Designing teaching-learning environments to promote

disciplinary ways of thinking

Noel Entwistle University of Edinburgh

Project web site: www.ed.ac.uk/etl

Outline of the seminar

Key concepts and findings from previous research

Introduction to the ETL project

Additional concepts developed during the ETL project

Analyses: electronic engineering as an example

Findings from other subjects and the project as whole

Discussing ways of promoting disciplinary thinking

Key concepts and findings from previous research

Epistemological development during the degree course

Conceptions of learning and their development

Approaches to learning and studying

Perceptions of teaching affect approaches & vice-versa

and teaching itself affects ways of studying, not just knowledge

Teaching-learning environments acting as systems

Reproducing Seeking meaning

Dualism Relativism

Expanding awareness through a broader, integrative conception

Conceptions of knowledge - Perry 1970

Conceptions of learning - Slj, 1979

Pivotal position

Awareness of knowledge

as provisional

Acquiring factual

information

Evidence used to reason

among alternatives

Multipleperspectives -

opinions of equal value

Knowledge as absolute, provided by authorities

Changingas a person -

sense of identity

Memorising what has

to be learned

Applying and using knowledge

Understanding the meaning for

oneself

Threshold

Recognising & using differing forms of knowledge and

learning processes

Commitment to a personal, reasoned

perspective

Seeing things in a different way

Approaches to learning and studying

Deep approach in learning - seeking meaning

Surface approach in learning - reproducing

Strategic approach to studying - organised effort

Marton, Hounsell & Entwistle (1997)

Deep approach to learning

Intention to understand ideas and engage with them

Typical learning processes - but specific to each subject area

Relating ideas to previous knowledge and experience

Looking for patterns and underlying principles

Checking evidence and relating it to conclusions

Examining logic and argument cautiously and critically

Memorising whatever is essential to understanding

Monitoring understanding as learning progresses

Outcome Thoughtful accounts with evidence of independent identification and structuring of information and reasoning

Surface approach to learning

Intention to reproduce without much effort or thinking

Typical learning processes

Treating the course as unrelated bits of knowledge

Routinely memorising facts & carrying out procedures

Focusing narrowly on the minimum syllabus demands

Seeing little value or meaning in the course or tasks set

Studying without reflecting on either purpose or strategy

Outcome Descriptive, derivative accounts relying mainly on readily accessible sources

Strategic approach to studying

Intention to carry out the required work efficiently

Typical study processes Organising studying thoughtfully Managing time and effort effectively

Putting effort into the required work Forcing oneself to concentrate on work

Being alert to assessment requirements and criteria Monitoring the effectiveness of ways of studying

Outcome Depends on the balance between deep and surface approaches used with organised

effort

Students perceptions of good teaching

Reasonable workload with some elements of choice

Teaching clear and pitched at the student’s own level

Steady pace in presenting new ideas

Clear explanation based on what students know

Staff enthusiasm for the subject being taught

Staff interest in, and empathy with, students

Provision of full and timely feedback on performance

Fairness in assessment with grades fully justified

Marton, Hounsell & Entwistle (1997)

Attribution of causality through comments

The concepts are difficult but the lecturers assume we know it and so go at a fast pace. People can’t say they don’t understand, and yet the lecturer keeps on going; once you get behind, you can’t get back on terms. (Engineering)

Recently we were doing Fourier analysis, and the lecturer gave an explanation, saying that it was like when you banged a drum and got lots of different sounds. He said “ If you look at it this way, you can see why”, and he was right, you could see why. (Physics)

If the tutors have enthusiasm, then they really fire their own students … I’m really good at and enjoy this subject, but that’s only because the tutor has been so enthusiastic and now I really love it (English)

Some staff have a lack of empathy about students’ relative knowledge levels,… so you can’t attach anything that you’ve been told to something that you know already, and yet that is important in learning… (Psychology)

Analysing teaching-learning environments as a web of interacting influences

“Inappropriate approaches (to learning) are simply induced (by teaching): just one piece in the‘jigsaw’ that is out of place ... may interfere with the relation between the learner and the content. Encouraging students consistently to adopt deep approaches and employ them holistically is ... difficult because ... all the pieces

need to fit together.” Eizenberg, 1988, p. 196-7

A systems approach to higher education

Constructive alignment involves choosing aims that demand individual understanding, ensuring that teaching methods encourage and support those aims and that assignments and assessment focus on, and reward, the achievement of those aims.

