February 3, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Student Note Taking
This week we will focus on how students can improve their note taking skills – and therefore their
understanding of the concepts and ideas presented – with a slant towards how you as faculty can assist
in this process.
From Jerz’s Literacy Weblog - Taking Notes: 5 College Success Tips
Few people realize how fast memory fades. Studies on memory have shown that, without review, 47%
of what a person has just learned is forgotten in the first twenty minutes and 62% is forgotten after the
first day. (University of Texas at Austin). Therefore, having good lecture notes to review can determine
how well you are able to perform on exams.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Go to class prepared.
Improve your listening skills.
Develop a note taking method that works for you.
Play close attention to content.
Review and edit your notes.
These all might seems obvious to you, but not so for your students if they have never or rarely been
asked to do so. How many times have students asked you:





For paper or pencil – on an exam day.
Can you repeat that? And it was an aside or tangent.
Is this important/going to be on the exam?
How can I do better in your class?
I study but when I take the test I just don’t understand what you are asking.
Each of the above 5 skills are elaborated on with some references, just follow the link. Ask yourself, how
can you model, inform, teach your students to be better note-takers/learners?
February 4, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Student Note Taking
Found this gem on Facebook – thank you Natasha Vanderhoff for inspiring this week’s theme on notetaking and how we can help our students increase their learning.
This blog from the Huffington Post summarizes the findings of an article to be soon published in
Psychological Science that compared note taking by hand vs. laptop. (JU no longer subscribes to this
journal .) Spoiler alert – longhand was better for both factual learning and higher order conceptual
learning.
What is your laptop policy in class? Your students may not believe you, or believe this article – but do
you have time to run a short experiment and have the pencils vs. typists duke it out for the best quiz
score to prove it to themselves!
February 5, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Student Note Taking
Hints for Good Note Taking
We made it through our education, maybe not smoothly or evenly – but we made it. At some point, we
figured out how to capture important material in a way that was meaningful to us and allowed us to
both understand the material and do well on assignments and exams. Not all of our students have
made this transition yet – but they should all leave knowing how to take away key points, put ideas
together and think logically. Note taking – either from lecture or readings – is integral to this skill.
Here are more ideas when that sad and despondent student shows up in your office asking “How can I
do better in your class?”
February 6, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Student Note Taking
Note taking is not confined to the classroom. Many of us assign external readings and expect full
comprehension and understanding of the material within. Do your students know how to take notes –
meaningful notes – while reading complex or dense discipline specific material? This website might be a
great resource to pass along to your students – Reading a Textbook for True Understanding, Cornell
College
February 7, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Student Note Taking
Reading, it’s not just for paper anymore. More of our students are buying e-books; and we are assigning
electronic readings as well. Does delivery impact comprehension and understanding? This article says
no – though the sample size was small and the discussion highlights some of the difficulties they had in
completing the study.
A Nook or a Book? Comparing College
Students’ Reading Comprehension Levels,
Critical Reading, and Study Skills
Schugar, Schugar and Penny
International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning. 7(2), 174-92, 2011
This study compared reading comprehension, critical reading, and use of study skills between students
reading eTexts on eReaders and those reading with paper texts. This research also examined the
practical applications for considering the different skill sets students may need to read eTexts effectively
in English classrooms. Our research found no discernible differences in reading comprehension levels
between the e Reader and non-eReader groups. Survey data also revealed that while students reported
using active reading skills (like highlighting, bookmarking, and annotating text) when reading traditional
texts, they did not transfer these active reading skills to eTexts/eReading
February 10, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Group Work
This week we dive into the fun of group work – and I start with a blog. The author is speaking from his
experience with group work as a student – full entry is available here, highlights are below.
One of the reasons group work is assigned is to mimic real world situations, but here Joe Larson
identifies some key differences deficiencies in college group work as compared to the real world:
1. Defined roles and responsibilities. There is usually some stated understanding about what work is to
be done by whom, though of course there are always gray areas.
2. Hierarchy, reporting and oversight. Somebody (on the team or outside it) is clearly able to spot
slackers and has the authority to call them out.
