Apply new ideas in small steps

Grow confidence in people by giving them one new concept at a time.

Education is normally taught in a scaffolded manner. You learn one thing, before you move onto the next thing. This is especially important when you need to apply an earlier thing to a later thing.

There are always some exceptions to this. When I was a teenager I joined an exchange program for a year. There we knew our foreign language already to some extent, but we were dropped into our exchanges and had many new things to learn. Some we could pick up more slowly: our new families, and neighbourhoods, but others were intense. You were always speaking the new language, and learning new ways of doing things in the new culture.

Immersive learning like this takes a toll and we always ended up tired for a while as we adjusted. This is still an ideal way to learn something, but isn’t always an option due to time constraints and other issues.

Find the ideal order for one idea at a time

Given the normal learning path we need to teach software engineering and development we need to organise the topics and exercises in a way that aids learning: one thing at a time. Students need to be able to focus on this one thing, and then get the next one thing and so one. Eventually they have all the pieces.

This is the ‘normal’ way we teach things. One class of three or four the students have at the time each term. It sort of works, but is not ideal. As the person in charge you need to keep adjusting the pace of new material so that it doesn’t go too fast.

Better for students is block teaching: one course for three/four weeks followed by another. This allows more focus as they only have one course at a time. It’s also hard on the staff, who are with the students all of the time. Students always think these blocks should be longer, but that’s not possible.

Immersive teaching combines the block approach with applied teaching. Take what the students know, give them a specific task/project to apply to, and then start teaching them one bit at a time. They can take this and apply it immediately to their work. This was always the most fun way to teach and students always found this the most fun course too. This is how I approached team projects: one week immersive teaching prior to them starting their work on the project with a real client. This affected how they do the work too.

Pacing is the key in normal delivery of teaching

I’ve found through experience that pacing is the key to learning. You can only introduce one new thing at a time. They are taking three or four other courses at the same time, so this is four new things a week for them.

If anything, I’ve learned that it is better to leave something out, than to try to go too fast. Less is more. By covering less, you offer them more time to embed the materials deeper. You’re the expert, so reduce your materials to the basics, the essentials. Then guide them in experiential learning so they can try it to learn it as they go through your course.

Find good paths for your people

Look for opportunities to experiment. Try to apply what you can, when you can.

Find where you can reduce the content for a slower pace. Find the parts that can be slimmed down. What might be more advanced topics that are ‘nice to know’, but will not be used by the students in later courses? Cut where you can. Discuss options with the other people you work with too.

Discuss block teaching options for some programmes. This is easy to do in postgraduate degrees where you’re in charge of the timetable and courses. It is harder if you have two start dates for the degree, but not impossible.

See what parts might be immersive. Where could you cover some material at the start of term, where this is the only course the students have at the time? Experiment and try something different. Test your ideas, so they are more than opinions.

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