Facilitating the Course
Faculty are asked to facilitate learning experiences that engage learners and personalize learning to help students achieve their educational goals. Faculty ask questions, stimulate discussion and peer-to-peer learning, determine students' engagement levels, reflect upon and then adapt to all of this in real-time using evidence-based instructional practices to meet each students' needs.
Below you will find information about three High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS): Explicit Teaching, Worked Examples, and Questioning. These HITS will help faculty develop their capacity as a Teacher within the Designer and Teacher domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework.
Worked Examples
A worked example demonstrates the steps required to complete a task or solve a problem.
By scaffolding the learning, worked examples support skill acquisition and reduce a learner’s cognitive load. The teacher presents a worked example and explains each step. Later, students can use worked examples during independent practice, and to review and embed new knowledge.
Worked examples also allow students to connect previous learning or lived experiences to the material. Story-telling accesses deep cultural learning by helping students connect to the material in multiple ways, rather than traditional, vocabulary memorization techniques. In this way, faculty are using learning experiences to motivate students to be active participants in their learning, a key component of the Designer and Teacher domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework.
Additionally, faculty are experts in their discipline and have experience solving problems that arise in the discipline. To guide students into the discipline and its problems, one provides examples and problems from the industry and models for the student how to grapple with these problems. Doing so addresses two key components of the Subject Matter Guide domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework: First, we guide students into their deep, evolving, and foundational knowledge in the content area. Second, faculty model to students the way a practitioner solves problems and applies the discipline’s skills and knowledge in a professional setting -- including the ethical and practical implications of their decisions.
This High Impact Teaching Strategy (HITS) can be explored deeper in Module 3 of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence HITS course in D2L.
Key Elements
- Teacher clarifies the learning objective, then demonstrates what students need to do to acquire new knowledge and master new skills
- Teacher presents steps required to arrive at the solution so students’ cognitive load is reduced and they can focus on the process
- Students practice independently using the worked example as a model
- Gradual release of responsibility theory
Example 1: Provide a past student’s assignment – redacted, and after receiving permission – and work through this with students so they can see exactly how the assignment could be completed.
Example 2: Create a sample outline that lists the steps/topics that need to be addressed in the assignment.
Example 3: Ask students to work on the assignment as a group during class. Float around to groups to provide guidance. Ask groups to submit their work. Then, ask students to complete the assignment (with a different topic) on their own.
Example 4: Presenting a real-life scenario for instructor and students to problem solve together. Specifically, present a content-relevant article from the news. Students role-play as stakeholders to solve the challenge.
Learners can benefit greatly from seeing how experts in the field solve problems. Offering the opportunity to collaborate on Worked Examples demonstrates to students how practitioners in the field are thinking through real-world scenarios. This is often called Cognitive Apprenticeship. Of the resources listed below, it's worth pointing out that Tempelaar (2020) discusses the individual differences when it comes to preferences for worked examples. This would be worth considering before using this technique with students.
Atkinson, R.K., Derry, S.J., Renkl, A. and Wortham, D.W. (2000). ‘Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research.’ Review of Educational Research, 70, 181-214. Link to Article in NLU Library
Brown, A., Brown, J.S., and Holum, A. (1991). Cognitive apprenticeship: Making thinking visible. American Educator. Winter (1991). Cite Link to Content retrieved on 5/17/22 from https://www.aft.org/ae/winter1991/collins_brown_holum
Garner J.K. (2012) Cognitive Apprenticeship Learning. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. Link to Content retrieved on 5/17/22 from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1202
Kyun, S., Kalyuga, S., & Sweller, J. (2013). The Effect of Worked Examples When Learning to Write Essays in English Literature. Journal of Experimental Education, 81(3), 385–408. Link to Article in NLU Library
Manson, E., & Ayres, P. (2021). Investigating how errors should be flagged and worked examples structured when providing feedback to novice learners of mathematics. Educational Psychology, 41(2), 153–171. Check for availability at the Wheeling campus
Saw, K. G. (2017). Cognitive Load Theory and the Use of Worked Examples as an Instructional Strategy in Physics for Distance Learners: A Preliminary Study. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 18(4), 142–159. Link to Article in NLU Library
Tempelaar, D. T., Rienties, B., & Nguyen, Q. (2020). Individual differences in the preference for worked examples: Lessons from an application of dispositional learning analytics. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(4), 890–905. Link to Article in NLU Library
Explicit Teaching
When teachers adopt explicit teaching practices they clearly show students what to do and how to do it.
The teacher decides on learning intentions and success criteria, makes them transparent to students, and demonstrates them by modeling. The teacher checks for understanding, and at the end of each lesson revisits what was covered and ties it all together (Hattie, 2009).
The modeling and explicit connections to materials are examples of how faculty organize and manage time, materials, technology, and physical and virtual space to facilitate learner engagement and outcome achievement - all key components of the Designer and Teacher domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework.
This High Impact Teaching Strategy (HITS) can be explored deeper in Modules 4 and 5 of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence HITS course in D2L.
