It can be frustrating to face a classroom of college students who
appear uninterested in the material and topic of the course, or to ask a
question of the class and receive only silence in response. How can you
increase class participation? Engaging students in learning can be a
challenge, but there are many techniques you can use to grab the
attention of your college students and hold their interest.
In some cases, you can integrate elements of pop culture into their assignments." Continue reading here.
James Lang writes, "I have always been less concerned about those students than with the
collateral damage they’re causing. If students choose to distract
themselves in my classroom, they will find a way to do so whether they
have a laptop or not. The real problem arises from their ability to
distract others who may be trying valiantly to pay attention and learn
but whose eyes are continually drawn to the video playing on their
neighbor’s laptop." Continue reading here.
David Gooblar writes, "So much of the work that goes into teaching is necessarily invisible. Nobody sees your best teaching days — when everything clicks, when you get your class to truly see the world differently — except for the students in the room. Most of us don’t teach for plaudits, but it’s a shame that our best work in the classroom is usually unseen by our peers and superiors. It’s also a shame that those of us who want to improve as teachers don’t get the benefit of learning directly from excellent teachers in our fields." Continue reading here.
Showing posts with label classroom observation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classroom observation. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
THE BIOLOGY OF LEARNING
I have been reading Dr. James Zull's book The Art of Changing the Brain and actually using findings from the research he cites as "brain tips" for my CSSK class. The students have enjoyed the information and have become so accustomed to it that one night I forgot to post the tip and they reminded me that I owed them one. Since it was so important to them, I rewarded them by posting four to the Blackboard site of our class. Back to the Zull book. He explains that he wrote the book because there was a gap between the biology of learning and turning that discovery into useable information. Educational scientists are a grow group as more people are excited about how science can help us understand teaching and learning. Zull defines learning as being about change. He says that learning is a living, growing thing that comes through different routes and leads to different ends as out lives evolve. He then concludes that his definition of learning is also evolving. There is a copy of his book in the BRCC Library (LB1057 .Z85 2002). I encourage you to check it out if you are interested in learning more about the brain and learning.
BRAINSTORMING HELPS MEMORIZATION
There are times when memorization cannot be avoided and is the most appropriate way to learn something. If you are looking for an active teaching method to help in this area, you might want to try this one from the BRCC Active Learning Manual. Brainstorming Recall has been proven to help when students are required to recall a list of items. Take a set amount of time during class and ask your students to call out each item, while you, or perhaps a fellow student, notes them down on the board, flipchart or into a projected electronic document. Depending on the size of your class, you might break the class into groups and have simultaneous brainstorming recall going on, returning to the whole group afterwards to compare lists. It helps learning through repetition as well as aural and visual representations.
MOTIVATING YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN
Dr. Ronald C. Jones has written a fascinating article about a thorny issue that many of us have expressed on the faculty development evaluation surveys. In addition, many of you have asked how to resolve this problem when I have met with you about classroom observations. Jones writes, "When it comes to student motivation, does the axiom, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink' apply? Although I believe that, as instructors, we cannot force motivation and learning upon students, we do play a vital role regarding student motivation and a student’s ability to gain knowledge and proficiency in the subject matter." He concludes his article writing, "Can we motivate every student to succeed? Certainly not, but we must never stop trying."
I have been reading Dr. James Zull's book The Art of Changing the Brain and actually using findings from the research he cites as "brain tips" for my CSSK class. The students have enjoyed the information and have become so accustomed to it that one night I forgot to post the tip and they reminded me that I owed them one. Since it was so important to them, I rewarded them by posting four to the Blackboard site of our class. Back to the Zull book. He explains that he wrote the book because there was a gap between the biology of learning and turning that discovery into useable information. Educational scientists are a grow group as more people are excited about how science can help us understand teaching and learning. Zull defines learning as being about change. He says that learning is a living, growing thing that comes through different routes and leads to different ends as out lives evolve. He then concludes that his definition of learning is also evolving. There is a copy of his book in the BRCC Library (LB1057 .Z85 2002). I encourage you to check it out if you are interested in learning more about the brain and learning.
BRAINSTORMING HELPS MEMORIZATION
There are times when memorization cannot be avoided and is the most appropriate way to learn something. If you are looking for an active teaching method to help in this area, you might want to try this one from the BRCC Active Learning Manual. Brainstorming Recall has been proven to help when students are required to recall a list of items. Take a set amount of time during class and ask your students to call out each item, while you, or perhaps a fellow student, notes them down on the board, flipchart or into a projected electronic document. Depending on the size of your class, you might break the class into groups and have simultaneous brainstorming recall going on, returning to the whole group afterwards to compare lists. It helps learning through repetition as well as aural and visual representations.
