Drs. Laura Cruz, Joan Middendorf, and Karen Bellnier presented a 2020 Lilly Conference online recorded session focusing on difficulties and opportunities in online courses framed using research. Where do students get stuck in their learning in courses you teach? Is it analyzing research articles? How is it different when teaching online… or right now during a pandemic? Are these disciplinary bottlenecks? Cruz shared data about how even before the pandemic more faculty were teaching components online. I am intrigued by teaching online and want to learn how to do it better: learn from the research and critically reflect on ‘gut reactions’ and intuition. It is hard!
Joan Middendorf described the theory of difficulty such as threshold concepts, bottlenecks, and tacit knowledge. These are consistently troublesome areas of content or design challenges. Theories of pedagogy described by Shopkow and Middendorf 2020 include decoding the disciplines, universal design for learning (UDL), and community of inquiry, all concerned with organizing and providing recommendations for activities to foster learning. I had not heard about decoding the disciplines until this presentation. In Middendorf’s Decoding the Disciplines Wheel, steps 1-2 correspond to theories of difficulty and steps 3-7 concern theory of pedagogy:
- Identify a bottleneck
- Uncover the mental task
- Model tasks
- Give practice and feedback
- Motivate and lessen resistance
- Assess student mastery
- Share!
I like how the cycle includes identifying a problem, modeling, feedback, lessening resistance (one aspect we infrequently discuss!) and then assess and share. Middendorf described the difference in mental moves of novices and experts. For this, Middendorf explained how to break down the task that is challenging and explain what an expert does. Middendorf presented the breakdown of the expert process as described through decoding interviews. In biology, the expert may put forth several hypotheses and ideas. When done with the deciding interview, the mental moves that are critical become clear. Middendorf says these make great learning objectives that can then be the focus of a lesson. Now, after uncovering the mental task, decoding the disciplines moves on to the lesson and modeling to strive for student mastery. The steps here are practice, motivate (mnemonics, for example), and then assess (pre/post tests). Middendorf stated that this theory could help online course design by addressing bottlenecks with the important critical reasoning of the field. Karen Bellnier then discussed how to use these models for online course design. First, the community of inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer 2000) includes cognitive, social, and teaching presence and the emotional presence has recently been brought in (Bellnier cited Majeski, Stover, Valais 2018). All these factors affect engagement of the learners. Examples of activities from all four domains were provided by Bellnier: connect the dots (teaching presence), use images and diagrams (cognitive), peer feedback (social), journaling (emotional). I loved hearing how peers can help each other understand as often they are novices and can help explain at the appropriate level. Bellnier then introduced the TPCK model by Mishra and Koehler 2006 that looks at the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. How will technology enhance or hinder learning? Bellnier mentioned that as faculty we grow over these domains and begin to integrate them. Interestingly, Bellnier mentioned the integration and growth often happens through addressing challenges and working with peer teams including instructional designers. Bellnier explained that the instructional designer may ask questions about which mental moves are essential for learners and what technology is needed. Middendorf emphasized that the bottlenecks can help start the process of breaking down mental moves and learning what technology would be helpful. They also mentioned a YouTube channel about Decoding the Disciplines and Google Group with more information. I like the Decoding Disciplines Wheel and want to learn more. Maybe we could use this process to breakdown how we approach case studies or experimental design in BIT 295…
