{"id":1605,"date":"2016-05-17T04:41:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T12:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2017-02-18T09:58:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T17:58:20","slug":"predicting-5-key-lessons-from-small-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/2016\/05\/17\/predicting-5-key-lessons-from-small-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting: 5 key messages from \u201cSmall Teaching\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently read \u201cSmall teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning,\u201d an excellent book1<\/sup> by Dr. James Lang. To help me remember what I read and as a way of sharing some key messages from the book with a broader audience, I have decided to write some blog posts on select concepts. The first post was about retrieval practice<\/a> and this second one is about predicting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMaking predictions about material that you wish to learn increases your ability to understand that material and retrieve it later\u201d (Lang, p.43)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"2495892146_af8b878200_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> When students take time<\/strong> (even just a few seconds) to make predictions about material they are about to learn, it increases their retention<\/strong> (or the memorization of facts) and comprehension (or the use of those facts in other contexts).<\/p>\n

2) Even when<\/strong> the prediction the student makes is incorrect<\/strong>, it can increase subsequent retention. However, as Lang cautions, learners \u201chave to receive fairly immediate feedback<\/strong> on the accuracy of their predictions or pretest answers if we don\u2019t want those wrong answers to leave a deeper impression than the correct ones\u201d (p.52). Providing fast feedback to students is essential in all prediction activities.<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong> Prediction has a positive effect on retention and application of knowledge for the following reasons:<\/p>\n

a) prediction helps implant new facts<\/strong> more strongly into the brain\u2019s network of connections (and this promotes the activation of new facts in diverse contexts).\u00a0\u201cPrediction helps lay a foundation for richer, more connected knowing.\u201d (Lang, 2016, p.49)<\/p>\n

b)\u00a0prediction activities can help students identify gaps in their knowledge.<\/p>\n

c) prediction activities (and pretests) give students a better understanding of what the final assessment may consist of and this might help improve their study preparation.<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong> As the instructor, you should speak with your students about why<\/strong> you are asking them to make predictions and\/or take pretests on material they haven\u2019t learned yet. By doing so, they will understand the \u2018power of prediction\u2019 and won\u2019t feel you are being unfair.<\/p>\n

5) Prediction questions should be at the conceptual level<\/strong>. In other words do not ask questions that are ultra-specific and that require students to draw on precise prior knowledge. Lang reminds us: \u201cPredictions work because they require students to draw up whatever knowledge they might have that will assist them in making their prediction.\u201d (p.59)<\/p>\n

To learn more, see the Faculty Focus post titled:\u00a0Learning on the Edge: Classroom Activities to Promote Deep Learning<\/a> by James Lang.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/strong>: Lang, J. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Motion blur by Frank Monnerjahn \u00a0flic.kr\/p\/4Ny6Md<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently read \u201cSmall teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning,\u201d an excellent book1 by Dr. James Lang. To help me remember what I read and as a way of sharing some key messages from the book with a broader audience, I have decided to write some blog posts on select concepts. The first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,573],"tags":[1484134,573],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-teaching","tag-small-teaching","tag-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1618,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}