Trick or treat...or teach

Personally, this week’s reading was not as helpful as our previous readings. I felt the information was all over the board and a bit disconnected from my teaching situation. While the information is important to know, my connection to the material was not as strong as in past readings. I made sure to take notes on the material, as my teaching circumstances may change, but it was difficult to relate to lab instruction and distance learning.


The following are ideas from the reading that I found useful and suggestions on how I could implement them into my class:

Although the classes I will teach in the next two years will be relatively small, I found the McKeachie’s section on teaching large classes interesting. I didn’t particularly enjoy large lectures, in my undergraduate days, because of the anonymity and lack of involvement in the course work. But, a few of McKeachie’s suggestions would definitely make large classes more interesting for the students.

The first suggestion is the use of technology during lecture to engage students and help the instructor assess their learning (p. 255). By using wireless Internet, an instructor can put a question or poll on the board for students to answer. The instructor can check the students’ answers for accuracy, to get discussion started, or to tailor the rest of their lecture.

I have used Poll Everywhere in smaller classes and I believe it would be ideal for large lectures as well. I could implement this into my own teaching by prompting students to answer questions throughout my lecture. This would make it possible to get feedback on their understanding of the content. It would also help me to generate discussion if there was an inconsistency in the answers.

McKeachie’s also provides a list of ways to reduce anonymity in large classes. Two of the suggestions seem quite useful in large and small classes (p.260). The first one is using flashcards to remember student names and faces. During one of the first readings for this class, The First Day to Final Grade stressed the importance of learning names (p. 24). This is something that shows students respect and generates more student involvement. I think it is important that McKeachie encourages instructors to learn names, even in classes with 200 or more. By making a flashcard with a student’s name on one side and their picture on another, an instructor can study student names outside of the room.

Even though I teach smaller classes, this is an activity that I plan on using in the future. Each student can post a picture of themselves on the Blackboard discussion board. It not only gives me a chance to learn names and faces, but their peers can do the same. I can then make flashcards or study the names and faces online.

The next suggestion on the list is meeting with students in small groups outside of class. McKeachie proposes this by way of meeting to discuss assignments, observations, or just general meetings (p. 260). I think this is important, again, because it can be overwhelming for an instructor to remember and connect with 200 students in a large class. It is also important to make students feel that they are not just a number in a lecture hall. By breaking them into smaller groups or one-on-one, an instructor can spend more time with individual students.

I plan to incorporate this in my classes by setting up a meeting, early in the semester, to go over drafts or a given class assignment. It is important to have small group or one-on-one time with a student. This can give them an opportunity to ask questions or give feedback on their individual experiences. It may also help the student feel less apprehensive if they have already communicated with the instructor. By implementing meetings outside of class, my students and I can get to know one another better. It will also allow me to give them more individual help they may not receive in a large class.

In First Day to Final Grade I found the section on meta-teaching to be quite interesting (p. 168). Giving students the option to give feedback about my teaching seems a bit intimidating, but helpful. Meta-teaching can seem like an opportunity for students to view at an instructor as less authoritative and credible, but the authors prove otherwise. I like that students can incorporate their ideas and feedback on more useful ways to get them involved. This is highly constructive and can save time and energy on failed activities or discussion.

I plan to incorporate this into my classroom at the first sign of unsuccessful activities or discussion. I want to use positive language to make students feel that we are on the same team and that their opinions matter. They may be more apt to provide feedback if I can explain my intentions for an activity and how it will help them learn the material. They can understand what went wrong and we can decide what we can do better collectively. I believe meta-teaching is something that is useful, but I know I will need to prepare how I address situations. The examples in the book will come in handy in understanding how to address the class.

Additional Resources:

More info on teaching large classes. The page breaks down the problems, benefits, activities, and strategies of teaching a large class.


An article on Blended Instruction (blending face-to-face learning with computer-based learning) in large classes.

Learning Activities

The following are three class activities that could be used in my final project:

Active Learning

In class I want to have students working in groups as much as possible. McKeachie mentions that cooperative learning gets students familiar with working in groups in the employment field (p. 214). Since many careers, including public relations, incorporate teams and group tasks, syndicate-based peer learning is something that would be beneficial to present learning and future application. This activity will also encourage them to keep up with their reading.

