What the Student Does: teaching for enhanced learning

TLDR

Academic standards are hard to maintain in large, diverse classes, but viewing outcomes as driven by student activities rather than fixed traits makes the problem more tractable. The study aims to design teaching contexts that encourage all students to engage in higher‑order learning processes typical of academic students. Alignment of objectives, teaching context, and assessment guides students toward desired understandings and enables demonstration of achievement. The paper illustrates aligned teaching through problem‑based learning and learning portfolios.

Abstract

Abstract Many teachers see major difficulties in maintaining academic standards in today's larger and more diversified classes. The problem becomes more tractable if learning outcomes are seen as more a function of students' activities than of their fixed characteristics. The teacher's job is then to organise the teaching/learning context so that all students are more likely to use the higher order learning processes which "academic" students use spontaneously. This may be achieved when all components are aligned, so that objectives express the kinds of understanding that we want from students, the teaching context encourages students to undertake the learning activities likely to achieve those understandings, and the assessment tasks tell students what activities are required of them, and tell us how well the objectives have been met. Two examples of aligned teaching systems are described: problem‐based learning and the learning portfolio.