HOW WEBB’S DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO TEACHING?

 

 

Teaching is one of the most hustling professions. If you are a teacher, then you know what I'm talking about.

 

Being a teacher, your only duty is not to deliver the lecture. But, to help students use those concepts in real-time problems.

 

If the education imparted to the students is not used somewhere then how students can stay engaged?

 

But, how it can be achieved?

 

You need to instill the students with some rigor. The rigor can help the students to achieve academic excellence and achieve new strides.

 

Now, you must be having various thoughts in your mind like "What is this rigor?" "How much is needed for the students?" "How can I help students gain this rigor?"

 

Need not worry!!

 

There is a full-fledged technique known as Webb’s Depth of Knowledge that can help you achieve this thing in your classroom sessions.

 

 

Keep on reading this blog till the end and you will understand every bit of this technique and see how it can be used in the classrooms.

 

 

What is rigor?

 

In your teaching profession, you must have heard the word rigor.

 

Most of the time it is considered as a way of overburdening the students with a lot of homework and difficult tasks that students can't attempt easily.

 

This is an unhealthy way of rigor and will act as great harm to the students.

 

Then what is the correct rigor?

 

A healthy rigor is a level of challenge that you offer to the students to help them stay engaged in learning and help them in growing. Students should feel excited with this rigor rather than pressurized.

 

There is one more myth regarding the rigor that only complex tasks have rigor. But, this is not the case.

 

Every task has some level of rigor be it simple or complex.

 

But, make sure to offer the right amount of rigor to the students. If the task assigned is very simple then it can lose the interest of the students.

 

On the other hand, if the task assigned is too hard then it can be way more frustrating.

 

To have a better idea about the right amount of rigor, let's have a look at Webb's Depth of Knowledge to have better clarity about the same.

 

 

What is Webb’s Depth of Knowledge?

 

In 1997, Norman L. Webb offered the framework to identify the level of rigor for a student during various assessments.

 

The main goal of the depth of the knowledge is to help the student learn various contexts and levels of learning.

 

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge is a way to keep the students engaged in a stage-wise manner. It is a framework that categorizes challenges into four levels of rigor.

 

As soon as the levels proceed, the complexity levels keep on increasing.

 

Now, by reading all this, you must be getting confused, about how you can apply this technique in your classroom. And, how the students can be benefitted from it.

 

To get better clarity about the same, just go through the stages of Webb's Depth of Knowledge and see how it works gradually for a better teaching experience.

 

 

Stages of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

 

If you want to apply Webb's Depth of Knowledge in your classroom, then you need to follow four stages to implement it successfully.

 

By moving with each level, the complexity of rigor goes on increasing. As soon as the challenges go on increasing, the students will also get an opportunity to stay more engaged with learning and make the most out of it.

 

Let’s have a look at the various stages and how you can use these stages effectively to engage the students.

 

 

Stage 1: Recall

The recall is the basic and the foremost stage in the depth of knowledge. In this stage, students will learn about the basic definition, fact, term, or procedure.

 

In this stage, you should help the students recall a particular recipe or formula that is very basic and simple. Students need to identify and recall the information given to them.

 

For example, you tell some new concepts like solving linear equations to the students. Then there are chances that students may or may not know about it.

 

You just need to give information to the students at this stage and promote them to recall the things told.

 

This will help them stay attentive and they will feel more engaged in learning.

 

 

Stage 2: Application

 

Stage 2 starts with the application of the knowledge given to the students in stage 1.

 

In stage 1, you only give a basic idea to the student about some topic. Whereas, in stage 2, you ask the student to recognize the problem on their own and then find the solution.

 

For example, you gave an idea to the student about how to solve the linear equation. Now, it's time for the student to use that knowledge and apply that knowledge to solve some other type of ques that is based on linear equations.

 

Students need to organize, estimate, classify, and collect various data to present it in some depictable format.

 

You can even conduct some sessions in the class where you give some different problems to the student based upon the concept that you told in the class.

 

This will help you find out how well students can perform on that problem and whether their foundation got strong on that concept or not.

 

 

Stage 3: Strategic Thinking

 

This level is a bit more complex than the previous two levels.

 

At this level, you ask the students to give proper reasoning, plan and use their observation skills to conclude.

 

This stage can be better understood by taking the example of a comprehension passage.

 

For example, you gave an unseen comprehension passage to the students. Ask the students to draw conclusions based on their understanding of the chapter.

 

When you ask the students to do so, then you will observe that different students come to different conclusions based upon the same context.

 

This is where their reasoning skills get built up. Moreover, students can also justify why they draw a particular conclusion.

 

It will help to build their reasoning strong and will make them confident in long run.

 

 

Stage 4: Extended Thinking

 

Extended thinking is the most complex level for the students. Here, you allow the students to take their time for proper understanding and build something of their own.

 

For example, you can ask the students to make some project using the gained knowledge or do so experimental work.

 

This will help them put their knowledge gained in the right direction. In addition to that, they will also get the opportunity to put their knowledge to use for solving real-time problems.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Webb's Depth of Knowledge is a very innovative technology that you can use in your classroom session.

 

No doubt, it seems very complex at the first glance. But, once you start using it then, it will not only make your teaching experience amazing but will also make learning easier for students.

 

Need not take a sudden shift to this technique. You can gradually shift to it and see what it has in-store for your teaching experience.

 

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