3. Common workspace and schedule. Either group members are in the same office for N hours a day, or
the employer has taken pains to bring them together in other ways (regular video conferencing, monthly
meetings in person, whatever).
4. Rational group design. The group has been put together by some intelligent process to create a
workable team with some balance of complementary skills.
5. Longevity of teams. People tend to work with the same handful of people for 6 to 12 months or more,
and develop certain efficiencies.
He does offer a solution – again in his humble student opinion (he is now a web developer for
amazon.com).
I believe the quarter-long group-project model is the best way to address these problems, and I have
seen it used fairly successfully.
Instructors can fine tune teams in the early weeks to create more balance. They can effectively play the
role of oversight by having frequent checkpoints and audits for progress. Time is allowed for team
reshuffling (at the Instructor’s direction) to correct issues of balance and compatibility.
Students can “waste” those first weeks just getting to know each other and working out a common
schedule. Natural roles and responsibilities can evolve. Real group learning experiences arise, as well as
learning about how to work effectively in a team. Often, some pretty amazing work products come out
of such projects. Best of all, real friendships can develop.
February 11, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Group Work
So let’s take what Joe Larson said yesterday to heart and put some effort into the structure of the group
project. (I know that YOU do this, but this is for your “colleague” down the hall!).
From Carnegie Mellon – specific resources for:
 Group resumes
 Skills inventory
 Team contracts and roles
 Self, peer and group assessments.
From Faculty Focus (The Teaching Professor publication) – selected entries on group work:
 What components make group work successful?
 New evidence on cooperative learning
 Better group work experiences begin with how the groups are formed
 Defining and promoting teamwork in the classroom
 Five things students can learn through group work
 Peer assessment is not an elixir for all group work challenges
February 12, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Group Work
Group Testing
I must admit I made a funny face the first time I heard this as an assessment technique. The following
references all tout the idea of group testing as part or all of an exam in a variety of courses and
disciplines. Hyperlink to abstract or full text as available.
Pandey, C., and Kapitanoff, S. "The Influence of Anxiety and Quality of Interaction on Collaborative Test
Performance." Active Learning in Higher Education, 2011, 12 (3), 163-174.
Hoke, M. M., and Robbins, L. K. "The Impact of Active Learning on Nursing Students' Clinical Successes."
Journal of Holistic Nursing, 2005, 23 (3), 348-355.
Kapitanoff, S. H. "Collaborative Testing: Cognitive and Interpersonal Processes Related to Enhanced Test
Performance." Active Learning in Higher Education, 2009, 10 (1), 56-70.
Sroug, M. C., Miller, H. B., Witherow, D. S., and Carson, S. "Assessment of a Novel Group-Centered
Testing Scheme in an Upper-Level Undergraduate Molecular Biotechnology Course.” Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Education, 2013, 41 (4), 232-241.
Clinton, B. D., and Kohlmeyer III, J. M. "The Effects of Group Quizzes on Performance and Motivation to
Learn." Journal of Accounting Education, 2005, 23 (2), 96-116.
Rao, S. P., Collins, H. L., and DiCarlo, S. E. "Collaborative Testing Enhances Student Learning." Advances
in Physiology Education, 2002, 26 (1), 37-41.
Slusser, S. R., and Erickson, R. J. "Group Quizzes: An Extension of the Collaborative Learning Process."
Teaching Sociology, 2006, 34 (July), 249-262.
Russo, A., and Warren, S. H. "Collaborative Test Taking." College Teaching, 1999, 47 (1), 18-20.
February 13, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Group Work
Online group work
Combining the pain and pleasure of group work with the online environment – what fun! Here are
some suggestions from GetEducated.com
1. Know Your Team and Instructor
Get to know your team members, where they live, what they do, and their schedules. Part-time
students, which might make up your whole team, have scores of other work and family
responsibilities. Getting a little personal with each team member can make it easier when it comes to
sacrificing time to achieve a common learning goal. Also, get to know your online instructor and his or
her teaching strategies. Engage him or her in an email dialog. Test how quickly they respond to
questions, so you know what to expect. Note all the options you have for getting in contact. Do they
have a phone number, or keep steady office hours? Does anyone on your team live near campus so they
could meet face-to-face if needed?
