Monday, January 18, 2016

Becoming a Better Teacher: Articles for New and Not-So-New Faculty

January 13th, 2016

A couple of months ago a colleague asked me to recommend a book for his new faculty reading group. I rattled off the names of several, but then wondered if a packet of articles might not be a better option. When I started to identify articles, it came to me that the what-to-read dilemma for new and not-so-new faculty goes beyond the articles themselves. It is more about the categories of work on teaching and learning rather than individual pieces.
Teaching and learning are multi-faceted phenomena—and that’s how we should be thinking about them, right from the start. Books written for beginning teachers, in fact lots of teaching books, focus on techniques. Yes, new (and old) teachers need techniques, but when that’s the main focus, it tends to narrow the thinking and trivialize the complexities. Teaching Professor Blog

The literature on teaching and learning is diverse—one of its finest features, in my opinion. It can do a good job of shaping this broader thinking if it’s sampled across disciplines, topics, and categories.
I’ve been trying to come up with a set of categories, not one that captures all the kinds of scholarship but rather one that is reflective of how those learning to teach (doesn’t that include all of us?) ought to begin and proceed. So here’s a set of categories to get us started and a couple of sample articles for each. I hope you will suggest other categories and examples that have helped you over the years, and feel encouraged to think about your pedagogical reading plans for the year ahead. How broadly have you been reading?
Learning to Teach at the Beginning and Beyond (with special respect for learning from mistakes)
More learning—possibly the most painful learning—happens early on (Collins), but learning to teach should be a career-long endeavor. Usually it involves change that grows out of new and evolving thinking about teaching and learning (Gonzalez).
Collins, H. “On Becoming a Teacher.” Teaching Professor, May 2009, p. 3.
Gonzalez, J. J. “My Journey with Inquiry-Based Learning.” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 2013, 24 (2), 33-50.
Most of our students are dreadfully afraid of making mistakes. They fail to see the learning potential inherent in “error making.” Are their teachers any different? If we want our students to learn from their mistakes, we ought to be learning from ours (Cohan and Delgado).
Cohan, M. “Bad Apple: The Social Production and Subsequent Reeducation of a Bad Teacher.” Change, 2009, (November/December), 32-36.
Delgado, T. “Metaphor for Teaching: Good Teaching Is Like Good Sex.” Teaching Theology & Religion, 2014, 18 (3), 224-232.
Challenging What’s Accepted
We teach as we were taught, or as others in our department teach, or as those who taught the course before us did. Learning from others is great, but not if it is a passive acceptance that prevents us from challenging assumptions (Spence), questioning the unquestioned (Tanner), or pursuing the rationale on which a policy or practice rests (Singham). Reading in this category may or may not change our minds, but doing so challenges us to think and therein lies its value.
Singham, M. “Moving Away from the Authoritarian Classroom.” Change, May/June 2005, 51-57.
Spence, L. D. “The Case Against Teaching.” Change, November/December 2001, 11-19.
Tanner, K. D. “Reconsidering ‘What Works.’” Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education, 2011, 10 (Winter), 329-333.
The How-To, But with High Standards
Writing about teaching techniques has not always been robust. That’s changed significantly in recent years, but it still feels as though there’s not much new under the pedagogical sun. Teaching techniques tend to get passed around—used so often they become old hat, failing to inspire students or teachers. What’s needed are truly innovative techniques, ones that turn teaching inside out.
Corrigan, H., and Craciun, G. (2013). “Asking the Right Questions: Using Student-Written Exams as an Innovative Approach to Learning and Evaluation.” Marketing Education Review, 2013, 23 (1), 31-35.
Hudd, S. S. “Syllabus Under Construction: Involving Students in the Creation of Class Assignments.” Teaching Sociology, 2003, 31 (2), 195-202.
We also need in-depth explorations that help us raise regularly used parts of teaching to a whole new level of effectiveness. They focus on a small aspect of teaching (descriptions of writing assignments), or tackle the how-tos of a common goal (teaching critical thinking), or parse the details of a multifaceted practice (grading). They’re explorations that shine a bright light on current practice and how to make it better.
Van Gelder, T. “Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science.” College Teaching, 2005, 53 (1), 41-46.
Rank, A., and Pool, H. “Writing Better Writing Assignments.” PS, Political Science and Politics, 2014, 47 (3), 675-681.
Schinske, J., and Tanner, K. “Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).” Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education, 2014, 13 (Summer), 159-166.
Learning from Research
There’s growing recognition that research findings can make teaching more evidence-based. But here’s the problem: research is tough to read. These articles typically feature a detailed review of related research, a meaty section on methods, a discussion of results understandable only if you’re fluent in statistics or qualitative methods, and a section on implications, usually for subsequent research, not practice. Teachers need scholarship that integrates (Michael and Prince) translates (Brame and Biel), and offers recommendations for practice (Dunlosky, et al.).
Brame, C. J., and Biel, R. “Test-Enhanced Learning: The Potential for Testing to Promote Greater Learning in Undergraduate Science Courses.” Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education, 2015, 14 (Summer), 1-12.
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. and Willingham, D. T., (2013). “Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 (1), 4-58.
Michael, J. “Where’s the Evidence that Active Learning Works?” Advances in Physiology Education, 2006, 30, 159-167.
Prince, M. “Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research.” Journal of Engineering Education, July 2004, 223-231.
Approaches That Promote Instructional Growth
In order to grow, one needs to know how—starting, I believe, with the personal narratives of others who have grown as educators. A well-written account of a teacher learning from his or her careful, critical analyses of teaching experiences can motivate a deeper level of personal reflection. But there are other approaches teachers have tried and found “growth promoting,” such as learning about teaching by writing (Purcell) or growth prompted by “student” experiences (Gregory), or insights that come from our teaching stories (Shadiow).
Gregory, M. “From Shakespeare on the Page to Shakespeare on the Stage: What I Learned about Teaching in Acting Class.” Pedagogy, 2006, 6 (2), 309-325.
Purcell, D. “Sociology, Teaching, and Reflective Practice: Using Writing to Improve.” Teaching Sociology, 2013, 41 (1), 5-19.
Shadiow, L. K. What Our Stories Teach Us: A Guide to Critical Reflection for College Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Translating Research into Practice

