Decoding the Disciplines is a process intended to increase student learning by narrowing the gap between

expert An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field or area of study. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized ...

and

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

thinking. The process seeks to make explicit the tacit knowledge of experts and to help students master the mental actions they need for success in particular courses. Decoding-wheel-open-English

History

The Decoding the Disciplines approach was initiated by Joan Middendorf and David Pace, directors of the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

Freshman Learning Project from 1998 to 2010, for collegiate learning. They found a discrepancy between the content taught and the actual prerequisites for success in many courses. They attributed this to automatic, and thus untaught, processes in expert knowledge. They hypothesized that students were often provided with incomplete

conceptual framework A conceptual framework is an analytical tool with several variations and contexts. It can be applied in different categories of work where an overall picture is needed. It is used to make conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong concept ...

s, leaving them unable to tackle significant challenges.

Guiding questions in the Decoding process

The Decoding process is structured by seven questions, referred to as steps. The order of the steps is not mandatory and can be changed as needed. ; Question 1 - Where do I experience a bottleneck to learning? : Instructors (

Professors Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

Lecturers Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. ...

, etc.) identify an activity or task in their course that students are supposed to learn but often fail. The activity may be a mental activity. ; Question 2 - What do students have to be able to do to get past the bottleneck? : Instructors explore the steps that disciplinary experts go through to accomplish the activity or task identified as a bottleneck. This exploration is often carried out via a Decoding interview. ; Question 3 - How can I show students what they have to do? : Instructors may model how they accomplish these activities as an expert. In order to do so, instructors may :*perform the (mental) steps in front of your students using a subject-specific example. :*explicitly highlight critical operations. :*use metaphors or analogies for the (mental) steps. ; Question 4 - How can I give my students practice and feedback? : Often instructors provide their students with tasks or learning activities that allow students to perform the activity identified as a bottleneck and receive feedback. ; Question 5 - How can I deal with emotional bottlenecks to learning? : Resistance to the Decoding the Disciplines process is viewed as an emotional bottleneck. Instructors are encouraged to anticipate such resistances. ; Question 6 - How can I know if my students have mastered these operations? : Instructors give assessments that provide information on the degree to which students can perform the activity identified as a bottleneck. ; Question 7 - How can I share this process with others? : Instructors may share their findings informally with colleagues or more formally through publications or presentations. As of 2023 instructors and researchers have published more than 500 articles on Decoding.

Applications

The framework been explored by several researchers in a variety of disciplinary contexts including: *

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

Bihun, Joan (2018). “An Exercise to Assess Student Understanding of Bottleneck Concepts in Research Methods″, Social Psychology 77, 1121-1134.

References

External links

Decoding the Disciplines webpage

Decoding the Disciplines Wiki
Evidence-based practices Educational practices