A physics teacher is using vivid analogies in her lesson on the subject of `sound and silence’. The analogies are understood by all except two of her students. The two are wanting and willing to learn. Both fail a test at the end of the lesson.
A paper dart wings its way across a sixth-form classroom during a lesson on computer programming. The student aircraft manufacturer has nothing better to do. His knowledge and skill in computer programming puts him far ahead in the class.
Sergeant M of the Chicago Police Department is having difficulties in keeping awake. He is an unwilling participant in a course on ‘rules of evidence’ given by a lawyer.
Three children on an educational visit to a picture gallery are so tired they can’t listen to their guide anymore….
I like to explore the quality of the individual learner’s experience of a design with the help of four critical questions. The questions can be asked personally (when there are not too many students involved) or asked via a written questionnaire. The questionnaire with the four questions is given in Table 8.
Table 8: Four critical questions ( Questionnaire)
- Was there something you felt you needed in this learning experience and didn’t get?
- Would you recommend this course/lesson to someone else? (To whom? Why? Why not?)
- What is your sharpest memory of this learning experience?
- How would you rate your learning experience as a whole in terms of its effectiveness, value to you, enjoyability and efficiency?
Here are some reactions which I have met via the questionnaire in Table 8:
‘I felt a lack of personal contact between me and the teacher.’
‘The problems we were given were not sophisticated enough.’
‘Too much listening and not enough doing’.
‘I don’t want to be required to do an experiment on a frog. I need an alternative choice of experiment.’
‘We never covered this.’
‘We needed to hear theories that disagreed with the theory in this course.’
‘More coffee breaks.’
Question 1 usually brings a kaleidoscope of needs to light. Most can be related to one or more of the quadrants in the respondent’s make-up.
Recommendations and non-recommendations and no recommendations (question 2) can put a finger on the strong and weak aspects of your beautiful design! An introductory evening course on music theory is recommended for doctors because through it they can learn to listen. A course for managers on computer programming turns out to be too technical: the majority of manager participants recommend it for their assistants but not for manager colleagues.
Bad memories and good memories are the ones that persist when a course or lesson is over. Both come up in answers to question 3 in the questionnaire:
‘I felt I was on a train which stopped at every station. I disliked the `programmed’ strategy which was used.’
‘My sharpest memory is of the third reading -assignment: John Stewart Collis’ unforgettable book, Vision of Glory.’
‘I kept thinking: I wish I had had this course three years ago ….’
Question 4 makes use of our old friends the Emax Vmax Lmax E’max criteria. It’s always valuable to talk personally to students whose rating on one or more of the items turns out to be very different from that of the rest of the students. As a designer you will want to know what accounts for the difference and to find out what you can do to help the one involved.
Try out the four critical questions on yourself. Think back to yesterday, last week, last month, last year, and to the last course or lesson you were in. Did you like it? Would you recommend it? What (if anything) was wrong with it? Would you find it worthwhile to change its design? Talk to yourself with the questionnaire in mind.
With the help of information about the didactical effect and quality of the experiencing of your design, you are very nearly home. You have one more thing to do: talk to the teacher (who may be yourself) about the quality of the design. Ask questions. `Was the design difficult to install?’, `Was there much on-the-spot designing to be done?’, `Was it all worthwhile?’, ‘How would you like to teach this course or lesson again?’. Listen to the answers.
There will usually be some re-designing to be done. You will usually have to speed once more around the circle (see Fig. 1). You will be cleaning up some design decision-making made in round one. But you will be moving very fast. Your end goal and success this second time around is never very far away.
`Ching-chang-chung-chong
chong-chung-chang-ching…’
It may help to hum a tune along the way.