WHAT SHOULD THE STUDENTS DO RIGHT AFTER CLASS TO FIGHT "SWISS CHEESE KNOWLEDGE?"

Just a reminder that my new teaching book (Transformative Education – How Can You Become a Better College Teacher?) can be downloaded for free at the University of Richmond Scholarship Repository:

          https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/375/

And, if you want to read about the book, here is a story from Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2023/08/30/why-one-professor-makes-time-take-classes-himself

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In my new teaching book, I talk a lot about “the Education Diamond.”  That is my name for the four points in time when a teacher interacts with students and can, therefore, improve the learning process.

1. ·      Getting students to prepare before class.
2. ·      Interaction during the class session itself.
3. ·      Helping students organize and strengthen their learning after the class session (when they face a severe challenge that I call “Swiss Cheese Knowledge.”) 
4. ·      Testing and other graded assignments designed to ascertain the students’ understanding of the material.

If you want to improve as a teacher, pick one of these four points in the learning process and begin experimenting with how to help students do better.  Experimentation is the key to improving. 

So, despite this being my 53^rd year as a college teacher, I have picked one of the points already and started working on it.  I chose the third point of the Education Diamond – what students do in the 12-24 hours immediately after class in order solidify what was covered in class.  I have long argued that this is the weakest point in the learning process for most students and teachers simply because most students and teachers ignore it.  For them, once class is over, it is time to move on to the next subject.  That’s why I refer to it as “Swiss Cheese Knowledge.”  Student understanding looks solid but it is actually just full of holes.   If the teacher doesn’t work to help the student fill in those holes, we all know what will happen—they will get bigger over time.  That’s why students often cry in our offices, “I knew this when we covered it in class, but I couldn’t seem to do it on the test.”  Their knowledge had holes in it that were never filled in.

This semester starting with my second class of the semester, I emailed my students 10 minutes after class. 

“I know our class today seemed helter-skelter.  My classes always seem helter-skelter because I like that.  Nevertheless, we covered a lot of important material today.  So, right now, sit down and write out 15 basic questions that you should be able to answer IMMEDIATELY based on our coverage today.

“You need to identify what we covered of substance before it begins to leak out of your brain.  Don’t procrastinate.  Do it now. 

“Then, find someone else in class and exchange lists.  That will give you two different perspectives of what we covered today that was important.  If there are any questions on either list that you don’t have an answer for, that means I should have covered it better.  Bring it by my office and I’ll try to give you a push in the right direction.” 

Okay, I think this is a great idea, but I knew it was never going to work without some help.  So, I wrote the first 15 questions for the students to model what I wanted them to do.  Showing students what you want them to do is always helpful. 

Then, immediately after every class since that day, I have sent them a quick email saying, “If you are truly serious about doing well in this class, take the next 10 minutes and write out your 15 questions about what we learned today.  I don’t need 16 questions, but I do need 15.”

Finally, my students create their own group chat rooms for this class.  I really like for my students to have a “we are in this together” mentality so that they will work together.  I suggest that they start putting up their 15 questions on that chat space.  I want my class to feel like this is a team effort.  They can probably teach each other better than I can.

Will this improve learning?  Heck, I don’t know.  That’s why I am trying it out this semester.  I do know that I want to improve what the students do after we have class rather than declare victory and move on.  This idea has potential, but I won’t know how well it works unless I try it. 

Now you.   Pick one of the four points on the Education Diamond and come up with your own experiment for improving the learning process at that specific point.   Then, evaluate how well the experiment worked.

That's how to improve as a teacher.