The students are ‘entrapped’ in this web of consistency, optimising the likelihood that they will engage in the appropriate learning activities, but paradoxically leaving them free to construct their knowledge

Biggs (2003, p. 27)

Introduction to the ETL projectOutline research objectives and processes

Work with colleagues in five subject areas to identify the most distinctive aspects of teaching and learning in their subject area

Explore how specific teaching-learning environments in each subject area affect students’ approaches to studying and learning outcomes.

Use this evidence to negotiate possible adjustments to the teaching-learning environment and evaluate their effectiveness

Develop conceptual frameworks and ways of thinking about the effects of teaching-learning environments on the quality of student learning

Diverse settings investigated

Five contrasting subject areas involved initiallyelectronic engineering, biological sciences,

economics, history, and media studies (dropped later)

17 departments in varied university settings,ancient, civic, 1960s,1990s & one college

Working with two course teams in two course units in each university - early and late (mainly first and final years)

Main phases in the project

Investigate the teaching-learning environments used by staff in departments rated as ‘excellent’ in TQA/QAA

Analyse questionnaire and interview data collected during the first year of the collaboration and discuss the implications of the findings with the course team

Discuss the possibility of a collaborative initiative designed to enhance the teaching-learning environment

Implement the initiative and collect the same data from the following year group; analyse and discuss with the course team the effects of the changes

Main components of data

Analyse eight reports from TQA/QAA reports of departments rated ‘excellent’ in each subject area and conduct telephone interviews with staff in four of them

Interview collaborating staff; distribute questionnaires to students at the beginning (Learning and Studying) and the end of each selected course unit (Experiences of Teaching and Learning)

Interview small groups of students about their experiences of the teaching, using a schedule based on the second questionnaire but encouraging additional aspects to be raised

Main concepts used during the ETL project

Ways of thinking and practising (WTP) and throughlines

Teaching-learning environment (TLE)

Perceptions of the teaching-learning environment

Approaches to learning and studying

Constructive alignment - congruence within the TLE

Troublesome knowledge

The ‘inner logic’ of the subject and its pedagogy

Ways of thinking and practising in the subject (WTP)

During most of the interviews, staff seemed to be more comfortable to talk about what we came to see as the ways of thinking and practising in the subject, rather than about the formally defined intended learning objectives

Ways of thinking and practising in the subject describe “the richness, depth and breadth of what students might learn through engagement with a given subject area in a specific context. This might include coming to terms with particular understandings, forms of discourse, values or ways of acting which are regarded as central to graduate-level mastery of a discipline or subject area…

McCune & Hounsell (2005)

Ways of thinking in economics

More recently I've come round to the view that economists have acquired a way of looking at the world which is indelible, and even though they may not find themselves in a position where they can use their analytical techniques very consciously, in fact their

whole way of treating questions is affected by this kind of training. quoted in Entwistle (1997)

Throughlines to keep the focus on understanding

Throughlines reflect what teachers believe is most important for the students to learn in their course (WTPs)

These goals are set out clearly and revisited regularly during the course to keep the students focused on the understanding aims decided for the course (i.e. aims with that focus).

Introduced as part of the Teaching for Understanding Framework developed by the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero.

