Why Do You Teach?

We have all become accustomed to talking about learning outcomes or objectives or something else you might call the knowledge that we want our students to have as they complete our courses. Often we begin our semester very focused on these outcomes. Our assessments may even be calibrated precisely to what knowledge we want to measure. But somewhere along the way the human factor plays a part in changing the linear trajectory of the teaching and learning we are hoping is occurring. This messiness is nothing more than human nature. After all, the education science we are hoping to harness is built on humans and we all know how much we change daily, weekly, and throughout our lives. So I want to suggest something that we have discussed in the past. Take a step back and look to your academic training. Why did you become a teacher of economics, mathematics, theater, or fill-in-the-blank? Think back to the ideas that made you excited to want to continue to attend college and earn a master's or doctoral degree. It is that big idea that you need to introduce to your students at the beginning of the semester. What is the macro-level knowledge that is the most important for each of your students to take with them to the next class? What is something that will keep their focus as they delve in deeper as the semester progresses? Paul Hanstedt calls is a beautiful idea and his recent post may help you think about what you will bring to the first day. Now the trick is you must continue to focus on that idea throughout the semester. After the first assessment test, when you and many of your students are disappointed, is a great time to bring the focus back to this big idea. In the middle of the semester, when your syllabus timeline looks like a suggestion rather than a roadmap, is a great time to pull out the big idea. So that is it. Simple enough right? Try it out and let me know how it works for you.

CAN I DO THIS?

David Gooblar writes, “No matter how much students value your course, or how supportive your classroom environment, they won’t be motivated to do the work if they don’t think they can succeed at it. And of course the solution is not about making things easy for them. As a new academic year gets underway, I’ve been thinking a lot about student motivation. Specifically I’ve been rereading a 2010 book How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, which offers a compelling chapter on the three main pillars that underlie student motivation. Continue reading here.

 

WHAT GOOD LEARNING LOOKS LIKE

This blog post by Anya Kamenetz for NPR has some pretty useful information. So print it out; get out your highlighter and take off the cap. Ready? Now throw it away, because highlighters don't really help people learn. We all want for our kids to have optimal learning experiences and, for ourselves, to stay competitive with lifelong learning. But how well do you think you understand what good learning looks like? Ulrich Boser says, probably not very well. His new research on learning shows that the public is largely ignorant of, well, research on learning. Boser runs the science of learning initiative at the left-leaning thinktank the Center for American Progress. He has a new book out, also about the science of learning, titled Learn Better.