Illusion of transparency

Definition

In educational or explanatory settings, the illusion of transparency refers to a situation where the instructor believes that what he or she is saying is clear to students, whereas the students are not following. The "not following" could be of two types:

• The student accurately assesses that he or she is not understanding what the instructor is saying
• The student inaccurately believes that he or she understands the instructor, but the mental model that the student is building differs substantively from the one the instructor wants to convey. This is the double illusion of transparency.

Solutions

The solution to the illusion of transparency is continuous assessment of the mental model that the student is developing. the assessment should be such that student misconceptions are caught (i.e., the questions should be diagnostic of the misconceptions) and both the instructor and student receive quick feedback. Strategies vary based on how frequent the assessment is. Class participation methods such as cold calling, polling, and in-class desk work are methods to break the illusion of transparency.