Busywork versus Meaningful Work: What is the difference?
Lilly Conference
November 21, 2014
Matt DeLong, Taylor University
“The class had too much work, and I wish I had learned
more.”
—Student at Taylor University
“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object
of all school work is learning and to this end there must
be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and
honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to learn
is not learning.”
Avoiding overload in teaching
1. Be able to be efficient in all things
2. Express your values in how you use your time
3. Don’t hoard responsibility, share it
4. For every aspect of your teaching, find a time and
a place befitting it
5. Be short with many so that you can be long with
a few
—Paraphrasing Edison
6. Stick to your knitting, refer to other helpers when
possible
Session objectives
•
Be able to articulate attributes of meaningful
work
•
Making Time Making Change, Robertson (2003)
Be able to implement specific strategies for
In general,
•
What are some features of busywork?
•
What are some features of meaningful work?
increasing meaningful work in your courses
•
Be able to (modify or) create assignments and
activities to make them (more) meaningful
In your own work,
•
What are some parts of your work that you
consider to be busywork?
•
What are some parts of your work that you
consider to be meaningful work?
Busywork According to Students
Meaningful Work
1. Has a clear relationship between effort and
•
High effort with little or no feedback
•
Time required out of proportion with learning
•
Repeats an already mastered element
2. Has a degree of complexity
•
No specific lesson learned
3. Is autonomous
•
No thought necessary to complete
•
No interaction with material
•
No critical thinking
•
Work to just fill the time
•
Not relevant
1. Active
•
Tedious
2. Self-directed
Meaningful Work According to Students
reward
From Outliers, Gladwell (2008)
Meaningful Learning
3. Constructive
4. Individual
•
Hands-on learning
•
Assignment that applies to the lesson
•
Team-based work
•
Problems requiring creativity
•
Helps see the broad view
•
Encourages discussion of student opinions
•
Helps form new ideas
•
Relevance to life
•
Brings about personal growth
•
Meaningful feedback
•
Stretches students
•
Applicable beyond task
•
Teaching to others
1. Purposeful
•
Discovery learning
2. Efficient
•
Instructor passion for material
3. Personalized
•
Projects
4. Doable
•
Uses time efficiently
5. Inviting
•
Higher order thinking
From Various Taylor students (2013)
5. Collaborative
6. Conversational
7. Contextual
8. Emotionally-involving
9. Goal-oriented
10. Reflective
11. Abstract
12. Multiple-perspectives oriented
Hakkarainen, Saarelainen and Ruokamo (2007)
Meaningful Homework
Vatterott (2009)
Meaningful work encourages a growth mindset when it
1. emphasizes challenge, not “success,“
2. gives a sense of progress, and
Evaluating your own assignments
•
What is an assignment that you give that you think is
meaningful? What makes it so?
3. is graded for growth.
Dweck (2010)
Three Types of Learners
1. Surface
 who do as little as possible to get by
2. Strategic
•
What is an assignment that you give that you think
may be busywork, or at least perceived as such by
 who aim for top grades rather than true
students. What makes it so?
understanding
3. Deep learners
 who leave college with a real, rich
education
Deep learners…
1. Pursue passion, not A’s
2. Get comfortable with failure
3. Make a personal connection to their studies
4. Read and think actively
5. Ask big questions
6. Cultivate empathy for others
7. Set goals and make them real
8. Find a way to contribute
From What the Best College Students Do, Bain (2012)
•
How could you modify the latter to make it more
meaningful (at least in the students’ perception)?
Making work meaningful at Taylor University
Explicit student learning objectives (SLOs)
•
Subject-centered instruction (Gaier)
1. describe a desired student outcome of instruction
•
Big ideas assignment (Colgan & Case, et al.)
2. in terms of observable performance
•
Explicit student learning objectives (DeLong)
3. under given conditions.
