What the student does - teaching for enhanced learning

1. It’s not what teachers do, it’s what students do that is the important thing. (@biggs2012, 44)
2. The students are “entrapped” in this web of consistency, optimising the likelihood that they will engage the appropriate learning activities. (@biggs2012, 45)

• Constructive Alignment: Biggs introduces the concept of constructive alignment, where teaching, learning activities (TLAs), and assessment tasks are aligned with learning objectives to ensure students engage in deep learning.
• Student-Centered Focus: Effective teaching emphasizes what the student does, shifting away from teacher-centered strategies. The goal is to engage students in meaningful, higher-order learning activities.
• Approaches to Learning: Biggs highlights the difference between surface and deep learning approaches, originally described by Marton and Säljö (1976). Surface learning is linked to rote memorization, while deep learning involves understanding and connecting concepts.
• Levels of Teaching: Biggs outlines three levels of teaching:
  1. Level 1: Focuses on what the student is (blame-the-student model).
  2. Level 2: Focuses on what the teacher does (teaching techniques).
  3. Level 3: Focuses on what the student does to achieve learning outcomes (constructive alignment).
• Teaching Implications: Good teaching “entraps” students in a web of learning activities that promote deep engagement, using objectives expressed with verbs indicating levels of cognitive activity.

Biggs, J. (2012). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 31(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2012.642839