Knowing How, What, Why

Hidden assumptions can be one of the chief reasons why students experience unanticipated difficulties in a course. To the teacher, the steps between starting and finishing an assignment are fairly obvious. For the student, however, the strategies for working it through may not be so obvious.

Problems caused by hidden assumptions range from the simple to the profound. Whether following the steps of an assignment or understanding a task's purpose, ambiguities can leave students guessing what to do. The following tips offer suggestions for clarifying essential elements in the learning process.

Assignments

The trick for the frustrated parent is to stop asking the child be "good" and tell him or her what actions are expected. The same is true for teaching. When asking for good work, explain what that means. A student must know how to go about the activity or assignment.

Directions. Go beyond a quick description of the final product and describe key elements or essential steps to write up a clear set of directions. Check them out with a colleague or student. Where are they unclear? What guesses do they have to make about what you want them to do? Remember, the time invested now is time saved when grading a stack of inadequate responses.

Criteria. Outline specifically what levels of performance will be evaluated. Offer a checklist or a matrix that details the elements of a quality product. Use this list as the basis of a grading form. Relate the list to your lessons to build connections.

Samples. Many students will figure out what they should do by observing others (including the teacher) or by comparing their efforts to others. Offer the class a chance to see good, fair, and poor samples. Model the process. Create moments for reflection and questions.

With each of these tips, give reasons why the elements, steps, or criteria are used by professionals. Explanations help students see how the assignment develops valuable skills and abilities.

Scholarly Processes

There are many general intellectual habits that teachers mistakenly assume students have. For example, I thought students could conduct a simple interview using their everyday social skills. Yet, they were unsure how to start until we talked about how these interviews were little more than ordinary conversations. Once students realized they could use their normal style of asking questions, they became comfortable with the task. Knowing what to do is key to doing it well.

Disciplinary Processes. Every discipline has its own ways of observing, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting. Talk with students to make sure they know the basic steps. Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book remains a classic introduction to basic scholarly skills.

Making Improvements. Use student error to everyone's advantage by studying where students went wrong. Review the decisions they made at each step of the process. Did they omit critical steps or overlook important material? Did they focus on the wrong cues or rely on inappropriate strategies? How would a more skilled person do it? These reflections can be powerful learning moments for students and teach a process of continuous improvement.

Scholarly Purposes

One of the most fundamental assumptions teachers may make in error is the understanding students have about scholarship. Marcia Baxter Magolda has shown that students approach their learning very differently than mature scholars. Their ideas about what it means to "know" a subject are not the same as a professor's. Yet, it is knowing why they are doing a task that will guide their intellectual commitments.

Understand. Get to understand the different stages that shape students' scholarship. Frustration leads teachers to attribute poor performance to low morale or ineptitude. Frequently these mistakes are rooted in differing assumptions about what it means to know a subject. We will be glad to send you a model of stages of intellectual growth.

Disciplinary Knowing. Sociologist C. Wright Mills believed that learning a sociological way of seeing the world was more important than understanding any specific theory or method. The same is true of any discipline. Share with students the underlying reasons why people try to understand the world with these unique skills and ideas. Use quotes, short essays and discussion time to explore why people have carried out work like what you are doing in the classroom.

Final Comments

As the semester begins to get underway in earnest, students and teachers start committing into routines and activities. Mistaken assumptions will not become apparent until later when assignments become due. In the meantime, doubts, confusion, and even false confidence will be hidden. Effective teachers begin checking immediately for places where hidden assumptions can sabotage good efforts on everyone's part to engage in successful learning activities.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on January 27, 1997.