Beyond “Coverage”
Teaching Disciplinary Thinking in the Introductory Course
— A History Case Study —
Presenter: Lendol Calder, Associate Professor, Augustana College
Carnegie Scholar, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
ABSTRACT
One of the most difficult challenges facing college and university instructors today is the teaching of introductory courses. Teachers of such courses find it incredibly frustrating to try to cover everything they know to be important, while students grumble that it is equally impossible to understand all the material teachers expect them to learn. But despite such complaints, a number of real and imagined constraints make it difficult for teachers of introductory courses to break away from conventional “coverage” approaches to course design. Consequently, “teaching by mentioning” continues to be the pedagogical order of the day. But when subjects get covered, what gets covered up?
What usually gets covered up is disciplinary thinking, the crucial habits of mind used by practitioners of a discipline to create inquiries, construct knowledge, and provide warrants for what scholars claim to know. Even when professors carefully model disciplinary thinking in their lectures, even when “critical thinking” is a prominent goal of the syllabus, most instructors are unaware of how a coverage approach to teaching undermines their best intentions and may even promote harmful misconceptions about the nature of their discipline.
What happens when a professor abandons “coverage,” declares independence from textbooks, pares down his lectures, and sets out to “uncover” for students the distinctive epistemology that make his field a discipline for knowing? “Beyond Coverage” is a story about what can happen when an ordinary college professor gets caught up in a new and exciting field of inquiry known as “the scholarship of teaching and learning.” It is also an argument for an innovative way of teaching that replaces “coverage” with “uncoverage,” illustrated with practical demonstrations of what “uncoverage” can look like in practice. “Beyond Coverage” is also a demonstration of how instructors can assess the value of pedagogical innovations, giving special attention to the usefulness of “think aloud” research for measuring the effectiveness of instructional designs emphasizing cognitive development.
Employing film clips, exercises, simulations, and personal narrative, “Beyond Coverage” can be presented in 1-, 2-, and 3-hour formats.
Invited presentations of “Beyond Coverage” have been given at the following institutions:
University of Kansas; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of Illinois; University of Wisconsin, Stephens Point; Rockhurst University; University of Wisconsin, Parkside; Rice University; University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Lewis University; University of Wisconsin, Superior; Youngstown State University; Baylor University; Arizona State University
For evaluations and comments on my presentations, contact:
- Daniel Bernstein, Director, The Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas. (785) 864-4199.
- Lisa Kornetsky, Director, Office of Professional and Instructional Development, University of Wisconsin System. (608) 262-5862.
The History Department at Arizona State University Presents:
The History Survey Uncovered:
A two-day Workshop with Lendol Calder, Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department, Augustana College.
“That Thing We Do” Friday, January 28, 1:30–3:30, 4403 Coor Hall
Do historians think differently from those trained in other disciplines? How does this difference affect the way we teach undergraduates? Dr. Calder will use a “think aloud” to reveal the very different ways instructors and students read historical texts, and what this means for teaching and learning in history courses.
A buffet lunch will be served from 12:30–1:30. All are welcome.
“Uncoverage as a Model for the Survey” Saturday, January 29, 10–12, 4403 Coor Hall
While many of us grapple with the problem of how to “cover” everything we feel we need to in a survey course, Dr. Calder urges us to refocus our perspective. Dr. Calder models “uncoverage,” an alternate approach to the survey course, using a course he regularly teaches as an example.
A buffet lunch will be served from 12–1. All are welcome.
Graduate students just beginning their teaching careers and seasoned faculty alike will benefit from Dr. Calder’s unique approach to teaching survey courses. Dr. Calder is a leader in the growing movement to bring scholarly modes of inquiry to teaching and learning in higher education. In 1999, Calder was chosen by the Carnegie Foundation to be a Fellow at the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Carnegie Scholars are a select group of distinguished academicians from diverse fields who are working together to invent and share new models for the study of teaching and learning at the post-secondary level. In addition to his responsibilities at Augustana College, he currently is working as a consultant for important national initiatives such as the Teaching American History Grant Program and the Quality in Undergraduate Education Project.
These Workshops are co-sponsored by the History Department’s Preparing Future Faculty Program and a Grant from the Dean’s Office, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.