(Wiske, 2003)

Lectures,e-learning and other materials

Assignmentsand worked

examples

Tutorials and other

student support

Laboratoriesand simulations

Assessment criteria and procedures

TEACHING-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT in electronic engineering

INSTITUTIONALINFLUENCES

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

External validation

Subject benchmarks

Employers' views

Teaching conventions

Quality assurance & performance indicators

Level of RAE and other funding

Student intake

Regulation of assessment etc.

Popularity of the subject

Explaining principles & procedures

Providing advice & encouragement

Acquiring experience & checking workings

Seeing relevance through applications

Checking on understanding

& progressWTP

Perceptions of course demands

Prior knowledge required

Pace with which new material presented

Difficulty of the concepts and skills being learned

Difficulty of the generic skills involved

Workload required

Perceptions of teaching-learning environment

Overall enjoyment and interest

Clarity and coherence in course organisation

Teaching that encourages learning

Set work and feedback supporting learning

Staff enthusiasm and support

Support from other students

Troublesome knowledge

Ritual knowledge - names and dates are rote learned

Inert knowledge that the student does not often use

Conceptually difficult knowledge

such as complex technical knowledge or ideas affected by mistaken expectations derived from everyday experience

Alien knowledge such as presentism in history

Tacit knowledge - acted on but not conscious of.

Perkins (in press)

Threshold conceptsin economics

A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal,

opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking

about something. It represents a transformed way of

understanding… or viewing something without which the learner

cannot progress.

[For example,] if opportunity cost is ‘accepted’ by students as a

valid way of interpreting the world, it fundamentally changes their

way of thinking about their own choices, as well as serving as a

tool to interpret the choices made by others.

Meyer & Land (2003)

Strategy for integrating findings

Establish the main type of ways of thinking and practising being encouraged in the course units

Analyse questionnaires and interviews to establish the extent to which students saw the teaching-learning environment as supporting their learning effectively

Discuss findings with staff and discuss possibilities for a collaborative initiative

Evaluate the perceived effects of the initiatives to explore effective pedagogy within the subject area

A summary of the overall project findings can be found in our Final Report to the ESRC, while more detailed descriptions are in our four Subject Area Reports. All these are available on the project website.

Changes in approaches to studying Percentage agreement with items before and during units

Course unit A (94) B (68) C (54)

I usually set out to understand Before 95.6 87.5 81.2 During 72.1 82.5 75.0

Trouble making sense of things Before 25.0 40.0 43.7 During 61.8 55.0 34.4

Generally put a lot of effort in Before 60.3 77.5 53.1 During 51.5 60.0 40.6

Systematic and organised study Before 65.9 62.5 46.9 During 44.1 47.5 50.0

Experiences of teaching Percentage agreement with items on the same three units

Course unit A (94) B (68) C (54)

Easy pace in lectures 25.3 46.9 72.5

Amount of work required easy 33.3 34.7 52.5

Teaching fitted in with learning 72.0 67.3 97.5

Most of material was interesting 45.3 34.7 82.5

Plenty of examples provided 66.7 51.0 95.0

Staff were patient in explaining 81.3 81.6 92.5

Feedback given made things clearer 63.7 30.6 47.5

Effects of pace and lack of variation

At the beginning I was all [at sea], sort of too much information at one time. I just think that we’re given too many different concepts at one time… It seemed that once we’d gone over one specific network we weren’t given enough time to absorb the information before we were given another one, and the difficulty level increased as you went onwards.

You’re repeatedly reading it, hearing it, talking about it, doing it, doing it, doing it [and] that doesn’t work for me. For first, second and part of third year, it was a case of scraping by. I’ve tried to go through the motions; it’s the sameness. Each day is that pattern.

Delayed understandingTerm introduced by Scheja, in press

In second year I got a better understanding of what I learnt in first

year. Now in third year I’ve kind of learnt what I was supposed to

know in second year. It’s a shame that I’ve never felt that I’ve learned

it in the actual year [it was taught]…

When you’re being taught something, you’re just desperately trying to

learn it, and there’s not necessarily a whole lot of interest. You’re

scrambling back to notes [in preparing for the exams], trying to

understand the course. And at some point during the learning

process, you do get interested and [then] things start to fall into place

Reaction to the lack of understanding

You have to focus your energy where it’s rewarded… You work

through the problems and for the analogue ones, you don’t get

any answers out of them.

