Guiding Questions
Designing RECAST activities can be challenging because you need to figure out how students typically structure the information and how to move them towards the scientifically accepted causal structure. Here are some questions to guide you in planning RECAST activities:
- Do you need a RECAST activity? See Diagnosing Need.
- What is the source(s) of causal complexity that makes it hard for students to understand the concept? Use the questions on the Causal Complexity Chart (PDF, 104KB) to help you think about how causality might be making the concept difficult to learn.
- What is the causal structure or causal concept(s) that needs revising? What is the causal structure or causal concept(s) that you want students to move towards?
- What information would you need to introduce to help students RECAST their thinking? Are there any non-obvious variables? Are there ways to make the causal connections salient?
- What interpretations will students take from the activity? Does it compel them to adopt a more scientifically accurate explanation? Remember that the activity functions as a RECAST activity if it pushes students to view the problem with a new causal structure, not if they can accommodate the outcomes of the activity with a simpler causal model that does not fit the scientifically accepted explanation.
