KNOWING WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW
If it is the beginning of the fall semester, then it is time for Beloit
College to issue its annual "Mind Set" list to "remind professors and administrators that
their experiences are very different from those of the students who are
starting off in higher ed (at least those who are coming straight from high
school)." One item on the list that really stood out for me is
"During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly
repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center." That
sounds like a great teachable moment. I am certainly going to try to create a
learning experience around this event. If nothing else, I think it is a great
conversation starter to enhance my engagement with them. Another that caught my
eye is "Women have always been dribbling, and occasionally dunking, in the
WNBA." As the father of three daughters, I have to admit this made me feel
somewhat better about our society. Now let's take a look at the salary inequity
between our WNBA and NBA stars. As I enter my thirty-third year in higher
education, I have seen a lot of change as well. Remember when there wasn't even
an IT person, much less an IT department? Do you remember how protective you
were of the font balls for the IBM typewriters and how we could never seem to
part with the last one just in case? I also remember sitting in the LSU
Assembly Center (now known as the Pete Maravich Assembly Center or PMAC) trying
to convince students to take one of my computer punch cards for biochemistry.
Most of them didn't even know what biochemistry was and they did not see it as
an elective option. No problem; they came around when everything else was full.
While nostalgia is fun, I am glad that we have seen such great inventions as
the personal computer, cell phone, and Wi-Fi. It has certainly made our lives
easier as faculty and made it simpler for our students to get the information
they need. What do you think?
GAMES HELP STUDENTS LEARN
Do you use games to teach in your courses or have you ever wanted to learn
how? James Lang has written an interesting article about just that for The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Lang tells us about Reacting to the Past, a teaching methodology
pioneered by Mark Carnes at Barnard College in the 1990’s, and now spreading
rapidly across higher education RTTP assigns students roles in
historical-simulation games in order to encourage intensive reading of complex
texts, help students develop core intellectual skills (writing, speaking,
thinking), and motivate them to take a deep approach to their learning.
Although these games were initially developed for history courses, they now
span the disciplines, in fields as varied as political science and chemistry.
Faculty members and students play simulation games at institutions of every
type, from community colleges to research universities. To learn more visit the
RTTP website
for information about existing games and those in
development.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT ON TAP
Thank you to all of the faculty who participated in the Faculty Development
Kickoff on August 21. I have tried to tailor that event to your specifications
and always appreciate feedback on how we can better meet your needs. At your
suggestion, we moved the event up a day from last year to give you more time to
implement changes in your courses. I hope that you were able to add a few new
tools to your teaching toolkit and I appreciate the enthusiasm and
participation that many of you displayed that day. The Mentoring Program
Kickoff will occur on Thursday, August 28 at 1:00 pm in the Teaching+Learning Center (T+LC). All mentors and mentees
should have received an invitation for this meeting. On Friday at noon, we
begin the first of two faculty learning communities planned for this semester.
The How Learning Works FLC still has room for one or two more participants.
Contact Academic Support Specialist Barbara Linder (linderb@mybrcc.edu or at
216.8228) to sign up. In addition, the first faculty development workshop of
the semester takes place on Tuesday, September 2 at 1:00 pm in the T+LC (311
Magnolia). The topic is Designing Assessment That Measures Learning and will
focus on testing, assessment, alignment, and more. Join the conversation by registering now.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
UNDERSTANDING LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACHES
Catharine F. Bishop, Michael I. Caston, and Cheryl A. King have a recently published article that is helpful in understanding the term learner-centered and how to create an environment conducive to learning. They wrote, "Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT)has been an effective approach for enhancing the learning experience for students in higher education. A LCT approach means subjecting multiple teaching actions (method, assignment, or assessment) to the test of a single question: Given the context of my students, course and classroom, will this teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?. To be specific, the classroom for a learner-centered environment is quite different from traditional classrooms. Students are required to take on new learning roles and responsibilities beyond taking notes, listening to teachers teach, and passing exams. It is an environment that allows students to take some real control over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn." They go on to list a number of interventions and approaches that can move a classroom from a coverage-model to learner-centered. The article appears in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Access is free but you do have to register.
