Teaching Improvement Program

1
Teaching Improvement Program
Labs, Students, and Teaching Oh My!
January 16, 2003
2
Introduction

• Coordinator
• Chandana Balasubramanian, Grad Student, BME
• Facilitators
• Michael Morrow, Faculty Associate, ECE
• Arvind Parihar, Teaching Assistant Emeritus, ECE

What is the primary role of the teaching
assistant who is teaching a lab section? What
other responsibilities do they have? How can
they do the best job possible? And where did
the workshop title come from, anyway?
3
Workshop Topics

• Lab organization and operation.
• Equipment and emergencies.
• Fostering interest and creativity.
• Lab reports and grading.
• How TAs can influence and improve a course from
  within.

Now, lets form some groups!
4
Group Exercise

• What are the most important and/or difficult
  issues that teaching assistants must deal with
  when teaching a lab course?
• Be ready to present your groups list of the top
  3 items.

5
Fundamental Assumptions

• Our product is knowledge we assist students
  in obtaining it.
• Educating in labs is a process requiring more
  than one person (a team).
• Improving the effectiveness of our team (and our
  process) improves our product.

6
So, lets jump into our first topic!

• What are the key things a lab TA must do to
  effectively organize a lab course ?
• Be ready to present your groups list of the top
  5 items.

7
Lab Organization Fundamentals

• Preparation is the key to success surprises are
  almost always bad!
• Safety rules and equipment
• You must provide and maintain a safe environment
  for learning
• Coordination between TA(s) and faculty supervisor
• Shared vision and expectations
• Uniformity in grading
• Regular meetings

8
Preparation

• As subject matter expert
• Must know theory underlying lab experiments
• Review theory, especially if its been a while
• Be ready to provide in-depth explanations to
  students
• Familiarity with process and pitfalls
• Dont just review a prior solution, do each
  experiment from scratch
• Equipment and tools
• Have you actually operated all the equipment?
• Can you use any required software tools?

9
Preparation

• As teacher
• Prepare for every presentation, however short.
  (Dont wing it!)
• Always do an introduction to each lab.
• Try to anticipate student questions and
  misconceptions.
• Experience
• Reflection on lab material
• Your students must believe you like what youre
  doing.

10
Preparation

• Your students
• Are they ready to do the lab?
• Prelab reports
• Is the work useful to students? Do they know
  that?
• Are they having the intended results?
• Lab quizzes
• Coverage
• Difficulty
• Concepts
• Entry vs. exit

11
Determining Educational Goals and Objectives

• What do we want the students to learn?
• Goals are abstract statements of what we want
  students to get from the lab.
• Understanding is not directly measurable.
• How will we know if they have learned it or not?
• Objectives are measurable activities that
  students can do.
• Establishing objectives helps us assess student
  progress.

12
Lab Teams

• Are teams appropriate?
• Reasons for teams
• More difficult experiments possible
• Cooperative learning
• Equipment limitations
• Potential problems with teams
• Individual accountability
• Dysfunctional teams

13
Equipment Issues and Emergencies

• Equipment and tools
• Do you have a tutorial?
• Is the equipment safe?
• Is it safely operated?
• Is the equipment ready to use?
• Who do I contact for repairs?
• Is there any spare equipment?
• What to do if
• Power failure?
• Network failure?

14
Equipment Issues and Emergencies

• Emergencies
• Where is the nearest phone?
• What is the number to call?
• Is it posted next to phone?
• Do you have the faculty supervisors home phone
  number?
• Eyewash?
• First aid?
• Think through what if scenarios

15
Other Items?

• Lets check your lists to see if there are other
  items...

16
Hey, why do I have to be here?

• As a lab TA, what can you do to foster student
  interest and creativity, to make your students
  more motivated to learn?
• Be ready to present your groups list of the top
  5 items.

17
Motivating Your Students

• Lab introduction
• Purpose of lab
• Technical competence
• Never try to fake an answer
• Lab wrap-up
• Next lab pitfalls and effort required
• Time-management

18
Motivating Your Students

• Why is this lab important?
• Future use of skills
• Relate simple lab to complex reality
• Students acceptance of the difficulty of the lab
  is directly related to
• Their perception of the value of the lab
• How motivated they feel you are
• Providing assistance
• Problem solving process
• Directed questioning
• Be proactive

19
Other Items?

• Lets check your lists to see if there are other
  items...

20
Are they learning something?

• As a lab TA, how can you effectively measure your
  students learning?
• Be ready to present your groups list of the top
  3 items.
• --------------------------------------------------
  --
• Also, does measuring learning have any effect on
  learning?

21
Assessment Issues

• Levels of understanding
• Blooms taxonomy
• Design for Gradability (DFG)
• Grading rubrics
• Required report formats
• Feedback to students
• Timeliness
• Oral quizzes
• Practical exams
• Team vs. individual grades

22
Other Items?

• Lets check your lists to see if there are other
  items...

23
Who thought this up, anyway?

• As a lab TA, what are some of the barriers to
  effective teaching that you may confront in
  teaching your lab course? (Other than students!)
• Be ready to present your groups list of the top
  3 items.

24
Improving Your Lab

• TAs have the closest and most frequent contact
  with their students.
• Faculty supervisors are often much more isolated
  from lab students.
• If there are improvements you would like to make,
  say something!
• Present solutions, not problems
• If there are multiple TAs, get consensus
• Most faculty are receptive they may already
  know there are problems but lack the time

25
Wrapping Up

• Anything left unresolved from your opening lists?
• Questions? Comments? Criticisms?
• Thanks for your participation!

26
Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Cognitive Domain
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

• Understanding occurs at many different levels.

27
Rubrics
28
Another Sample Rubric

• 10 complete and accurate answer, addresses all
  significant points
• 9 nearly complete and accurate with only minor
  errors or omissions
• 8 adequate coverage with some gaps, no
  significant errors
• 7 minimally adequate, significant gaps, some
  errors
• 6 marginal
• 0 unacceptable

Return