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Creating Significant Learning Experiences

Page history last edited by Nicholas Freeman 14 years, 4 months ago

L. Dee Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

 

Fink’s main focus is on “learner-centered” teaching, meaning that teachers should focus on what they want the student to take away from the course, as opposed to concentrating on covering a certain amount of material. He presents compelling evidence in his first chapter that students take little away from most college courses as they are currently taught. Fink also makes a case that teaching by pure lecture has relatively poor outcomes (in terms of retention over time). His second chapter introduces a taxonomy of six types of significant learning that he believes interact to cover any pedagogical goals that teachers would have. These six outcomess extend Bloom's familiar taxonomy by including "softer" categories such as "caring" and "learning how to learn".  His third and fourth chapters discuss how to design courses to help students achieve these outcomes. The chapters on course design include (for example) sections on identifying the context the students are learning in, and creating a thematic structure for the course. In general, to design a course that is likely to result in significant learning outcomes, the designer must choose appropriate learning goals, and then implement teaching methods and assessments that are closely tied to the overarching goals. These chapters also include suggestions on how to involve students in class, including giving them feedback on their progress regularly, using scoreboards, and role-playing. His final chapters wrap up associated issues, such as information to help teachers change their teaching styles and organizational support for faculty.

 

While some teaching books (such as McKeachie's Teaching Tips) focus on improving college teaching one piece at a time (e.g. different chapters are devoted to lecture, discussion, assessment, etc.), Fink’s book aims at completely overhauling a teacher’s approach to teaching. While this deductive way of changing one’s teaching may appeal to some people, it may seem overwhelming to others. For example, some may question the practicality of his 12 step (with multiple sub-steps) process for designing classes. Fink does not deny that the process can be challenging, but he strongly believes that the outcomes will be worth the effort. The book also has an idealistic flavor to it, including Fink's focus on teachers’ dreams for their students as his starting point, and his distaste for achievement-based feedback.

 

Overall, this is an excellent book to recommend to teachers looking for a guiding philosophy for their approach to college teaching (as opposed to a few tweaks for their upcoming class), and who view college teaching as more of a calling to throw oneself into than a job to be done.

 

 

Added by Elliot Cross - 4/23/08

Edited by Andrew Kerlow-Myers - 11/26/08

Edited by Nicholas Freeman - 12/2/09

 

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