Teaching Tip for December 5, 2011

As we begin to reflect at the end of a semester and think about what we will do differently when we are again with students, it may be helpful to read these two quotes from the book The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer.

Reduce teaching to intellect and it becomes a cold abstraction; reduce it to emotions and it becomes narcissistic; reduce it to the spiritual and it loses its anchor to the world. Intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on each other for wholeness. They are interwoven in the human self and in education at its best. – p. 4

[Here is] a simple premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. – p. 10

Teaching Tip for November 21, 2011

Creating a climate for learning is very important. This includes not only the physical setting but also the psychosocial and cultural climate. Knowles described several characteristics of climate that he believed were conducive to learning:

•  A climate of the physical environment
•  A climate of mutual respect
•  A climate of collaboration
•  A climate of mutual trust
•  A climate of supportiveness
•  A climate of openness and authenticity
•  A climate of pleasure
•  A climate of humanness

These ideas are summed up in the following quote:

Learning  is  a  very  human  activity.  The  more people  feel  they  are  being  treated  as  human beings – that  their  human  needs  are  being  taken into  account – the  more  they  are  likely  to  learn and learn to learn.    –    Knowles  MS.  The  Adult  Learner:  A  Neglected Species. 4th  ed.  Houston,  TX: Gulf Publishing Co. 1990:129.

Teaching Tip for November 7, 2011

Two times a month, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning will provide a Teaching Tip.

We begin with the classic work of Chickering and Gamson from their publication entitled The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. This work came from a review of 50 years of research on the way teachers teach and students learn. Although published in 1987, these principles have been widely accepted and are still very much valid today. Much research has been conducted to support the principles.

Good practice in education:

• encourages contact between students and faculty,
• develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,
• encourages active learning,
• gives prompt feedback,
• emphasizes time on task,
• communicates high expectations, and
• respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

The citation for the original article is:  Chickering AW, Gamson ZF.  Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education.  AAHE Bulletin. 1987; 39(7): 3-7.

Why? Why? Why? Why?

Daniel Pink has written several books about how work is changing. His latest, entitled Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, is one I highly recommend to everyone. The book is based on over 40 years of scientific research on human motivation. His conclusion is that there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business (and education) does.

In Pink’s article in the January 29, 2011 issue of the British newspaper, The Telegraph, he begins by describing his first day of his first class in journalism. He said that the instructor told the class that the job of the journalist was to explain to readers who, what, where, when, why, and how - the Five Ws and an H. He goes on to state that he thinks that the “why” is conspicuously absent from most businesses today. Based on research by Adam Grant at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, he posits that omitting the “why” may be a major mistake.

Pink describes several of the studies done by Grant. One study was conducted at a large US university call center where telephone calls were made nightly to alumni to raise scholarship funds. Grant divided the call center representatives into three groups.

For several days before making calls, the first group read brief stories from previous employees about the personal benefits of working in the job. The stories were about developing communication and sales skills that later helped them in their careers.

The second group also read stories before making calls. These stories were from people who had received scholarships from the funds raised and who described how the money had improved their lives. The aim of these stories was to remind workers of the purpose of their efforts.

The third group served as a control and read nothing before making calls. A month later, Grant measured the performance of the three groups.

The first group and the control group received about the same number of weekly pledges and raised the same amount of money as they had in the weeks before the experiment. The people in the second group, however, raised more than twice as much money and obtained twice as many pledges as they had in previous weeks. This was significantly more than the workers in the other two groups.

Remember, the second group spent time considering the significance of their work and the effect on the lives of others. It seems that reminding the workers about the “why” resulted in a doubling of their performance. Grant has shown similar results in studies.

I wonder if this also is a message for us in the classroom. Shouldn’t we be helping students to understand the “why” of the course or the curriculum? Could knowing why help to motivate students and lead to better learning experiences? Would finding meaning (the why) in course and at work eventually guide students toward meaning in life?

