1.2 Applying ICE

Sharing ICE with Students

Some post-secondary instructors are content enough to use ICE to inform their instructional and assessment practice but many more have recognized the benefits to students’ learning when ICE is used as a common, shared framework. Some, like the Business prof mentioned earlier, use the analogy of the broken toaster at the outset of each term, others choose to co-create ICE-structured rubrics with their students’ input; still, others invite their students to create and submit exam questions that invite Ideas-focussed or Connections– or Extensions–focussed responses along with promises that some of those questions will find their way onto quizzes and final exams.

Once students adopt ICE and orient themselves to learning and what it looks like, they quickly begin to use the language and framework that the model provides. They become better able to self-regulate and plan for improvement through a heightened ability to self-assess. We’ve heard from students that they continue to use ICE, even in courses where their instructors aren’t using the model, because the framework helps them organize, plan and improve their learning. In fact, when some undergraduate students at my home institution experienced the positive effects of ICE on their own learning, they collaborated to produce a video as a means of supporting the learning achievement of their peers. You are invited to view the video which opens in YouTube: A Student Introduction to the ICE Model. A described video transcript is also available (click to download— A-Student-Introduction-to-the-ICE-Model-Described-Video-Transcript). 

Writing Learning Outcomes

The language of ICE reflects the qualitative differences among the three frames of learning. Words like recall, define, calculate, identify, imitate, and describe all connote Ideas-based learning. Words like code, diagram, categorize, translate and relate refer to the process of Connections. Extensions can be conveyed through words like anticipate, critique, design, propose and interpret. This type of purposeful language use means that instructors become better able to articulate learning outcomes that guide their students’ orientation to course material. For example, the learning outcome “Students will understand potential complications to a neurological event” is vague and open to interpretation – what exactly does “understand” entail? Using ICE as a framework for learning, instructors can be more intentional about their expectations for learning through selecting precise language for their learning outcomes. For example:

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• List potential complications of neurological events (for intended Ideas-based outcomes)
• Recommend treatment of potential complications arising from neurological events (for Connections-based outcomes)
• Predict potential complications of neurological events (for Extensions-based outcomes)

Designing Instructional Strategies

Instructors find the precision of language that comes from their ICE-informed learning outcomes also has a positive spill-over effect on their ability to purposefully design instruction. Because they’ve taken the time to determine what “understand” is supposed to look like in their course, they can better structure the learning environment and activities to support their intentions. The chapters that follow offer rich descriptions of ICE-informed teaching that supports intended learning.

Designing Assessment

It isn’t uncommon for post-secondary instructors, after learning about ICE, to make the realization that while they were expecting their students to demonstrate Connections or Extensions, their assessment design was actually heavily focused on Ideas. In fact, some have made the realization that their assessment design and exam construction may actually have prevented their students from demonstrating the full breadth of their learning. To mitigate against those pitfalls, the authors of some of the chapters that follow share their authentic approaches to assessment that helped to focus their students’ attention on meaningful learning and increased the relevance of the content under study.

The presented chapters that follow in this volume are filled with the different ways that instructors have shared ICE with their students and the ways that students have maximized the portability of the model, adapting it for their own use in different learning contexts and across disciplines.

References

Fostaty Young, S. & Wilson, R. (2000). Assessment and Learning: The ICE Approach. Portage & Main Press.