JAMcArthur

Pedagogy, then Technology

JAMcArthur — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:00:16 +0000

Want to integrate technology into your classroom? Choose technology that supports your pedagogical aims.

That’s the message of my workshop conducted this morning at the Teaching Professor Conference in Washington, DC. Attendees worked together to create opportunities to infuse their courses with technology. I presented 4 experiments that I’ve tried in my classroom with social networks, Twitter chats, podcasting, and mobile phones. Then, we all shared ideas about ways to support pedagogy through innovative technology use.

For all the attendees and other interested folks,
here are the slides from this morning’s presentation:
_________________________________________________

Learning Strategies for Teaching Professors

JAMcArthur — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:38:42 +0000

The Teaching Professor Conference was full of good teaching ideas and resources. Here are a few from selected panels I attended. For further information on one of these strategies, leave a comment here.

Engaging Students in their Own Learning
Angie Nippert and Kris Bransford of Concordia University and Karen Moroz of Hamline University

The four engaged learning strategies presented in this session, drawn from reading instruction, were intended to encourage processing time for learners and create opportunities for instructors to be intentional in course planning.

Text coding
Connections Grid
RAFT (role, audience, format, topic)
Double Entry Journal

Effective Pedagogical Strategies for Engaging Students in Online Learning
Jay Gabbard and Patricia Desrosiers of Western Kentucky University

Pulling from trends in online education, these ten strategies can assist talented instructors apply their talents to web-based platforms:

Adobe Connect Learning Software
Podcasts
YouTube Videos
“Getting to Know You” Forums and Videos
Future Professional Development
Tegrity Video Capture
Weekly Course Agendas
Regular Personal Checkins
Virtual Tours of course management sites
Tips for using the technology

Winning Hand! Cooperation and Critical Thinking via Card-Sort
John Huss of Northern Kentucky University

We all like to teach in the manner that we learn the best. Unfortunately, that’s not the best strategy for learners. Manipulation of tangible concepts creates a kind of learning that promotes creative thinking and problem solving. Card-sort lessons are classroom activities that engage participants in thinking through difficult scenarios teaching either content or problem solving, or both. Huss provided participants with multiple versions of card-sort examples.

Why Won’t They Talk? Breaking the norms of the college classroom – #TPC12 Keynote Speaker

JAMcArthur — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:25:28 +0000

“A lecture about discussion is always a bad idea,” says Jay Howard of his keynote speech at the Teaching Professor Conference on June 2, 2012 in Washington, DC. Howard, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Butler University, says effective discussions require careful planning and structuring.

Norms exist in college classrooms. The professor’s job is to plan ahead to set better norms early in the term. Below are some of the typical norms and strategies for changing them:

The norm of civil attention
The norm in the college classroom is not to pay attention. They must only create the appearance of paying attention to support the norm. Research shows that college professors support the norm by not calling on students unless they signal they have an answer (Weaver & Qi, 2005).
Strategies for breaking the norm of civil attention:

Establish a new norm on the first day of class with the syllabus presentation

Random direct questioning

Change the layout of the room and/or move around the room

Talk with students outside of class

Reward participation by grading it

The norm of the consolidation of responsibility
In the college classroom, regardless of class size, 5-7 students will make 75-95% of comments (see Howard, Zoeller, & Pratt, 2006). Some of this can be personality-based. For example, introverts would rather process before speaking whereas extroverts generally think while speaking. But what else separates speakers from non-speakers?

According to Howard, Zoeller, & Pratt (2006) student age (older students participate 4 times as much as traditional college aged students), instructor gender (students in classes with female instructors participated 3 times as much as those with males instructors), and seating (students seated in the front third of a room was 2 times more likely to speak than the back two thirds). Student gender and race didn’t have a significant impact. In addition, talkers perceived participation as a course expectation whereas non-talkers perceived classroom participation as optional.

Strategies for breaking the norm of consolidation of responsibility:

“Let’s hear from someone who…”

Use direct questions

Carrots & Sticks (Just-in-Time quizzes, Reading checks)

Break into groups

Structure the class with discussion questions shared in advance, then:
Use the board to highlight the key points in the discussion
Overtly emphasize the key points
Summarize periodically

Why bother with classroom discussion? It increases learning, increases critical thinking, makes students co-creators of knowledge, and makes class more interesting and fun