Most instructors quickly realize that they cannot just explain what they know and students will immediately understand it. Experts have so much context to their understanding that novices are missing. We then realize we have to break down a concept or topic into smaller parts to help the learner understand the bigger idea. Sometimes, though, we spend so much time on the smaller parts, we neglect to support students in assembling them into the whole that we understand. We emphasize specific pieces of information, skills, or approaches and assess them, then become disappointed when learners are not able to apply their learning in new contexts. Effective learning must use a combination of breaking down concepts and skills into smaller parts as well as strategically helping students to understand how they relate and differ across contexts.
Strategies for reassembling parts into the whole include:
- Concept Mapping: Use visual maps to show relationships between ideas. For example, students place key concepts in nodes and draw labeled connections between them. This encourages them to think about how concepts relate, not just what they are. Concept mapping supports schema formation, helping students organize knowledge structures.
- Interleaving: Instead of teaching topics in isolated blocks, mix related topics during practice. Interleaving promotes discrimination between concepts and helps students understand when each idea applies.
- Bridging Questions: Ask questions that explicitly require connections. These questions force students to retrieve prior knowledge and apply it in a new context.
- Retrieval + Integration Activities: After finishing a topic, revisit it when teaching a later topic. This leverages Retrieval Practice, which strengthens connections between knowledge nodes.
- Metacognitive Reflection: Have students reflect on how ideas connect. Reflection builds transferable mental models.
For more on this idea, read Carl Henrick’s post The “Embarrassingly Parallel” Problem: When Students Understand the Parts But Not The Whole.