I suspect that understanding the “why” will help students to become more competent and committed. One thing I believe we need to hear is that we as faculty have a responsibility to help students understand the “why.” It probably is even more important to do this with the current Millennial student. And we must remember that the parental “because I said so” is probably the worst “why” we could give students.

One take home message for me from this research is that reminding people why they are doing what they are doing, even in vary small ways, can lead to in a very significant effect.

What do you think about this and the potential use to us in education? What suggestions do you have as ways to help students see and understand the “why” in the classroom? I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

I Watched a Great Movie on My VCR Last Night

“We don’t think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail” says Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook and Time Magazine Person of the Year. In 2008, I heard a talk by Lee Rainie, the founder and director of the Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project. One of his comments based on a recently conducted survey was that 15-20 year olds thought that e-mail was for “old people”. I am not sure what the fact that I have 3 different e-mail accounts says about me.

From my observations, it does indeed seem that students are moving away from email as their main method of written communication. What does that mean for us as faculty? Take a look at this news report from the January 6, 2011 edition of Inside Higher Ed.

I think that one thing we can learn is that we may need to use a variety of technologies to communicate with our students. There are probably many different student preferences in a class for linking with others or receiving information. This is really no different than a class filled with students with different learning styles, is it.

How we need to communicate also probably depends on our objective. If it involves reflection, then e-mail or a wiki or a blog may best serve the need. If the goal is to rapidly get information to the entire class, maybe a Facebook page is the best way to do that.

We need to assess what we are trying to do and then select the best technology to do that. Always remember, however, to use the technology that is effective and that assists in the learning process. Don’t use technology just because you can.

I look forward to your comments.

What is the Internet doing to our brains?

It has been a while since I did a post. As we enter into summer and reflect on the past year, this seems like a good time to begin our conversations again.

Here is an interesting interview from the June 2, 2010 edition of the NPR program All Things Considered. You can listen to the interview with Nicholas Carr who wrote an article in Atlantic Magazine (August 2008) entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He has just released a book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, that expands on the article.

I also have provided a link for a written description of the interview that includes an excerpt from the book.

Listen to the interview

Full story and excerpt

Some questions and thoughts:

• I wonder if studies indicating that online reading gives lower comprehension than reading from a printed page applies equally to digital natives and to digital immigrants, i.e., those who have grown up using the Internet and digital devices versus those of us who have been forced to adapt to the technology.

• If this effect really is reducing the ability to become and to be a creative thinker, what should we be doing to help prevent this?

• What does this research and these ideas say to us as we move away from printed textbooks to online access of reference material for a course?

• What may be the implications of this on learning?

I look forward to your comments.

Joy of Teaching

One of my favorite authors is Parker Palmer. I have four of his books and am currently reading the one he most recently published. His book, The Courage to Teach, should be read (and reread) by every teacher. It is a true gift to all who have been called to teaching.

The book opens with this paragraph:

"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illuminated by the lightning-life of the mind – then teaching is the finest work I know."

The question I would like to pose to you in this post is this: When have you experienced this kind of joy in your own teaching?

I have a number of these but I will share the most recent. It occurred this week at The Loop in Embry Hills Shopping Center. We were having a meeting of the Officers and Committee Chairs of the Cecil B. Day Campus Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. While waiting for our food and without a prompt from me to the students about how the just completed term had gone for them, a couple offered some comments.

One student told me that what we had done together was her "favorite part of the course." She told me that she saw a number of ways that what we had learned had applications to practice and to patient care. A second student told me that she understands and appreciates why we do the activities that we do in class. She said that they do, in fact, help her to learn. She said that she wanted me to know that even though some students complain about having to do things in class, she believes that the efforts are of great benefit for learning. She said that the class activities help her to see that I care about learning.

I want to hear your stories of the kinds of moments about which Parker Palmer speaks. For me, your sharing of these experiences also brings me joy. For me, hearing these stories helps me to move away from that question that I ask myself sometimes about finding new work and even finding something that I can actually do successfully. I look forward to your sharing.