Serendipity35

I am giving a presentation at the New Jersey Writing Alliance Spring (NJWA) Conference this week on my experiences teaching technical writing this year at New Jersey Institute of Technology and at Montclair State University. NJIT is NJ's science and technology university and MSU is the state's second-largest comprehensive university.

Although the two schools are seen as quite different, the approach I take to technical writing is very similar. My presentation is on "Technical Writing Across Disciplines" and will examine how a technical writing course can emphasize a research approach and problem solving that is not like most of the academic writing done in other writing classes.
One thing I enjoy about the NJWA conference is that it has presenters and attendees from both K-12 and higher education. That doesn't occur often enough.

Keeping with the conference theme of "Achieving College-Ready Writing: The Common Core and Beyond," I'll also examine how secondary school teachers can teach writing about science and technical subjects. That is a strand of the English Language Arts Standards that are part of the controversial Common Core State Standards Initiative as adopted in NJ and other states.

Perceval and the quest for the Grail

Quest-based learning (QBL) is an instructional theory that uses elements of game design and learning communities to support student choice while still operating within the context of a standards-based curriculum. Many educators and many schools at all levels are uncomfortable moving away from a top-down approach to information acquisition. So, QBL may bee seen as moving out of many comfort zones.

Some game-based feedback tools - not games - like experience points, progress bars, badges, and achievements are motivating and meaningful to students.

Rather than design courses via textbook learning and lectures, QBL classes require students to select quests and progress at their own pace through a series of educational activities. This may remind educators of project-based learning or problem-based learning, but the unique element is the self-selection part of the design.

Quests are often online learning activities that address the core of the subject matter. These might be an audio podcast, a short video or collaborating online with classmates in discussion or composing.

For me, the most important thing is not putting the quest-based learning label on the pedagogy, but the inclusion of the QBL elements in course design.

In a white paper by Chris Haskell (Boise State University), he explains that QBL lesson design "focuses on an individualized and flexible curricular experience. In QBL, students can select activities, called quests, rather than assignments in a fixed linear order. Students leverage choice to promote engagement rather than waiting for a due date.”

Hands might be raised immediately to question how autonomy over what and when to learn would have any effect on academic achievement. Haskell and a colleague implemented an experimental QBL curriculum with pre-service teacher candidates in 2010 and they found “93% of students using this approach reached the winning condition, described as receiving a course grade of ‘A’ . . . the average completion time was reduced from 16 weeks to 12 ½ weeks with one student completing [the course] in just four.”

It's interesting that this experiment started in higher ed and is being moved down to K-12, since much innovation in teaching and pedagogy moves up from the lower grade levels.

Will this quest lead to a holy grail for teaching? No. There is no grail. It's all in the journey.

This post also appears at Ronkowitz LLC

1. Ask one question at a time - multiple questions at once can confuse students


2. Avoid yes/no questions - try asking "how" and "why" questions


3. Ask students what they think of other students' answers


4. Ask questions that YOU don't know the answers to. Too often teachers guide the dialogue towards the answer they want to hear.


5. Pose questions that lack a single right answer


6. Focus your questions - broad questions can steer discussion off topic


7. Wait time - pause in silence after a question to allow for students to think about the answer. Don't be afraid of the "dead air" -this is not talk radio.
   


8. Try to find and show consensus on responses.
   


9. Ask questions that require students to apply knowledge and demonstrate their understanding. "Do you understand?" questioning has little value


10. Ask some difficult questions.
    


11. Structure your questioning to encourage students to respond to one another.


12. When you say "I wonder if it is possible that..." it opens up possibilities that may encourage the reluctant answerer. A question that begins like "What is the definition of ..." signals that there is a specific answer required.
    


13. Good questioning involves all the students. Even walking around the room can bring students into the conversation. Wait staff at restaurants learn that kneeling at the table and coming closer and to the level of the customer has a positive effect on tipping.
    


14. Albert Einstein “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”  The question itself can teach something even before there are answers.


15. If you don't embrace wrong answers, students won't take risks. I would actually be wary if all I got were correct answers. Yes, some questions have correct answers, but some incorrect answers will lead to deeper discussion and learning.
    


16. Follow-up questions that ask for specifics, clarification, examples, relationships and more are very important. If you stop when you get to "the answer," I would question your questioning.