I would divide them into learning groups in the first or second week of class. These groups would be the same throughout the semester. Each week students will write down questions and comments as they go through their assigned reading. They will then bring these questions and comments to their learning group for the assigned day each week. The learning groups will discuss the questions or interesting passages within their group for 15 to 20 minutes. One person will be in charge of writing notes, in preparation to share their group work orally to the class. I may add themes or specific discussion questions during certain weeks to add topics relative to current events or to cater to their learning. I will also provide a peer grading sheet, allowing students to grade one another, to avoid individuals not participating in their groups.


Low-Stakes Writing

Developing a class blog would be an ideal way for students to increase cognition, understanding, and encourage learning through writing (p. 193). This will also bring problem-based learning into play by using case studies. I have been debating on how to incorporate case studies into my lesson plans. I think it is important for students to apply and understand real life examples of pubic relations. A blog would be a great way to enable students to comment on their individual analysis of case studies.

I will post a case study on the class blog for students to read and analyze. They will casually write what they found positive, negative, and changes they would make to past public relations campaigns. They will need to use current textbook information and past learning to explain their comments. I am going to take McKeachie’s advice in explaining that these will be graded on a pass-fail basis. If they do their work they get 100, if not they get a 0 (p. 195). I want students to read at least 3 of their peers’ blog posts each week and discuss in class elements that they found helpful or interesting. The benefits of the blog would be improvement on writing and more active involvement in class. It will also be helpful in evaluating my own teaching by understanding their thought process.


Problem-based Learning

My students will be developing a public relations campaign throughout the semester for their final project. This campaign revolves around publicity for a new company or improving public opinion on an existing company. It is important for my class to understand the importance of PR in company development, but also in terms of crisis situations. To achieve this I want to incorporate one to two small crisis campaigns that students complete in class. Crisis situations are unique problems that students must solve to ensure a company’s survival. Each learning group will be given a company, a crisis situation, and a budget. They must design a mock campaign, within their budget, to help the company through the crisis. They will be allowed to be as extravagant or grassroots as they see fit, as long as they stay within the companies means. Each group will present their campaign to the class, as if they were presenting to the company’s board members. The class will evaluate the group’s campaign and give feedback when the presentation is finished. They class will also vote on if they feel the campaign would help the company “solve the problem” by overcoming the crisis.

This activity will help them practice thinking by way of problem solving. McKeachie suggests that students retain, apply, and are more motivated in problem-based learning (p. 227). This activity can also help me in that I can understand a group’s thought process throughout the activity. I can guide them through the process and still allow them to use their prior knowledge in gaining more understanding about PR.


The following are best practices for learning activities:

Activities can be wonderful tools in the classroom if they are used correctly. McKeachie gave us a plethora of examples and benefits when we use activities in our teaching. Planning and relevance seems to be two issues that are the most difficult for me. I know what it is like to plan an activity and have it bomb before we get through the first five minutes. One of my goals after reading this week is to take the time to think of every possible question or concern. I need to be proactive in developing the directions, possible pitfalls, and overall direction I want the activity to go. I also must analyze an activity’s benefits before presenting it to a class. All class work should have learning in mind. I feel that activities are sometimes used to engage students, but not to improve learning.

I find it is also important summarize and explain future use of learning activities. Nearly all of my activities are meant to parallel their future work. Whether they decide to work in PR or in athletic training, the skills that they develop in my class should have long-term benefits. I believe summarizing what was learned and explaining future application are important steps in learning activities.

Additional Resources:

Using blogs in the classroom

A little more on Peer Learning

It's all about the learning...

Our reading for this week focused on Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT). McKeachie’s text had chapters written by two different instructors discussing motivation and diversity. We also had an excerpt from the book Learner-Centered Teaching. All of the readings had to do with techniques and theories to help the instructor focus on student needs. By understanding different aspects of individual needs in our classrooms, we can focus on the best ways to garner learning for all students.


What is LCT?

Learner-Centered Teaching aims to balance the power structure between instructor and student. In most classes, instructors hold the power in deciding course policies, assignments, deadlines, and overall structure of the course. LCT supporters suggest that this power balance can discourage learning. They feel conventional courses become more of a challenge to meet the instructor’s outcomes, rather than a forum for individual learning. The focus is on learning rather than teaching. The overall pedagogy of LCT aspires to involve students in course decisions and planning so they are more engaged and motivated in learning. Students are more centered on understanding the material and less concerned with classroom politics.

