Back in September 2015, The Innovative Instructor posted Do Your Students Understand the Assignment?, an article that examined the concept of transparent 
teaching. Transparent teaching helps students understand the why and how of their learning. Research from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Transparency in Learning and Teaching Project (TILT) has shown that when students understand the task, its purpose, and the criteria for evaluating their work, they are more motivated and feel the work is more relevant. The TILT website has some excellent suggestions and resources for instructors, including examples of assignments from various disciplines presented in two versions, less transparent and more transparent, for comparison.
A recent post on Teaching Tidbits, a blog sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America to keep higher ed math faculty up on advances in educational research and pedagogical practices by providing “…quality, evidence-based ideas with high impact and low time commitment that can be used by a wide audience,” examined teaching with transparency. [October 24, 2017, How Transparency Improves Learning by Darryl Yong] Although the focus is on teaching college mathematics, the key points are applicable to a range of subjects.
Yong starts by citing the work done at UNLV, noting in particular the finding that underrepresented students experienced the greatest improvement in learning outcomes when transparent teaching methods were used. Yong speculates that transparent teaching helps to level the playing field for these students.
A key to teaching more transparently is to see things from your students’ vantage points. What would they find “bewildering, frustrating or alienating?” Being transparent does not mean that you don’t expect the work to be challenging rather that you will “engage your students in a productive struggle.”
Providing instructions in more than one format is helpful. For example, you should include information on assignments in writing on your syllabus, verbally in class, and again in written form in handouts to be sure that students aren’t missing important details.
Yong says, “The amount of transparency that you provide to students depends on their maturity and the level of the course. There are times when you don’t want to be explicit about everything. For example, you don’t want to constrain their creativity by priming them with examples, you want them to struggle with figuring out what the first step should be, or you want them to be more independent in their learning.”
He concludes the post with some suggestions on transparency for mathematics courses, but even these can be translated to more general use. The concepts are:
- Be sure that students understand discipline-specific terminology.
- Be clear about the tools, applications, and resources are students allowed to use for assignments and exams.
- Explain why you have chosen a particular assignment, project, or type of exam. Connect these choices to their learning outcomes. Share strategies that successful students have used in the past for assignments and evaluations. Share rubrics when used for grading. Share examples of successful projects.
- Tell students why you have chosen the pedagogical strategies you use to teach.
- Start each class by highlighting a relevant current area of research and the people doing it. If your field has not been inclusive in the past, acknowledge that and “showcase women and people of color in these highlights to engage in counter-stereotyping.”
Teaching transparently will involve more planning and preparation for your course. It also means teaching intentionally. Improved learning outcomes and greater student satisfaction will make it worth your effort.
Macie Hall, Senior Instructional Designer
Center for Educational Resources
Image Source: Pixabay.com
I like this statement Macie:
“underrepresented students experienced the greatest improvement in learning outcomes when transparent teaching methods were used.”
In my experience, the smartest people get annoyed and frustrated by tricks, and want to see things revealed.
I think the visual method of introducing concepts is so important.
Interesting blog post.
“students understand the task, its purpose, and the criteria for evaluating their work, they are more motivated”
Yes, it’s true because when I was studying in my university teachers who taught transparently got more attention and I loved them.
As per Einstein“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” The blog rightly hit the target by bringing out the most common problem of today’s education system. It is a law of nature, if you don’t know the answer to basic question in mind:”why” and “how”, then how will one proceed in the right track? It should be the foremost duty of the teacher to tell the students about why an assignment is being issued or what the importance of it is. This law is not restricted to education only. It has its wide applications in profession also. When an employee understands the task and purpose of the work provided, he will feel motivated and can give fruitful results.