Rodin's Le Penseur

Photo by M Large

In my job, we've been doing some work around Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design. I've also just finished reading Carol Dweck's Mindset. As I have worked on developing a model unit, I've also been thinking about the ways in which the experience is making me grow as an instructional designer. The unit I'm designing now is worlds better than the units I designed a decade or two ago, and I really hope both it and my reflections about the process will serve as a good model for the teachers that go through my professional development.

But the real goal of learning is understanding, and understanding involves transference. So how will I apply this concept of learning for understanding in the course I teach for teacher credential candidates?

First, I would say that the progression of activities in ED407 already leads through acquisition, meaning-making, and finally transfer with the final product. At least on paper. Designing a project-based WebQuest or other unit certainly demonstrates students' ability to transfer their skills and knowledge into a meaningful product. But in the interest of growth (for both me and my students) I think there are some other pieces I may need to provide during the acquisition phase to help my students better get to the point of creating a unit that truly works in the real world, with real students.

Second, I think that I could incorporate meta-cognitive activities that would do a better job of modeling a growth mindset and helping to ensure a transferable product. While this will require some changes to the flow of the course, I think it will be better for students in the long run as they embark on their careers as teachers.

Third, if my primary goal in the course is student ability to transfer the skills and knowledge about integration of technology into their own classrooms, I need to explicitly design for that. Since the course is project-based, it is well suited for making meaning. Many of the discussion prompts I already use ask questions that help students identify relative strengths and weaknesses of various tools, with growth oriented prompts that are intended to help lead students towards the application level. But I think my discussion responses tend to focus more on the meaning and less on transfer, so I may be inadvertently keeping the focus on only one part of the process. I also think that I should be able to make some of the assignments that are currently primarily skills-based into transferable products simply by changing the focus to something that is usable in their classroom.

It's a new year - time for a growth spurt!