Planning and designing teaching events

1. “Teaching and learning in higher education” Professor Christine Winberg 10 February 2010 Planning and designing teaching events

2. The TALHE programme 1 Planning / designing 4 Reflect/ evaluate 2 Active learning 3 Tools for diversity

3. The aims of this workshop are: • To help you to clarify the purpose of a teaching event; • To help you to find appropriate structures for particular teaching events (in ways that will reflect the purpose of the event and engage students in the topic).

4. What is a teaching event? • Workshop • Seminar • E-learning site • Group project • Demo • Practical • Lab • Tutorial • Presentation • Lecture

5. What is your primary purpose? • To communicate information? • To provide a structure, a map of the subject? • To understand a particular concept? • To challenge students about a controversial (or confusing) idea or opinion? • To raise awareness or stimulate interest? • To guide students’ individual study, or prepare them for a research project? • To prepare students for an assessment?

6. Individual task: 5 minutes • Jot down a topic for a teaching event in your subject/field; • Skim over the previous slide and tick the purpose(s) that apply to your teaching event (you may have more than one purpose). • Clarify what you want your teaching event to achieve.

7. Pair work task: 10 minutes “Buzz” with your neighbourto do the following: • Describe the topic of your teaching event; • Explain why the topic important; and • Explain what the main purpose of the teaching event.

8. Individual task: (for reflection) • Once you’ve clarified the purpose of your presentation, how could you find out whether or not its purpose has been achieved?

9. Is this workshop working? To find out whether this workshop has worked for you, I’m going to: a) get some formative feedback at the end of this session. b) We are also going to do a mid-programme and end-of-programme evaluation, and c) when you hand in your assignment, we’ll assess how you have planned, designed, implemented and reflected on a teaching event.

10. Plenary: brainstorm… What kind of students do you want? • ……………………. • ……………………. • ……………………. • ……………………. • …………………….

11. Something to think about • Lectures are not very effective in achieving most purposes; • If you do plan a lecture or presentation, 15 to 20 minutes is the maximum time for input – after this concentration declines, boredom sets in, and learning fails…

12. How on earth am I going to get through all this material in 15 minutes?

13. Reduce the content… • You don't have to get through all the content. (The students may have to, but youdon't need to…) • Give your students a map, teach them to navigate, and familiarisethem with some of the territory, so that they can complete the journey and carry out side-trips on their own or with each other. • If you try to lead them through the whole journey (or worse carry them on your back!) several things may happen. You'll be exhausted, they’ll be confused, and totally dependent on you. So you don't have to do it all for them. In fact, you shouldn't! (Adapted from Cannon R. (1988). Lecturing. Kensington, Australia: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia).

14. 5 minute comfort break…

15. Designing your teaching event

16. A logical structure • Introduction and overview • Point 1 • summary of first point • development and explanation of ideas • examples • restatement of first point • Point 2…etc • Summary • review of main points • conclusion or implications [details of next lecture, preparations, etc.]

17. A comparative structure (e.g., comparing theories A and B) • Introduction and overview • Theory/application A • Theory/application B • Criteria for comparison • Similarities/contrasts between A and B • Advantages/disadvantages • Summary and conclusions Note in a comparison you are not restricted to 2 items! (the more elements, the more complex the comparison…)

18. A problem-focused structure • Introduction (statement of problem) • Solution A • Solution B • Solution C • Criteria for comparing solutions • Comparison of solutions • Summary and conclusions

19. A “quest” (narrative or case study) structure • Statement of the goal or starting point • Clarification, contextualising or justification of the goal or starting point • Steps on the journey, with successes, failures, insights, confusions, breakthroughs, wrong turnings • The goal achieved (or not) • Recap and conclusions

20. An academic argument • Introduction (overview of presenter’s position and supporting arguments) • Counter-arguments • Demolition of counter-arguments * • Further arguments in favour of lecturer's position • Conclusions (restatement of lecturer’s original position, perhaps modified or strengthened in light of counter-arguments). * Optional – depends on the level of the students! This is a good opportunity for student debate…

21. Summary: Structures for teaching events

22. For noting… • Each teaching event is not usually self-contained. You will generally need to use the introduction to recap on material from previous teaching events (presentations, lectures, seminars, practicals, readings, etc.) • The main section is likely to have a distinguishable structure. • If it is a long presentation (like today’s!) there might be more more than one ordering structure used. • Avoid leaving the students in mid-air at the end of the presentation. Use the concluding section to give an overview of what you expect students to do before the next session, and what you will doing next time. • Your course as a whole should also have a structure. It may be similar to one of those above (although more complex and rich in its detail). • It can be useful, for you and your students, to identify these larger shapes and structures.

23. Group task: to discuss Are any of the structures in the previous slides typical of your discipline or programme? Are there other structures? Do your teaching events have their own characteristic shapes? What are they? 15 minutes….

24. A roadmap You need a structure for your teaching event. Your students need it as well. Include the structure of the learning event on a slide or a handout so that it is available to students throughout the teaching event. A map is a great reassurance, even if you're not driving.

25. Sequencing concepts in a structure Move from: • Simple ideas or applications to more complex ones; • The known to the unknown; • The concrete (e.g., a case study, a site visit, a short video, a demo)to abstract ideas (theories and principles). This is known as an inductive approach. • From a whole view to a more detailed view. Note: A more advanced, and for many learners more difficult, approach is to move from generalisations (or theories) to particular examples and applications This is known as a deductive approach, and often feels more ‘natural’ for lecturers – but not for beginners!

26. Homework task • Topic for your teaching event • Why the topic is significant • Main purpose of the teaching event • Overall structure • Why you have chosen this structure • An outline of your teaching event Email to winbergc@cput.ac.za for feedback on this before 17 Feb 2010!

27. What was my structure for part 1? What was my structure for part 2? Thank you. questions? Comments? Feedback?

28. Preparation: Session 2 • Please read the following two articles before Session 2. Activities in that session will be based on these two readings. O’Neill, G. & McMahon, T. (2005) Student centred learning: What does it mean for students and lecturers? In: O’Neill, G., Moore, S. & McMullin, B. (Eds.) Emerging issues in the practice of university learning and teaching. Dublin: AISHE. Available: http://www.aishe.org/readings/2005-1/ (accessed 5 November 2009) Paulsen, D. R. & Faust, J. L. (n.d) Active learning for the college classroom. Available: http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/main.htm (accessed 16 November 2009)