News from Suffolk's Center for Teaching Excellence

A new semester

2010-01-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

As the new semester begins it's a time for renewal not only of the earth but of our academic psyche. Is it me or is the world moving faster than I can keep up with? It seems as if everything is moving at lightening speed and there's never enough time to get everything done. Teaching, research, service is supposed to be the three legged stool of academia, yet many would say it's an off-kilter stool that tips us over.

Can we do it all? Should we do it all? Where do we put our energies? This semester I'm experimenting with a new course using new technology, amazing how time consuming it can be. Having listened to a talk by Stephen Brookfield in the fall, I'm also trying to become more of a Carl Rogers facilitator teacher. Boy is that a lot of work! To do this means that I have to design and set up multiple learning activities so that students can try to dig into the material and own their learning. It's much easier, believe me, to come in and lecture about the material as opposed to having them read the material primary sources, come in and structure a discussion around the material with deep thought questions, and then devise an activity to have them chew on and think about how what they read and talked about really means. Plus provide the necessary feedback to move the learning forward. I'm tired just thinking about it, never mind doing it.

Rogers warned us that there is always resistance, discomfort, and upset when students assumptions are challenged. This semester should be a doozy of upset for most of them. In previous classes where I've done "active learning" which students claim to enjoy - I ask how many of their courses are more than lecture and memorization for tests and the response is often very few. So I should be prepared for some real resistance.

However, I have to admit that there's some real fun and renewal as a teach about designing classes like this. Thinking up ways to get students interested and talking and wanting to learn is a really creative process that I'm enjoying!

But coming back full circle that gets to my opening question. How much time is there in the universe to do it all! We'll see, I'm really interested in how this experiment will go.....

Evaluating Student Evaluations

2009-04-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

A recent conversation with a new faculty member who was anxious about how her first year of teaching at Suffolk would be viewed by her students reminded me that weathering the first full set of student evaluations can be a difficult rite of passage. As with all rites of passage, this experience for my colleague was sure to produce mixed emotions, from downright indignation about a student's negative and, more importantly, inaccurate rant, e.g., "the professor was NEVER available," to self-congratulatory glee in another one's stellar praise, e.g., "this professor was extremely intelligent - the absolute best!" After discounting these extremes, as we know they are mostly prompted by the low and high grade each student received, respectively, the real task of understanding the evaluations begins. Good or bad, there's no doubt that it's pretty interesting to learn how your students perceive you.

My first set of evaluations a few years ago, for example, had their share of the requisite extreme critiques, but also revealed in essence that I was not easily approachable. This critique came as a huge surprise to me, as I felt that I was doing a good job of being accessible to my students, and had even made that a priority. It forced me to think hard about why the students felt this way, and how I would address the matter. I also enlisted the advice of an expert (the CTE's own Donna Qualters) who helped me to see that once I had this awareness, there were specific ways to achieve a more open channel of communication with students. After making these changes the following year, I really felt that I was a more effective teacher, which in turn the evaluations that year clearly reflected.

The moral is that student evaluations, while inevitably anxiety-inducing, can create valuable opportunities for improving teaching skills. It just takes a willingness to take an uncomfortably close look at yourself through your students' eyes.

Team projects - always or sometimes?

2008-11-12T12:31:00.000-08:00

Do you really need a team-based project in your course? Need, of course, being the operative word here. A common complaint of our students is the difficulty in scheduling team meetings – resulting many times in premature division of project work and substandard stitching together of the assignment often moments before the deadline. On the surface, it is easy to dismiss the complaint about problematic schedules and suggest that students simply find a way to make it work. That used to be my first response. I’ve taken more time though to consider our students and how their academic world differs from my memory. Now, I ask this fundamental question before designing my syllabus: Is the team project in place for pedagogical or grading reasons?

New faculty often comment on how busy our undergraduates seem to be, particularly in comparison to how some of us experienced college. To take 4 to 5 courses, live in a dorm, and work part-time or not at all while in school affords a flexibility to meet class members to work on projects, exchange ideas, and then divide up the work as needed. I don’t recall more than one or two courses per semester as an undergraduate where we had group projects. While Suffolk’s many advisory boards and recruiters tell us there is an increased need for team skills, it seems that there is a tipping point for doing our students a disservice by burdening them with coordinating schedules for multiple teams each with multiple members every semester – and hoping that they commute to class on time, work to pay for classes, do their other assignments, attend Career Services’ workshops, participate in clubs, get involved in campus events, and more.

In some classes it makes a great deal of sense to include a team project or presentation – some material is so complex or requires multiple viewpoints that students do better and learn more from their interactions. Other assignments don’t necessitate collective thinking, experiences, views, or resources, but are simply divided by the students into “equal parts” and then pieced together by one member before submitting to the professor. In the worst cases, these final products are not viewed by or reviewed by the group. Some students are so driven by the need for an A grade that they dominate the group process and product, and refuse to delegate or include others. A good grade reinforces this behavior in the future, but fails to teach them effective delegation, motivation, or team management skills. Students who wavered between slacking and participation are then pushed to the former (without much resistance). In the end, the learning experience for many is limited to a narrow slice of the project’s goals.

