CETL Archives
Book Talks Archive - Spring 2004
Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses
Authors: L. Dee Fink
Date: Friday, April 23, 2004
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Miller Center 114/115
Facilitators: Roseanna Ross (CMST) and Brad Sleeper (BLAW)
Description: Dee Fink poses a fundamental question for all teachers: "How can I create courses that will provide significant learning experiences for my students?" In the process of addressing this question, he urges teachers to shift from a content-centered approach to a learning-centered approach that asks "What kinds of learning will be significant for students, and how can I create a course that will result in that kind of learning?"
Fink provides several conceptual and procedural tools that will be invaluable for all teachers when designing instruction. he takes important existing ideas in the literature on college teaching (active Learning, educative assessment), adds some new ideas (a taxonomy of significant learning, the concept of a teaching strategy), and shows how to systematically combine these in a way that results in powerful learning experiences for students. Acquiring a deeper understanding of the design process will empower teachers to creatively design courses for significant learning in a variety of situations.
The book presents and exciting vision of what higher education might be, accompanied by practical advice on how to make that vision a reality.
About the Authors: L. Dee Fink has worked as an instructional consultant with college teachers for over twenty-five years and founded the Instructional Development Program at the University of Oklahoma in 1979. In 2002 he was elected president of the largest faculty development organization in North America, the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education. He has also written Listening to the Learner: An Exploratory Study of Personal Meaning in College Geography Courses (1977) and The First Year of College Teaching (1984), Evaluating Your Own Teaching in Improving College Teaching by Seldin (1995), and Improving the Evaluation of College Teaching in A Guide to Faculty Development edited by Gillespie. He has co-authored Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups for Large and Small Classes with L. Michaelsen and A. Knight.