MOTIVATING YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN
Dr. Ronald C. Jones has written a fascinating article about a thorny issue that many of us have expressed on the faculty development evaluation surveys. In addition, many of you have asked how to resolve this problem when I have met with you about classroom observations. Jones writes, "When it comes to student motivation, does the axiom, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink' apply? Although I believe that, as instructors, we cannot force motivation and learning upon students, we do play a vital role regarding student motivation and a student’s ability to gain knowledge and proficiency in the subject matter." He concludes his article writing, "Can we motivate every student to succeed? Certainly not, but we must never stop trying."
Monday, February 18, 2013
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP COUNTDOWN: 10 DAYS
Dr. Barbara Millis will facilitate an interactive workshop entitled A Learning Centered Approach to Teaching that Fosters Retention on February 28 from 3:00 until 5:00 PM in the Bonne' Sante Wellness Center's gym. Participants will come to know the theory and philosophy behind cooperative learning, including its belief in the value and educability of all students and the need to provide cooperative environments that balance challenge and support. As important, however, they will learn how to use cooperative structures to foster academic achievement, student retention, and liking for the subject matter. Additionally, the presenter will emphasize efficient facilitation of group processes. The session itself will model a cooperative classroom with combinations of direct instruction, interactive group work tied to the session objectives, and whole-class discussion with questions. Participants will experience at least three cooperative structures and two report-out methods, applicable to virtually all disciplines, that they can apply in their own classrooms. This seminar is part of the Teaching+Learning Center’s faculty development series. Faculty will receive participation credit for the Faculty Development Program. Registration is now open. She has a number of articles on the concept of cooperative learning including discipline specific for accounting and occupational therapy.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS START THE CONVERSATION
One of the most useful methods that instructors have found to update and enhance their teaching to improve student learning is the use of an objective classroom observation. If done properly, the observation is a collaborative assessment that should continue as an ongoing conversation between the observer and the instructor. When the observation is conducted for the purpose of student learning improvement, judgments are formative and the instructor is actively involved in the assessment of teaching quality and needed improvement. The observation method has been validated through extensive use and the research data are fairly consistent on the effectiveness of the exercise. If you are looking to have a classroom observation for the Spring 2013, now is the time to contact me either by email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) or telephone (8534).
GET ORGANIZED FASTER
Are you having problems staying organized? Teaching five or more classes in a semester requires a sophisticated level of organization but the use of technology can help you accomplish your goals. Fellow blogger Heather Whitney recommends Todoist to help manage your tasks. She notes, "There are a lot of options available for online task management. Todoist is another option. If it doesn’t sound completely new, it is because it is not. Todoist was originally started in January 2007, but in the summer of 2012 it underwent a relaunch after being rebuilt in HTML5. The result is a very well-built task system that doesn’t suffer from the lag of some others. I have been trying out the website and several associated mobile apps for about three months now. Todoist has all your usual online task management options, such as the ability to apply some kind of categorization label (tags, in this case) to tasks. But there are some additional features that I think make the system worth the time to check into trying it out," she says.
Dr. Barbara Millis will facilitate an interactive workshop entitled A Learning Centered Approach to Teaching that Fosters Retention on February 28 from 3:00 until 5:00 PM in the Bonne' Sante Wellness Center's gym. Participants will come to know the theory and philosophy behind cooperative learning, including its belief in the value and educability of all students and the need to provide cooperative environments that balance challenge and support. As important, however, they will learn how to use cooperative structures to foster academic achievement, student retention, and liking for the subject matter. Additionally, the presenter will emphasize efficient facilitation of group processes. The session itself will model a cooperative classroom with combinations of direct instruction, interactive group work tied to the session objectives, and whole-class discussion with questions. Participants will experience at least three cooperative structures and two report-out methods, applicable to virtually all disciplines, that they can apply in their own classrooms. This seminar is part of the Teaching+Learning Center’s faculty development series. Faculty will receive participation credit for the Faculty Development Program. Registration is now open. She has a number of articles on the concept of cooperative learning including discipline specific for accounting and occupational therapy.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS START THE CONVERSATION
One of the most useful methods that instructors have found to update and enhance their teaching to improve student learning is the use of an objective classroom observation. If done properly, the observation is a collaborative assessment that should continue as an ongoing conversation between the observer and the instructor. When the observation is conducted for the purpose of student learning improvement, judgments are formative and the instructor is actively involved in the assessment of teaching quality and needed improvement. The observation method has been validated through extensive use and the research data are fairly consistent on the effectiveness of the exercise. If you are looking to have a classroom observation for the Spring 2013, now is the time to contact me either by email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) or telephone (8534).
