STEP: Teaching Pedagogy 1

1. STEP: Teaching Pedagogy 1 David J. Shook, Ph.D. Coordinator, TA Development Programs, CETL Associate Professor of Spanish

2. Outline Tuesday and Thursday • Introductions • Effective instruction • Strategies • Self-evaluation • Instructional techniques

3. Introductions • Names • Teaching experience

4. Effective instruction • Remember when? • Reflection—5 minutes • Discussion—10-15 minutes

5. Effective instruction How do people learn? • Information processing, cognitive psychology, learning theory • pay attention to information • new information related to prior knowledge • new information is stored • knowledge is retrieved at appropriate time

6. Effective instruction What information gets accessed and stored? • Dependent on learning styles • Visual • Aural • Manipulative • Others • More on this topic May 27th

7. Effective instruction My definition • When new information is conveyed in such a way that the students grasp the knowledge efficiently and can apply it correctly in new situations

8. Non-effective instruction What can make instruction non-effective? • Problems in transmission/techniques/strategies • Classroom management/administration • Personal issues • Instructor<-->student • Student<-->student Solution • Being proactive

9. Strategies for effective instruction • Practices observed from successful instructors • Why are these good ideas? • If we don’t follow these, what might happen?

10. Self-evaluation • Instructor Self-Evaluation Form • Students learn differently according to their learning style(s) • Instructors normally teaching according to the way they first learned, i.e., their own learning style(s)

11. Self-evaluation Areas of priority • Adequacy—your techniques and tools are successful • Enthusiasm—you show excitement for the learning process • Stimulation—you get the students to learn! • Relations—you have an impact on your students personally

12. Self-evaluation Summary • Your priority is an area where you might naturally focus as you teach • If instruction is not going well, what might you need to add/change to your instruction to make it more effective for your students?

14. Summary of instructional techniques • Instructors need to be strategic and proactive in determining the best instructional technique for the learning situation at hand and the learning styles of their students • Careful Planning + Creativity = A good bet at effective instruction • Know when to ask others for help!

15. Instructional techniques McKeachie, Wilbert J. McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 2002. 11th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

16. Instructional techniques • Discussion • Lecture • Writing • Reading • Peer learning • Information Technology

17. Discussion • Pros • Students are active • Students learn to think and evaluate thinking • Students learn to apply new information • Instructors gain prompt feedback • Cons • Difficulty in getting students to participate • Making progress in course objectives • Personal issues • Management issues

18. Discussion Main issue: Questioning • Sequence • simplecomplex, concreteabstract • Directness • Ask a specific question to a specific Person

19. Lecture • Pros • Can give students most up-to-date research and theories • Summarize related material from a variety of sources • Can adapt material to the background or interest of the students • Can help instructors integrate information/knowledge • Cons • Attention of students is often a function of the delivery and environment, not of the information itself • Student retention of the information depends on note-taking and the organization of the lecture

20. Lecture Main issues • Performance • The majority of effective lecturers ARE entertaining presenters in their own way • Adopt a lecturing persona • Integration of instruction • Lectures are most effective when effective integrated with other instructional techniques: discussion, reading, etc. • Example

21. Writing • Low-stakes writing • Log/journal • Reaction paper • Not for grades, but rather for communication and enhanced learning • High-stakes writing • Lab reports • Term papers • Graded, for demonstration of learning

22. Writing • Pros • Integrates learning and thinking • Can demonstrate development/learning over time • Can lead to professional writing • Cons • Giving feedback is time-consuming • Plagiarism WILL occur if writing procedures are not proactive

23. Writing Main issue: Set yourself up for success • Expect that students don’t know how to write in your field, and give them the tools to succeed • Be free with examples and models to demonstrate your expectations • Expect quality at the end of the term, not the beginning • Reward progress

24. Reading • Pros • Offer students differing views of subject matter • When accompanied by visual material and study guides, reading is often much more useful for processing information than straight lecture • Con • Instructors can’t assume that students know how to read efficiently—instructors need to provide study guides/questions that help students process the text information

25. Reading Main issues • Multiple text resources are available (textbooks, journals, WWW) and should be made available to students • Design study guides that help students integrate text information with lecture/discussion/lab, instead of just regurgitate it

26. Laboratories • Pros • Help students focus on observation and manipulation skills • Help familiarize students with equipment and items of study • Cons • Labor intensive for both students and instructors • “Traditional” labs not very effective in helping students learn problem-solving skills

27. Laboratories Main issues • At the basic level, use laboratories to help students understand and integrate the scientific method of study • For advanced students, use labs to stimulate and motivate their problem-solving strategies

28. Peer learning Students teaching other students, or students working collaboratively, learning together

29. Peer learning • Pros • Students naturally support and stimulate each other towards learning • Students become socialized into the academic profession • Students learn valuable team-building skills • Cons • Instructors need to switch from an instructional to a facilitating model • Occasionally, students get “stuck” in a bad group, and this might have an impact on their final grade • Group set-up, monitoring, and problem-solving can be very time intensive

30. Peer learning Main issues • Students may learn more about a subject through direct interaction with their peers • Students must be held accountable for their work—their own as well as that of the entire group

31. Assessment of effective instruction What to assess? • Learning objectives • Delivery • Participation When to assess? • Early enough in order to correct/adapt How to assess? • Direct questions • Official assessment tools • One-minute paper

32. Assessment of effective instruction Main idea • You MUST follow up!