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Teaching and learning tricky topics
Teaching and learning tricky topics

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1 Stumbling blocks and problem examples

In Week 2 you learned how to identify students’ problems in a tricky topic from a needs analysis and began to see how those problem examples could be grouped into stumbling blocks, the assessable component parts of the tricky topic. You also learned how to classify problem examples according to the problem distiller.

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Figure 2 Change the way you teach cartoon

Let’s look into this a little more. Begin by identifying the stumbling blocks in the tricky topic of project planning for teaching. This is an example of a tricky topic which has been identified by staff in a Higher Education Institute. Remember, stumbling blocks define key issues, whereas problem examples are detailed descriptions of the specific problems that students (or in this case other staff in the institution) are having. Stumbling blocks are referred to as SBs below to keep descriptions short.