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<title>Decoding the Disciplines</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Decoding the Disciplines</span></span>

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<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p><b>Decoding the Disciplines</b> is a process intended to increase student learning by narrowing the gap between <a href="Expert" title="Expert">expert</a> and <a href="Novice" title="Novice">novice</a> thinking. The process seeks to make explicit the <a href="Tacit_knowledge" title="Tacit knowledge">tacit knowledge</a> of experts and to help students master the mental actions they need for success in particular courses.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

<p>The Decoding the Disciplines approach was initiated by Joan Middendorf and David Pace, directors of the <a href="Indiana_University" title="Indiana University">Indiana University</a> Freshman Learning Project from 1998 to 2010, for collegiate learning.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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 <a href="Conceptual_framework" title="Conceptual framework">conceptual frameworks</a>, leaving them unable to tackle significant challenges.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Guiding_questions_in_the_Decoding_process">Guiding questions in the Decoding process</h2></div>

<p>The Decoding process is structured by seven questions,<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> referred to as steps. The order of the steps is not mandatory and can be changed as needed.

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<dl><dt>Question 1 - Where do I experience a bottleneck to learning?</dt>

<dd>Instructors (<a href="Professor" title="Professor">Professors</a>, <a href="Lecturer" title="Lecturer">Lecturers</a>, etc.) identify an activity or task in their <a href="Course_(education)" title="Course (education)">course</a> that students are supposed to learn but often fail. The activity may be a mental activity.</dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 2 - What do students have to be able to do to get past the bottleneck?</dt>

<dd>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.</dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 3 - How can I show students what they have to do?</dt>

<dd>Instructors may model how they accomplish these activities as an expert. In order to do so, instructors may

<ul><li>perform the (mental) steps in front of your students using a subject-specific example.</li>

<li>explicitly highlight critical operations.</li>

<li>use metaphors or analogies for the (mental) steps.</li></ul></dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 4 - How can I give my students practice and feedback?</dt>

<dd>Often instructors provide their students with tasks or learning activities that allow students to perform the activity identified as a bottleneck and receive feedback.</dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 5 - How can I deal with emotional bottlenecks to learning?</dt>

<dd>Resistance to the Decoding the Disciplines process is viewed as an emotional bottleneck. Instructors are encouraged to anticipate such resistances.</dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 6 - How can I know if my students have mastered these operations?</dt>

<dd>Instructors give assessments that provide information on the degree to which students can perform the activity identified as a bottleneck.</dd></dl>

<dl><dt>Question 7 - How can I share this process with others?</dt>

<dd>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.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></dd></dl>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Applications">Applications</h2></div>

<p>The framework been explored by several researchers in a variety of disciplinary contexts including:

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<ul><li><a href="Astronomy" title="Astronomy">Astronomy</a><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Biology" title="Biology">Biology</a><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Economics" title="Economics">Economics</a><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Geology" title="Geology">Geology</a><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="History" title="History">History</a><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Mathematics" title="Mathematics">Mathematics</a><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Music" title="Music">Music</a><sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>

<li><a href="Psychology" title="Psychology">Psychology</a><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pace, D. (2021). Beyond Decoding the Disciplines 1.0: New directions for the paradigm. <i>Teaching and Learning Inquiry</i>, <i>9</i>(2).<br></span>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Middendorf, J.; Pace, D. (2004): Decoding the disciplines: A model for helping students learn disciplinary ways of thinking. New directions for teaching and learning, 2004(98), 1 – 12.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Middendorf, J.; Shopkow, L. (2018): Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks. Sterling: Stylus</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pace, D. (2017): The Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm - Seven Steps to Increased Student Learning. Bloomington: Indiana University Press</span>

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</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://decodingthedisciplines.org/bibliography/">"Resources – Decoding the Disciplines"</a>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Durisen, Richard H. and Catherine A. Pilachowski (2014). “Decoding Astronomical Concepts,” in David Pace and Joan Middnedorf, Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking (New Directions in Teaching and Learning, Vol. 98 (Fall 2004) pp.33-43.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="Miriam_Zolan" title="Miriam Zolan">Zolan, Miriam</a>, Susan Strome, and Roger Innes (2004). Decoding Genetics and Molecular Biology. In Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking, (New Directions in Teaching and Learning, Vol. 98), 67-73, edited by David Pace and Joan Middendorf, 23-32.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Rubin, M. Barry and Shankar Krishnan (2014). “Decoding Applied Data in Professional Schools,” in David Pace and Joan Middendorf, Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking (New Directions in Teaching and Learning, Vol. 98 (Fall 2004) pp.67-73.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Zhu, C., Rehrey, G., Treadwell, B., & Johnson, C. C. (2012). Looking back to move ahead: How students learn deep geological time by predicting future environmental impacts. Journal of College Science Teaching, 41(3), 61−66.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Shopkow, Leah, “How many sources do I need?" History Teacher, 50(2), 169–200.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pace, David (2011). “Assessment in History: The case for Decoding the Disciplines", Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(3), 107–119.</span>

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Scott, Inara K. (2021). “Learning to Think like a Lawyer: Developing a Metacognitive Model for Legal Reasoning” College Teaching, 69.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Schultz, Kyle T., and LouAnn Lovin (2012). “Examining Mathematics Teachers’ Disciplinary Thinking.” The Mathematics Educator 21 (2): 2–10.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Priss, Uta (2018). “A semiotic-conceptual analysis of conceptual development in learning mathematics.” Signs of Signification. Springer: Cham, 173-188.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Burkholder, J. P. (2011). “Decoding the Discipline of Music History for Our Students,” Journal of Music History Pedagogy, 1(2), 93–111.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Bihun, Joan (2018). “An Exercise to Assess Student Understanding of Bottleneck Concepts in Research Methods″, Social Psychology 77, 1121-1134.</span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.decodingthedisciplines.org">Decoding the Disciplines webpage</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://decodingthedisciplines.de">Decoding the Disciplines Wiki</a></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

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