You can’t see how in the world you got from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’.

I tended to work blindly. I knew if I just followed these steps, then

I could get an answer, but have no idea what to do and yet we

scrape by.

We probably would have got great marks had we actually

understood what we were doing.

Collaborative initiatives in analogue

Increase students’ focus on understanding by encouraging them to reflect on their problem-solving processes while working on tutorial problems

Problem-solving in electronics stressed and modelled during lectures & examples classes

Students encouraged to use a tutorial workbook to record and comment on solutions

Arrangements made to facilitate systematic group discussion during tutorials

Helpfulness of teaching-learning activities in three units involved in the collaborative initiative

Mean ratings on 1 -7 scale Unit A Unit B Unit C

(N = 59) (73) (27)

The way diagrams presented 5.0 5.3 5.9

The way ideas explained in lectures 4.3 5.6 5.2

Lecture explanations of problems 4.2 5.8 4.9

Worked examples provided 5.0 3.6 5.7

Working on problems on own 5.2 4.6 5.3

Using the log-book 4.2 4.3 5.1

Staff help in tutorials 5.0 4.0 5.9

Discussions with other students 4.8 4.7 5.0

Feedback on work submitted 3.5 3.6 not given

Class tests and the results 4.3 4.2 not given

Experience of using a tutorial workbook

I think when [the lecturer] mentioned the logbook and how you can look back and it will be helpful - at the time I thought, “Helpful, my bum! I'm just going to realise I’m not going to be any good at all”. But after about Week 4, we were answering questions in class,and everybody was looking through their notes and Adrian says to me – “That’s in your logbook” and I say, “Oh, so it is”, and we worked everything out really well. So, that’s when I thought a workbook was going to be a must then.

I got used to writing down all the problems in the workbook and then you can sort of look back and read through it and understand what you have done… At first I’d just look at a couple of tutorial questions and write down what I thought. But now I've got like pages of stuff written down, so I think the workbook now is really important to my understanding.

Remaining issues concerning students

Other changes that students would have welcomed but could bit be implemented included

Overcoming a perceived step-change in the teaching of analogue between the first and second years

Introducing substantial reductions in the content, and more variety provided for students in the lectures and generally

Avoiding time-tabling problems that left students in the same room and doing similar things for long periods

Providing opportunities to work collaboratively and also to get regular and helpful feedback on the tutorial problems

Ways of thinking and practising

in analogue electronics

Appreciating the overall function of a circuit

Recognising the crucial groups of components

Seeing how to set about analysing different circuits

Having the necessary analytic tools for solutions

Developing a memory bank of contrasting examples

Thinking intuitively in designing new circuits

The ‘inner logic’ of teaching analogue Essential teaching-learning emphases and activities

Circuits linked to real-life illustrations from industry

Main circuit components highlighted in diagrams

Ways of thinking about circuits exemplified

Ways of solving tutorial problems explained

Students work through sets of varied examples

Worked examples provided at the appropriate time

Progress monitored in tutorial work and tests

Supporting student learning in analogue

Conclusions emerging from work on electronic engineering

The WTPs suggest an ‘inner logic’ to the subject area and its pedagogy - certain teaching-learning emphases and activities are essential.

But these aspects of the teaching-learning environment are currently offered in ways which may not suit even a majority of students. The detailed feedback from students provided suggestions about how all the elements might be enhanced.

