Creating Significant Learning Experiences

L. Dee Fink

Significant Learning

1. Foundational Knowledge• Basic understanding• Necessary for other kinds of learning

2. Application• Knowledge and how it’s applied• Skills

3. Integration• Making connections (other courses, work,

life)• Power: the wholemore than the sum of

the parts

(It’s more than just the course material.)

Significant Learning

4. Human Dimension• Human significance of topic• Learning about self, others

5. Caring• Caring engenders energy for learning• Nothing significant happens without caring

6. Learning How to Learn• Learning more effectively• Life-long learning

(It’s more than just the course material.)

Creating Significant Learning Experiences

• Learning Goals

• Feedback and Assessment

• Teaching and Learning Activities

(How?)

Learning Goals

• Backward Design• What’s important now & years after the

course?• What should students do in the course to

succeed?

• Example (CS 705)• Learning Outcomes• Activities support learning outcomes

• Class activities• Out-of-class activities

• (Suggestions for improvement)

(In terms of significant learning outcomes.)

Feedback and Assessment

• Forward looking assessment• Imagine students in a situation where they

would use knowledge K, could they?• Focus learning on realistic meaningful tasks.• Ask: “What am I preparing students to do?”

• Good assessment needs a rubric.• Criteria and standards• Communicated and used consistently

Feedback and Assessment

• Opportunities to engage in self assessment• Can they define their own rubric for quality

work?• Can they use their rubric on their own and

other students’ work?• Reflection: on the subject matter, on the

learning process

Teaching and Learning Activities• Doing Experience

• Direct: Real doing, in authentic settings• Indirect: case studies, simulations, …

• Observing Experience• Direct: seeing the phenomena to be

observed• Indirect: stories, film, …

Teaching and Learning Activities• Getting Information and Ideas

• (To be most effective, students must want to get …)

• Sources• Direct: original information & data• Indirect: lectures & textbooks

• Reflecting• Classroom discussion• Term papers• In-depth reflective dialogue and writing on

the learning process

Good courses are courses that …• Challenge students to significant kinds of

learning.• Use active forms of learning.• Have teachers who care

• about the subject,• their students, and• about teaching and learning.

• Have teachers who interact well with students.• Have a good system of feedback, assessment,

and grading.

-- L.D. Fink