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Goals & Objectives:
In general, hypothetical discussions are on the upper end of Bloom's taxonomy.
Students usually analyze and/or evaluate a given situation. Action verbs
in objectives include appraise, synthesize, evaluate, recommend, interpret,
compare, etc.
Prerequisites:
The answer
to this question will vary depending on the needs of the lesson. In most
cases, the students will need at least an intermediate knowledge of the materials
being discussed. Such an activity is usually performed after having completed
readings on a topic so that students can put that knowledge into practice,
but in ethics discussions, the discussion could look at prior knowledge and
beliefs.
Materials and Resources:
What needs to be prepared in advance by the teacher? - The instructor should
have all discussion questions prepared ahead of time. Furthermore, a
rubric for grading the activity based upon potential student answers should
be developed.
What does the student need to bring to the lesson? - Complete prior readings.
Guiding Questions for this Activity:
Is there a main question being answered by the lesson? Usually, a hypothetical
activity is getting students to evaluate knowledge that has been developed
during a unit. The questions may be in the form, If A then what if B or why
B or why not B. The questions posed serve to guide the discussion deeper
into a given topic and to look at student understanding of that topic.
Activity Outline and Procedure:
- Questions or situations are posed to the student.
- The students then analyze
the given situation. Multiple situations should be proposed, usually
about 3-5 students per question.
- Initially, answers can be private or public
depending on needs. At a set time, answers are shared and open to peer
review for a given time period during which further analysis into the
pros and cons of each argument for a given solution, action, or analysis
of the hypothetical can be provided.
- In the end, the instructor supplies a summary with analysis of the hypothetical
arguments presented by the students.
Teaching Strategies:
What are some tips to help the lesson run smoothly? A difficulty with hypothetical
situations is for the teacher to wait until the students counter-post for
or against an initial student analysis of the hypothetical. Instructor postings
tend to squash further development in the given hypothetical discussion thread.
Accommodations:
What accommodations may be needed for students with disabilities or other
special needs? This lesson requires few if any accommodations. Most text
to speech and speech to text programs can function within most asynchronous
discussion tools. The bandwidth requirements are also low.
Timeline:
Typically, about 3 days should be provided at a minimum between the time
a question is posed and the time an answer is required. Then an additional
3 days can be given for counter analysis. It is also possible for this activity
to be done synchronously though, in order to get student's initial reaction
to a situation rather than a well formulated answer.
Ideas for Activity Evaluation and Teacher Reflection:
How did the students like the lesson? End of semester evaluations should
ask about the usefulness and learning accomplished through such activities.
How was student learning verified? An assessment should be performed on
the quality of both the initial response by students, and any counter responses.
Furthermore, retention of the knowledge should be tested by students ability
to build on this knowledge with later units.
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