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 TLT Group PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS WEB PAGE THIS PAGE JUMPS TO STEVE GILBERT'S "DASHBOARD" http://www.tltgroup.org/BHW/Collections/Examples/BHWs/Sampling/Intro.htm If your browser is not automatically redirected to the new page, click on the above URL. |
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"Anupholsteraphobia": the fear of not covering the material |
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Every teacher makes sampling decisions about almost every aspect of teaching and learning: selecting a group of topics, a group of students' responses, some portions of students' work, some individual students, etc. to deal with as a meaningful representative of the full collection of such items or people. For example, during a traditional classroom discussion, a teacher may invite only a few students to respond to a few questions about a reading assignment that was to be completed in preparation for the class.
Traditionally this has applied primarily to choices about topics to be
covered
in assigned readings, discussions, laboratory work, and classroom presentations
within a course. However, educational conditions are changing so that teachers
and learners have many more choices about what, how, and when to learn and to
teach – and about what, how, and when to interact with each other. The sampling
decisions have become more important and more dangerous to leave to old habits
and assumptions that may no longer apply.
Conclusion/Recommendations
Click here for more detailed conclusion, recommendations.
Click here for other "Dangerous
Discussions" topics/questions for faculty, administration, and staff
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Definitions: Sampling – Encarta Dictionary 2005
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Definitions: Covering – Encarta Dictionary 2005
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Definitions: Anupholsteraphobia Anupholsteraphobia cannot be cured, but it can be controlled." - From "Discipline and Publish: Faculty
Work, Technology, and Accountability," Randy Bass, Georgetown University,
Plenary address delivered at the AAHE Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards,
San Diego CA, January 22, 1999. |
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Sampling vs. Covering –
Setting Reasonable Limits for Interaction in a Course Every instance of educational assessment is also a “sampling” – a sampling of someone's accomplishments. How could a student possibly demonstrate complete mastery of every item or element of any course - unless the scope of that course is trivially narrow? So, teachers find ways of sampling students' learning. And good students find ways of sampling their own learning. Teachers or others may sample a students' learning to evaluate or certify that learners' progress. Or the sampling may be used to develop recommendations or resources for improving that student's learning. Or the sampling may provide feedback that enables teachers to improve their courses – either within the current academic term or in subsequent offerings of the same course. At the same time that more attractive options are becoming available for teaching and learning “online,” the pressures are increasing to take advantage of those options in college courses. Within the last few years most teachers and learners have also been making “sampling decisions” about the kinds and frequency of their interactions with each other. Many of these decisions are being made out of habit, without conscious deliberation. Others are made conscientiously -- even painfully – but without the benefit of much relevant experience, research results, theory, or guidance. As information overload has become commonplace and the accumulation of knowledge in most fields has accelerated, teachers can almost never include everything relevant in a course. Teachers decide which topics to “cover,” which to omit entirely, and which to leave for students to learn in other ways. In most courses, what is covered is a thoughtful sampling. [I recognize that “cover” is a problematic term, but hope that it is adequate for the purposes of this argument.] Similarly for learners. Most students cannot give their complete attention to every element of every course. If a teacher can actually "cover" everything in a course that matters, then either the course is too narrow or the covering too shallow. Most instruction begins with the selection of a few items by a teacher. No course can include everything relevant and important unless that course has been limited to an inconsequentially small universe. Every interaction between learners and teachers can only touch a sample, a selection of items or elements of a course. No teacher can provide constant encouragement, motivation, or guidance for any learner. Constant feedback is neither feasible nor desirable among human beings.
Conclusion/Recommendations
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Discussion Activity - Key Questions for Class Size
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Also, see queries developed about Education, Technology, and Change. See: <<http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/QuakerQueriesIWswg2-19-01.htm>>
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