Think Like a Student ??: Improve Lesson Design By Considering the Students' Perspective

"The question isn't 'How do I teach this?'?but 'How can they learn it?'"

- Jane Bozarth

Some Christians use the phrase "WWJD?" (short for "What would Jesus do?") to remind them to consider lessons from the Gospel when making a decision.

In teaching, I use the phrase "WWSD?" -- "What would students do?" -- every time I'm planning a lesson. By considering the lesson from the students' perspective, I can spot possible blind spots in my lessons that may confuse, overwhelm, or disengage learners.

Here are some areas of lesson planning that can benefit from some scrutiny through a student's eyes.

DIRECT INSTRUCTION

When there is a stretch of explicit teaching planned, some aspects should be considered from the students' perspective:

• Lecture duration: teacher talk time should be limited to 15 minutes max.
• Prior knowledge: are there any concepts students must already know before introducing the new content? Is there key vocabulary to pre-teach?
• Chunking: how can the learning be split into manageable, bite-sized pieces??
• Scaffolding:?which concept can be tricky to understand, and would need a more staged introduction?
• Relevance: how can we engage students by drawing parallels between the content and their personal interests or daily lives?

LEARNING MATERIALS

Whether you're designing lesson slides, notes, or writing on the board, keep the students in mind when considering the following:

• Font size and colour: is it easy to read, even from the back of the classroom (for slides)? Is key information highlighted, e.g. in a different colour?
• Amount of text:?is the page or slide too wordy? Will students get distracted trying to read the text instead of listening to you? Would breaking the information up over multiple pages / slides, or using bullet-points, improve readability?
• Visuals:?is there any information that can be more easily understood in a?visual format, e.g. a table, diagram, or flow chart? Is the animation I used too distracting?
• Language:?keep the language simple. Provide explanations for 'big words'

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ACTIVITIES

When planning classroom activities, especially those involving student movement, materials, or other logistics, thinking like a student will give you the foresight to minimise any hiccups.??

• Clarity of instructions:?do students know what they need to do? Should instructions be chunked and given at intervals?
• Materials:?how will these be distributed in an orderly and efficient manner? How can they be collected at the end??
• Expectations: are there any opportunities for unwanted monkey business??Set the ground rules clearly from the start

THINKING LIKE A STUDENT: AN EXAMPLE

?? Genetics fascinates me, and is one of my favourite topics to teach in biology. Given the opportunity, I could go on for ages about Mendel's pea experiments, the controversy of eugenics, genetic engineering, nature versus nurture, and so on.

But, I always remind myself to rein in my little TED talk; if I go on for an hour about the wonders of inheritance, apart from one or two equally interested students, how many would actually be listening? Who could have tuned out within the first ten minutes? Who, due to language difficulties, is struggling to follow??

With genetics, I approach the subject from an angle that appeals to my students' interests: cute calico kittens, pop culture (like this lesson on Harry Potter and the Magical Allele), and things relevant to them, like their blood type, or a tongue rolling challenge.

Knowing how some students could find the different forms of inheritance (codominance, sex linkage, etc.) confusing, I make sure I slow down when teaching these subtopics. I teach each type of inheritance separately (chunking), and initially provided a lot of scaffolding to help them learn to predict genetic crosses.

Far from tempering my enthusiasm, I find a way to channel it through themes and activities that would engage my students and improve their understanding.

To have a former student pursue genetics in university is perhaps a sign that I did something right. ???

Putting yourself in a pupil's shoes when planning can help you design an effective,?learner-centred?lesson that will engage and empower your students.

When do YOU think like a student?