What can you do? First, question your own motivation for building a team project into the course. Simply putting students in a team doesn’t necessary build skills, enlighten them on effective team behaviors, or lead to a better product. I’ve dropped team projects from some of my courses, instead using individual assignments. While this entailed more grading for me, it was the right choice for those courses to ensure student learning was maximized as the teams didn’t add much at all. In another course, I retained the group project, but designed it to require meaningful interaction among students and outputs that required stronger collaboration. This always includes a peer evaluation of contribution that is available on BlackBoard prior to the start of the project. Being clear up front and talking about the expected team behaviors helped students understand why they were to be evaluated on these points (ranging from slacking to dominating).

The bottom line on teams in class comes down to student learning – what will they gain by working in a team that goes beyond an individual assignment?

Success Considerations & Teaching

2008-10-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

Attached is a link to a very entertaining mini-discussion on the components going into being successful. I have found at least three of the eight factors to cause me reflection from time to time.

First - is what we are offering of true value to the students? In my case, are the skills and insights I am striving to introduce to my engineering students those that will benefit them in the current market? I am also aware of how technology marches on, and my proclivity for older equipment (esp. for learning on), such a analog (vs. digitizing ones) oscilloscopes (to look at signals with) are being phased out. So am I staying current? Is what I am teaching strongly correlated with what they need when they graduate?

Second - do I keep my passion alive? I love teaching engineering, but can get discouraged when students do not seem to fulfil their part of the effort needed to master material. Sometimes I feel (esp. in Freshman Seminar) as if I am there to entertain them rather than to have a reciprocally exciting experience or exchange. I wonder if those of you reading this blog have any insights to offer if you've felt similarly?

Third - working hard - what is providing the "push" that the students need? If they are no longer in the circle of influence of attentive parents, what are their motivations? It seems unfortunate if deadlines, grades, or testing are the primary situations that students trigger off of to dig deep to understand the material. Sometimes I perceive that students behave as if attending classes is sufficient to do well, and I am constantly reminding them of the effort that goes on outside of class.

SO - I welcome your response about the ideas professed in the link, whether you enjoy / agree with it or not, and esp. how it may apply to your notions about teaching excellence. Craig Christensen

The link:

www.ted.org/index.php/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

Report: Student Views on Campus Technology

2008-10-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Computer technology is a means to an end, not the end in itself. Technology in the classroom is a tool for communicating ideas and content (e.g., Powerpoint) as well as an organizing tool, such as the application of Blackboard for course management. Technology cannot replace the faculty member and their knowledge; it can, as a tool, help transfer that knowledge to a student willing to learn.

An unscientific yet interesting report made available this week by computer parts vendor CDW Government, Inc. -- The 21st-Century Campus: Are We There Yet (available at http://webobjects.cdw.com/webobjects/media/pdf/newsroom/CDWG-21st-Century-Campus-1008.pdf) -- finds that regardless of major, students say that campus technology played a key role in their school selection. Furthermore, employers say tech skills are growing in importance -- and that universities are responsible for preparing graduates for the 21st-century workforce. The report also finds that students want more than a lecture-hall atmosphere from their college experience -- they want regular and immediate communication with faculty. Students rated online chat with professors the technology capability that would be most useful in their studies. It should be noted that Suffolk’s version of Blackboard includes an integrated chat feature.

Despite the shortcomings of the report, there are some unanswered thoughts after reading it:

Technology as a factor when students choose a college to attend -- do prospective students actively seek to review the technology available in computer labs and in the classrooms? What do students use as benchmarks in their comparative evaluation of an institution’s technologies?
Employers want the faculty to prepare the student for the workforce. What do employers think should happen when the graduate needs to be re-“prepared”?
The student’s request for online chat resulted in comments from a few faculty members (reviewable at http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3384/dear-professor-students-want-to-chat-with-you?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en). Faculty have in the past blogged that student expectations of faculty availability 24/7/365 are unrealistic. What are the roles for online chat in courses? Are faculty members feeling pressure from students to offer and participate in online chats? Do students expect the chats to be individual-based, or class-based such as an online Q and A prior to final exams? Should its application be limited to brief exchanges or will the faculty’s deployment and availability of online chat result in broader usage?

Do students view technology as the means to an end?

Teaching

2008-09-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked "What's good teaching" as if there were some magic formula that once mastered would solve all teaching challenges. Of course there are generalities that apply such as knowledge of subject matter, organization of material, ability to actively engage students, and believe it or not humor. But more specifically there is something called Disciplinary Differences. That means that students who choose to study a certain subject must be taught how to think as a professional in that discipline thinks. Janet Gail Donald in her book, Learning to Think (2002), not only makes the case for adding this to our teaching objectives, but offers strategies to help do this. This is confirmed by work by David Kolb on learning styles. Kolb has demonstrated through a lifetime of work how different professions fit his learning cycle. For example, he found that business students are Accommodators, history majors are Divergers, engineering students have an Converging style and mathematicians and sociologists are Assimilators (Kolb, 1981). Their work causes me pause when thinking about what is good teaching - clearly no "one size fits all" will work. Their research and work leads me to believe that my work becomes understanding how educators think and modeling that for my students. It's also enlightening to know that education students fall right in the middle of being concrete, active accomodators! What's good teaching in your discipline?