The general literature on teaching and learning in higher education also suggested other possibilities that could be adapted to the pedagogy of electronic engineering

Overall findings from the ETL project

Generic pedagogic principles and methods need to be reinterpreted in terms of the inner logic of the subject

Conceptually-based feedback from students can be used to enhance the congruence of teaching-learning environments

Emphasising WTPs (rather than intended learning outcomes) have advantages in broadening the students’ focus in studying

Students are finding that a lack of detailed, prompt and intelligible feedback is affecting their learning

In large first-year classes, problems are being created by a lack of uniform practices and of shared information among teaching

staff and tutors

Correlations between perceptions of the teaching-learning environmentand indicators of attitudes, approaches and learning outcomes

Total sample (N = 1950) General attitudes Prior approaches Approaches during Outcomes

Perceptions of teaching Interest Negative Deep Surf OrgEff. Deep Surf OrgEff. Know Achiev

Easiness of demands made

Prior knowledge required .06 -.03 .08 -.11 .04 .14 -.21 .07 .19 .24

Pace introducing material .01 -.03 .06 -.06 .05 .19 -.26 .16 .26 .32

Academic difficulty .06 -.05 .10 -.09 .03 .18 -.23 .12 .24 .33

Workload required .01 -.06 .03 -.04 .04 .06 -.14 .08 .12 .25

Experiences of teaching and learning

Enjoyment and interest .23 -.18 .26 -.16 .18 .39 -.39 .29 .48 .39

Clarity and coherence .08 -.17 .21 -.21 .14 .32 -.38 .25 .45 .28

Encouraging learning .19 -.13 .37 -.16 .16 .52 -.33 .28 .46 .27

Set work and feedback .10 -.12 .24 -.12 .15 .36 -.27 .26 .44 .29

Staff support .09 -.12 .18 -.12 .12 .28 -.20 .21 .34 .19

Student support .08 -.14 .14 -.05 .13 .22 -.08 .19 .22 .07

Ways of thinking in history

Seeing history as being socially constructed and contested

Interpreting, synthesising and evaluating historical evidence

Placing events and topics within broader historical contexts

Alertness to interconnections among phenomena

Being sensitive to the ‘strangeness of the past’

Viewing events from different perspectives

Separating out one’s own preconceptions

Presenting conclusions using appropriate historical discourse

Enhancing TLEs in history

Refining and reinforcing thematic structures of modules by reducing the emphasis on chronology or reducing the time period

Sharing more explicitly with students and other staff the reasoning behind module structures and links with overall WTPs

Providing students with more detailed discipline-specific guidance on the specific skills required to read documents and analyse evidence

Making more materials available through virtual learning environments

Modelling explicitly in lectures and tutorials how historians go about marshalling evidence to support or contest different lines of argument

Providing supportive tutorial environments to provide intellectual challenge without personal threat

Ways of thinking in economics

Using theoretical abstractions to think about the real world

Understanding economic concepts and models

Using deductive and inductive reasoning to analyse situations

Interpreting econometric results from statistics and graphs

Interpreting empirical evidence and understanding the relationship between theory and data

Developing awareness of interconnections between concepts in making sense of the wider picture of real-world economics

Enhancing TLEs in economics

Considering ways of coping with the diversity of student intakes in first- year classes

Putting greater emphasis on conceptual aspects of the subject and avoiding unnecessary reliance on the detailed analysis of evidence

Identifying threshold concepts, teaching them more intensively and ensuring that assessment emphasises & rewards their understanding

Providing greater variety in students’ experiences of teaching and learning and in the assessment procedures adopted

Developing assessment procedures that encourage broader revision for exams while stressing the importance of problem solving

Trying to bridge the theory-real world divide more effectively by using more authentic problem-solving

Ways of thinking in biological sciences

Understanding the nature of evidence and how it is generated

Thinking critically about evidence and its interpretation

Using visualisation where appropriate and thinking systematically

Understanding relationships between findings and theory

Designing and carrying out small-scale research studies

Recognising that evidence is contested and theories provisional

Making interconnections between topics and seeing them in a real-world wider context

Enhancing TLEs in biological sciences

Providing fuller explanations about the reasons behind encouraging first-year students to develop some of the communication skills used by biologists in a assignment about explaining concepts to lay people

Encouraging better communication between lecturers and tutors on a first-year biological sciences course and trying to make the level of marking of coursework by tutors more consistent

Helping students to adjust to the epistemological and technical challenges encountered by a step-change in learning requirements between second-year and final year

Bringing in active researchers to contribute to a final year module so that students heard how the subject was progressing. Also working on actual data to develop research skills.

