General Comments on the Seven Steps of Decoding the Disciplines
As Decoding the Disciplines emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s from the work of the Indiana University Freshman Learning Project, this work began to coalesce around seven basic activities that could increase student learning. These were arranged in a series of steps that instructors can follow to organize their responses to obstacles to student learning. The order in which they are presented is based on a logical sequence, but it should not be treated as a rigid prescription. Sometimes the steps can be pursued in a different order, or one can focus one or two of the steps.
Below are links to descriptions of each of the steps and examples of how they have been put to use.
- Identify a bottleneck to learning
- Uncover the mental tasks needed to overcome the bottleneck
- Model these tasks
- Give students practice and feedback
- Motivate and lessen resistance
- Assess student mastery
- Share what has been learned through the Decoding process