2. Find A Specific Weekly Time to Meet
A team can’t function solely through email. A five-minute phone conversation often gets a point across
verbally that 10 emails can’t. Plan phone meetings at least once a week to keep everyone in sync. The
meetings can be short, but any more than a week without contact can thwart efforts to stay on track.
3. Find Someone to be the “Voice” of the Project
Elect one person to be the “voice” for the final version of the written assignment. Having everyone write
separately is fine for rough drafts, but taking a piecemeal approach to the final product can make it
disjointed and confusing. The project comes from multiple authors, but give it one uniform voice in the
final draft. Once the elected “voice” has edited together all the content, have them submit it to the
group for review. Group members can then make edits or insert ideas to polish the final assignment.
4. Agree on the Tools That You’ll Use to Collaborate
When I began online learning in the “stone age” of 2005, programs like Skype or Google Documents
weren’t readily available. I was in a team of 5 students, and in the beginning we would email the same
documents over and over to each other. This led to a nightmarish downward spiral, as one of us would
lose track of which documents were “current” and we’d waste whole evenings poring over the
drafts. Today, many collaborative learning options are available, whether its text or voice or chat via
Gmail, conference calling with Skype or TalkShoe, or document-sharing with DropBox, collaborating
online is much easier. Pick and agree on the collaboration and tracking methods before starting.
5. Double-duty: Assign Every Person’s Role on the Project One Backup
During my second group assignment, one of our researchers suddenly couldn’t contribute for at least a
week. The reason? He was a soldier stationed overseas, his unit was going on patrol, and he wasn’t
certain of when/if he’d be back. All we could do was wish him the best, then frantically find a way to get
his tasks done. Every virtual team I’m on since then has someone ready to step in and complete a crucial
role if another team member can’t. Some emergency could always sneak up on one of your classmates,
so plan ahead.
February 14, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Group Work
When in doubt – use humor.
February 17, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I will be summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Foreward by Todd Zakrajsek
Unless instructors take a pedagogy course…the most common method to advance teaching skills is
through trial and error. [This] does not allow one to understand why some approaches work and others
fail.
Without consulting current research, simply trying new approaches in class is unlikely to result in any
meaningful advances in how we teach and how students learn, any more than in would advance any
discipline.
The foundation of this book…is in helping higher education faculty members better understand how to
assist college and university students to learn.
[The author] summarizes the evidence pertaining to learning that is both accessible and readily
applicable.
Introduction
I have written his book…to move away from a teacher-centered model of instruction to a learnercentered model of facilitating learning. Neuroscience, biology, and cognitive science research have
made it clear that the one who does the work does the learning.
[Faculty member] face a gap between what they would like to do in their teaching and the skills and
strategies they need to make it happen.
The purpose of this book…is to make a research-based case supporting learner-centered teaching as the
best approach for optimizing the opportunity for college students to learn.
I have designed this book so that each chapter can be a stand-alone lesson on learner-centered teaching
February 18, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 1 Follow the Research
"It is the one who does the work who does the learning." T. Doyle. Learner centered teaching is about
optimizing the opportunities for our students to learn. This means figuring out the best possible ways to
get them to do the work. The widely accepted definition of learning is that it is a change in neuronnetworks of the brain. For this change to happen, students must be paying attention and actively
engaging their brains to process new sensory input...if students' brains are engaged in new learning,
their brains' neurons begin to grow new cellular material. The only way for our students to increase
their learning is to actively engage in learning the content and skills we teach, and then use and practice
the content and skills for significant periods of time.
The goal of a learner centered practice is to create learning environments that optimize students'
opportunities to pay attention and actively engage in authentic, meaningful and useful learning. This
kind of learning activates the reward pathway in the brain.
What can brain research tell us about students' learning?
First, be cautious about the information
We must beware of explanations that rely on data from one single level [molecules and cells, circuits to
physical and social environments].
Neuroplasticity
[This] refers to the ability of the brain to change by adding new neuronal connections and to grow new
neurons as a result of one's experience.
What Else Do We Know?
Daydreaming and Attention
Recent research shows that mind wandering can be positive because it allows us to work through some
important thinking.
