Would You Rather: Acquiring Information

Imagine you’re at a new, highly recommended restaurant, eager to try what you’ve heard is an exceptional dining experience. As you sit down and open the menu, your excitement dims—you realize it’s a fixed menu with no options for substitutions or alterations. You’re vegetarian, and all the courses feature meat. You speak with the server, hoping for flexibility, but there are no alternatives that accommodate your dietary needs. The evening, set up for enjoyment and relaxation, instead becomes an exercise in frustration and exclusion as you watch other diners savor their meals while your choices are limited.

Now, picture a different evening at another restaurant renowned for its customizable menu. Here, you’re presented not just with a menu but a series of choices that cater to your preferences. You select a vegetarian dish and even choose a gluten-free dessert. This meal becomes a delightful experience that meets your specific needs, leaving you feeling valued and satisfied.

This tale of two dinners illustrates the power of choice. Just as in dining, when students are given the opportunity to choose paths that align with their interests, preferences, and needs, they are more likely to be engaged in the learning experience.

Just as our fixed-menu dining scenario highlights the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach, traditional classroom settings often mimic this model with lectures or mini-lessons where a teacher presents information in a uniform way to all students. This method, much like the fixed menu, may not effectively meet the diverse needs, learning preferences, and interests of every student. In this first installment of our three-part “Would You Rather” series, we’ll explore how to offer students meaningful choices about how they engage with and acquire new information.

Identifying Barriers to Acquiring Information in a Live Lecture

Before we explore the various choices we can offer our students, it’s crucial to identify the potential barriers that might make it challenging for students to acquire information during traditional lectures or mini-lessons. These barriers include language barriers or a lack of necessary vocabulary, making new content difficult to grasp. Some students may not have the background knowledge needed to understand the new information, putting them at a disadvantage from the start. The pace at which the information is presented can also make it challenging for students to stay engaged.

Cognitive factors such as memory or processing issues and attention deficit disorders can significantly affect a student’s ability to acquire and process information presented live by a teacher. Absenteeism also plays a role; students who miss school miss the content entirely, making it harder to catch up. In addition, students coming to school with personal trauma or other issues may struggle to focus during live instruction.

Understanding these challenges is the first step toward creating an inclusive classroom where every student can succeed. By acknowledging these barriers, we can better appreciate why offering multiple pathways to acquire information—much like a menu that caters to different dietary needs—is not just beneficial but necessary.

By introducing varied learning pathways, we can empower students to choose a strategy they think will work best for them. Let’s delve into how these choices can be structured to ensure all students have the opportunity to access and master the content effectively.

“Would You Rather” Options for Acquiring Information

Below are examples of “would you rather” options designed to remove barriers and help students acquire information more effectively.

Not only does offering students choice in the method they use to acquire information improve their engagement, but it also promotes self-regulation and independence. Students learn to take responsibility for their learning, becoming active participants in the lesson instead of silent spectators. They become more adept at assessing their own needs and understanding what works for them as learners. This is particularly important in a diverse classroom where students’ background knowledge, cognitive abilities, and personal experiences vary widely. Offering learning options ensures that the educational environment accommodates these differences, fostering an inclusive atmosphere where all students can thrive.

Wrap Up

I know it isn’t always possible to provide students with a choice about how they acquire information, but it is worth striving to make these options available when possible. Some students may be confident readers who enjoy engaging with texts to learn, while others may be more visual and enjoy the experience of watching a video. Some students will prefer to work alone, moving at their own pace. Others may find the experience of working with a group to unpack a text, video, podcast, study, or infographic more engaging and rewarding.

As architects of learning experiences, we must deeply understand our students and their preferences to design with them in mind. Moving away from the one-size-fits-all approach to transferring information can help students acquire new information more effectively and honor the variability in our classrooms.

In the next installment of this three-part series, we will apply the “would you rather” lens to the meaning-making process to ensure students can effectively process the new information they’ve acquired.