Decoding the Disciplines - Identifying students' comprehension problems
Are there certain moments in your course when students have difficulties at the same moment, in the same place, every year? Have you used various aids and tricks and it hasn't gotten any better? Or are you a new teacher and want to know where most of the comprehension problems lie?
Then "Decoding the Disciplines" would certainly be an interesting and profitable approach for you.
What makes my subject special?
What is decoding? Here is a concrete example.
A mathematician wonders why students have so much difficulty with factoring. During a decoding discussion with other teachers, it turns out that as an expert, he does not simply read formulas from left to right like a literary text. Instead, he grasps them multidimensionally - he reads them both from right to left and vice versa, recognizing structures and mentally switching between detailed and overall views, similar to a constant zooming in and out. He realizes that he has never explicitly discussed this approach with his students and does not offer any exercises that specifically promote this skill - even though it is of central importance for his subject.
A good summary is given by Joan Middendorf and Leah Shopkow:
"Decoding the Disciplines is a pedagogical theory about how to bridge the gap between novice and expert thinking and a seven-step methodology for teaching to bottlenecks - the places where students get stuck on their way to learning. Together, the bottleneck and assessment perspective can help teachers in any field become learning-centered and invested in the learner's journey. By helping students get through even one bottleneck, we can help them better understand the nature of a discipline. Beyond the individual classroom, decoding can be applied to curricula, departments, institutions, and fields."
Source: Middendorf, J., Shopkow, L. (2018). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks.
University of Vienna, Center for Teaching and Learning: Decoding The Disciplines, Swantje Lahm, Bielefeld University. License: CC-BY-ND 3.0 AT
What does the h_da have to offer?
A "Decoding the Disciplines" group is currently being set up at h_da, initiated by Dr. Inna Mikhailova from the MN department.
The aim is to systematically analyze subject content that students find particularly difficult to understand. Proven methods such as interviews, rubrics and analogies are used to identify the missing elements and skills that form the gap between teachers' expertise and students' thinking. The exchange with colleagues from different disciplines has proven to be a particularly effective approach.
"Decoding the Disciplines" is not tied to a specific learning method - after analyzing the problem, the most suitable method or tool can be freely chosen.
If you are interested in joining the group or would like to "get a taste" of it without obligation, please contact inna.mikhailova@h-da.de or visit the "Decoding the Disciplines" digital topic room
