Speaker A
In this particular course. So, the million-dollar question is: how do we get students to learn what we want them to?
Explains constructive alignment (John Biggs): align learning objectives, exams and teaching activities so students learn what the teacher intends, contrasting an unaligned course where students game t
Key Takeaways
- Constructive alignment links learning objectives, teaching activities and assessment so they all target the same skills.
- Students adapt their effort to what the exam measures, so assessment design strongly shapes learning.
- Good teaching aims to elicit higher-level cognitive processes in most students, not just the strongest ones.
- Biggs' level three teaching focuses on what students do, not what the teacher covers.
What the video covers
- Core question: how to make students' learning activity match the teacher's intentions.
- Answer proposed is constructive alignment, developed by Professor John Biggs.
- Constructive alignment requires stating learning objectives using the SOLO taxonomy, making the exam measure those objectives, and communicating this to students.
- Appropriate teaching-learning activities should be chosen to train the targeted skills and competences throughout the course.
- In an unaligned course, the teacher wants explain, relate, prove and apply, but the exam tests memorizing and describing, so students focus only on test skills (called 'dealing with the test').
- An example student plans to memorize headlines and skim chapters because that suffices for the exam.
- In an aligned course, the exam measures the intended skills, leaving no shortcut for students who end up learning what the teacher intends.
- Biggs' three levels of thinking about teaching are described; level three is a student learning focus, the highest level.
- Good teaching is defined as getting most students to use the higher-level cognitive processes that academic students use spontaneously.
- The closing segment includes a mathematical example (F is one shorter than E) and a 'teach so Robert behaves like Susan' remark, and the transcript is partly fragmented.
Chapters
- 00:00The central question of student learning
- 00:22Defining constructive alignment and SOLO taxonomy
- 00:51Origins of the theory and the unaligned course
- 01:23Student gaming the test in an unaligned course
- 02:04How an aligned course removes shortcuts
- 02:44Biggs' three levels of teaching thinking
- 03:01Defining good teaching and closing remarks
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
More precisely, how do we get a student's activity to match our intention as a teacher?
Speaker A
The answer is constructive alignment. That is, to clearly state the learning objectives of the course in terms of the SOLO taxonomy, to make the exam measure precisely those, and to tell this to the students.
Speaker A
And to choose appropriate teaching-learning activities to train these skills and competences during the course.
Speaker A
The constructive alignment theory was developed by Professor John Biggs. Let's first have a look at an unaligned course.
Speaker A
We have the teacher's intention, the student's activity, and the exam's assessment in play. The teacher has an intention.
Speaker A
Let's suppose he wants the students to be able to explain, relate, prove, and apply.
Speaker A
And now suppose the exam measures something else. For example, the ability to memorize and to describe.
Speaker A
In this case, Robert will focus only on the skills required for the test, disregarding the teacher's intentions.
Speaker A
This is called dealing with the test. Of course, you can extend this with as many operations as you like.
Speaker A
So, do we have to know about this for the exam? Okay, here's the thing. I know what they're asking, but I figure, and Jim also told me, that if I memorize the headlines and skim through the first chapters, I should be okay for the exam.
Speaker A
Now, let's have a look at an aligned course. Here the teacher has taken great care in making the exam explicitly conform to his intentions.
Speaker A
So that the exam now measures the ability to explain, relate, prove, and apply. Here there is no shortcut for Robert.
Speaker A
Whatever happens, he just ends up learning what the teacher is intending. So, these are the course objectives, and also what you'll be expected to be able to do at the exam, and what my exam will measure. Furthermore, this is what we're going to reflect upon during the course, and what you'll be trained in doing during the entire course.
Speaker A
A level three teacher has a student learning focus. This is the highest level in John Biggs' three levels of thinking about teaching.
Speaker A
So, now I'd like to give you three minutes to prepare an argument for why this aspect is syntactic and not semantic.
Speaker A
Now, we are in a position to actually define good teaching. Good teaching is getting most students to use the higher-level cognitive processes that the more academic students use spontaneously.
Speaker A
Or you might say, teach so that Robert behaves like Susan.
Speaker A
For F, which is just one shorter than E. Yeah, and then we prove it. Oh, yes, that's how we do it.
Topics:constructive alignmentJohn BiggsSOLO taxonomyteaching and learningassessment designlearning objectiveshigher-order thinkingstudent learning focushigher education pedagogy
