Abstract: Guided by exemplifying video clips, students are invited to reflect on their own teaching in terms of the degree to which it builds anticipation and “comes together” in a meaningful big picture at the end of a lesson or course.

Description:

Good teaching is (among a long list of other good things) postdictable, i.e. something that is “surprising initially, but then understandable with a bit of thought.” it walks the line between predictability and chaos, and most importantly makes sense post hoc. See these posts here and here on the idea of postdiction.

Step 1:

Consider the characteristics of “postdictable teaching”:

Postdictable teaching keeps us engaged, keeps us waiting for more, the payoff as it were. And best of all, once all the pieces are in, we can’t wait to go back and review everything again, to see just how beautifully the whole thing holds together. There is a strong aesthetic component to this – a sense of wholeness, closure, elegance, and inevitability. Good poems have this quality, as do mathematical theorems. A well crafted lecture or a lesson plan has this quality as well. In my mind these ideas are closely tied to the Dewey’s idea of experience and to the idea of design. Closely connected to the idea of postdictable is the idea of creating anticipation and suspense.

However making suspense work is difficult. Navigating this line between predictability and tension over the unknown is a fine art. Check out the two videos below, which highlight just how fine the line is between succeeding at creating suspense and anticipation and failing to do so. Both of these videos are interesting and well made – both have pace and rhythm but one of them builds anticipation while the other just happens. One tells a story, the other doesn’t.

Step 2:

View sample videos and reflect on teaching:

Watch both videos and ask yourself which one “works” in this sense and which one doesn’t.

Here’s one…
Blue Thousand and One from Blue Man Group HD on Vimeo.

… and here’s another:

Music Painting by JUL & MAT from JUL & MAT on Vimeo.

So what do you think? Both these videos were cool to watch – but don’t you think the one from the Blue Man Group a tad more interesting, both in its buildup and its dénouement? Even within its short time frame, the video sets up a narrative arc and creates, something akin to a classical dramatic structure. In contrast the second video, though visually interesting through out, loses steam somewhere half-way through. The action begins to seem repetitive and the movie lacks a narrative thrust. It lacks drama.

So what does this mean for teaching?

First, everything we do as educators needs a larger goal (the big picture as it were). Too often we get lost in the minutia of of the project and forget the broader, overarching frame. The structure of our lessons, our semester, our mini-activities needs to have a larger narrative thrust, a dramatic flow. A beginning, a middle and an end. A good science activity can have them all. So can a well designed social studies activity.

Second, every thing we do as educators needs to be subservient to meeting that larger goal. The Blue Man group movie works because each frame (and musical note) is part of a larger story being played out in front of us. Not a frame is wasted. In contrast, you could take away a chunk of the second and I doubt anybody would even notice. The first is design for anticipation, for postdiction. As educators this means that we can’t give our students stupid-work (like most seat work at school) but rather every assignment needs to inform the larger picture and in turn be informed by it.

Step 3:

Written/video/audio Reflection on moving your own teaching toward postdictability:

Take something you teach (whole course, specific module/lesson) and view it under the lens of suspense and postdiction. To what extent do individual activities and content come together to a larger, meaningful whole in the end, as opposed to simply checking off covered units? If your teaching resembles the ‘music painting’ more than the ‘blue man’ video, what are concrete ways in which you may be able to move it from the former more toward the latter? Share your 3 -5 best ideas via a medium of your choice.

Examples of Student Work:

History of the Assignment: