Worlds of Wordcraft Supplementary Class Info

Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do

Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do

Please prepare the following for our conversation:

Brief written summary / thesis of the book

The thesis of the book:  "tried to capture the collectivescholarship of some of the best teachers in the United states, to record not just what they do but also how they think, and most of all, to begin to conceptualize their practices." p. 4

 p.24 comment on sustained learning.....

The essence of the book is through case study and experiences, determine

a) How the best teachers prepare

     Treat preparation as a serious intellectual endeavor.

b) What the best teachers expect from their students

     They expect more

c) How the best teachers conduct class

     Create encounters with intriguing, beautiful, important problems that challenge

I remember the biggest theme here throughout the detail of the text is to get the right QUESTION asked to provoke the students to move.

d) How the best teachers treat their students

    Trust ... they trust their students.

Open up and talk about your intellectual journey... p. 141

e) How the best teachers evaluate themselves and their students

    Some demonstration of systematic progress and course correction while in flight 

You don't teach a class -- you teach a student. p. 97

Be prepared to discuss your responses to the following questions

What are some insights you gained about your teaching practices from your encounters with literature on teaching and learning?

What are some steps you might take to enact what you've learned?

Already put forward a notecard exercise and changed my examination practices.

a) Notecards:  Asked the students to write down what they have learned so far .. great responses to the question.

Stephen D. Brookfield, The Skillfull Teacher

Stephen D. Brookfield, The Skillfull Teacher

Please prepare the following for our conversation:

Brief written summary / thesis of the book

The thesis of the book:  It is written from an adult learning perspective.  All students in college are adults, so we need to consider this when we construct our learning experiences.  It challenges the assumptions that learning takes place in a predictable, structured environment.    Also , the assessment tools better allow you to see the learning through the students' eyes.

What is good teaching:

1) Whatever helps students learn

2) It is critically reflective

3) An understanding of how the students experience the classroom

Ch. 1: Experiencing Teaching -- Essence = muddling through

1) Scanning = rapid apprehension

2) Appraisal = interpretation

3) Action = sorting out the interpretations

Diversity of learning styles, races, languages, and cultures means that you can not get 100% on reaching everyone your teaching.

Truth of Teaching = Develop trust, judgment, and insights that make you effective. p. 12

Ch. 2 The Core Assumptions of a Skillfull Teacher -- There are Three

1) Skillfull Teaching is whatevers helps students learn

2) Skillfull Teachers adopy a critically reflective stance toward their practice p. 25

• The point of teaching is to help students learn.  Simply applying norms and standards without intuitive guidance reduces the probability of a learning success.
• Critical reflection: process by which we research the assumptions informing our practice
• Modeling critical thinking in front of our students is important

3) The Most important knowledge skillfull teachers need to do good work is a constant awareness of how students are experiencing their learning and perceiving teachers' actions p. 28

We must provide anonymous venues to answer questions about our teaching and then have public critical consideration of them.

Ch. 3 Understanding our Classrooms

Regular attempt to study our classroom in order to find out what how students are learning.

Assessments:

The One Minute Paper: Students are asked to spend one minute writing a response about what we learned that day. Question framed such as What is the most important topic in today's lecture?  Why does the professor feel this is important?

Muddiest Point:  Jot down what you feel is the muddiest point

Learning Audit

What do I know now that I did not know this time last week?

what can I do now that I couldn't do this time last week

What could I teach others to know or do that I couldn't teach them last week?

Student Learning Journals

This is close to what I do with the blogs, except that I am applying practical assignments.  The author suggests regular summaries of experiences in class.

Critical Incident Questionnaire    p. 41

Helps see your practice through the students eyes.

5 questions, once a week.  Anonymous.

1. At what moment in the class this week did you feel most engaged with what was happening?
2. At what moment in the class this week were you most distanced from what was happening?
3. What action that anyone took this week was most affirming or helpful?
4. What action that anyone took this week was most puzzling or confusing?
5. What about class this week surprised you the most?

Ch. 4 What Students value in Teachers

Credibility

1. Expertise
2. Experience
3. Rationale: be able to talk out loud the reasons for why you are doing it.  This inspires confidence that the teacher has a plan informing actions in the classroom.
4. Conviction: Pick up on the important things in the course to you as the teacher.

Authenticity comes from a perception that you are an ally in learning

1. Congruence: What you do and what you say = same
2. Full disclosure: expectations and agendas -- they want to know what you stand for... * test with points on the syllabus
3. Responsiveness: listening to concerns and issues; prepare to defend when you go against the vote
4. Personhood: Teachers are people outside the class, and students know this. 

Ch. 5 Understand and Responding to the Emotions of Learning

1. Impostorship: some people feel inadequate in the sense that they don't feel like the possess the talent to be a college student.
2. Address it by naming it as a feeling that we all have p. 81
3. Cultural Suicide: Process by which students are punished by friends, family, peers as a response to an act of betrayal.  For example: "acting white" or "no longer one of us" after purposeful learning takes place (there is a really good MY NAME IS EARL episode on this when Earl wants to become a salesman in the appliance story and not just a dock hand)
4. Lost Innocence Ideals about coming to college might be shattered, and the real world causes an "intellectual anxiety attack" -- their is no final truth but just a lot of lifelong learning.
5. Roadrunning: two forward, one back.  Incremental learning rhythms.

Ch. 6 Lecturing Creatively

Teacher talk: Sometimes sequential and structured; sometimes appears improvised

1. Be clear about why we lecture -- what is the goal
2. Use a mix of communication approaches: a) deliberately insert silence, b) introduce buzz groups (get students into groups and get them to answer some questions about the talk) c) Lecture from Siberia (i.e. Siberia Zone is the part of classroom furthest away from the teacher's body)
3. Break lectures into "chunks" - 12 minutes is the optimal time
4. Organize, so your students can follow your train of thought
5. Give clear verbal signals as to the importance of a topic or that a transition is occurring

Model Learning Behavior

1. Begin every lecture with a question or questions that you are trying to answer
2. end with the questions left unanswered
3. Deliberate introduce alternative perspectives
4. Introduce periods of assumption hunting: take "time out" to ask your students to enumerate the basic assumptions upon which the topic rests
5. Assess your lecture -- observe, get taped on video.

Ch. 7 Preparing Students for Discussion

I prize participative students!  Use it to further pedagogical ends and not just for its own sake.

Intellectual purposes

1. Engage your students in exploring a diversity of perspectives
2. Increase students' awareness of, and tolerance for ambiguity and complexity
3. Help students challenge their own assumptions
4. Increase intellectual agility and openness
5. Develop capacity for clear communication of ideas and meaning
6. Develop skills of synthesis and integration

Emotional Purposes

1. Get students connected to the topic
2. Show respect for student experiences

Sociopolitical purposes

1. Encourage attentive, respectful listening
2. Learn the process and habits of democratic discourse
3. Affirms students as co-creators of knowledge

Ch. 8 Getting Students to Participate in Discussion

What stops students?

1. Crippling introversion
2. Fear of looking stupid
3. Feeling unprepared
4. Feeling alien to the the environment
5. Talking isn't cool 
6. Teacher does all the talking
7. Talking is not rewarded

Conversational Roles

p. 146 - 147 .. discussion of roles such as Devil's Advocate --- however, very not satisfying.

Ch. 9 Teaching in Diverse Classrooms

1. Mixing modalities of presentation:  Visual, oral.  Try to accommodate diverse learning styles.
2. Is student silence really a problem?
3. Demonstration helps build confidence -- the students need to see that you know what you are doing.
4. Abstract concepts or practical illustration -- link to both 
5. teacher talk or student talk ? Predominant in US education and most students fine with it.  Students should voice their emerging understandings to affirm and correct the learning.
6. Teacher vs. Student Direction:  Asian students want strong direction and be confused if not forthcoming.  Students expect teachers to be directive .. particularly as it relates to moving toward the A grade.

Ch. 10 giving Helpful Evaluations

The place where the power relationship becomes apparent -- I, as the teacher, judge you, as the student.  Hence, we are never really at the same level.

• Teaching is directive
• Judgment is value laden

Bad: "This paper is terrific!"

Good: "Well done and here is why ... a) citations are solid b) much more care in grammar c) cutting down on unneeded jargon"

Characteristics of Helpful Evaluations

1. Clarity
2. Immediacy
3. Regularity
4. Accessibility -- in such a way to mean that the recipient can understand your evaluation in an accessible way
5. Individualized
6. Affirming -- acknowledge efforts and achievements
7. Future Oriented -- able to act in future
8. Justifiable -- spring from concern for their learning
9. Educative -- what do they learn from this comment?

Ch. 11 Teaching Online

1. Circular Response:  Have each student respond to the post of the last student.
2. Keep the discussion focused by forcing students to support and critically evaluate their responses
3. Materials must be well organized
4. Clear expectations and requirements must be set and communicated
5. Assign them to small groups
6. Link interaction to elements in the curriculum
7. Establish and then evolve ground rules for discussion 

Be prepared to discuss your responses to the following questions

What are some insights you gained about your teaching practices from your encounters with literature on teaching and learning?

I guess after reflecting through the first two books, and I had an epiphany when I read about the CQI, the most important things we can toward achieving better learning are to

1) formulate and ask the best question

2) reflect upon our learning through various assessment vehicles

3) We really have an obligation to model critical thinking.

What are some steps you might take to enact what you've learned?

Definitely going to try the assessment along the way idea to assure that learning is occurring in my classroom.  CIQ here we come!

Bring any additional questions or critiques of the book that come to mind as you read.

Way too bloody long to convey the key points that I extracted from the book.  Let's tighten this up and not be so wordy. 

Synthesis: The Student Experience

The course would have been a flat, paper thin experience devoid of three dimensions without technical intervention both inside and outside of the classroom. The technology facilitated new and interesting modes of exploring traditional media while expanding the amount of writing that took place by the use of blogs. In addition, it clearly elevated consciousness as it relates to the issues around writing for an audience.

Our learning objectives were entangled with three critical elements:

Youtube Video: Narrative forms in the Digital Classroom (15:56 )  Views: 32,217  

Blog Stats: worldsofwordcraft.wordpress.com (last day of class to first day)

Faerie Queene Online Game World: nwn.vanderbilt.edu

iTunes U Statistics for our in-classroom podcasts:

It appears that we are the most played / downloaded property on Vanderbilt iTunesU space at the end of the Fall 2007 semester:

Enduring Understandings:

Fall 2007 English 115F Worlds of Wordcraft -- Freshman Writing Seminar

Acknowledgments

Both Jeff Johnston and Michael Risen from the Center for Teaching Observed the classroom experiences of the students. Feedback from each of these colleagues assisted me in constructing and organizing my thoughts and reflections.

What is effective?

How effective are digital technologies in the classroom environment? The technologies we applied during our course are so many and varied that each merits consideration and reflection unto itself. Additionally, we must consider how we define effectiveness relative to the learning objectives of the classroom experience.

I love applying technology in ways that enable people to collaborate, communicate, and learn together. Technology provides us with the means to better our condition and explore whatever boundary we chose to challenge. The foundation upon which all technology application rests is learning. Before we can apply technology, we must learn it. Before we can learn, we must be able to find someone to teach. Enabling a teacher and a student to connect in ways that permit the successful dissemination or creation of knowledge and its retention remains the cornerstone of all human endeavors.

Every joy I derived from my labor was the joy of making an individual's life a little bit better. I believe that I best achieve this when I deliver an experience or conversation that takes them from where they were to a brand new state of understanding and awareness. The question that I need to explore and contemplate: What are the most effective ways in which to achieve the learning moment?

A deep, expert understanding of the content being taught is of paramount importance. A course delivered from me on structural biology would be provocative - - - in that my students would be provoked into a state of great dissatisfaction. However, if I were to teach a course on managing complex enterprise IT organizations in the context of a higher education organization - - - that might be of great benefit. Being a subject matter expert allows the conversation to start in the most traditional mode of discourse. A teacher passes his or her knowledge to a student possessed of lesser knowledge and experience. This timeless mode of dissemination can be through

1. Lectures

2. Seminars

3. Books and articles

4. One on one conversations

5. Digital Media such as podcasts or blogs

We must strive to reach people in a way that is amenable to how they engage learning. However, this becomes very difficult to achieve, as people tend to learn in different ways. In a group of 15 students, for example, one might find five learners who enjoy PowerPoint driven lectures delivered in a linear manner with no conversation. Another five students, frustrated by that method, might be more inclined to learn in a no media traditional lecture setting. While the remaining third prefer to just be turned loose onto a written text from which they can draw key points. Our job, particularly as we interact with learners more and more conditioned to mass amounts of exciting auditory and visual stimuli, is to use a set of blended techniques that meet the student at their particular point of need.

This in no way implies that traditional lecture methods of dissemination should be set aside. Quite the contrary is true. We must use the traditional lecture modality as the foundation around which we build our dissemination. However, capturing and augmenting that lecture with a deft application of digital technology can enhance the learning experience. The main success criteria for the introduction of digital technologies in the classroom should be that these technologies do no disrupt the learning process. Rather, each technology should be purposeful and limited in its intent.

Digital intervention in both the classroom and the creation of content enables the potential for students and teachers to occupy both roles. Creating new knowledge together by appropriate use of tools such as

a) Audio Visual Presentation Equipment

b) Wireless enabled classrooms

c) Digital Document Presenters

d) Smartboards

e) Podcasting

f) Blogs

g) Wikipedia

h) Social Computing

allows for the potential of students with various learning styles to better engage in class. However, one should not overwhelm students. Determining how to apply the right tools at the right moment is of paramount importance.

My goal is to explore the appropriate use of digital technologies in the classroom environment to determine how effective each technology is in achieving our learning outcomes in and out of the classroom.

Through teaching, I believe that we leave the world and those we touch in a better state than that in which we found them.