USE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO CHECK FOR REAL-TIME LEARNING
We all know that formative assessment tools are important to our ability to determine if learning is occurring during a lesson. We usually use it to determine if we are ready to move to a more advanced or new topic. Here are a few examples of formative assessment tools you can use in your classes everyday. Having your students write a brief summary of the learning experience (or reading if you gave them an assignment before class) is always a great way to measure learning but you can also get creative and ask them to write a poem using a set number of key terms or have them create it from the information they highlighted in the reading. This tells you immediately if they learned how to differentiate between what is important from all of the other material. They can also do this using a class journal, which is a great way for them to measure their growth throughout the semester. You can also ask them to write a quiz based on the new material, have them select one of the short-answer type questions and reply to it. This gives you some idea of what their expectations are related to assessment and the short answers will give you a good indication if learning occurred. You can ask them to create a public service announcement using the new information which requires them to not only understand the new material but to be able to apply it and explain it to others. They can also write a letter to someone explaining the new information or write to the author of the textbook outlining what they learned and what is still confusing. You could have them prepare to be a guest on a television show where they will be the expert on the new material. Ask them to prepare notes or pair them up and have one ask questions while the other answers them (having them alternate lets everyone play both parts). Finally, see if they can answer the question of what they learned by putting it into a Twitter format. Remind them that they are limited to 140 characters. This requires them to be focused and concise. If you have some favorite formative assessment tools, please share them with me and I will be sure to post them here.
STUDENT PREFERENCES FOR READING ASSIGNMENTS
Many of us struggle with having our students complete the assigned reading. Lola Aagaard, Timothy W. Conner II, and Ronald L. Skidmore provide us with a number of suggestions to make this task more likely to be completed in their new research article College Textbook Reading Assignments and Class Time Activity. They note, "Strategies reported to most likely prompt reading the textbook included in-class quizzes over text material, assigning graded study-guides to complete while reading; testing over material found in the textbook but not covered in class; and assigning shorter reading assignments. Preferences for use of class time varied by experience in college, but the majority of students preferred group discussion and application of material to real life rather than just lecture over the textbook content." The article can be found in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Catharine F. Bishop, Michael I. Caston, and Cheryl A. King have a recently published article that is helpful in understanding the term learner-centered and how to create an environment conducive to learning. They wrote, "Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT)has been an effective approach for enhancing the learning experience for students in higher education. A LCT approach means subjecting multiple teaching actions (method, assignment, or assessment) to the test of a single question: Given the context of my students, course and classroom, will this teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?. To be specific, the classroom for a learner-centered environment is quite different from traditional classrooms. Students are required to take on new learning roles and responsibilities beyond taking notes, listening to teachers teach, and passing exams. It is an environment that allows students to take some real control over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn." They go on to list a number of interventions and approaches that can move a classroom from a coverage-model to learner-centered. The article appears in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Access is free but you do have to register.
USE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO CHECK FOR REAL-TIME LEARNING
We all know that formative assessment tools are important to our ability to determine if learning is occurring during a lesson. We usually use it to determine if we are ready to move to a more advanced or new topic. Here are a few examples of formative assessment tools you can use in your classes everyday. Having your students write a brief summary of the learning experience (or reading if you gave them an assignment before class) is always a great way to measure learning but you can also get creative and ask them to write a poem using a set number of key terms or have them create it from the information they highlighted in the reading. This tells you immediately if they learned how to differentiate between what is important from all of the other material. They can also do this using a class journal, which is a great way for them to measure their growth throughout the semester. You can also ask them to write a quiz based on the new material, have them select one of the short-answer type questions and reply to it. This gives you some idea of what their expectations are related to assessment and the short answers will give you a good indication if learning occurred. You can ask them to create a public service announcement using the new information which requires them to not only understand the new material but to be able to apply it and explain it to others. They can also write a letter to someone explaining the new information or write to the author of the textbook outlining what they learned and what is still confusing. You could have them prepare to be a guest on a television show where they will be the expert on the new material. Ask them to prepare notes or pair them up and have one ask questions while the other answers them (having them alternate lets everyone play both parts). Finally, see if they can answer the question of what they learned by putting it into a Twitter format. Remind them that they are limited to 140 characters. This requires them to be focused and concise. If you have some favorite formative assessment tools, please share them with me and I will be sure to post them here.
STUDENT PREFERENCES FOR READING ASSIGNMENTS
Many of us struggle with having our students complete the assigned reading. Lola Aagaard, Timothy W. Conner II, and Ronald L. Skidmore provide us with a number of suggestions to make this task more likely to be completed in their new research article College Textbook Reading Assignments and Class Time Activity. They note, "Strategies reported to most likely prompt reading the textbook included in-class quizzes over text material, assigning graded study-guides to complete while reading; testing over material found in the textbook but not covered in class; and assigning shorter reading assignments. Preferences for use of class time varied by experience in college, but the majority of students preferred group discussion and application of material to real life rather than just lecture over the textbook content." The article can be found in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
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