E-CONFERENCE REGISTRATION OPEN
Educators are searching for tools that can help them assess and evaluate
their students' achievement of defined learning outcomes in fields as
diverse as engineering, business, health professions, math, science and
technology (to name a few). These assessments and evaluations are part
of a national trend toward transparency and accountability regarding the
value added in education. The RosEvaluation Conference 2013 will bring
together those who are developing assessment and evaluation tools to
share information and their expertise. The conference will emphasize
concrete, effective, and efficient solutions to assessment and
evaluation challenges. Registration is now open for the conference that takes place on April 1-2 and is offered completely online this year so you can participate from your office at BRCC. The 2013 conference topics include: assessing work-based learning-projects with industry, student competitions, design projects; designing and implementing course assessments;developing sustainable processes for program and institutional accreditation; and, using electronic assessment tools.
Are you having problems staying organized? Teaching five or more classes in a semester requires a sophisticated level of organization but the use of technology can help you accomplish your goals. Fellow blogger Heather Whitney recommends Todoist to help manage your tasks. She notes, "There are a lot of options available for online task management. Todoist is another option. If it doesn’t sound completely new, it is because it is not. Todoist was originally started in January 2007, but in the summer of 2012 it underwent a relaunch after being rebuilt in HTML5. The result is a very well-built task system that doesn’t suffer from the lag of some others. I have been trying out the website and several associated mobile apps for about three months now. Todoist has all your usual online task management options, such as the ability to apply some kind of categorization label (tags, in this case) to tasks. But there are some additional features that I think make the system worth the time to check into trying it out," she says.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
EXPANDING YOUR TEACHING TOOLKIT
Active learning provides opportunities for students to talk and listen, read, write and reflect, all of which require students to apply what they are learning. Register now for the next faculty development seminar entitled Active Learning Methods Revealed to be held on November 19, at 2:00PM. Drs. Marcella Hackney and Margaret McMichael, Biology Department faculty, will present using classroom experience and information they gathered from an intensive workshop they attended this past summer. The seminar will be interactive and will be held in 311 Magnolia, also known as the Teaching+Learning Center.
STUDENT LEARNING DRIVEN BY EXCELLENT TEACHING
For anyone who has spent time with me, you have heard me say that everything I do is focused on improving student learning. It is our core mission and everything we do as an institution should be focused on that area. Of course, that begins in the classes that we teach. The interaction between the teacher and student is paramount to improving our retention, completion and transfer rates. Just as important is having students retain what they are learning in our classes. Nothing is more frustrating to a good teacher than having students who have completed prerequisite or lower-level courses but appear not to have learned anything. I have written about that previously on the blog and what James Lang refers to as "Coverage Theory." Getting through the material in the allotted time is not the same as having your students learn. The partnership between a teacher and student is crucial and both sides must take responsibility and remain committed for the process to be successful. It is what Barr and Tagg (1995) call The Learning Paradigm. We are designing a website for the Teaching+Learning Center. In the absence of that information, let me share some of the ways I can partner with you to help you continue to develop as a teacher. The classroom observation is a good start. I am also able to complete a focus group evaluation for you. You can also do your own assessment and I can share some methods with you. It all starts with contacting me at pourciaut@mybrcc.edu or calling me at 216.8534.
DEAR DIARY
Using the word diary may conjure up all sorts of memories for you. The diary in a general sense can be a useful thing. Even more effective is for you to begin to keep a journal. You can update it on a daily or weekly basis. The more effort you put into it, the more effective it becomes for you as a tool for critical self-reflection. A journal allows you to remember when you had a really good day in class. It also allows you to document when things go really wrong. It provides you with hard data that you can use to continue to improve your teaching. As many of you teach five, six or seven classes, it is impossible to remember what occurred in each class from semester to semester. A journal provides you documentation so that when you begin to update or alter your course in any way, you can scan the entries looking for clues that can be very useful. As we look to the Spring 2013 Semester, I am gathering names of folks who would like to participate in a journal community. Send me an email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) if you are interested and look for email in your mailbox on this opportunity.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR STUDENTS KNOW
Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent offer the following sage advice on the use of assessment in your course. Most institutions use only end-of-course student surveys to evaluate teaching quality. While student opinions are important and should be including in any assessment plan, meaningful evaluation of teaching must rely primarily on assessment of learning outcomes. Current trends in assessment reviewed by Ewell include shifting from standardized tests to performance-based assessments, from teaching-based models to learning-based models of student development, and from assessment as an add-on to more naturalistic approaches embedded in actual instructional delivery. Measures that may be used to obtain an accurate picture of students’ content knowledge and skills include tests, performances and exhibitions, project reports, learning logs and journals, metacognitive reflection, observation checklists, graphic organizers, and interviews, and conferences (Burke). A particularly effective learning assessment vehicle is the portfolio, a set of student products collected over time that provides a picture of the student’s growth and development. Panitz (1996) describes how portfolios can be used to assess an individual’s progress in a course or over an entire curriculum, to demonstrate specific competencies, or to assess the curriculum. Rogers and Williams (1999) describe a procedure to maintain portfolios on the Web. Angelo & Cross (LB2822.75.A54) outline a variety of classroom assessment techniques, all of which generate products suitable for inclusion in student portfolios. The devices they suggest include minute papers, concept maps, audiotaped and videotaped protocols (students reporting on their thinking processes as they solve problems), student-generated test questions, classroom opinion polls, course-related self-confidence surveys, interest/knowledge/skills checklists, and reactions to instruction.