Quality of learning achieved

Influences of academic community and validating bodies

Approaches to learning and studying

Influences of department/school

and institution

Teaching that encourages learning Congruence of the whole

teaching-learning environment with WTPs & students

The inner logic of the subject

& its pedagogy

Departmental teaching policies

and ethos

Students' backgrounds, epistemological levels,

knowledge & aspirations

Perceptions of the teaching-learning

environment

Learning support provided for

individual learners

What students are expected to learn and understand

Well designed curriculum aims,

scope and structure

Assessment clearly related

to WTPs

Clarity and coherence in

course organisation

Enthusiasm

Clarity

PaceEmpathy

Explanation Structure

LevelEffectiveness of lecturing

Set work evoking,and feedback

supporting, WTPs

INFLUENCES ONSTUDENT LEARNING

Student characterstics

Discussion of ways of designing TLEs to promote disciplinary ways of thinking

Select a particular topic area from your own experience.

What are the main ways of thinking and practising that you would want students to acquire? A starting point could be thinking about what is involved in adopting a deep approach in that subject area.

Is it possible to discern an ‘inner logic’ which makes certain forms of teaching essential if students are to learn easily and effectively? How are these forms of teaching currently being provided? To what extent do these appear to be congruent with the WTPs?

What aspects of knowledge prove troublesome for students? Could these difficulties be discussed more explicitly with students? Would it be possible to spend more time on these aspects and check that students have understood before moving on?

Indicative references (1)

Anderson, C. & Day, K. (2005). Purposive environments: engaging students in the values and practices of history. Higher Education, 49, 319-343. [ETL project looking at history]

Biggs, J. B. (2003). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. (2nd Ed). Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press. [constructive alignment]

Eizenberg, N. (1988). Approaches to learning anatomy: developig a programme for pre-clinical students. See Ramsden (1988, pp. 178-198)

Entwistle, N. J. (1998). Improving teaching through research in student learning. In J. J. F. Forest (Ed.), University Teaching: International Perspectives (pp. 73-112). New York: Garland Publishing. [general review of teaching and learning and an earlier version of the conceptual map]

Entwistle, N. J. & McCune, V. S. (2005) The conceptual bases of study strategy inventories in higher education. Educational Psychology Review, 16, 325-346. [Review of several study strategy inventories]

Marton, F., Hounsell, D. J., & Entwistle, N. J. (1997). The experience of learning: implications for teaching and learning in higher education. (now available www.tla.ed.ac.uk/resources/EOL.html). [Approaches to and conceptions of learning, and economics quote]

Indicative references (2)

McCune, V. S. & Hounsell, D. J. (2005). The development of students’ ways of thinking and practising in three final-year biology courses. Higher Education, 49, 255-289. [ETL project looking at biology]

Meyer, J. H. F. & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning, Higher Education, 49, 373-388. [ETL project looking at economics and other areas]

Perkins, D. N. (1999). The many faces of constructivism. Educational Leadership, 57 (3), 6-11.

Perry, W. G. (1988). Different worlds in the same classroom. In Ramsden (1988, pp. 145-161) [epistemological stages]

Ramsden, P. (1988). Improving learning : new perspectives. London: Kogan Page. [General review of student learning by Ramsden, also with Marton]

Scheja, M (in press). Delayed understanding and staying in phase: students’ perceptions of their study situation. Higher Education.

Wiske, M. S. (Ed.) (1998). Teaching for understanding: linking research with practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.