Using Writing to Develop Student Understanding

Materials from faculty seminar held June 21, 2001

• Seminar Paper
• Case for Discussion
• Afterthoughts
• Group Memory

Afterthoughts

• Learning with understanding is a process in which students construct knowledge by using what they already know to make sense of new information, events and experiences. This was well illustrated in the "Private Universe" video as we watched a bright student try to make sense of concepts related to seasonal change. Her understanding of the topic was only partially developed and included significant misconceptions that she had constructed (i.e., these were not given to her by some evil source).
• Students' misconceptions illustrate the constructive nature of learning. Students develop misconceptions; they do not receive them from others. Moreover, misconceptions and stereotypes (which are a form of misconceptions) can be extremely difficult to change. Telling students they are "wrong," and then telling them the "correct" version of the concept is not an effective way to teach for understanding.
• Teaching for understanding is a process of engaging students in formulating and reformulating knowledge. As the studies by Schwartz and Bransford indicate, some ways of working with the subject matter promote understanding better than others. For example, students who followed a traditional sequence of reading, summarizing and hearing a lecture did not achieve much understanding of the subject matter compared to students who analyzed contrasting cases and then heard the lecture.
• When used appropriately, writing can do two important things:
  
  1. engage students in formulating and revising ideas (constructing and reconstructing knowledge rather than simply recording and retaining information), and
  2. externalize students' understanding of the subject. We contend that instructors are unlikely to promote students' understanding effectively unless they have a keen sense of how students understand the subject initially and how their understanding changes through study and instruction.

" In even the most mature person, understanding is a mixture of insight and misconception, knowledge and ignorance, skill and awkwardness."
Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design

"The key to understanding by design is to cause rethinking through appropriate inquiry and performance." Wiggins & McTighe

Case Study Analysis (The Schwartz and Bransford study in which different groups in a class were given different learning experiences.) The questions posed: which group would have the best grasp of the concepts presented? why would that approach work best? Following are the predictions by members of the workshop. Group I (read + summarize + lecture) - 0; Group II (analyze + lecture) - 12; Group III (analyze + analyze) - 3 ½ ; Group IV (none of the above) - 1; Abstentions - 3 ½

Make a case that Group 1 would be the most effective approach for promoting understanding

• Amount of background knowledge would make a difference: with very little, Group 1 might be the most effective.
• Group 1 process has the virtue of familiarity: students have done it this way many times before and so would be comfortable and willing to do it.
• Lecture material might be retained for a week.
• 99% of my education followed the Group 1 approach-and it didn't totally fail me.
• Research suggests that students frequently summarize through a process of deletion-rather than building the summary around a central idea. Thus, if students have learned to do summaries well, they may very well learn from a read/summarize/lecture approach.

Make a case that Group 2 would be the most effective approach for promoting understanding

• Without some ideas/information in advance, dealing with raw data may not be useful, but assuming they had, the analysis would be a good learning approach.
• Group 2 still needs a writing component to the activity.
• Group 2 is in a discovery mode. (It would be better if they were also put into a group discussion process.)

Make a case that Group 3 would be the most effective approach for promoting understanding

• Lecture isn't necessarily more helpful if there isn't some feedback to the analysis, but a second effort of analysis would be helpful.
• Guided participation (from an expert who provides not answers but further help in the inquiry) is needed in all cases.

Other Observations

• Students come to classes sometimes with a great deal of experience which has brought along strong assumptions and misconceptions.
• Sometimes instruction tries to simplify complex ideas by leaving out some complicating elements-and the students fill in the gaps with their own constructions.
• How is it that assessment hasn't revealed the misconceptions?
• A universal phenomenon: the individual's effort to construct an understanding.
• Instruction that asks students to "integrate" new knowledge with previous understanding may do disservice to the need to replace inaccurate understandings.
• Creating dissonance is the job of the instructor-then leading to a new understanding (Ken Becker).
• Articulating an understanding (accurate or inaccurate) is the first step in opening to new knowledge.
• Talking through an idea-and paying attention to the coherence of what's being said-are significant elements of learning.

Examples of Misunderstandings Students Bring to Classes:

• All microbes are harmful and should be eradicated. (After learning about microbes, they still often say, "Oh, O.K.-there are some good bacteria, but most should be wiped out.")
• You become what your experiences have provided you (you had good parents; you had bad parents-good experiences or bad experiences)
• Muscle turns to fat. Vitamins give us energy
• In any lesson there has to be some lecture. If the instructor isn't lecturing, s/he's not working-not doing her job.
• Knowledge comes from experts, who pass it on to students.
• Learning is acquiring new information.
• Learning should be easy. If instruction is done well, the students won't have to work hard. (If you can't do a math problem in two minutes, only a mathematician can do it.)
• If no one is giving the right answers or structuring the process, the learning is not rigorous enough.
• Good art falls into the realm of realism.
• Psychology shouldn't be as hard as biology and chemistry (that's why those two are called the "hard sciences").
• Everything right or wrong in a person's life is related to his/her self-esteem.
• "I'm the one who has to do the most work in this class in order to learn something."
• Students assume that when an instructor gives an assignment there is some predetermined, desirable outcome.
• "Now I get it!"

Ideas for Working with Faulty Assumptions

• Pre-assess at the beginning of a unit: "Write out what you know about X."
• Use a case study to assess prior knowledge.
• Give a list of True/False items to defend.
• Write to a user group justifying why program related knowledge should be adopted.
• Consult the literature: some fields have documented extensively the assumptions and folk theories students bring to a discipline.
• Have students do a guided feasibility analysis (designing/developing a new business) by consulting with actual business owners (in addition to consulting the literature). Students learn the language unique to the business as well as the resources the business people actually draw on.
• Ask students to pick a chemical they use regularly and keep a daily journal, then synthesize what they learned with what they'd read about addiction. (Cognitive & behavioral learning reinforcing each other.)
• Ask students to do a 3 generation study in which they ask the same questions about adolescent experiences. Small groups pool and analyze data-yielding results contrary to their prior assumptions.
• Use graphic organizers for evaluation.
• Collaboratively analyze what the "hard ideas" are and think about how to develop student understanding through the course of a program.
• Use "The Minute Paper" (a.k.a., "The Muddiest Point")-time left at the end of a class for students to reflect on the material just taught.