Choice Menus Double the Workload for Teachers While Making Learning Less Likely
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why student choice boards and menus create more work for teachers while reducing the likelihood that students engage with the most important content.
Key Takeaways
- Choice menus multiply teacher prep - Creating multiple activity options for every assignment dramatically increases planning and grading time
- Students often choose the easiest option - Given a menu, students gravitate toward the path of least resistance rather than the most valuable learning
- Direct instruction is more efficient - A well-designed lesson for all students is often more effective than a menu of options
Transcript
A lot of people hear about choice boards and their first reaction is, wow, that sounds like a lot of work.
And it is a lot of work to come up with essentially twice as many learning activities so that students can have a choice.
So I'm not sure this is something that we need to be worrying about or putting effort into.
And I think there are a lot of concerns out there.
Brett Benson articulates really well that it's just not sustainable, that it's a menu of options that does not actually increase learning.
And I think there's a drive out there to build in student choice as if it's an inherently good thing.
And I think directionally, student choice is a good thing.
I think generally, students having some autonomy over their learning is a good thing.
But I think also as educators, we have to take responsibility for certain parts of the learning design and particularly the scope and sequence of activities that students go through.
Students don't have the expertise.
They don't know what they don't know and they don't know what they need to do in order to learn what they need to learn.
And of course, that is our job as adults to decide that for them and structure the choices so that the choices students make don't undermine their learning.
And here's the number one choice that students tend to make when we give them the option that undermines their learning.
They take the easy way out.
Look at all of these choice options.
There is almost always an easier option.
And the easier option is almost always going to produce less learning.
So why would we give students that choice?
Why would we want students to be able to say, hey, I actually don't feel like it.
I don't want to work very hard.
Give me the Quizlet.
Give me the video to watch instead of the paper to write.
Give me the easy option.
Why would we not as adults say, I'm going to think very carefully about the best way for you to learn this material.
And I think part of what's going on here is there's a misconception that students learn best when they learn in their preferred way.
That is not true.
Learning styles are a myth.
The way to design an assignment or an experience for students needs to be based on the material itself, not student preferences.
So student preferences don't get us anywhere productive.
We need to take responsibility as adults for designing learning experiences that are going to maximize learning not maximize choice as if it's the ultimate goal.
Let me know what you think.