January 11th, 2016

By: Chris Hakala, PhD

pedagogical research_active participation

During the past 20 years, college and university faculty have begun to utilize several areas of the learning sciences (including cognitive psychology) to inform pedagogy. Much of this work has happened in ways that have helped our profession more effectively teach and our students to more effectively learn. However, we still have much work to do if we are to claim that we have a well-developed set of tools that can be applied across disciplines.
The issue is one of practicality. In order to get the attention of busy faculty, those involved in interpreting what we’ve learned about how people learn need to show its utility. The utility can take many forms, and often is, essentially, the application of a finding from the laboratory to the classroom. In the sciences this is known as “translational research.” The efforts involved in such a process are valuable, and faculty often find one or two techniques that seem to work with their discipline in their classes. However, for the science of learning to really gain a strong foothold as a key player in higher education, I would argue for a much more sophisticated and theory-rich position.

Translation

The idea of translation is really to take something from one area, perspective or interpretation, and determine how that can be germane or understood in the context of another perspective. In language, for example, translation is more than just providing a word for word substitution to evoke the same meaning. Rather, translation in languages requires that subtle differences in the way that languages represent meaning are taken into account and the translated version of what was spoken captures the “essence” or the “semantics” of what was conveyed rather than just a copy of what was said. Much of the subtleties of good language translation occurs in the ability of the translator to account for the linguistic variability that exists in each language and culture and provide an account of what was spoken that is meaningful to the speaker and listener.
The same can be said for the translation of work from the learning sciences to the classroom (e.g., Benassi, Overson, & Hakala, 2014; Daniel, 2012; Daniel & Chew, 2013; Gurung & Daniel, 2005). In many cases, faculty are enthusiastic in learning about new ways to teach. They are eager to hear about how others have used different techniques and want to know how to apply that technique to their course or their discipline. I would argue, however, faculty need to be cautious when such a translation is occurring. Translation of material from the lab to the classroom requires a number of things for it to be successful:

What was the goal of the research? If it wasn’t for pedagogy, but is still applicable, we might need to carefully consider methodology.
What was the context of the research?
How robust was the impact on learning?
Can it be generalizable to other contexts?
Are there clues on how to “mass produce” the technique?

By examining these questions, faculty can then decide if the technique is one that would be applicable to their course and begin the process of translation from the experimental context to the classroom.

