IDEAS

Idea 1: Big Ideas

“A big idea is alive...[it] activates thought and permits transfer.”²

Learning Intention

Big ideas “if used properly, provide learners with mental schemas or templates that help make sense of all the details of texts that threaten to overwhelm inexperienced” learners.² Big ideas can serve as the pillar around which faculty build instruction to “uncover understandings [rather than] cover facts.”² Engaging students in identifying big ideas after a period of inquiry helps them synthesize their learning to focus not just on the details or data but on “broader processes at play,” whether in science or humanity.¹

Instructions

1. Engage in Inquiry: Whether through Project-Based Learning, Sequential Interactive Case Studies, or any other method of engagement and exploration, guide students to collect information on a topic or discipline.
2. Brainstorm “big ideas”: As part of the Explain, Elaborate and/or Evaluate stages in the 5-E Model of Inquiry-based Learning, encourage students to identify the concepts they learned. Brainstorming rules apply, so whether conducted as small group or whole class discussions, encourage all ideas to be represented.
3. Distinguish “important facts” from “big ideas”: Now, push students to seek out common threads and overarching implications of the data. Rather than answering factual “what is...?” questions, prompt students to consider questions that move deeper to “what does the idea of ... help us see or understand better?”²
   

References

1. Acevedo-Gutierrez, A., Borda, E., DeBari, S., Donovan, D., & Linneman, S. (2016)
   A Learning-Cycle approach to Guided Inquiry in a Four-Course Interdisciplinary Science Series. Innovative Teaching Showcase, Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, Western Washington University. Available online.
2. Wiggins, G. (2010, Jun 10). What is a Big Idea? Big Ideas: An Authentic Education
   e-Journal. Available online.