Difference Maker: Enacting Systems Theory in Biology Teaching

"Rarely have I been so convinced by the power of a new theoretical underpinning for a pedagogical technique such as the one presented here."

—Helen Darlington, (in School Science Review – issue 393).

From the author of Biology Made Real, Difference Maker reveals how to teach with students rather than merely teach to them. Without slides or worksheets, it shows how to provoke understanding through diagrams and dialogue – bringing forth a distinct teaching approach.

Downloaded the first chapter for free here.  

Inside you’ll find:

• The recursive teaching model. An evidence-and-theory informed model for co-constructing meaning with students rather than just telling them or having them discover alone.

  

• Detailed examples of real lessons. The exact diagrams I’ve drawn in lessons and how I’ve built them step by step with students. Plus the questions I’ve asked, at what point in the lesson, and why.

  

• A theory-informed how-to guide for planning explanations. How to explain biological concepts by applying the variation theory of learning and enactive cognitive science. The resulting heuristic cuts planning time while vastly improving students’ understanding.
  

• A theory-informed how-to guide for adaptive teaching. Adapting is essential in the moment as you never know how students will interpret a new explanation. With an original model for productive conversation, I unveil the types of questions that generate understanding and rich feedback for the teacher. These looping conversations trigger a coordinated co-regulation between teacher and students, ensuring mutual understanding before moving forward.

  

• A theory-informed how-to guide for co-constructing stock and flow diagrams. There are several benefits: 1. building these models clarifies your understanding to yourself and your students, and 2. teaching becomes more conceptual, conversational, adaptive, and enjoyable. I show how to read, design, and teach with them through detailed lesson examples. Plus an appendix of 37 diagrams I’ve used with my classes.

  

• A new model of curricular content: metacontent. The curriculum is not just a list of content of equal weight. There are fundamental ideas that give meaning to the rest of the curriculum. By including this metacontent in teaching, a shared way of seeing and talking about our subjects emerges.

  

  • The first type of metacontent I explain is a set of principles that I share with students and discuss during every topic. These unifying principles avoid the feeling that biology is just a lot of facts to learn.

  • The second type is understanding understanding itself. I share a taxonomy of understanding that allows students to grasp what I expect of them in every topic. I provide example sentences for each level of understanding, questions I’ve asked to test my students’ understanding, and answers my students have given.

• A way of seeing and being. Rather than a training manual with activities to follow, this book provides teachers with a new conception of teaching, learning, and acting together in the classroom. The novel insights of Difference Maker will inevitably change your perception.

Free first chapter here.

See it in store: Amazon UK, Amazon USA, Kobo, Barnes & Nobel, Apple Books, SmashWords, Google, etc.