Downtime and Learning
Loren Frank, in a 2009 study, found that the brains of rats that were given downtime following new
learning could solidify the new learning experiences and turn them into permanent, long-term
memories while still awake.
Three Cognitive Enhancements That Work
 Exercise, especially aerobic
 Mediation
 Some computer games
Evolution and Learning
Natural selection favored a brain that could solve problems related to survival in an unstable outdoor
environment, and to do so in nearly constant motion. Students’ brains evolved to work best when
moving, not sitting…dozens of studies are underway in which desks have been replaced with tables and
exercise or stability balls as chairs.
Be Professionals by Following the Research
My message [is} that, as professional educators, we have the responsibility to maintain standards of
practice and this includes changing our teaching when the research offers evidence that new practices
are warranted.
February 19, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 2 Getting Students To Do The Work
…a teacher’s job [is] to maintain the learning environment [and they are] supposed to make students at
least “appear” ready to learn.
Why Our Students Might Not Like Doing the Work
…students are not ready for the new responsibilities and greater effort that learning-centered teaching
requires. Students have been taught for the last 12 years in a teacher-centered environment. Changing
to a learner-centered practice, where work is due on a regular basis, where class time is spent trying to
solve problems and figure out complex ideas instead of listening to a lecture, is a very different form of
school. It’s one that students need help adjusting to.
From K Patricia Cross, “In the competition of the classroom, students prefer to be seen by others as
succeeding through ability rather than through effort. ‘If I have to work at it, I must not be that smart’.”
Strategies for Letting Our Students Do the Work
Several chapters will be dedicated to specifics, but here are some quick and easy ways to start.

Cumulative testing, not just a cumulative final. Reassess on the most important points covered
so far.
 Establish a wiki site – they write their own test review and you get to watch and moderate.
 Rewriting of papers.
 Retesting – within limits, let students try again.
 Practice quizzes
 Concept maps – marked check-plus, check, minus or graded.
A scaffolding approach to getting the students to do the work. Walk them through it the first time, with
details and examples, and then slowly withdraw your guidance and assistance.
February 20, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 3: The Power of Authentic Learning
This chapter focuses on the research in support of authentic learning, how to develop authentic learning
activities and how to assess them.
So first what is authentic learning, “A pedagogical approach that allows students to explore, discuss, and
meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems and
projects that are relevant to the learner.” (Donovan, Bransford and Pellegrino). It also seeks to have
students use methods used in the real world – teamwork, collaboration, technology and professional
presentation. Authentic learning experiences increase students’ motivation because it involves active
engagement and meaningful outcomes that others (i.e. employers) actually want and need. As students
look to their futures…they will need expert thinking (pattern recognition, metacognition) and complex
communication skills (persuasion, negotiating).
Features of Authentic Learning
 Deals with a real-world task.
 Has value beyond the classroom/school setting
 Is interdisciplinary
 Allows a variety of learning styles
 Students take ownership of their learning
 Is student driven
 Positions teacher as facilitator
 Uses scaffolding to assist learning
 Uses real time data
 Encourages collaboration
 Asks students to produce a product
Examples of Authentic Learning
 Computer simulations (Palestine, Sim Port)
 Working with local agencies (museum exhibition design, statistics support)
 Model eliciting activities – using real world data to develop a mathematical model
Authentic Assessments
From the American Library Association – authentic assessment is an evaluation process that involves
multiple forms of performance measurement, reflecting on student’s learning, achievement, motivation
and attitudes on instructionally relevant activities. Rubrics are highly recommended.
Integrating authentic learning experiences and assessments into your daily teaching only requires that
you decide to do so. The planning needed to create lessons that are authentic requires no more time or
effort than planning traditional lessons.
This chapter elaborates on the above (and more – I am limited to 10 minutes) and provides websites and
other references. Once I am done reading and summarizing the book for you, it is available for checkout through the library.
February 21, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 4: From Lecturer to Facilitator
[The teacher centered professor] misses out on opportunities to optimize student learning because
much of what went on in the classroom (lecture) required the professor to fire his own neurons rather
than the students firing theirs.
