M02-1: Teaching Scenarios

Scenario A

Mr L. has come up with the following structure for his seminar on geoinformation. In his seminar, students are to find an answer to the question of how orientation on campus can succeed for new students by means of a new campus app. For this purpose, he presents the central question of the seminar in the first session. Then he divides the students into different groups. Spread over several sessions, the groups are to research independently how and with which tools relevant geoinformation can be integrated into the app. To do this, they will also talk to experts from the GI field. Mr. L. supports them in establishing contacts and provides information on possible contact persons. They also interview students in the first semester to get information about problems with orientation on campus. The students evaluate the information obtained and develop a digital campus map for the app together with the university computer centre. For this there a three project days throughout the semester where the whole seminar group meets and discusses the findings but also challenges of each group. Mr. L. uses these days to check on how far they have come in their projects and supports them with his knowledge where possible. As proof of performance, the students hand in a learning log for their group and a group reflection diary at the end of the semester.

A few changes to Scenario A: Note down what would change if Mr. L changed his scenario to a different learning theory.

Scenario B

Mr L. has come up with the following structure for his seminar on geoinformation. In advance, he wants to ask the students via Email what they already know or what hypotheses they have about geoinformation and what questions they might have. He uses these answers/hypotheses to plan the thematic orientation of the upcoming seminar sessions. In the first session, he clusters the questions into different topic areas. In a mind-map he illustrates what the individual topic areas will be in the course of the semester. The students are welcome to add questions or open up new topic areas in the discussion of the mind-map. The students are then divided into groups. Each group works on one cluster. They research information independently which they summarize in a template Mr. L has prepared. They present their findings at the end of the seminar where they also have to justify and explain in a comprehensible way how they arrived at their results. The results are then discussed in a plenary discussion. The presentation is at the same time an assessment of how far the students have come and where the next session needs to pick up. In a reflection, which they have to do as homework, they reflect on their own learning process.

A few changes to Scenario B: Note down what would change if Mr. L changed his scenario to a different learning theory.

Scenario C

Mr L. has come up with the following structure for his seminar on geoinformation. First, he wants to present the theoretical background in a lecture. He wants to highlight the most important terms. Therefore, he recommends his learners to copy the terms including their definitions. In between, he repeatedly conducts short tests to check whether the core terms have been understood. Any terms that have not yet been understood by the students are taken up again and explained in depth by the Mr. L. The next part of the seminar is about concrete practical applications of the theoretical terms and concepts. He uses many pictures and graphics to illustrate this. The students now have the opportunity to come forward and ask questions. Mr L. calls on the students one after the other to answer the questions. At the end of the session, he gives an online homework assignment with multiple choice answers that ask the students to recall what facts they have learned in this session. It is automatically evaluated by a computer system. The students thus receive feedback on which questions were answered incorrectly or correctly. They are given the opportunity to repeat the wrongly answered questions until they can answer them correctly.

A few changes to Scenario C: Note down what would change if Mr. L changed his scenario to a different learning theory.