Caveats

The biggest problem of translational research is that of scalability. Often, a result is robust in the microcosm of the lab, but when tried in the classroom, faculty find that the students are not all responding in the way the participants did in the study. To that end, faculty would do well to slowly ramp up from lab to classroom (Daniel, 2014). In addition, in order for translational research to be effective, faculty need to consider critical variables to ensure that approach is the appropriate one for the needs of the faculty member. That is, faculty need to determine if the approach is one that is in line with their pedagogy and the content.
In addition to all that, there is a plethora of research out there that is designed to help faculty begin the process. But we must be deliberate in our approach to translate. We need to ensure that, like translating a foreign language, we take into account the culture, the processes, the content, the instructor and students so that we provide a translation that captures the critical variables necessary for success, but that doesn’t change either the instruction so that it is less effective, or the instructor, so that he or she doesn’t feel like they have lost control of how to effectively teach the course.
References:
Benassi, V. A., Overson, C. E., & Hakala, C. M. (2014). Applying science of learning in education: Infusing psychological science into the curriculum. Retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology web site: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php
Daniel, D. B. (2012). Promising Principles: Translating the Science of Learning to Educational Practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1, 251–253.
Daniel, D. B., & Chew, S. L. (2013). The Tribalism of Teaching and Learning. Teaching of Psychology, 40, 363–367.
Gurung, R. A R., & Daniel, D. B. (2005). Evidence-based pedagogy. In D. S. Dunn & S. L. Chew (Eds.), Best practices for teaching introductory psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates Press, Mahwah, NJ.
Chris Hakala is the director of teaching and learning and a professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University.

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New Faculty Orientation Features Advice from Students

January 6th, 2016

By: Tena Long Golding, PhD.

As director of our faculty support center, one of my responsibilities is to coordinate an orientation program for new faculty. Years ago we decapitated the “talking head” format of traditional orientation sessions and now try to provide interactive sessions that introduce our new colleagues to both our campus policies and our campus culture. While the transition of most topics to the interactive format has been easy, the session on the course syllabus has remained relatively dry—until this year.
On most campuses there are a number of required policy statements that must be included on all syllabi (e.g., disability accommodations, email policy, plagiarism policy, and classroom decorum). All these requirements, while necessary, support the traditional “contract” analogy of a course syllabus. To return the personal touch to the syllabus, our new faculty orientation session on the course syllabus now features a Voices of Our Students video.
The video, actually created by one of our student interns, provides a preview of student expectations through student responses to a variety of prompts such as, “What one word describes the most important characteristic for a professor? Who is your favorite professor and why? What advice would you give to a new professor?” Examples of student responses are provided below.
When asked to give one word to describe a great professor, our students replied:

Honest
Available
Enthusiastic
Understanding
Relatable
Engaging
Invested
Energetic
Concerned
Entertaining

When asked why a professor was their favorite, students offered a variety of reasons, such as:

He motivates students every class meeting via video, lecture, guest speaker, etc.
She incorporates open discussion after the lecture.
She always makes the lecture entertaining and the class enjoyable.
He is very straightforward—you know what to expect.
He connects what we’re learning to the real world.
She is available to help outside the classroom.
He treats each student as a person, not a number.
She takes a personal interest in students beyond the classroom.
He provides study tips and helps students when they struggle.
She provides detailed feedback when you miss points.
She goes the extra mile to make sure you know what you need to know.
She uses challenging assignments to push students beyond their comfort zone.
He believes in students and helps them succeed!

Students then offered faculty the following advice on how to become someone’s favorite professor:

Use real-world examples in the classroom.
Show students that you value them as people.
Recognize and accommodate different learning styles.
Be personal—share your story with students.
Get feedback from students.
Be available.
Help struggling students.
Be relatable—students want to connect with professors on some level.
Keep communication open.
Offer virtual office hours if you teach online.

Do what you say and say what you do

Hearing students’ responses to these prompts provides a natural segue to many key elements of a course syllabus—office hours, course requirements, classroom engagement, and student-professor relationships—that we cover during faculty orientation.
We continue the conversation by stating, “Now that you’ve heard students’ expectations, let’s talk about how you will meet theirs and communicate yours!” The discussion is lively (and often amusing) as faculty rebut some of the students’ comments. They’ve even suggested we produce a Voices of Professors video and share it at student orientation! What used to be a session of reading through the requirements is now more of an open discussion on creative ways to communicate expectations and engage with our students. Ideas that surfaced during a recent discussion included:

Using the first day of class to model expectations. The use of a content-based ice-breaker activity in which every student has to speak sends the message that students are expected to contribute in every class and that every class will be rich with content.
Using the first day of class to model consequences. A colleague described an activity where one student is selected to leave the room and then asked to contribute to the discussion immediately upon returning to the classroom. Of course, the student has no clue as to what had been said, which serves as a powerful way to demonstrate the importance of attendance and the impact of missing class.
Creating a short video or podcast and posting it on the course website in the learning management system (Blackboard, Moodle, etc.).
Asking a successful student from a previous semester to share tips on what to expect and how to be successful—this could be via email, video, or guest appearance.
Leading an open discussion on the first day of class to give current students some input on select syllabus items.