The Power of Planning
It is not a simple task to move away from a traditional, lecture-centered model of instruction. It requires
learning new skills and spending more time (initially) in planning each class. It requires locating
resources that students can investigate on their own or in groups. It also requires new forms of
assessment.
Effective facilitation requires expert knowledge of the topic at hand. The role of teacher as expert does
not change, what changes is how that expertise is used.
The Plan
Step One: Writing Daily Learning Outcomes
Define what we want our students to be able to do at the end of 50 or 75 minutes – not just for the
entire course or unit. A learning outcome involves four questions:
1. Who will be doing the learning?
2. When will the learning be completed?
3. What will the students be able to do or know?
4. How will you know they learned it?
These questions can help you define your learning outcomes:
1. What is the best use of my time?
2. What will students do?
3. What resources will I need?
4. What resources will the students need?
5. Allocation of class time?
6. Will the students work alone or in pairs?
7. How will I assess the learning?
Step Two: Action Plan
The answers to the 7 questions above are your lesson plan for that day! The author provides an
example from his reading class.
Step Three: Additional Practice
A series of questions to guide you through developing meaningful homework assignments.
Step Four: Giving Feedback
Students often complain that feedback is unhelpful or unclear, sometimes demoralizing. They also
report that they are not given guidance in how to use the feedback to improve their understanding and
performance. And sometimes the feedback is provided too late to be of any use. And how many of us
professors complain that students do not incorporate feedback into subsequent assignments! In the
learner centered classroom, the professor needs to provide meaningful, clear and useful feedback in a
timely fashion and expect that the feedback be used – for example summarizing or putting the feedback
into their own words, or highlighting changes made as a response to feedback given.
February 22, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 4: From Lecturer to Facilitator
[The teacher centered professor] misses out on opportunities to optimize student learning because
much of what went on in the classroom (lecture) required the professor to fire his own neurons rather
than the students firing theirs.
The Power of Planning
It is not a simple task to move away from a traditional, lecture-centered model of instruction. It requires
learning new skills and spending more time (initially) in planning each class. It requires locating
resources that students can investigate on their own or in groups. It also requires new forms of
assessment.
Effective facilitation requires expert knowledge of the topic at hand. The role of teacher as expert does
not change, what changes is how that expertise is used.
The Plan
Step One: Writing Daily Learning Outcomes Define what we want our students to be able to do at the
end of 50 or 75 minutes – not just for the entire course or unit. A learning outcome involves four
questions:
1.
Who will be doing the learning?
2.
When will the learning be completed?
3.
What will the students be able to do or know?
4.
How will you know they learned it?
These questions can help you define your learning outcomes:
1.
What is the best use of my time?
2.
What will students do?
3.
What resources will I need?
4.
What resources will the students need?
5.
Allocation of class time?
6.
Will the students work alone or in pairs?
7.
How will I assess the learning?
Step Two: Action Plan
The answers to the 7 questions above are your lesson plan for that day! The author provides an
example from his reading class.
Step Three: Additional Practice
A series of questions to guide you through developing meaningful homework assignments.
Step Four: Giving Feedback
Students often complain that feedback is unhelpful or unclear, sometimes demoralizing. They also
report that they are not given guidance in how to use the feedback to improve their understanding and
performance. And sometimes the feedback is provided too late to be of any use. And how many of us
professors complain that students do not incorporate feedback into subsequent assignments! In the
learner centered classroom, the professor needs to provide meaningful, clear and useful feedback in a
timely fashion and expect that the feedback be used – for example summarizing or putting the feedback
into their own words, or highlighting changes made as a response to feedback given.
February 24, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
This week and next I am summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching:
Putting the Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 5: Who Are Our Learners and How Do We Get to Know Them Better?
If we take the time to get to know our students, respect and value them, be transparent with them and
demonstrate that we have their best interest at heart, then the learning experience is likely to be very
positive. Understanding our students…is necessary to create an engaging and exciting learning
environment.
