Improving Teaching and Learning in Fifty Minutes

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Improving Teaching and Learning in Fifty Minutes

• Barbara Gross DavisUniversity of California,
  Berkeley
• June 9, 2009

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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Find out what students know

• Assume students are not a blank slate
• Consider students previous knowledge
• Determine the accuracy of what students know

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Diagnostic Surveys/Pretests

• Existing
• Force Concept Inventory (Physics)
• California Chemistry Diagnostic Test
• Knowledge Surveys (Science Education Resource
  Center, Carlton College)
• Created
• typical exam questions define terms, solve
  problems, short answer items
• rating of familiarity key topics, concepts,
  facts

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Sample Questions Rating of Familiarity

• A. Helicobacter pylori
• 1. Have never heard of this
• 2. Have heard of this but dont really know what
  this is
• 3. Have some idea of what this is, but not too
  clear
• 4. Have a clear idea of what this is and can
  explain it

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Sample Questions Rating of Familiarity

• A. Helicobacter pylori
• 1. Have never heard of this
• 2. Have heard of this but dont really know what
  this is
• 3. Have some idea of what this is, but not too
  clear
• 4. Have a clear idea of what this is and can
  explain it
• Answer The bacteria that causes ulcers

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Sample Questions Rating of Familiarity

• B. Barry J. Marshall
• 1. Have never heard of him
• 2. Have heard of him but dont really know who he
  is
• 3. Have some idea of who he is, but not too clear
• 4. Have a clear idea of who he is and can explain
  it

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Sample Questions Rating of Familiarity

• B. Barry J. Marshall
• 1. Have never heard of him
• 2. Have heard of him but dont really know who he
  is
• 3. Have some idea of who he is, but not too clear
• 4. Have a clear idea of who he is and can explain
  it
• Answer Australian researcher who discovered that
  helicobacter pylori caused ulcers by ingesting
  the bacteria and making himself very sick.
  Co-winner of the Nobel Prize.

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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Engage Students

• Shift from a teacher focus to a student focus
• Incorporate active learning strategies into your
  class

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Shift in Focus from Instruction to Learning

• Instruction/Teacher Focus
• What do I want to teach?
• What will I do to teach?
• What is the best way I can present the material?

Learning/Learner Focus What do students need to
learn? What will students do to learn? What are
the best ways for students to construct new
understanding and develop new skills?
from Barr, R. and Tagg, J. (1995). From
Teaching to Learning A New Paradigm for
Undergraduate Education. Change, 27(6), 12- 25.
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Some Examples of Teaching Strategies that Engage
Students

• Discussion and interactive lecturing
• Group work
• Research
• Experiential approaches
• Role play and case studies
• Creative expression
• Simulations and virtual worlds

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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Student is confronted with excessive material
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Student makes a valiant attempt to get through
the material
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Student becomes overwhelmed
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Time to drop the course
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Limiting the Amount of Material

• Reduce preparation time
• Limit a class session to three or four key points
• Address fewer topics in depth rather than many
  topics superficially
• Focus on the connection between the topic and
  real-life problems and experiences
• Tailor examples to students interests and
  backgrounds
• Bring in current scientific examples

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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PowerPoint

• If you are going to use PowerPoint in your
  teaching, avoid the most common annoying problem.
  People tend to put every word they are going to
  say on their power point slides. Although this
  eliminates the need to memorize your talk,
  ultimately this makes your slides crowded, wordy
  and boring. You will lose your students
  attention before you even reach the bottom of
  your....

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• (continued) first slide.
• from Life after Death by PowerPoint, Don
  McMillanhttp//www.youtube.com/watch?vcagxPlVqrt
  M

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Problems with PowerPoint

• Hierarchical outline structure
• Click-click format
• Oversimplification of complicated ideas
• Lack of spontaneity
• Limited serious analysis
• Turns viewers into passive and uncritical thinkers

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Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

• Find out what students know
• Engage students
• Limit the amount of material
• Judiciously use PowerPoint
• Gather early feedback

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Your Class at Week One
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Your Class at Week Four
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Gathering Early Feedback

• Sample Questions
• Sample Methods

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Early Feedback Sample Questions

• General questions
• What is going well in the course?
• What needs to be improved or changed?
• What do you want more of? Less of?
• If you could change one thing about this course,
  what would it be?

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Early Feedback Sample Questions

• Specific questions Open-ended
• What are the most important things you have
  learned so far in this class?
• What dont you think you understand well enough
  yet?
• What do you need to do in terms of understanding
  the material between now and the end of the
  semester?

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Early Feedback Sample Questions

• Specific questions Forced Choice
• How many of the reading assignments have you
  completed so far?
• All or almost all
• About 75
• About 50
• About 25
• None or almost none

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Early Feedback Sample Questions

• Specific questions Forced Choice
• How many hours per week, outside of regularly
  scheduled class meeting, do you spend on this
  class?
• Less than 1 hour
• 1- 2 hours
• 3- 5 hours
• 6- 8 hours
• More than 8 hours

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Early Feedback Methods

• Index cards
• Brief questionnaire (print or online)
• Instant polling, clickers
• Student groups

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Responding to Early Feedback

• Positive Comments
• Suggestions for Improvement
• - What you can change immediately
• - What you change the next time
• - What you will not change

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Summary

• Maximize student learning
• Optimize the classroom experience
• Restrict the amount of material
• Use PowerPoint thoughtfully
• Seek feedback from students

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Books on Improving Teaching and Learning

• Boice, R. (2000) Advice for New Faculty Members.
  Boston Allyn and Bacon.
• Davis, B.G. (2009) Tools for Teaching. Second
  Edition. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Lang, J. M. (2008) On Course. Cambridge, MA
  Harvard University Press.
• McKeachie, W.J. and Svinicki. M. (2006) Teaching
  Tips. Twelfth Edition. Boston Houghton Mifflin.