Aspects of LCT that would incorporate into my teaching:

• Students choosing their assignments. This is an aspect of LCT that I am quite familiar with. One of my undergraduate professors allowed us to choose which written papers wanted to complete. There was a list of 10 topics and we were allowed to choose the four we were most interested in. It gave us a sense of responsibility and power in deciding what we would learn. There was a sense of respect for the instructor in that he understood us as individual learners. The only problem was there was a degree of inconsistency in the amount of work for each paper. Many students chose paper topics that would be easier to research and write. If, as an instructor, I could make each topic similar in scope and effort, I believe that students could benefit from choosing their own assignments. Not only do they get to develop areas in which they are interested, but they get to feel more responsible for their learning.

• Voluntary participation. As much as I would love all of my students to participate, this is not always the case. I often find myself spending hours developing discussion topics only to have them fail in the classroom. At times, I find myself randomly calling on students to see if they can break the ice and get discussion rolling. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. After reading Learner-Centered Teaching, I found myself evaluating my motivation. By calling on students during a failing discussion, I am probably doing so to benefit myself rather than the student (p. 36). I am trying to encourage a discussion because I feel it is necessary, not because the students have something to say. I found that I may have to reevaluate my participation expectations in order to avoid making students feel embarrassed or intimidated. I can make participation available to those that feel they have something to add and not call out those that don’t.
  

Aspects of LCT that would be difficult or unwise to incorporate into teaching:

• Textbook selection. I feel that it may be nonproductive and time consuming to have students pick their own textbook. The excerpt from Learner-Centered Teaching suggested that an instructor choose five textbooks that adequately encompass the goals and objectives for the course (p. 29). The students then form a textbook review committee and make nominate the textbook of their choice. In my opinion, it would be difficult for a student to understand and weigh the benefits of each book in a timely manner. I can see one-third of my students being excited and motivated, but the remainder seeing the textbook selection as an “added assignment” or being confused. The time it would take for them to get into a committee, review the texts, and then justify their decision could be time spent covering class material. In general, I believe LCT can be incorporated by taking baby steps. Textbook selection seems like it would be a giant leap that they may not be ready for.
  

• Deadline selection. When I read about students choosing due dates in Learner-Centered Teaching, I thought it sounded wonderful. Allowing students to choose due dates for projects and then determine the penalty for late work seemed like a great idea. Not only were they thinking about the amount of time they needed to complete an assignment, but they were also responsible for their consequences for late work (p.33-34). Then reality hit me. Do students truly understand time management for projects in the planning stages? Is this plausible for any class at the first or second year level? Currently, my students have a hard enough time choosing which day they will give a speech, and there are only a few days to choose from. Student’s setting their own deadlines and consequences may make my job easier (“YOU chose this date yourself. And this is the consequence YOU decided.”), but at what cost? If they aren’t structured or mature enough to understand the time needed to complete the assignment, it may just be setting them up to fail. Structure isn’t always hurting a student’s growth, as I felt this book tried to covey at times. Deadlines are there to also teach students how to manage their time.
  

Additional Resources:

Developing a syllabus using LCT. And Iowa State University page dedicated to developing a syllabus with LCT in mind. Some of the same ideas presented in the readings, but it gives a basic outline and steps to follow


More on LCT. I thought the table on page 2 gave an interesting side-by-side comparison of Learning-Centered vs. Curriculum-Centered Teaching.

Ah yes -- problem students

Many of us have had to deal with at least one problem student. Though each one has their individual issues, we tend to group them into one category. After the readings, I have a different opinion of problem students. Instead of seeing the student as a threat or irritant, I see them as a person I need to assist. Many times there is an underlying reason a student acts out or does poorly in class. It is my job as an instructor to find these reasons and try to help the student.

The following are things I found useful in this week’s reading and how they can be implemented into my field:

1. The entire section on plagiarism in First Day to Final Grade was extremely interesting. I am currently investigating a speech which may have sections that were copied from another student. Even though we have a university policy on plagiarism, it was interesting to read Curzman and Damour’s take on the varying degrees (p. 130-131). Was the plagiarism an honest mistake or did the student blatantly steal someone’s work? In my mind, anything that is not your own work needs to be sited. But I’m not sure students, especially first-year students, understand how strict this concept is. The authors say that this distinction should be a factor in the severity of the punishment. The student may not necessarily know what they are doing is wrong.

