Teaching Complex Ideas by Arnold Wentzel

Author:Arnold Wentzel [Wentzel, Arnold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Figure 5.1 The ‘Sweet Spot’ of Interestingness

Source: Derived from Davis (1971)

In a dynamic learning situation, we have to push back against the obvious and disrupt students’ understanding by upsetting what the students thought they knew. Davis makes the point that something is interesting if it denies or contradicts at least one thing that the audience assumes is true. Note the use of the word ‘audience’ – students will pay attention again if an idea disrupts something that they knew. If it disrupts your knowledge (or that of other experts), it will not necessarily be interesting to students, so it is important to know your audience before trying to disrupt them.

In summary, interestingness is a process that arises from the interaction of three things: fascination (getting attention), fun (using attention), and fumbling (disrupting attention). The three processes are interdependent, so if any one of them is deficient, it will harm the effects of the other two. This interaction can be expressed by multiplication:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.