Volume 10, Number 3: January 15, 2004
Book Review
Creating Significant
Learning Experiences:
An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses,
L. Dee Fink, 2003. Jossey-Bass.
Reviewed by Jonathan Paver,
Instructional Designer,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
For several years, I have been on a professional journey focused on exploring ways to make teaching impact the lives of students. This journey has involved the discovery of new teaching strategies and methodologies that engage students in the active pursuit of learning, which has caused me to reflect upon the experiences and teachers that continue to have an impact on my vision of teaching and learning. Although I have taken many steps and explored many paths on this journey, the end of the journey is not yet in sight. However, a recent publication has served as an excellent guidebook. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses by L. Dee Fink offers not only a vision for creating learning experiences that are significant in the lives of students, even years after graduation, but also offers a course design model to support the development of these learning experiences. Fink perceives two significant problems within higher education today: underdeveloped learning goals that go little further than understand-and-remember types of learning, and the over reliance on lecture and discussions as teaching activities. Fink provides a new vision of what teaching and learning can be, based on the concept of significant learning, the structure of integrated course design, and the need for better organizational support. Fink begins by focusing on creating significant learning experiences. He states that, "If we can find ways to identify and create learning experiences that students and other can agree are truly significant, we will have made important progress in our effort to improve the quality of higher education." (p. 6). Currently, we are at a time in higher education where research and teaching experience are pushing forward a new paradigm calling for new kinds of learning and new forms of teaching. For Fink, the key for faculty who are looking to improve teaching is to learn about course design, an area where most faculty have had little formal training. Fink's taxonomy of significant learning serves as the foundation for the integrated course design model that he presents later in the book. This taxonomy includes six categories (foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn) that dynamically interact to create significant learning experiences. The taxonomy is then used as a basis for creating learning goals for courses, thus creating a learning-centered paradigm for course design as opposed to the more traditional content-centered paradigm. This paradigm must be supported by designing and creating a unique learning experience within our courses. Fink provides a working course design model that is readily applicable to new or existing courses as he details the three phases of his twelve step integrated course design process. In the initial phase faculty build strong primary components by analyzing the situational factors in the teaching situation, developing learning goals, formulating good feedback and assessment procedures, developing the teaching and learning activities, and making certain the primary components are integrated. In the intermediate phase, faculty assemble the components into a coherent whole by creating a thematic structure for the course, selecting or creating a teaching strategy, and integrating the course structure and the instructional strategy to create an overall scheme of learning activities. In the final phase, faculty finish the important remaining tasks by developing the grading system, debugging the possible problems, writing the course syllabus, and planning an evaluation of the course and of your teaching. To help understand how this model is used, Fink presents a case study in which he worked with a physics professor at his institution and applied the principles of integrated course design to promote significant learning experiences. The case study tracks the process over a period of two semesters and details the experience of a faculty member as he changes the way he teaches. Additionally, Fink addresses the need for organizational support for faculty who will spend time and effort to learn new ways of teaching. This support needs not only to come from colleges and universities, but also from national organizations, accrediting agencies, funding agencies, and disciplinary associations. Those who decide to do something
different with their teaching will benefit from the detail and organization
of the course design process that is presented in this book. On the
companion web site, Fink offers a self-directed guide that is an equally
valuable tool as you work through this process. L. Dee Fink is the founding
director of the Instructional Development Program at the University
of Oklahoma who has worked as an instructional consultant for over twenty
years. His observations of classroom teaching of hundreds of faculty
members, individual consultations, and his teaching experience provide
the basis for the ideas of this book. |