It has been a long time since I last wrote on this blog, and I'm going to try to get back into this healthy habit. What I write serves as notes that can help both me and others. I believe that one of the key elements of learning, especially in engineering, is the study and application of "Learning Flows" in our teaching.
So, what is a learning flow? In the context of instructional design, it refers to the planned route or path that a student follows to achieve the specific learning objectives that have been envisioned. It is a logical and structured sequence of activities, content, interactions, and assessments designed to guide the student from their starting point to mastery of the desired skills.
To create a learning flow, we must know two essential things: where the path begins and where the "journey" ends. A helpful analogy is to imagine a map that guides a traveler through various points of interest until reaching their final destination. The points that the student goes through represent the educational elements they must experience and overcome to learn.
It is crucial to remember that the flow should be:
- Sequential and Logical: Activities and content are presented in an order that facilitates understanding and knowledge construction. Each stage builds on what has been previously learned.
- Student-Centered: The design takes into account learning objectives, prior knowledge, and the learning profiles of each student.
- Prior Knowledge: This is characterized by fundamental, specific, and secondary.
- Learning objectives. If we don’t know “where we are going,” we will hardly reach our destination. Each objective must have a designated place in the flow.
- Learning Profiles: Individuals have different learning preferences; some are more deductive, while others are more inductive. Some understand concepts better on a global level rather than focusing on particulars, and others may prefer visuals over text.
- Diverse in Strategies and Resources: A good learning flow incorporates a variety of teaching methods, interactive activities, multimedia resources, and tools to maintain motivation and address different needs.
- Interactive and Feedback-Driven: Encourages active student participation and provides opportunities for feedback from both the instructor and the activities themselves.
- Assessment: Integrates formative assessments to monitor progress and summative assessments to measure the achievement of objectives. All aspects of the flow must be assessed, not just the knowledge (seemingly) acquired by the student.
- Clear Pathway: Allows the student to understand the process and how to progress at each step.
- Flexible and Adaptable: While structured, a good learning flow offers flexibility, allowing students to explore according to their learning profiles and acquired knowledge. It’s essential to differentiate between flexibility and malleability; flexibility means adjusting appropriate elements to achieve objectives adequately, whereas changing the objectives to appear successful is not effective.
Not long ago, a colleague expressed surprise when I explained what a learning flow is and everything it encompasses. He told me he didn’t know how he had learned what he knows; he thought that simply having learned was enough. As a teacher, he applied the same methodology (the learning map) without questioning it. When I inquired about his level of frustration with his teaching performance, he admitted it was terrible. He felt his students were increasingly unprepared each year.
When asked if he would consider changing his approach, he replied that he wasn’t paid to do that. Other colleagues commented that he was speaking a different language. Unfortunately, university teaching requires substantial prior training. We, as educators, often believe that the same learning map we've received is directly applicable to the changing realities of our students. The fact is, the learning map evolves rapidly, and no one has shown us how we can achieve great results. Ultimately, it all depends on the design of the learning flow.
Entradas
