Theoretical background
Wider UM Academic Collaboration: Niklas Wenzel
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1. Accountability. In order to foster the sense of responsibility, commitment, and accountability characteristic of higher-education students we divided the classes into study partners. With Casper’s help we divided the groups into pairs, ensuring the teams were composed of students who did not often sit in close proximity with each other nor regularly interact in class. We encouraged the teams to devote time on a weekly basis to updating their study partner on the progress of their paper, any concerns, and their intentions for the following week. Doing so amplifies the sense of commitment the student feels to continue working on their paper, and we hope this heightened responsibility will one day translate into an increased sense of intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, we encouraged the study partners to use this extra channel of communication to create internal deadlines which precede formal hand-ins. Doing this not only provides the teams with additional time to peer-review their partners work, but also generates motivation beyond the absolute necessity of submission.
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2. Goal-setting. Wenzel identified efficient goal setting as integral part of maintain academic performance during the transition to higher education. Specifying realistic goals, with definitive tasks and solid implementation timelines, is a necessary habit that high-school students should begin to integrate into their exam routine as soon as possible. We introduced this skill in class by encouraging students on a weekly basis to think critically about their assignment, identify what tasks are necessary to progress the work to the next stage, and distil this into palpable goals for the following lesson.
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Arie van der Lugt, the academic advisor overseeing our project, put us in contact with a maRBLEe researcher from the neuroscience faculty after noticing a significant overlap in our areas of research. Niklas Wenzel, third-year B.Sc. Psychology at Maastricht University, met with us over zoom to discuss his findings. Wenzel's research focus is on the experience of first-year university students dealing with the unique requirements of higher education for the first time. He finds that intrinsic motivation, goal-setting and planning for potential obstacles are the key elements that accumulate in an efficient transition to higher education. We operationalised the directions provided to us by Wenzel into the following classroom initiatives:
3. Chunking. Wenzel informed us of a phenomenon in which university students are more likely to tackle tasks which are broken down into the smallest and most manageable parts, than tasks which are undefined, overwhelming, and ultimately more intimidating. We applied this mantra to the psyche of the high-school students, and thus oversaw them identifying the overarching objectives they had to obtain for each assignment and breaking these down into the most individually-feasible, smallest parts. For example, we first provided them with an overarching, generic essay plan, and then encouraged them to divide the plan into further sections and make secondary plans for each segment.
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4. Time management. During active data collection a significant number of students gave feedback that they planned to dedicate 4 to 6 hours on a given day, often on a weekend, to sit down and consecutively work on GP. With Casper's agreement, we instead led students in constructing a schedule that allotted for both smaller & more frequent sessions to work on the necessary part of their GP assignment, as well as accounting for other commitments such as work, family, sport, or other exams.
Learning Types
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It was not long into our time in the classroom that we experienced the vast variety of students Casper had described. Naturally, the students differed in interests, hobbies, fashion and personalities. And while all these variables were significant to us as we sought to get to know them, our attention quickly funneled to their learning patterns. Upon assuming the role of teacher and standing in in front of the whiteboard staring out at the students we saw the differences and variety in in their habits. Observing the students and their behavior in class - we noticed that not all eyes were tracking, that some students wrote notes while others raised their hands... and others still did not seem to engage at all. Initially, this reception was quite jarring for first time teachers whose previous presentation experience had only been before fellow peers who at least feigned interest. This was further compounded by the added pressure that we were not standing in front of them in order to check a box off for an assignment but to transfer some kernels of knowledge unto them in hopes they would absorb them. When creating lesson plans or plenary presentations, we knew that we only had twenty minutes to express the objectives of the class - the actual lesson to the students. We wanted to make sure the lesson stuck. We needed to find a way to attract and sustain the attention of all our students - no matter their interests, motivation or learning ability. Thus, we turned to learning types. We wanted to make sure our presentations were stimulating and engaging visually and verbally as well as interactive.
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According to Brianna Flavin (2019), students can be categorized into four different types: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and textual.
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Types of learners:
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Visual: visualize concepts, ideas, & their relationships to each other. Best learning resources for this type would be charts, diagrams, or infographics. Stimulating class activities would be to work on the whiteboard or create posters. Creating mind maps, rearranging sticky notes or flashcards, or drawing out storylines may help visual learners study otherwise text-heavy content.
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Auditory (or aural learners): big listeners, rely heavily on ears. These students may be slower speakers or readers. Such thinkers benefit from repeating heard information, such as call and response drills. Other engaging activities would include: discussions, socratic seminars or debates. As a study method, auditory learns benefit from speaking through tested material or working in study groups.
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Kinesthetic (or hands-on learners): learn through DOING and like to actively participate and work with the material. Given their hands-on nature, they may get fidgety if unengaged for periods of time. Unfortunately, the traditional and most common classroom set-up is not best-suited for these thinkers. A solution to help them engage in the classwork would be to give them something simple with which to play. Sometimes having a separate but uncomplicated activity (such as playing with a string, a pen, stress ball, or doing their hair) may appear as distraction but actually helps channel their energy. To help prepare for an exam, kinesthetic learners could create models or act out different concepts to manifest the information.
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Textual (reading and writing learners): enjoy literal text and textual analysis. These students are great at reading comprehension and may use paraphrasing as a tool of comprehension. Textual learners probably prefer to do the reverse classroom method as they absorb information best through reading. While they may retrieve some information from a lecture, they understand best when reviewing the text or information directly themselves. Teachers may provide for these students by supplying worksheets and annotated handouts or assigning readings. As these students prefer the text to the audio, when a teacher gives an informative plenary lecture, it would be helpful to print out the slides in advance to help textual learners follow along.
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Flavin, B. (2019, May 06). Different Types of Learners: What College Students Should Know (1165926776 874879350 Rasmussen College, Ed.). Retrieved January 16, 2021, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/most-common-types-of-learners/
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The Learning Pit
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Carol Dweck devised the theories of the Learning Pit & Growth Mindset (2008) to describe both the dynamic nature of intellect and the difficulty often associated with accessing this potential. The growth mindset is a challenge to the typical conception of human intelligence as fixed and pre-determined. Dweck explains that transitioning to a growth mindset, in which risk and effort are welcomed as opportunities for personal or educational development, not avoided.
Adopting a growth mindset encourages students to enter the learning pit and emerge triumphant on the other side - encouraged and not disenthralled by the experience. As shown by the graphic on the left, the learning pit describes the journey students take when tackling a new challenge. We used both concepts as a springboard, from we introduced 'ropes' to conceptualise the balance between the teacher being keen to provide instruction, support and key resources wherever necessary, and the student generating enough intrinsic motivation to implement them.
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Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, U.S.: Random House.
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