The Center@Midway

Fink in Five

“Fink’s Five Principles of Good Course Design” (Fink, 1999) provides a set of criteria that can help guide faculty design their courses. In this 5 post series, The Center will cover each of the principles and provide faculty ideas that they can immediately apply to their teaching.  You will not use all techniques in a single class but may pick one or two approaches to use consistently.

In this first blog post, we discuss Principle 1 - Good course design challenges students to higher level learning.  Read below to learn more and then try out one of the active learning strategies suggested!

All courses require some “lower level” learning, e.g., comprehending and remembering basic information and concepts. But many courses never get beyond this. Examples of “higher level learning” include problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, and creative thinking.

Examples of Higher-Level Learning

• Require students to design a mini-lecture and take responsibility to teach or facilitate a discussion about a designated topic.
• Use the Minute Paper at the end of class to help students reflect on the content of the class session and synthesize the contents.
• Use Divergent Questions that have a diverse set of acceptable answers and avoid questions where there is only one acceptable response.
• Use Higher Order Questions that require students to apply or evaluate information and not just recall factual information.
• Use Quick Thinks that require all students to write a short (quick) response to a question that is intended to use a higher-level thinking skill. Suggested phrases that can be used: use or apply, similarity/difference, cause, implications of, connect or relate to, argument against, evidence that supports, and strengths/weaknesses of.
• Scripted Cooperation requires students to work in pairs in which one member summarizes the information presented in a lecture without looking at his or her notes, while the other provides feedback about its accuracy and completeness.

Happy Teaching!

Dr. Ellen Bloomfield

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• Message me on Teams
• Email: ebloomfield@midway.edu
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