The Mindsets of Our Students
This section of the chapter is largely taken from the work of Carol Dweck. She posits that our students
have deep-seated views out their own intelligence and abilities – fixed mindsets (learning is easy only if
you are smart) and growth mindsets (time and training can increase my own intelligence). Every
semester, thousands of students (fixed mindset) take courses they believe they cannot do well in – nor
do they believe that any of the extra help that might be offered will be worthwhile to their
success. Teachers often “mis-diagnose” the fixed mindset student as lazy or unmotivated. Dweck offers
ways to help students change their mindset:
1. Praise students’ efforts and strategies, not their intelligence.
2. Tell students they can grow their own brains.
3. When students fail, focus feedback on having them increase their effort and use improved
strategies.
4. Help students understand that their ability to face a challenge is not about their actual skills or
abilities; it’s about the mindset they bring to a challenge.
5. Reinforce in students that current performance reflects only their current skills and efforts, not
their intelligence or worth.
6. Offer evidence that students’ fixed beliefs are in error, but also teach the study skills and
learning skills they need to succeed in the course.
Building Relationships That Enhance Learning
Given the amount of time we put into planning our courses, it seems logical that we would want to
succeed. This means creating a learning environment where students want to be because they know
they are respected and valued. Here are the author (or his wife’s) suggestions:
1. Treat students like they were your son or daughter.
2. Give students some choice in the learning process.
3. Talk with students one to one whenever possible.
4. Care about them personally and educationally.
5. Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to ignorance (Ruggerio).
Principles of Relationship-Driven Teaching
This final section of the chapter is largely drawn from the work of Rogers and Renard. First, seek to
understand your students. Second, manage the learning context, not the learners.
1. Establish a safe classroom
2. Strive to make the work the students do be of value to them
3. Provide evidence of students’ success
4. Establish a caring classroom
5. Use best practices
Teaching is not us vs. them. Our students need to know that we cannot make them succeed; their
success is always in their control. We need to make sure that we are not barriers.
February 25, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
Week 2 of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching: Putting the
Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 6: Sharing Control and Giving Choices
Learner centered teaching works best when learners are given choices in how they are engaged with the
material and control over how they demonstrate what they have learned. Students make these
decisions all the time: tune-in or tune-out; complete an assignment or blow it off. But this chapter
focuses on sharing power with our students. Why, because it is the students’ learning, not ours.
Sharing Builds Community
If students help draft and set policy, then we are no longer the rule enforcer – no more bad cop. The
willingness to share power says that we trust our students to make intelligent decisions that will both
further their learning and be fair to all. Of course, this is all within reason. Faculty have the right and
responsibility to maintain high standards.
How to Share Power
The author provides 16 policies and practices common to most classes and then discusses why students
should have this power and how to lead students to a student centered policy.
1. How to Share Power When Forming Course Policies
Attendance, tardiness, late work, retesting and rewriting of papers
2. Sharing Power on Organizational Issues
Paper due dates, exam dates, grading scale, topics for papers and projects, group formation,
office hours
3. Teaching and Content Issues
Textbooks, learning outcomes, teaching methods, discussion guidelines, rubrics
February 26, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
Week 2 of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching: Putting the
Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 7: How Teachers Can Facilitate Student Discussions By Not Talking
When learning is social, and discussion is widely used, students’ educational experiences tend to be
more satisfying. But most faculty like to hear themselves talk! This chapter is not about why faculty
members should move from lecture to discussion – rather this chapter focuses on helping students
understand that discussion is not just an activity that faculty use when they didn’t prepare a lecture (and
some tips on facilitating effective discussions).
Most students have never been instructed how to function in a discussion group. First, they want to
know why they are being asked to discuss something – a valid request that we/faculty make of those in
authority/administration when we are asked to do something. The author presents 9 arguments – some
will work for some classes and/or some students to sway them.
Next we need to make it worth their while. This involves first keeping our mouths closed – we know the
answer and we are not the learners. So unless the discussion is off topic or points are in error – zip it. If
you don’t rescue them from the silence, they will eventually talk and learn!
Before any discussion, ensure that there are ground rules. And in keeping with chapter 6 – have the
students help design these ground rules.
The author then elaborates on the three factors to designing an effective group discussion:
1. Determine what type of discussion you want to have – small or large group.
2. What will be discussed? This can either be shaped by you or the students. But if learning is to
happen, then there should be clear learning outcomes heading into the discussion (remember
your lesson plan).
