Here are a few examples of Small Teaching in a media production classroom:
- Before receiving any instruction, ask students to predict whether a camera’s aperture would need to be large or small in order to produce shallow focus
- At the start of a session, ask students to remind the class what you covered in the previous session, including technical information and conceptual point
- While demonstrating software, take a break every 10 minutes and ask a question about what you’ve just covered, including terminology and techniques
- When discussing sound design, invite students to reflect on sounds that have been meaningful in their own lives – music, nature, someone’s voice, a squeaky door, etc.
What do all of these examples have in common? They are small, practical changes that can have significant, lasting impacts on learning for our students.
Small Teaching is an evidence-based approach to pedagogy coined by James Lang, professor of English and Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College. The approach draws from the findings of learning science to offer teaching strategies that apply across disciplines.
Small Teaching, like inclusive teaching, is really just good teaching. The more we can reach and engage all of our students, the more effectively they will learn. Small Teaching offers benefits that improve learning across student backgrounds, skill levels, and identities, but can be particularly powerful for first-generation college students and students who haven’t had access to sufficient preparation for college.
So, how does it work?
The suggestions provided here operate on a couple different principles from learning science. One is the retrieval effect, which is simply the idea that we learn better the more we practice retrieving information. So, the more we quiz students on, say, the functions of the Canon 7D or the ingesting workflow for Adobe Premiere or the proper settings on a Zoom audio recorder, the more likely they will lodge that information permanently in their memories.
And, “quizzing” need not be formal (though it can be) – it can be as simple as asking the class to recall the information. And then doing it again. And again.
Another principle at play in these suggestions is that of prediction. As Lang states, “making predictions about material you wish to learn increases your ability to understand the material and retrieve it later” (43). As long as the student receives the correct answer in the end, this kind of learning works even when the prediction is wrong.
The reasons it works can be complex, but in a nutshell, prediction is effective because it activates the web of knowledge the student currently possesses. The learner draws on previous knowledge and seeks to connect that knowledge to other familiar concepts to arrive at an answer. Even if the predicted answer is wrong (because the needed concepts are missing in this web), the learner is now prepared to insert the correct answer into a rich and active network of information. This approach encourages deeper understanding and longer-lasting retrieval because the student is prepared for the learning in a more engaged way than they might be when presented with the same information as a blank slate.
Here are a couple other ideas for Small Teaching in media production:
- Ask students to generate a concept map. A good concept map not only lays out different concepts or information that relate to one another, but demonstrates HOW they relate. So, for instance, students could draw out the relationship between shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and depth of field and explain how one impacts the others. Here’s an example.
- Do pre-tests and post-tests on course topics. Try giving a low-stakes, ungraded quiz on, for example, narrative structure before you cover it in class. Test the students on conflict, turning points, climax, three-act structure, and so on. Then, teach the material. When you’re done, give the same quiz again. This strategy accomplishes a few things: one, it works as another kind of prediction tool and as retrieval practice for students. But, it can also let you as an instructor know where students are really understanding the material and where they still might be struggling so that you can make adjustments where necessary.
More resources:
James Lang, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (book)
James Lang, Small Teaching: Lessons for Faculty from the Science of Learning (article)
Retrieval Practice (website)
Jennifer Proctor is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Screen Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and co-founder of EDIT Media.
