Rethinking advanced high school coursework: tackling the depth/breadth tension in the APUS Government and Politicscourse

Resisting Overzealous Transfer: Coordinating Previously Successful Routines With Needs for New Learning

“…Kapur (2008) found that withholding answers improves the depth of learning and transfer, even when students often fail to generate the correct solutions. Parker et al (2011) redesigned an American Government, Advanced Placement (AP) course, so that it was organized around a set of challenges where students engaged in relevant activities (e.g., participating in a mock trial) prior to receiving detailed lectures and readings. It inverted the usual learning routine, so that "telling" came after, rather than before, substantive problem solving.…”

Using a course redesign to address retention and performance issues in introductory accounting

“…Repetition has long been associated with retention (Fivush & Hamond, 1989;Parker et al, 2011;Twigg, 2005). Roberts ' (1972) seminal study of the effects of repetition and spacing on short-term memory found that repetition increased retention, and the length of time between the repetitions (known as "spacing") had a direct effect on the level of retention.…”

“…One way to accomplish this is by applying a "depth versus breadth" methodology to the design of the course. Advocates of this view hold that some fundamental concepts are more essential to in-depth understanding than others and that focusing on these "core competencies" in lieu of covering a broader inventory of less important ancillary topics is a more productive teaching pedagogy (see, for example, Hirsch, 2001;Parker et al, 2011;Proust, 2012;Schwartz, Sadler, Sonnert, & Tai, 2009). Related research into what improves memory of a subject corroborates the notion that an increase in depth, namely, spending more time on fewer concepts, results in higher retention (Sadler & Tai, 2001;Shan, 2013).…”

“…One facet of continual review involves spending the first few minutes of each lecture reviewing what has been covered previously and what is to be covered on that day. This perspective provides students with a high-level view of the path of knowledge to be learned in the class as well as the reason why (Parker et al, 2011).…”

We Still Need You! An Update on the Status of K-12 Civics Education in the United States

“…Journell ( 2010a ), for example, found that the Virginia Standards of Learning-one of the more comprehensive sets of state standards in the United States-focused primarily on attributes of good citizenship and knowledge of civic processes rather than disciplinary knowledge. Even the US government and politics AP curriculum has been found to favor breadth over depth of knowledge with respect to detailed analyses of political behavior and engagement with political issues (Parker et al 2011 ).…”