In the iconic fairy tale, the little girl Goldilocks avoids the porridge bowls that are too hot and too cold and chooses the one which is "just right." You probably never thought this simple kid's tale applied to virtual teaching, but the principle of Goldilocks can make our lessons and courses more enticing
From engineering to psychology, the Goldilocks principle can be implemented in a range of scenarios, the idea is that people generally go for the most moderate option when faced with similar choices.
Implementation of the Goldilocks Principle in Virtual Teaching
A too hot or too cold lesson plan can push the student’s interest away from the class which can impact his/her attention, interest, and overall engagement in the classroom, therefore, we should ideally create lesson plans that are “just right”.
- Too hot: When the content of the lesson is too complicated, there is excess information, and/or the presentation of the content is complex. This would adversely affect students as they need to work extra hard to get through the content and understand its meaning.
- Too cold: When the content is not enough or the content doesn’t cover enough details of the topic. In this case, the students feel that they haven’t learned anything and have wasted their time.
- Just Right: the right amount of content at the right level of difficulty.
So, how do we create lesson plans that are “just right”. Here are eight tips to help
1. Know the Students
The first step is to understand the competencies, learning level, and area of interest of the students. This will help us decide where and how to set the level of difficulty and will also help us identify how much information can be included in our lesson plan.
2. Customise the Content
We may also need to customize the content, particularly if the students come with varying competencies, learning levels, and areas of interest.
Building flexible lesson plans that can deliver a customized learning experience for each distinct group of students will help us overcome this challenge.
3. Use Microlearning
This one is especially aimed at preventing the lesson plan from being "too hot." Microlearning is a learning methodology that delivers the content in bite-sized chunks. This breaks down the overall content in a way that makes it easier for the learner to get through it and understand the topic. it is a perfect technique to use when the content of our lesson plan is complex.
4. Getting the Right Design
There are instances where the difficulty of the content is appropriate, but the content is still considered "too hot." This is often because the content is not well planned
Some of the things that can help us prevent this include:
- Using a distraction-free design which can make the overall learning experience simpler yet engaging for the students.
- Making smooth transitions between topics. Ideally, students should be able to progress through the lesson without even thinking about it, because progress is natural and obvious.
5. Make Relevant Content
Making the content relevant to the day-to-day experience of the learner will also help us get the pitch “just right” It would allow the student to understand the concept or skill they need, since they are now able to see how it blends into what they do, rather than trying to think abstractly about it.
6. Ensure There Are Plenty of Resources
Additional resources can help the students who are struggling to understand the lesson content, and they can also help those who understand it well. In the first group of students, additional information can help them understand difficult topics and can also give students something they can refer back to in the future. This reduces the immediate burden of memory and retention.
For students who have understood the content of the lesson well, additional resources can help them further explore the topic to increase their level of learning.
7. Support
It is also important to make sure there's adequate support from a real-life person. This is especially important when the topic of the virtual class is complex.
8. Make it a Learning Experience
This can be applied to various aspects of the teaching plan, particularly in activities and other interactive elements. We should think of activities and other elements as learning tools rather than tests or assessments. So, instead of saying ABC is an incorrect answer, we can explain the consequences of the answer before going on to explain a preferred or more beneficial approach.
Making our Teaching Plans Good Enough for Goldilocks
As we can see, all of the above strategies put their complete focus on students to understand their skills and tailoring the teaching plan as per their needs and competencies When we do this, we're going to have a virtual teaching lesson plan that's "just right."
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