Using the Decoding The Disciplines Framework for Learning Across the Disciplines New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Number 150

Decoding the Disciplines, a program designed to help instructors increase learning in their courses, provides a framework for identifying and remedying course elements that are most problematic for students. Decoding is a seven-step process in which instructors:

1. identify a bottleneck of learning,
2. make explicit the mental operations required to overcome the obstacle,
3. model the required steps for students,
4. give them practice at these skills,
5. deal with emotional bottlenecks that interfere with learning,
6. assess the success of their efforts, and
7. share the results.

Providing detailed information so that readers may develop effective models of practice, this volume provides examples and evidence of the ways the framework has been applied across disciplines and used to inform teaching, curriculum, and pedagogical research initiatives. It outlines how various communities of practice got started, describes the analyses of three different collections of Decoding interviews, extends the Decoding framework using different theoretical lenses, and connects the learning to practical applications for teachers and scholars in higher education.

This is the 150th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education series. It offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers.

Jennifer Boman is an associate professor and faculty development consultant in the Academic Development Centre at Mount Royal University.

EDITORS’ NOTES 7
Janice Miller-Young, Jennifer Boman Editors

FOREWORD 9
David Pace, Joan Middendorf

Section One: Introduction to Decoding Across the Disciplines

1. Overview of Decoding across the Disciplines 13
Jennifer Boman, Genevieve Currie, Ron MacDonald, Janice Miller-Young, Michelle Yeo, Stephanie Zettel

2. Uncovering Ways of Thinking, Practicing, and Being through Decoding across Disciplines 19
Janice Miller-Young, Jennifer Boman

Section Two: Theoretical Lenses

3. Conscious Connections: Phenomenology and Decoding the Disciplines 37
Genevieve Currie

4. Decoding the Disciplines as a Hermeneutic Practice 49
Michelle Yeo

5. Intuitions and Instincts: Considerations for Decoding Disciplinary Identities 63
Ron MacDonald

Section Three: Decoding in Communities of Practice

6. Building Bridges from the Decoding Interview to Teaching Practice 75
Jennifer Pettit, Melanie Rathburn, Victoria Calvert, Roberta Lexier, Margot Underwood, Judy Gleeson, Yasmin Dean

7. Impact of Decoding Work within a Professional Program 87
Michelle Yeo, Mark Lafave, Khatija Westbrook, Jenelle McAllister, Dennis Valdez, Breda Eubank

Section Four: Synthesis

8. Learning from Decoding across Disciplines and within Communities of Practice 97
Janice Miller-Young, Jennifer Boman

INDEX 103

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