Why use Just-in-Time Teaching
"Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues." - Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, 1984
Just-in-Time Teaching Enhances Student Learning
One of the most compelling reasons to use Just-in-Time Teaching is that it improves student learning (Novak & Patterson, 1998). Presumably this is a result of increasing the amount of time students spend studying course material outside of class (Astin, 1993; Bransford, et al. (eds.), 2000), providing students with feedback about their learning on a very short time-scale (Angelo & Cross, 1993), and helping instructors to identify and address student misconceptions (Science Teaching Reconsidered, 2004). In particular, you can design JiTT exercises to help students- start thinking about the readings before class begins, therefore coming to class better prepared.
- apply course information to solving real-world problems.
- develop and practice writing skills.
- feel a sense of control over their learning, as they get nearly immediate feedback.
Just-in-Time Teaching Motivates Students to Learn
Students are better motivated to learn, and consequently learn more, when they see course material as being relevant and useful (Bransford, et al. (eds.), 2000).- Just-in-Time Teaching can be used to illustrate the relevance of course material through web-based enrichment pages often called "Good Fors" - as in, what is this material good for? (Novak & Middendorf, 2004).
Just-in-Time Teaching Benefits the Instructor
Improving student motivation to learn is an obvious benefit to the instructor. As an instructor, you can also be more confident that your class time is well-spent, addressing topics that are confusing your students while not spending precious time on topics they've already mastered.- The JiTT exercises provide a feedback loop between students and the instructor in a short time frame. This gives the students a sense that the course is fresh. Instructors who use JiTT in their classrooms also credit it with increasing the quality of their interactions with students. (Novak & Middendorf, 2004).
- The instructor can see if there are any misconceptions about the course content that require extra discussion time in class.
- The instructor can assess students' prior knowledge of content with each exercise.
- Instructors can use JiTT to collect formative feedback on the topic of the week (did students find it challenging to understand, did they enjoy reading about the subject, should additional time be spent in class on the topic, etc.).
JiTT can be used to see what attitudes and interests your students have coming into your courses. Laura Guertin who teaches geology at Penn State Delaware County designs a set of web-based questions for students to answer right after the first day of classes. Students are asked: 1) Why did you sign up for this course; 2) What do you hope to learn in this course - in other words, what knowledge do you hope to get out of this course by the end of the semester; and, 3) Take a look through the syllabus. What one topic are you looking forward to learning about the most? Why? Are there any topics not on the syllabus you were expecting to learn about? Explain.
These questions provide very interesting responses and assists an instructor in immediately clarifying student misconceptions about the course early in the semester - one of the most common misconceptions being that geology is rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
These questions provide very interesting responses and assists an instructor in immediately clarifying student misconceptions about the course early in the semester - one of the most common misconceptions being that geology is rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