Key Elements
- Shared learning intentions
- Relevant content and activities
- New content is explicitly introduced and explored
- Teacher models application of knowledge and skills
- Worked examples support independent practice
- Practice and feedback loops uncover and address misunderstandings
Example 1: The D2L course will have Module Learning Objectives (MLOs) and Course Learning Objectives (CLOs) listed. Connect these to activities by explicitly reviewing them before starting the activity or posting an announcement explaining this.
Example 2: Frame the activity with criteria for successful completion of the activity.
Example 3: Post a video where you work through the assignment as a model for students.
Example 4: I do, we do, you do – Model the activity, complete the activity with students, and then have them complete it on their own.
Students are more likely to be engaged if they understand the intentions behind activities or modules. Explicitly identifying the reasoning behind your choice to engage in an activity helps students answer the question "why are we doing this?"
Archer, A. L. & Hughes, C. A. (2010). Explicit Instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. New York, USA: Guilford Press. Link to One Search where you can reserve a copy from the Wheeling Library or read and download pages.
Fainman, I., & Tokar, Y. (2019). Explicit, Implicit, and Blended Vocabulary Instruction: Efficiency in an Aviation English Course. Collegiate Aviation Review, 37(2), 110–132. Link to PDF in NLU Library
Yoon, S.Y., and Lee, C.H. (2012). The Impact of Explicit Listening Instruction on Teacher Preparation Practices in Blended Learning. Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning, 15(4), 175–200. Link to Yoon (2012) Explicit Teaching Article retrieved on 5/17/22 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287640600_The_Impact_of_Explicit_Listening_Instruction_on_Teacher_Preparation_Practices_in_Blended_Learning
Questioning
Questioning is a powerful tool and effective teachers regularly use it for a range of purposes. It engages students, stimulates interest and curiosity in the learning, and makes links to students’ lives. Questioning opens up opportunities for students to discuss, argue, and express opinions and alternative points of view.
Effective questioning yields immediate feedback on student understanding, supports informal and formative assessment, and captures feedback on effectiveness of teaching strategies. Questioning also provides faculty a means to investigate the impact of their teaching, reflect, and make changes to improve student outcomes - often in real time - which are important components of the Designer and Teacher domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework.
Given that we are experts of our discipline, we have the expertise to formulate challenging, field-specific questions about the content. These questions challenge the student to go deeper into the content to grapple with its complexity and richness. When doing this, we’re guiding students into deep, evolving, and foundational knowledge in the content area, which is an important aspect of the Subject Matter Guide domain of the Teaching Excellence Framework.
This High Impact Teaching Strategy (HITS) can be explored deeper in Module 5 of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence HITS course in D2L.
Key Elements
- Plan questions in advance for probing, extending, revising and reflecting
- Use open-ended questions questions
- Questions used as an immediate source of feedback to track progress/understanding
- Redirect questions to peers for collaboration before offering instructor input
Example 1: When fielding questions from students during class or on a discussion board, redirect the question to the rest of the class first. This gives students the opportunity to build upon shared knowledge/understanding before you provide guidance. (ex: what do you all think about this" in the discussion thread, followed by an email/announcement drawing students' attention to it. And going back to it as the instructor if no one engages.)
Example 2: When sharing videos or other media, post a set of guiding questions along with the media. This will help direct their focus.
Example 3: Consider asking students to build a set of exam questions around a particular topic, chapter, or course learning outcome. This requires students to think about the content from a different perspective.
Example 4: Using replies on discussion boards to ask students to reflect personally on the content in their post. Sometimes students respond to the question, but don’t dive into their personal experiences with the subject. This connection to what they already know will help them commit concepts to memory.
Questions are a highly effective teaching strategy, especially when we consider how we receive questions in addition to how we pose them. Formulating and asking questions can help students dive deeper into a topic and activate critical thinking skills.
Questions from students also provides instructors with an opportunity for collaboration. Sometimes, we feel that we need to be the voice expertise in the room, which is true at times. But questions provide students with an opportunity to bring their own experiences to the content. When a student poses a question, reframe the question in a way that draws in the experiences of other students before adding your own thoughts. Alternatively, when a student answers a question that you have posed, provide an opportunity for other students collaborate and add their thoughts to the discussion.
Bibi, W., Butt, M. N., & Reba, A. (2020). Relating Teachers’ Questioning Techniques with Students’ Learning within the Context of Bloom’s Taxonomy. FWU Journal of Social Sciences, 14(1), 111–119. Link to Article in NLU Library
Fitriani, S. S., Yusuf, Y. Q., & Zumara, A. (2021). The Use of Cognitive Domain in Questions: The Perception of Students and Lecturers of Public Universities in Aceh. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 17, 122–138. Link to Article in NLU Library
Lord, T., & Baviskar, S. (2007). Moving Students from Information Recitation to Information Understanding: Exploiting Bloom’s Taxonomy in Creating Science Questions. Journal of College Science Teaching, 36(5), 40–44. Link to Article in NLU Library
Yuksel, I., Eker, M., Onder, A. N., & Guven Yildirim, E. (2021). The Effect of Open and Confirmatory Questioning Based Learning Approaches on the Success of Prospective Teachers on Geometric Optics Subjects. Gazi University Journal of Gazi Educational Faculty (GUJGEF), 41(2), 797–816. Link to Article in NLU Library
