Mastery Experiences

Mastery Experiences - Overview

What are Mastery Experiences?

Mastery Experiences or performance accomplishments refer to the experiences a student has when they are learning a new skill. For example, if they try to solve a problem and get the correct answer, then they increase their confidence that they can continue to do well in solving similar problems. Similarly, they can also work in the negative direction if the student's solution is not correct. These experiences are one of the strongest correlated to self-efficacy. Therefore, in teaching it is important to provide several sources of mastery experiences at different levels of difficulty.

Teaching Practices for Mastery Experiences

Providing good mastery experiences is more than just doing a lot of example problems. You need to first lay the groundwork to motivate the students at the start of the semester and then use experiences that include active learning throughout the semester. The following contains an outline of teaching practices you can use with links to more information on separate pages.

Motivate Students

Setting up class objectives and why they are taking course
Show how course relates to future career
Construct flowchart for course
Help students link class behaviors to course performance
Help students set their own course goals
Establish course norms with students

Active Learning

Use Active learning strategies in class
Provide students with material ahead of time (and get them to prepare)
Introduce/model new skill and provide practice in class
Structure skills into distinct subsets
Give frequent focused feedback
Use student meta-cognition
Conduct a course alignment

Mastery - Motivate students

Some students taking a course just want to get a grade out of the course at the end. If the grade is their only motivator then it will be more difficult to get them to engage and learn the material in the course. By taking a little time at the start of the semester to show how the course is related to their future career you can begin to shift their focus and provide more motivation for class activities.

Examples

Setting up class objectives and why you are taking course

The following are slides I show in my CV ENG 3600 course that show the class objectives, ask why they are taking CV ENG 3600, and have them think about the investment in their learning. While presenting the slides I mention how this course is going to help them learn skills that will be important to their future career.

Show how course relates to future career

Most students have a future in engineering in mind. If you can point out how your course is going to help them in that future career then they will be more motivated to do well in the course. This can be some general information, but if possible, it is good to have "experience" stories from former students. I have had previous students come back and share how they really appreciated learning something in a course because it helped them in a project for their job. Be specific in the story if you can.

Construct Flowchart for course

A course flowchart is a great way to lay out the entirety of the course at the beginning of the semester and show how the course activities tie into the learning objectives. A good flowchart will show how pieces of the course come together, highlight key assessments (exams or homework), and be able to explain the rationale of why the course is set up in the way that it is. The flowchart can also contain a timeline to show key due dates. By seeing the relationships between the course objectives and activities the students may feel more motivated to complete the activities. The following is an example flowchart for my Structural Dynamics course. While it lacks a timeline, it helps the students understand why they are learning about unrealistic SDOF systems at the start of the course. I have found this improves the student's motivation to learn about these systems.

Help students link class behaviors to course performance

Some students just really are not sure how to get from the material to the grade and skills that they want at the end. I have sent out this a behavioral survey to help show students certain behaviors they can use to help them improve in the course. I developed this survey in part from a previous one in which I asked the students how did they study. I found the the higher achieving students did several of the items I mention in the survey. By knowing how the "better" students do it, the other students may feel motivated to attempt the same techniques.

Help students set their own course goals

If students are involved in setting their own goals then they are more motivated to accomplish them. You can use some of the previous examples to help guide the students to encourage them to set their own goals. The goals can follow the DAPPS formula (Dated, Achievable, Personal, Positive, Specific). This formula helps the students set goals most likely to allow them to reach their desired outcomes.

Establish course norms with students

Most of the time the professor sets the rules for the class. But students will feel more empowered if they are given a voice in the rules (class norms) as well. This helps the students see the motivation behind the rule, but also helps them feel like they have a say in the class. The rules don't just apply to the students, they can be rules for you as well. Take a few minutes in class to work out the class norms together. Some example discussion points are:

Penalty for late work or arriving late
Lack of preparation
Answering questions in class
Email rules (how long to reply)

Mastery - Active Learning

Active learning is when students actively participate in the class. Rather than being simply observers of the information presented by the professor, the students are engaged with the learning. This can take the form of solving problems together in class or participating in class discussion. Active learning pairs well with the flipped classroom concept where instructional material is given to the students ahead of class time and most of the class time is spent on problem solving and discussions. Some of the benefits of active learning are:

Provides mastery experiences - because the students are doing the activity then they are building their confidence at that activity
Show to improve student learning, especially with underrepresented groups - because the students are active (rather than passive) what they learn "sticks" better
Helps the students fins common mistakes / misconceptions - roadblocks to solving a problem can be identified can corrected quickly so students don't get so frustrated
Helps students take ownership of their learning - students feel more empowered when they are doing it

However, there are some challenges to implementing active learning in your class. You will need to think about these and determine ways to overcome them for your class. Some examples to address these challenges are provided in the teaching practice examples.