3. What is the discussion method – guided, debate, role play, other.
One of the great failures (his words) of discussion is the lack of follow up activities. Just as one lecture
does not engrain a concept into a student’s brain without homework, readings and/or reflection –
neither will a discussion. Reflection paper, summary, mind map – require them to consider and
manipulate the information gained from the discussion at least one more time. And then of course you
must also assess that learning has happened – just like from a lecture. The final part of the chapter
discusses grading discussion skills and points for participation.
February 27, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
Week 2 of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching: Putting the
Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 8: Teaching to All the Senses
The author describes how he measures out the sugar in a can of coke and the fat in a double whopper –
and then eats a teaspoon of sugar and threatens the same for the Crisco. This use of multisensory
teaching process, combined with the emotional arousal, has resulted in almost every student listing this
as one of the most unforgettable lessons in the course (a lesson in proper nutrition).
The translation of current understanding (which the author briefly reviews) is that our senses work
better together than in isolation, and when multiple senses are used in instruction, better encoding of
information takes place, allowing for improved recall. This chapter discusses how to use a multisensory
approach to enhance student learning both in the classroom and for our students as they study.
Recall research is presented for hearing and seeing, seeing and touching, but I’d like to emphasize the
information on smell. Smells can be used to improve recall. Encourage students to get some spices or
fragrant candle and smell while they study. Allow them to bring that fragrance with them to class to
help trigger their memory and recall. (Though I would add small quantities in re-sealable containers!)
Next the author spends time discussing the power of images. Many of us spend a great deal of time
gathering and collecting images to use in class time. But late at night staring at a page of notes or
chapter in a book, the visual might be gone. Encourage students to create their own visual – time lines,
concept maps, Venn diagrams – anything to put their words into a picture.
Summarizing work done by Richard Mayer, we find that each sensory modality has its own channel to
the brain, and information can come in on both channels at the same time, but both can also be
overloaded. Accessing either channel can trigger memory from both channels. Mayer’s work generated
5 principles of multimedia in teaching:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Words and pictures are better than just words.
Words and pictures are better together than separately.
Words should be heard, not read (reading is visual).
Keep extraneous material to a minimum.
Concise summaries are better than longer ones.
Finally – serious games, using games as education tools. He briefly describes as recent examples being
used : Tragedy of the Tuna, Customer Service, Diversity Game for European Students, Outback in
Australia
February 28, 2014
SoTL in 10 minutes
Learner Centered Teaching
Week 2 of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting from Learner Centered Teaching: Putting the
Research on Learning into Practice by Terry Doyle.
Chapter 9: Patterns, A Major Element in Effective Teaching and Learning
Teaching our students to be observant and to look for patterns is an important lifelong learning
skill. There are patterns in each of our disciplines, and showing them to our students or helping our
students discover them is just as important as the foundational material. Our brains are designed to
recognize and seek out patterns – creating linkages between what is before vs. what we already
know. When we read or research in our discipline, we can instantly add that to our foundation and fit it
into our pattern. Our students have neither the practice nor the extensive foundation that we have –
we need to help them with both.
How do we do this?
Encourage them to put the concepts or ideas into their own words – into their preferred pattern. If they
cannot do this correctly, then they do not yet understand it.
Show them patterns they may not be consciously aware of to help train them – a string of numbers as a
phone number, acronyms, patterns in different genres of movies (horror vs. romantic comedy). Have
your students organize a common word bank and see what patterns they come up with, and how many
different patterns the class comes up with – then analyze the various patterns for deeper significance or
meaning.
A meaningful pattern is not random, the groupings and organization have meaning. And these are not
inherently obvious to a novice learner in your field – use these patterns to shape your lecture and
activities. We likely already do this, but do we recognize the value in the pattern and overtly
demonstrate it to our students.
What patterns do our students use – similarities and differences, cause and effect, hierarchy. As your
discipline specific patterns allow, use the patterns your students do know and appreciate to help them
build more complex patterning.
BTW - This book has 12 chapters, so I will finish it up next week and come up with something for
Thursday and Friday. Hope you have enjoyed “reading” this book with me.