Active learning provides opportunities for students to talk and listen, read, write and reflect, all of which require students to apply what they are learning. Register now for the next faculty development seminar entitled Active Learning Methods Revealed to be held on November 19, at 2:00PM. Drs. Marcella Hackney and Margaret McMichael, Biology Department faculty, will present using classroom experience and information they gathered from an intensive workshop they attended this past summer. The seminar will be interactive and will be held in 311 Magnolia, also known as the Teaching+Learning Center.
STUDENT LEARNING DRIVEN BY EXCELLENT TEACHING
For anyone who has spent time with me, you have heard me say that everything I do is focused on improving student learning. It is our core mission and everything we do as an institution should be focused on that area. Of course, that begins in the classes that we teach. The interaction between the teacher and student is paramount to improving our retention, completion and transfer rates. Just as important is having students retain what they are learning in our classes. Nothing is more frustrating to a good teacher than having students who have completed prerequisite or lower-level courses but appear not to have learned anything. I have written about that previously on the blog and what James Lang refers to as "Coverage Theory." Getting through the material in the allotted time is not the same as having your students learn. The partnership between a teacher and student is crucial and both sides must take responsibility and remain committed for the process to be successful. It is what Barr and Tagg (1995) call The Learning Paradigm. We are designing a website for the Teaching+Learning Center. In the absence of that information, let me share some of the ways I can partner with you to help you continue to develop as a teacher. The classroom observation is a good start. I am also able to complete a focus group evaluation for you. You can also do your own assessment and I can share some methods with you. It all starts with contacting me at pourciaut@mybrcc.edu or calling me at 216.8534.
DEAR DIARY
Using the word diary may conjure up all sorts of memories for you. The diary in a general sense can be a useful thing. Even more effective is for you to begin to keep a journal. You can update it on a daily or weekly basis. The more effort you put into it, the more effective it becomes for you as a tool for critical self-reflection. A journal allows you to remember when you had a really good day in class. It also allows you to document when things go really wrong. It provides you with hard data that you can use to continue to improve your teaching. As many of you teach five, six or seven classes, it is impossible to remember what occurred in each class from semester to semester. A journal provides you documentation so that when you begin to update or alter your course in any way, you can scan the entries looking for clues that can be very useful. As we look to the Spring 2013 Semester, I am gathering names of folks who would like to participate in a journal community. Send me an email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) if you are interested and look for email in your mailbox on this opportunity.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR STUDENTS KNOW
Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent offer the following sage advice on the use of assessment in your course. Most institutions use only end-of-course student surveys to evaluate teaching quality. While student opinions are important and should be including in any assessment plan, meaningful evaluation of teaching must rely primarily on assessment of learning outcomes. Current trends in assessment reviewed by Ewell include shifting from standardized tests to performance-based assessments, from teaching-based models to learning-based models of student development, and from assessment as an add-on to more naturalistic approaches embedded in actual instructional delivery. Measures that may be used to obtain an accurate picture of students’ content knowledge and skills include tests, performances and exhibitions, project reports, learning logs and journals, metacognitive reflection, observation checklists, graphic organizers, and interviews, and conferences (Burke). A particularly effective learning assessment vehicle is the portfolio, a set of student products collected over time that provides a picture of the student’s growth and development. Panitz (1996) describes how portfolios can be used to assess an individual’s progress in a course or over an entire curriculum, to demonstrate specific competencies, or to assess the curriculum. Rogers and Williams (1999) describe a procedure to maintain portfolios on the Web. Angelo & Cross (LB2822.75.A54) outline a variety of classroom assessment techniques, all of which generate products suitable for inclusion in student portfolios. The devices they suggest include minute papers, concept maps, audiotaped and videotaped protocols (students reporting on their thinking processes as they solve problems), student-generated test questions, classroom opinion polls, course-related self-confidence surveys, interest/knowledge/skills checklists, and reactions to instruction.
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