As we barrel down to the end of the semester, we want to remind you that it is not too late to register for this week’s FCTL workshop on backward course design. Dr. Anna L. Bostwick Flaming, the director of the Center for Teaching at the University of Iowa, will be presenting Backward Course Design: Building a Framework for Learning.  Here is the workshop description:

The same material will be offered on two different days to best accommodate campus teaching schedules on WebEx on April 5 from 3:30-5:00 and April 8 from 1-2:30.

 

To save your spot, register here: https://www.moreheadstate.edu/Academic-Affairs/Undergraduate-Education-and-Student-Success/Faculty-Center-for-Teaching-and-Learning/Gather-and-share

Wishing you a wonderful week! FCTL

The 2022 Inclusive Teaching Academy will be a two-day immersion into the foundational knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for educators who wish to lead and instruct through a lens of racial equity and inclusivity while creating a learning environment that fosters a sense of belonging for every student. In this two-day workshop, the goal is to provide participants an opportunity to increase their own awareness about concepts related to cultural and learning diversity through discussion and interaction, as well as to identify the conditions and strategies necessary to create relevant and engaging lessons that enable diverse students to matriculate and graduate.

April 27th at 2 p.m., ET.

You can register for this event by clicking the link here.

To read more from this piece by Rabidoux and Rottmann click on the link here.

How can knowledge be a curse? The term is used by psychologists to refer to the human condition wherein once we know something, or how to do something, it is impossible to re-experience what it was like to be ignorant of it. The result is that we tend to overestimate how common the knowledge is that we now possess, or how easy it is to be able to perform the activity we now know how to do. This curse of knowledge tends to leave us assuming learners know particular things that we now consider basic, yet the learners have yet to grasp. Learner may be confused by our instruction, which leaves out important information assumed to be “common knowledge,” and we may be frustrated by the learner’s apparent inability to perform at a level we assume to be appropriate.

To circumvent the curse of knowledge you could develop the habit of asking learners what they know about the topic or ability at hand, before providing instruction or guidance that is based on the response. Be sure to ask the question openly: “Describe for me what you know about X,” rather than, “Do you know about X?” The latter is likely to elicit a “yes” response, either out of a sense of performance pressure or because the learner does not recognize what they don’t know about X.

Another approach to address the curse of knowledge is to consistently start your teaching or demonstrating at a bit lower level than you naturally would. If it seems to you that your starting point is a bit too basic, you likely are starting at an appropriate place. If it turns out to be a bit below the actual knowledge or ability of the learner, the worst case may be simply that the learner feels somewhat reassured in their recognition of a baseline level of competence. What might you do a little differently now that you’re aware of the curse of knowledge?

Michael Wiederman, PhD, Professor

Director of Leadership and Professional Development

Co-Director, Family Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship

Department of Family and Community Medicine

University of Alabama at Birmingham