The Pragmatic TV Teacher begins a
three part series addressing Transactional Distance Theory (TDT). Though used for Distance Education, TDT
has important information for traditional classroom teachers.
Picture your classroom filled with students. You take a deep breath while peering
into their apathetic eyes. “I can’t believe I have to do this”
violently bounces around your brain.
What is it, specifically, you have to do? Teach a lesson… collect homework… transition into
cooperative groups? You have to instruct
them.
What makes
instruction so hard?
It is difficult to put into words, isn’t it? From one teacher to another, we get
it. But from a teacher to a
non-teacher, it can get frustrating.
“It’s just hard! Ok!” you feel like screaming. “
I have to convince them that what I’m saying is important, that I’m on their
side, that they need to trust me, and that in the long run what we do will help
them. There is this GAP between
the students and I!”
A GAP. More
like a valley that even Evil Knievel couldn’t jump. Though sharing the same physical area, always present is an
unbridgeable “get it” space that you need to cross daily. When on the same side the students and
teacher work together. The
students see the teacher as a resource and facilitator. The lesson will have a certain FLOW to
it (to steal a phrase from Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyl ).
Transactional Distance Theory describes this GAP and how to
control the educational setting to easily overcome it. Like the newsletter, we will look at
TDT in three steps. First (this
post) we’ll describe TDT. Second,
you’ll read about how to use dialogue bridge the gap. Third, you’ll learn how to use the structure
of your course to easily connect with your students.
Transactional Distance
Theory Basics
Michael G. Moore edits the widely popular American Journal
of Distance Education and is considered the one of the leading Distance
Education theorists. He began
developing Transactional Distance theory in 1973
but fully outlined the idea in 1993. Transactional Distance is described as:
“A psychological and
communication space to be crossed; a space of potential misunderstanding
between inputs of instructor and those of the learner”
It sounds familiar: a PSYCHOLOGICAL and COMMUNICATION
space. It answers the question “why don’t they just get it?” and “what makes instruction so hard?” According to Moore, the answer is:
because you have not yet crossed the psychological space yet- YOU ARE NOT YET
ON THE SAME PAGE.
Moore describes three factors that affect the SIZE of the
space: dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy. Dialogue is the level of
productive conversation. Structure
is the flexibility of course
design to respond to the needs of the learners. Learner autonomy is the how often the students need to take
initiative to learn the material on their own.
We’ll look at Dialogue
and Structure in two subsequent
articles and learn how manipulate these two variables so you bridge the gap. Thanks for reading.
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