•
Engaging reading (Gaier)
•
Writing (Bird)
•
Encouraging critical thinking dispositions (Snyder)
Make (SLOs) explicit and use to generate and connect
1. In-class activities
2. Assignments
3. Assessment
Subject-centered instruction
•
Gather students around the “grace of great
Matt DeLong, Mathematics
(Richlin, Blueprint for Learning)
things”
•
Connect the course back to the big ideas, what
they know already, and how the material is
beneficial
•
Engaging reading
1. Don’t reward surface reading
2. Explain that experts are not speed readers
Model a love for learning and make it contagious,
3. Don’t lecture over the material
which generates intrinsic motivation
4. Help students adjust reading strategies for
Scott Gaier, Academic Enrichment Center
(Palmer, The Courage to Teach)
different purposes
5. Help students adjust reading strategies for
different genres
Big questions to generate big ideas
1. What ideas got us interested in the discipline?
6. Teach students to identify the structure of an
argument
2. What are the historical controversies?
7. Help students understand the rhetorical context
3. How did the discipline develop?
8. Help students critically engage in conversation
4. Why does anyone care about this information?
Big ideas assignment
1. Reflect on the big ideas
with the author
9. Help students identify and dismantle “cognitive
egocentrism”
2. Connect the big ideas to course work
10. Teach necessary “cultural literacy”
3. Connect big ideas to disciplinary thinking
11. Teach necessary vocabulary and syntax
4. Connect big ideas to future study or life
Jeremy Case and Mark Colgan, Mathematics, et al.
(Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do)
Scott Gaier, Academic Enrichment Center
(Bean, Engaging Ideas)
Engaging writing
1. Relate the content to student’s personal
experiences or previous knowledge
2. Explain course concepts to new learners
3. Thesis supported arguments
4. Problem-posing assignments
5. Data-provided assignments
6. Template assignments
7. Assignments of unfamiliar perspectives or “what
if” situations.
8. Summaries of course lectures
9. Dialogs or argumentative scripts
10. Cases and simulations
Barb Bird, English and Writing Center
(Bean, Engaging Ideas)
Encouraging critical thinking dispositions
1. Truthseeking
2. Open-mindedness
3. Systematicity
4. Cognitive Maturity
5. Critical Thinking Self-Confidence
Steve Snyder, Psychology
Resources
1. Ambrose, Susan, et al. How Learning Works: 7
Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching.
Jossey-Bass, 2010.
2. Bain, Ken. What the best college teachers do. Harvard
University Press, 2011.
3. Bean, John C. Engaging ideas: The professor's guide
to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active
learning in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons, 2011
4. Bird, Barbara, Jeremy Case, Mark Colgan, Carol
Sisson, and Tricia Stan. “Collaborating to Improve
Student Learning: Faculty Across the Disciplines
Create a 'Big Idea' Reflection Assignment." Learning
Communities Journal, Volume 3, 2011
5. DeLong, Matt and Dale Winter. “An Objective
Approach to Student-Centered Instruction.” PRIMUS,
Volume XI, Number 1, March 2001.
6. Dweck, Carol. Self Theories: Their Role in Motivation,
Personality, and Development . Psychology Press,
Taylor and Francis Group, 1999.
7. Fink, Dee. Creating Significant Learning Experiences:
An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.
Jossey-Bass, 2003
8. Palmer, Parker. The courage to teach: Exploring the
inner landscape of a teacher's life. John Wiley & Sons,
2010.
9. Richlin, Laurie. Blueprint For Learning: Constructuing
College Courses to Facilitate, Access, And Document
Learning. Stylus Publishing, LLC., 2006.
10. Robertson, Douglas. Making Time Making Change:
Avoiding Overload in College Teaching. New Forums
Press, 2003.
11. Tomlinson, Carol Ann. How to Differentiate
Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. The
Association for Supervision & Curriculum
Development, 2001
12. Vatterott, Cathy. Rethinking homework: Best
practices that support diverse needs. The Association
for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2009.
Nine questions for developing a meaningful assignment:
1. What is the great thing that you want the students to gather around?
2. What is a “big question” or “big idea” about that thing that you want the students to engage with?
3. What are one or two student learning objectives for this assignment—what you want students to know or be able
to do?
4. What will students read associated with this assignment, and how will you help them engage the reading as deep
learners?
5. What kind of reflective, or other, writing will you have the students do to engage with this assignment?
6. What kinds of critical thinking dispositions will you encourage in this assignment, and how will you do this?
7. How will you incorporate student autonomy or choice into the assignment?
8. How will you incorporate collaboration and/or conversation in this assignment?
9. How will you assess the learning from this assignment?