Lack of student preparation
Student attitudes (if instructor isn’t talking they are not teaching)
Students not used to self-learning (high school taught them to cram and memorize)
Non-conducive classroom space (difficult for groups to work together)
Poor group dynamics
Poor faculty preparation
Problems for part-time students to find time outside of class

When thinking about your active learning it is important to keep in mind Bloom's taxonomy. If your active learning is at the lower levels (understand or apply) yet you give exams and homework at higher levels (analyze, evaluate) then you are not providing the needed mastery experiences. You need to ensure that you incorporate activities that correspond to the level required in your assessments.

Examples:

The following are some examples of how to incorporate some active learning in your class.

Think-pair-share (in class group work)
Quick write (one-minute paper)
Muddiest Point
Turn and Talk
Polling
Peer teaching
Group quizzes (individual and group quiz – students can keep average score)
Project based learning and case studies

Many of these active learning practices can be accomplished through student response systems (iClicker). The student response system provides the ability to maintain student attention during lecture, promote student engagement, encourage participation from everyone in the class, and allows me to check for student understanding live during class.

See the following sites for more information on active learning

https://teaching.berkeley.edu/active-learning-strategies

https://blogs.uco.edu/tts/10-active-learning-techniques-in-engineering/

https://crlt.umich.edu/active_learning_implementing

Mastery - Student Preparation

By getting students to prepare for class ahead of time your can spend more of the class time on active learning activities. Student preparation usually consists of lower level cognitive work such as reading from a chapter, review slides or videos, or working on some problems. The main problem is getting students to actually prepare for class. The following are some suggestions/techniques that can be used to motivate the students to prepare. Most of these work in conjunction with the beginning of the semester student motivation.

Establish “what is in it” for them – Student buy-in

Use case story/stats that they care about and present learning as something they will want to do
Involve students in planning tasks
Link to assignments, exams, grade, overall career goals
Use metacognitive approaches (so they understand why they are doing something) – more later…..
Provide incentive (grade preparation (pass/fail) so they know you are checking)

Make preparation do-able

Require short amount of time ( 1 hour)
Have available support (decision tree or flow chart for problem solving, templates, references…)
Minimal negative consequences
Identify similar tasks students already know
Provide self-checking options (checklists, rubrics, sample assignments)

Make positive results visible

Show good role models (someone they respect experience success)
Praise efforts rather than correctness

Reinforce good habits

Immediate consequences if they do or don’t prepare – help see connection between prep and that day, not some exam down the road
Quiz or group activity they must be prepared for
Keep processes similar between class periods

Resources for additional information:

https://ctl.iupui.edu/Resources/Classroom-Management/Tips-for-Getting-Students-to-Prepare

Set expectations – classroom norms

Make relevance explicit

Assess students

https://www.bellarmine.edu/docs/default-source/faculty-development-docs/10-motivating-students-to-come-prepared-to-class.pdf?sfvrsn=62a09081_2

Make prep relevant, valuable, doable

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/get-students-come-class-prepared/

CPA assignments – pass fail, one to turn in one to use for discussion

Mastery - Introduce and Practice

Much of engineering is about learning to solve problems or understanding how certain processes work. For this type of learning a introduce and practice approach can work well. The basis of the approach is just like it sounds and probably similar to what you are already doing. However, adding to the approach by establishing the "why we are learning this" at the beginning and providing active learning activities will help improve student understanding.

The active learning cycle is a beneficial tool to help students learn the material. The cycle is comprised of

Concept exploration - an exploratory activity to get students thinking about the problem - establishes "need to know"

Concept Introduction - introduce problem solution method and show some easy examples

Concept Application - use active learning techniques to allow student to solve the problem themselves, increase problem difficulty/complexity

Mastery - Structuring Skills

Structuring skills into distinct subsets is one of the easiest yet most powerful ways you can include mastery experiences in your teaching. We are often adapt at structuring skills to solve problem, but students are not used to it. They may not have been exposed to complex engineering problems and need practice and guidance.

For example think of writing a computer program. If it is a rather complex program you can't write the whole thing in one go. You first think about the sub-programs that are needed and how they can work together to solve the problem. Then you think about the steps in the sub-program. You write an easy/basic version, see if it works, then add more nuances to it (i.e. ability to handle different conditions, etc). Once you work out all the subs, then you can assemble and refine the entire program.

Structuring skills is much the same way. Think about the complex problem that needs solving. Break that problem up into manageable chunks that the students can learn. In each chunk make sure to start out small - the easy version - before adding more nuances or complications. Repeat for all the steps to the problem...and the problem is done!

Start out small

When learning a new skill, it is easier to learn it in steps. The first step or example problem should be relatively easy. Students will build their confidence knowing that they can solve the easy version. Then you can add more complications to the problem until you reach the level of problem you would want the students to be able to solve.