I think this is an important distinction to make because we need to educate students on the concept of plagiarism. If it was a mistake or the student wasn’t aware of their fault, I’m not sure kicking them out of school or giving them a zero in the class is productive. We need to use instances where plagiarism is the result of ignorance to educate them on how to research, site, and develop their own work correctly. Their future work depends on this.

I started to think about my discussion of plagiarism from the beginning of the semester. Did I explain the definition and consequences correctly? Does the student understand plagiarism and all of the components? Do they understand this includes work by other students? First Day’s discussion on the matter can help me better explain myself during the first class. I must minimize the opportunities, guide students in research, and fully explain the depths of the consequences (p. 125). I believe that many instructors assume students understand plagiarism because we stamp a university policy on our syllabi. The extra 10 minutes I could have spent explaining plagiarism may have stopped my current student from making a poor decision.

2. McKeachie sighted two distinct concepts about cognitive development by William Perry and Barbara Hofer (p. 174). Perry believes, in the first stage of cognitive development, students see things as right or wrong. They expect us to know the answers and teach these definitive answers to them. Hofer believes that students understand, and may believe, multiple perspectives in the first stage. There is not always a right and wrong, and students will use this principle to debate the information you give them. While this is the first time I have read about these concepts of cognitive development, it was interesting to apply it to the reactions I get in class discussions.

Many of my students can be argumentative about concepts of pubic speaking and the reasons behind their usefulness. I have had many occasions where students will dispute why a step should be used in developing their speech. While I generally find common ground with the student, I was always annoyed with their argumentative tone. The concepts of cognitive development gave me some insight and I was able to reflect on my experiences.

In my opinion, I think students can be stuck in the middle of Perry and Hofer’s perceptions. They understand that there can be more than one opinion, but they are unable to weigh concrete evidence in evaluating their own opinions. They know that they are entitled to their own opinion, but they believe it constitutes validation for their argument.

By utilizing both Perry and Hofer’s findings, I can try to understand the reasons students take an argumentative stance. I have to remember that students are still in an important stage of cognitive development. They may be meshing the beginning and middle stages of Perry’s model, but I need to encourage them to support their argument. They are aware of their opinions, but I need to help them find when there are justifications for arguing what they learn. This will allow me teach them on a higher level. It will also help me check my own understanding so I can stay sane throughout this process!

3. McKeachie gives readers great suggestions as to why students may be having problems in class. Often times it goes beyond effort and motivation, especially when a student is underprepared (p. 175-176). After reading this section, I thought about students in my class that aren’t performing well. I found it enlightening that McKeachie encourages the instructor to forget the past and work in the present. This was important to me because it helps instructors realize that they can’t do anything about the past. They can only move forward. I also found his suggestion about student learning centers extremely important. We aren’t always prepared enough or able to give students the extra instruction they need. This is part of the reason for learning centers. This section of the text was helpful in defining a problem for a students’ work and giving useful instruction as to how to handle it.

I plan to use McKeachie’s suggestion about giving quizzes and tests at the beginning of the semester to diagnose problems. This will allow the student get adequate help early on, and help them for the remainder of their work in my class. I also plan to utilize the student learning center more often. It will be helpful to use the first day of class to explain what the learning center is and why it is available to students. Students will then have an opportunity to seek out help, if they are already aware that they are underprepared.

The following are techniques, theories, or suggestions that I want to incorporate in my own teaching:

• I plan on saving all of my email records, regardless of how trivial they seem. I also need to save my replies to students as record of my correspondence with them. I think this will help me if a problem student tries to put words in my mouth or pretend they were unaware of something I discussed over email. I also feel that students don’t treat email as they do face-to-face interaction. Many times things are said that they wouldn’t normally say if they were talking with you in person. It is important that I keep these records in the case that there is a communication breakdown.

Additional resources:
NDSU Academic Counseling Center

NDSU Center for Writers is a great resource for instructors. I have even used their services in writing for my own classes.

Classroom Management Strategies. Many of these are for younger students, but it does give more in-depth strategies for behavioral problems than found in our text.

And if all else fails, there's always intimidation!!!

I repeat - this is not a test!

This week’s blog is dedicated to testing and assessments. I have to admit that my prior understanding of testing was directly related to grading. Students take a test, to prove what they have “learned,” and receive a grade to reward their efforts. The two readings for this week gave me a new understanding of testing. I’m still reflecting on my own assessment methods and reasoning, but I have listed a number of important ideas below.

