What's the Big Idea?
Courses
tend to be detail, information, or fact rich... some more than others. By the
time a student gets to the end of a typical course he or she has
"learned" hundreds of new concepts, principles, theories, and
factoids about that topic. Frequently, immediately after the course is
finished, he or she has forgotten 90% of that material. Why does this happen?
Most
students study most material in a non-meaningful manner. They pack it in
linearly and return it to us linearly on examinations without ever having truly
processed the information internally. They are acting much like faulty tape
recorders (they make more errors) and they don't understand what they are
repeating.
When
the next course comes along, they record over all the "useless" stuff
they had to pack in from the last course. Over the span of semesters, many
ideas are covered but few are retained as meaningful knowledge by the students.
As a
result of this process, we find that students in upper level courses do not
seem to have the faintest idea of basic materials covered a semester or so
before to great detail in lower level courses. Most upsetting are the
"good" students who have taken those courses with us rather than with
colleagues. If they had been the students of colleagues, we could have blamed
their inadequacies of background on the inadequate teaching abilities of those
colleagues. Because they have been our students, we are forced to search for
other possibilities! :)
What
we see as common practice among students is the reverse of what we as teachers
want to happen. We want our students to incorporate what they have learned in
our classes into their beings. We want them to learn ideas and information as
well as the process of connecting and applying ideas in a meaningful manner. We
want them to take the ideas from our courses with them for their utilitarian
function and as enrichment for the students' lives. Unfortunately, this rarely
happens.
We
can build our courses around a framework of Big Ideas. These Big Ideas are the
principles, concepts and theories that we hope students will synthesize from
the mass of content examined during the run of the course. These are the things
that we hope students will remember in a meaningful manner for seven years or
more after the course is finished. These are the ideas we hope students will
continue to use and apply in the learning of new ideas in the future. Why seven
years? Currently the half-life of knowlege is seven years. The downside is I
can’t tell you which half is going to be debunked.
Theoretically,
the Big Ideas approach follows the theories of J. Bruner (constructivism) and
D. Ausubel (subsumption), both of which are schema based (Bartlett).
In a
nutshell schema provide a mental a mental framework for understanding and
remembering information. Bruner's constructivism involves learners building new
ideas based upon the knowledge which they already have by making meaningful
connections among ideas. Their developing connective mental models provide
meaning and organization among new and old ideas. Students are encouraged to
discover new principles and ideas and the curriculum is spiral in organization
(frequently using learning cycles).
According
to Ausubel's subsumption theory, new material is related to relevant ideas in
the existing cognitive structure. Emphasis in instruction is placed on the use
of advance organizers as a higher level of abstraction and generality than the
majority of the course content. To serve as advance organizers the most general
ideas should be presented first then new materials with more detail and
specificity should be integrated by the students with the organizing general
ideas.
In
the Big Ideas model, Big Ideas serve the purpose of advance organizers in
providing a supportive schema for the construction of meaningful knowledge
within a course.
How
do we find the Big Ideas for a particular course? It is not as easy as it
sounds. Synthesizing 12 or fewer Big Ideas (ideally 5 - 7!) is a difficult
process... especially for a beginner. NOTE: If this is difficult for us as
teachers, just how difficult is it for students to do all this synthesizing
that we expect to happen naturally?
1.
List major ideas which come to mind relative to the course. Don't get too picky
here. Just get a brief list down and set it aside.
2. Examine the text for the course:
a. Read each chapter taking detailed notes.
b. Summarize the notes on 1 side of 1 sheet of
paper.
c. Summarize again to 1/2 sheet of paper.
d. Summarize again to 1/4 sheet of paper.
e. Summarize that to 1 central theme or idea.
3. Add the idea from that chapter to your
initial list and go on to the next chapter (you can use the Big Idea model on
just a single chapter also) until the text is finished.
4. Put each idea on an individual file card.
Sort the cards into similar or related ideas. Synthesize the related ideas to
more generalized big ideas (which results in a new set of cards).
5. Once you are down to 12 or fewer cards,
you have your set of Big Ideas for your course. Congratulations! You probably
have also gained some new insight about your field! It is amazing what stepping
back to look at the big picture does for your perspective.
Now that you've found the Big Ideas, what do
you do with them?
The
Big Ideas form a framework for your course. In designing all aspects of the
course, focus on these major principles and how the minor ideas and concepts
connect to them. This keeps your eye as a learner upon the really important
concepts of your course and how these concepts integrate.
As
part of preparation of each lecture, discussion, demonstration, lab activity,
field trip, paper, etc., identify any (of your) Big Ideas as a part of the
structure for the learning exercise. Visualize the interconnections among these
Big Ideas as foundation and the new ideas to be added during the exercise. This
helps you more clearly see what must be done to construct a meaningful
understanding of the material.
Example
learning activities with the Big Ideas include but are not limited to the
following:
1.
Rewrite the Big Ideas that someone else has developed in your own words then
seek examples for those ideas from prior learning and experience.
2.
Relate the Big Ideas of this to content of previous course work they have
experience.
3.
With each new chapter read, develop hierarchical concept maps of new material
demonstrating linkages to the Big Ideas.
4.
Apply Big Ideas to scenarios (brief sets of specific information) relating to
new information or examples which you have just seen (on the news, in the
paper, in a journal, etc). Link a specified number of concepts from this course
to the scenario and describe the relationship to it. Then link as many of the
Big Ideas as you can to the scenario, again, describing the relationships.
Finally, describe links among the Big Ideas and the concepts.
5.
Determine the logic of the Big Ideas
6.
What are the stepping stones of the Big Ideas?
Assessment
use of the Big Ideas include but are not limited to:
1.
Draw concept map selected concepts and linkages to the Big Ideas.
2.
Develop concept analysis papers in which they focus on a central idea, read
related materials, then defend the central idea in an argument format using
linkages to Big Ideas as evidence where possible.
3.
Use new scenarios to test the students' abilities to work with them in the
context of the course material and the Big Ideas.
4.
The elements of thought.
5.
These big ideas can become points of view so you can start asking questions
like
What
assumptions shape this point of view?
What
information would I collect to support this point of view?
What
are the implications of this point of view?
What
concepts underly this point of view
What
questions can I ask about this point of view? Etc.
Somebodies
Big Ideas for General Biology
1.
Biological knowledge grows through observation and experimentation within the
philosophical framework which defines scientific knowing.
2.
The processes and actions of life are products of its basis in the physical
nature of matter and energy.
3.
Life exists through the controlled transduction and exchange of energy and
living order is increased as a result of the selective filtering of large
quantities of energy over time (development, succession, and evolution).
4.
Structure and function are complexly and predictably correlated forming a
system. If one part of the system is changed others must change for the system
to continue to function (systems theory).
5.
Life is controlled thorugh the structural isolation of processes (within
organelles, cells, systems, organisms) and the specific nature of molecular
activity (enzymes).
6.
Unifying characters such as the genetic code suggest a common ancestry for all
living things.
7.
Life demonstrates continuity by the controlled passage of information molecules
(DNA) from generation to generation.
8.
Life adjusts to short term change through negative feedback and homeostatic
regulation which expend energy to maintain internal conditions within
survivable limits.
9.
Life adjusts to long term change through evolution by natural selections which
results in each population having a set of tolerance limits and requirements
within which it can exist and reproduce successfully (niche).
10.
Living systems can heal minor or brief damage or injury.
11.
Secrete it, store it, or die.