved learning is to spend that time on preparation and organization of the course. Interestingly, in teasing apart traits that lead to student learning and student ratings ('high student evaluations'), we find the most important practice to produce enhanced learning is only the sixth most important in producing high student ratings. (Resolution is a discussion for another day unless you wish to wade now through a very long summary about student evaluations at our own site at http://www.isu.edu/ctl/facultydev/extras/student-evals.html.)

 

When we think our organization is clear, students usually do not. Harvard's Phil Sadler, (1992, Derek Bok Center's videotape, "Thinking Together: Collaborative Learning in Science," explains how this occurs: "When you learn to teach a subject, just struggling with how to present it, where you're sort of relearning it yourself, that's when students gain the very most from a lecture. Once you've really got it down and you see all these beautiful connections that you didn't see before, you're well beyond the level of the student." We see our organization; they don't, unless we bring it to their level. One way to bridge the gap is to present our organizational plan completely in writing and to let students engage it at their pace in ways that promote their learning.

 

The concept behind a knowledge survey is simple. It is a written document constructed through a logic that begins with course goals, then outcomes that are fleshed out by what students should be able to do as a result of successfully meeting an outcome. It is a document that discloses the entire course and takes detailed before/after snapshots of students' perceptions of their learning. If you've taught a course before, rudiments for your first crude knowledge survey are likely already in your computer. Copy all your quiz, test, and review questions into one giant file, in the order you intend to cover these topics in the coming days ahead. See if it is, in fact, organized so as to cover and make explicit your stated goals and outcomes. If not, make the needed changes and additions to do so. You now have a "monster exam" that covers the entire course.

 

Students don't merely retain it as a study guide, they interact with it and produce a scaled record based on their confidence with present knowledge. Students mark an "A" in response to an item if they can, with present knowledge, answer an item or perform the skill for test purposes; a "B" if they have partial knowledge/skill or know how to find the information required to answer the question within a short time (say, 20 minutes) or a "C" if one could not presently answer this question for test purposes.

 

You now have the basic idea. Next go to the Center's web site at http://www.isu.edu/ctl/facultydev/KnowS_files/KnowS.htm for examples, details, and a long list of benefits to be gained from doing so. This paper, published last February, represents our experience as of about two years ago. We now know more about how to use these well, and there is certainly much more to be learned. We have worked with ITRC the past year to allow a knowledge survey prepared in a word processor to be given to students via WebCT and the data returned to the professor as an Excel file to allow pre-post records of the kind shown in the above web site to be produced. We provide workshops on (1) constructing such surveys and (2) getting them up on WebCT. We are happy to come to any unit or department to present this. But you need not wait. Between the web site above and what you intend to do for your course, you can construct a 'first edition' immediately.

 

To make the best use of this tool, you need to refer to it often through the course, align your lessons with your plan, and make certain students are using it too. For you, it will give a detailed record that can serve as a reality check for how fitting your plan is. If all goes well, better learning will be the outcome. Even if disaster occurs (you find the plan impractical and have to scrap it), take notes and the detailed record will reveal fully how you can design the course for success the next time.