According to What the Best College Teachers Do (Bain, 2009), there are two ways most teachers go about assessing and teaching students. The performance-based approach is the more traditional approach. Students are obligated to comply with the instructor’s deadlines, participation standards, general test questions, and other rules, in order to attain a grade. The focus seems to center around grades rather than student learning.

The learning-centered approach, which Bain advocates, is based more on student comprehension and development (p. 152-153). Throughout the article, Bain gives the reader examples of techniques to adhere to the student-centered approach. By moving away from scores, and instructor can concentrate on a student’s long-term intellectual and personal development. This was extremely interesting because he allowed me to think of testing as a means to learn, rather than a means to achieve a grade.

Several techniques are suggested by Bain to adhere to student-centered learning. I am listing two that I found most interesting and useful to implement into my own classroom.

• In lieu of threatening with deadlines, Bain gives an example to help students organize their own time to get all materials done in a timely fashion. One instructor distributed a timesheet that outlined every hour of each day for the semester. Rather than giving deadlines and penalties for late work, he explained the timesheet as a schedule to follow. If students kept on track they would make orderly progress to attain the course’s goals. If they fell behind, their feedback would be reduced because of time constraints.
  
  I want to implement this in my own classroom to give students an idea of the course load from the start. If they understand the effort needed to attain the course’s goals, they will be more likely to stay on track. By using deadlines and consequences for late work, students may feel threatened. I believe this technique will allow the class to concentrate more on learning and less on meeting restricting deadlines.
  

• The other example that Bain gave readers was in regards to testing and grading. He explained that many instructors use grades as a means to motivate students. By disregarding the traditional grading system for tests, students can concentrate on their overall learning and not be stifled by one poor test outcome. To do this one instructor used comprehensive tests that used the final test as the only grade (p. 161).
  
  Because I don’t have the flexibility to change testing structure in my department, I plan on implementing this when I am in charge of my own classroom. I believe it will help students see learning as long-term. Each day should be a learning experience that they can add to their knowledge. For the last test, students can see their overall understanding of the course content. This is more important to me than individual assessment questions throughout the course.
  

In McKeachie’s reading, I found many interesting assessment ideas and techniques. McKeachie’s book is turning into my little classroom companion. The text has given me a lot of information that can be used in planning my own classroom lessons, as well as implementing them into my current course.

• I really enjoyed McKeachie’s suggestion of group testing (p. 78). Students take individual tests and then break into groups to combine, discuss, and streamline their answers. By defending and explaining their answers with peers, students build on the learning process. I have never heard of this, and probably wouldn’t have believed it could be useful. After reading the benefits, it is definitely going to be used in future classes. I think it will encourage students to discuss their reasoning and give them a more practical application to what they have learned.
  

• Portfolio development was another suggestion by McKeachie that I found interesting. Not that a portfolio is a new concept, but I never thought of them as useful outside of their classic atmospheres. The idea of combining student’s work from beginning to end to highlight their improvement and development seemed the most applicable to my class. I want to implement in my courses to provide students a tangible representation of how far they have come. I think it would also be interesting to provide students with a binder of their best speeches to add to and improve on in the future.

There are many other techniques and ideas that I want to implement into my classes:

• Peer assessments. Allowing their peers to assess their work will give students a better understanding of grading criteria. It can also give them an opportunity to evaluate and discuss what other students are turning in. I always believe that any kind of peer work can help students learn from one another.
  

• Online testing. I have found that online tests can be very beneficial, if done correctly. Computers can do things that paper-and-pencil tests cannot. I want to implement computer tests into my classroom to give students more realistic and thought provoking questions. Because I teach public speaking, a test designed with questions evaluating speeches would be quite helpful. Because students work at different paces, it would be helpful if they could watch embedded speeches in their tests and answer questions in their own time.
  

Additional Resources:

Examples of CATs from the National Learning and Teaching Forum. McKeachie briefly mentioned CATs in Chapter 7. This site gives specific examples and their importance.

College Grading Standards. This goes along with what we worked on last week. I've been working on my grade standards since our class last met. This site gives a rather specific explanation to each grade as it applies to universities.

Assessing Student Learning On-line. This is an Australian website that lists benefits and strategies to on-line tests. Some of the information seems a bit dated, but I was able to find a lot of great info.