8.7 Order Of Material

The order of material and deliverables matter in a course. You might follow the order found in the text book, the order you encountered it as a student, or the order that was used before for the course. Adopting an order may or may not make sense. Do not assume that it is appropriate for the course's learning outcomes or for the students you are teaching. You should do a thorough thinking exercise to make sure that the order is appropriate; more than a quick read and nod of the head.

While Tyler (1957) was describing curriculum at the secondary school level, many of his points from 1957 still resonate today, at all levels. A recommended read.



The order is a strategic decision and it can make up a fair bit of the difference between a good course and a bad one. It is necessary, but not sufficient.

The order impacts cognitive development at all levels. The way a topic is introduced matters and how the topics flow together matters. The order and flow impacts how much has to be digested, what is reinforced, what can be practiced, and the fundamentals of actual learning. Of course, if the course is nothing more than memorization, recitation, and robotic pattern matching; no need to worry about order. Order is probably not an issue if all you are worried about is what they can remember for the final. However, if you want them to actually comprehend, be able to apply and analyse with some level of independent thought, not just repeating what you told them, being able to cobble concepts and ideas together in new ways not discussed in class or the text, and be able to think about what they have done, evaluate what they have done, then order matters.

We have found it very useful to have a buddy to discuss the order and progression of material with. It is WAY too easy to make many invalid assumptions and overlook key bits. One of you should have more than a passing knowledge of cognitive skill development. If you do not, go get help and do a review with a teaching resource who does.

Here are some thoughts about the order of material...

• Start with the foundation, the lowest building blocks and build up. You can start with a motivational example where everything is there, but the learning has to start from the small, concrete to the abstract and conceptual.
• The priority learning outcomes should be targeted for delivery and first assignments due by the 2/3 to 3/4 point in the term. This will give enough time for feedback, deliberate practice, reflection, and feedback on the practice.
• Do not plan or assume that you are introducing anything significant or high priority after the 2/3 to 3/4 point; just work on what you have introduced in the first 2/3 to 3/4. This is part of the teach less, teach it better model. This also helps you with some potential slack time in the course to deal with any observed gaps. If you plan every minute, every hour out, this creates a fragile plan which is not operations management tells us is best practice. You need some slack, strategically placed for your plan to be resilient and robust.
• If you are making assumptions about student skill and ability to tackle the major course learning outcomes, use the first 2-3 lectures to test out these assumptions, to create a baseline for the individual and class skill level. You can use this time to link these assumed skills and knowledge, retained from other courses (excuse us if we snicker at this, we have tested the retention assumption, a joke in most cases). If there is a gap here, use some of the tutorial or lab time for remedial sessions. We do not recommend using the prime lecture time to go over material that a portion of the class does not remember from a previous course. If you need to resequence material to account for remedial sessions, have this pre-planned and in your pocket. We have had students swear that the assumed material was never taught, that they had never seen it. We then had fun showing them the lecture slides and exam questions from the previous course. Ooopsy. Gotcha.
• You want to use the timing to reach a point for mid-term assessments, testing the learning and ability to learn the material. If there is a gap, it might be in your court, or not. But, you want something meaningful in the way of assessments by half-time.
• You want to pace material so that the students are learning one new thing at a time, leveraging previous lessons, material. Carefully review each lecture, each module; what is new, what is not.
• You want to package the material in relatable, holistic bits. For example, if we use linear algebra as an example...

• There are 2, 3, n-space concepts. In each concept space, there are similar topics to discuss, learn, the same nuances. One way is to teach it by 'row' order vs 'column'; if you put the dimensions on one axis and the nuances on the other. You can take the 2 space do one nuance, then go to 3 space and to the same nuance, and then n-space with the same nuance. Or, you can take 2 space and work through all of the nuances and then 3 space with all of the nuances, and then n-space with all of the nuances.
• Many topics and courses have a similar topology of increasing complexity in one axis, common concepts in the other. We recommend doing the 2 space, all nuances, then 3 space, then n-space. There are MANY reasons.
• If you go 2 space with all nuances, the students learn how all of the concepts come together, a meaningful example can be used in the 2 space, and then when introducing the 3 space, you can leverage the 2 space knowledge. You can also test 2 space as a holistic topic, then 3 space holistically. You can find out earlier in the course if the students are understanding the big picture, how everything relates. This approach of low complexity-holistic, then higher complexity-holistic, can be explained and justified by neuroscience and cognitive science. The other way cannot. Simple. Follow the science or not. Your choice.
• If you have a choice, you lead with the most relatable, most interesting, most intriguing topic, most value-add concept. You want to set the hooks. You want them to come to class, engage and if you can hit them where it counts, that will be better.
• The progression through the term should allow you to have a good dialog with the students, discussing the journey during the term in a nice smooth trajectory with flows and narratives. If there is not a method to the madness, the reflections and discussions will be all over the place, a mess and work against you.

Further reading

• Tyler, R.W. (1957). The Curriculum - Then and Now, The Elementary School Journal, 57, 7, pp. 364-374.