Breaking down the problem

Most problems in engineering are complex. As proficient engineers we can see the problem and break it down into the pieces that are needed. Students are not as adapt at this. They are not sure how to get from the start of the problem to the solution, yet it is a skill they need to master. There are many ways to provide some help with this skill

Break it down for them - use a series of steps in your questions (parts a,b,c, etc) that will help guide the student

Provide a general process - if most of your problems use the same steps, write out those steps so that students can use them to solve the problem

Provide practice - During your active learning provide practice for student to break down the problem (i.e. what would you do first to solve this - why?)

Mastery - Feedback

A key component of mastery experiences is providing feedback to the students. This helps the students know that they have accomplished their learning goals or lets them know what areas to work on. It is important that the feedback be:

Educative in nature - rather than just taking points off let the student know what they did wrong and how to do it correctly the next time

Timely - feedback that is given too long after an assignment is turned in is not very effective

Student centered - the feedback should focus on the needs and skills of the student

While we often give feedback in terms of what a student did wrong, it is also important to provide positive feedback - let the student know what they did well!

Providing feedback can be time consuming so the following are some suggestions on how to give feedback that will save you time.

Using a rubric

A rubric is a great way to provide consistent feedback for students - and even better you can give it to the students beforehand so they know how the assignment is to be graded.

Another benefit to rubrics is that you can analyze the results (how many of the students did an excellent job on a particular part of the rubric). This helps let you know areas to work on in your instructions.

Mastery - Meta-cognition

Student meta-cognition is about students learning how they learn. But getting students to actually think about their learning (what works and what does not) you can help them refine their learning to the goals of the course. This will not only improve the student's comprehension of the material, but also help them become more efficient learners and save them time.

Please see this document that gives some more information on meta-cognition and some activities you can do in your class: https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/instructors/teaching-resources/cultivating-reflection-and-metacognition.html

For some additional examples:

Exam Wrapper

Exam wrappers can be given when an exam is returned and helps students identify patterns of error and adjust their study habits. For additional information see: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/examwrappers/

Critical Incident Questionnaire

Similar to the exam wrapper, the CIQ is a list of questions that helps students identify what does and does not work in their learning. However, the CIQ can be given at anytime. For an example see: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5738a0ccd51cd47f81977fe8/t/5750e567f699bbceac6e97f5/1464919400130/CIQ.pdf

Establish growth mindset

Help students persist in their studies by changing their mindset from fixed (intelligence is fixed) to growth (intelligence is changeable). See this document for a report on a study on establishing a growth mindset in engineering students.

Mastery - Course alignment

Course alignment means that that the course goals, learning objectives, and activities/assessments are aligned (related) to each other. A good course alignment helps students see where all the pieces fall into place and helps to build a scaffold that they can use to further their learning.

Set up course goals/outcomes

The first step is to set up your course goals or outcomes. Powerful outcomes are:

Are student centered
Are observable and actionable
Are specific
Include a range of cognitive levels
Are aligned to course activities and assignments

Set up learning objectives for each chapter/module

Next you can think about the learning objectives for each chapter or module. You want to make sure these objective fit with the overall course goals - there is a connection! Again, it is important that the learning objectives hit the cognitive levels you want the students to have.

Align course activities and assessments with objectives

Finally take a look at your course activities and assessments. They should be connected to your learning objectives and hitting at the same cognitive levels. You can't teach at one cognitive level and expect your student to perform at another.

Mastery - Misc

The following gives some additional ideas that you can use to include mastery experiences in your class

Questioning Techniques

How to get students to respond when you ask a question

Need a compelling topic – students should be interested
Need to start questioning the first day of class
Think about your questions and level of question beforehand – have a plan!
Q100 – start with an easy question to get students talking
Use wait time
Call on students, rotate responses
Use a game
Use groups – students discuss in group and group give response
Your response should provide reinforcement, more probing, or adjustment/refocus

Resources

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/questioning-strategies

https://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/energy-and-the-polar-environment/questioning-techniques-research-based-strategies-for-teachers

https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2012/11/questioning-top-ten-strategies/

Model Instruction Strategy

The following outline gives a model instruction strategy developed by ASCE's ExCEED program. It relies on a feedback loop and application of knowledge.

Just in Time Teaching

Promote use of class time for more active learning

Students complete activities (warm-ups, problems, discussions) ahead of time before class

Professor reviews and adapts lesson as needed

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/just-in-time-teaching-jitt/

Discussion boards

Way to stimulate engagement (esp. for asynchronous class)
Works well for ~15-30 students
Need to communicate expectations, and provide wrap-up (students see it was read)
Structure expectations (deadline, content, length)
Require meaningful responses
Provide formal and measurable feedback

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