Repercussions of not “doing what you say” and failing to follow course guidelines also bubble up in the conversation and give credence to the university-required components of a syllabus. Potential repercussions include:

Loss of respect from students
Poor attendance
Disengaged students
Poor performance from students
Poor student evaluations at the end of the course
Student complaints that reach the department head and upper administration
Grade challenges
Poor annual evaluations from colleagues and/or department head
Developing a “do not take this professor” reputation

Incorporating the Voices of Our Students video within the traditional session on course syllabi in new faculty orientation has been a big success. It has prompted rich discussions and helped faculty regain interest in and ownership of their course syllabi. Now the creation of course syllabi feels more like an opportunity than a requirement.
Tena Golding has been a faculty member in higher education for over 30 years and a faculty developer for more than 18 of those. She is currently a professor of mathematics and the director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at Southeastern Louisiana University.

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First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class

January 4th, 2016

By: Betty Anne Buirs, PhD

The old expression that you never have a second chance to make a first impression is certainly true in the classroom. Early in my career, I tried several first-day-of-class strategies, ranging from briefly introducing the course and dismissing students early to spending the entire time reviewing policies and procedures, but I began to feel that I was missing an important opportunity. Students are never more attentive than they are on the first day of class, when they’re eager to determine what kind of professor they’re dealing with, and although it is tempting to delay the real work of teaching and learning until the class list has stabilized, it can be difficult to change even the subtle norms that are established during this initial class. Several years ago, I tried a new approach, and I’ve been using it with great success ever since.

As a freshman English teacher, I am one of the first professors students encounter in their university lives, so they tend to arrive in class feeling a little uncertain and inclined to keep to themselves. My goal for the course is not to simply acquaint them with a body of knowledge, but to teach them a set of practical skills they can use to analyze texts, organize their ideas, and revise their own writing. I can only succeed if they’re willing to practice these skills, so I use the first class to help them feel less intimidated and to set the tone for participation.

Arrive early

I make a point to be the first one to arrive and then personally greet the students as soon as they choose their seats. Instead of standing at the front of the room and calling their names, I introduce myself and ask them to tell me who they are so that I can find them on my class list. This also gives me a chance to ask students their nicknames as I add them to my seating chart, conveying that I am not merely taking attendance but am planning to converse with them. Because I teach students from many different cultures, I often ask them to coach me in the pronunciation of their names, which reverses the usual dynamic by making me the student and them the teachers. As I work my way through the class, I inevitably end up chatting with students, which helps put everyone at ease before the class has even begun.

After I’ve greeted the students, I provide them with two handouts that reinforce the impressions they are forming about me and the course. The first is the course outline, which clearly and simply defines the course objectives, assignments, and schedule, while the second handout describes my teaching philosophy, provides a rationale for every component of the course, and contains practical information, such as what to do if they miss a quiz.

By the time I’m ready to begin the day’s lesson, I’ve not only put my students at ease, but I’ve dealt with any first-day butterflies I might be experiencing myself. I begin by writing 10 words on the board, my carefully chosen “Top 10 in 10” list, which we cover in 10 minutes. Students already have pages of detailed course information that will answer any questions they might have, so rather than focusing on unacceptable behaviors such as texting, I use this opportunity to convey to my students that I genuinely love my job and to highlight the rationale behind the recent revisions I’ve made to the course. I then tell them that instead of merely talking about the course, we’re going to actually dive into the material and that they’ll be actively refining their skills in every class.

Work in pairs

I begin by teaching students a skill they can immediately use to start improving their own writing. After giving a five-minute introduction to comma rules, I ask students to work in pairs on a comma exercise while I move around the classroom lending a hand. I give each pair one copy of the handouts, which ensures that they work together, and I assign one sentence per desk, which speeds up the exercise. When everyone is finished, I ask each pair to explain which rules apply to their sentence. Because the students have time to prepare and to consult with me, if necessary, they aren’t nervous about reporting their answers, and they begin to internalize the classroom norm that I expect them to participate each class.

Once the students have broken the ice by completing this simple exercise, they’re more willing to discuss ideas with each other. In the final portion of the class, I give the pairs 10 minutes to answer some questions about an excerpt from the nonfiction article we’ll be studying the next class, and I ask each one to report the most interesting part of their discussion. Rather than exclusively following the order of the tables in the rows, I encourage other students to chime in if they arrived at different answers to the questions, and we proceed in this manner until all pairs have had a chance to report, paving the way for less-structured class discussions. I cap the unit by showing a sample analysis of the excerpt we’ve just discussed, which gives students a clear idea of the assignments we’ll be working on in the first few weeks of class and helps assuage any anxieties they may have about their first paper.

I end the class by giving out a brief questionnaire, which includes a final slot for students to ask a question, mention a concern, or make a comment about the course. I’ve found that quite a few students use this space to remark that they can’t wait for the next class, so perhaps the best part of my new strategy is that it gives my students a chance to make a great first impression on me too.

Betty Anne Buirs teaches English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia.

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