Urban Legend or Practical Pedagogy: Return of the Teaching Ninjas
Alyssa Archer, Candice Benjes-Small, Susan Van Patten, Radford University
Abstract: Pedagogical researchers have made huge advancements over the past ten years.
However, some disproven theories and practices continue to be propagated in educational
literature and popular culture. Building on CHEP 2015’s popular “Are You a Teaching
Ninja?” this year’s game emphasizes research surrounding e-learning environments. The
session will highlight evidence-based pedagogical theories that are easily adapted to both
online and physical classrooms and dispel myths about teaching that seem to linger in
common beliefs. With the rise of cognitive development research, many of the false
assumptions can be replaced with solid strategies for how to improve students’ learning and
retention.
Literature Review
This session will explore a range of topics including online pedagogy, instructor best practices, and many generally
held beliefs about students’ learning abilities. A brief summary of foundational literature follows.
How can you best organize either physical or online classrooms to foster learning? Is it more helpful to students to
delay feedback on assessments or provide immediate feedback (Shute, 2008)? What are the best practices for
instructor feedback (Hart, 2012)?
When teaching online, what are some of the recommendations from research? Is it practical to encourage selfreflection in online courses (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones, 2010)? Can discussion boards effectively
replicate in-depth critical conversations that are part of an in-person class (Rourke & Kanuka, 2009)? Should the
tone of the content be formal or personalized (Clark & Mayer, 2011)? How much emphasis should an instructor put
on a beginning of the semester introduction (Wilson, Wilson, & Legg, 2012)? For first- and second-year undergrads,
is it best to design a course that favors experiential and self-guided learning (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006)?
Does listening to a lecture online stack up against listening in person (Kinash, Knight, & McLean, 2015)?
There are many theories regarding how students learn. However, what are the characteristics of “digital natives,”
and do we need to keep in mind their predilection for gaming, multitasking, and love of technology (Bennet, Maton,
& Kervin, 2008)? Is the learning pyramid theory valid (Lalley & Miller, 2007)? Taking into account what we know
about learning styles, is an online classroom the best method for plugging in to different student’s learning styles
(Bruyckere, Kirschner, & Hulshof, 2015; Lilienfeld, 2010)?
Goals and Objectives
Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Discriminate between learning theories that are solidly rooted in research and those which need debunking;
2. Explain why some teaching strategies are more effective than others; and
3. Incorporate current pedagogical research into their teaching practices.
Description of Practice to Be Exemplified
This session will be structured as an interactive group quiz. The audience will be divided into teams and shown a
series of common teaching practices or learning theories. After each one, the team will have an opportunity to
briefly deliberate and vote on whether it is an urban legend or sound pedagogy. After each vote we will discuss
current research related to the topic and how it can influence our teaching strategies. The team with the most correct
answers will be declared winners and given “Return of the Teaching Ninja” pins.
Discussion
Many professors teach the way they were taught or use techniques that they liked as students. As one professor
memorably put it to a co-author: “How did I learn to teach? By observing teachers for 20 years.” But a growing
body of evidence suggests that our personal preferences and “gut instincts” about how people learn are often
wrong. Professors should examine their teaching practices and question their effectiveness, rather than perpetuating
pedagogical choices which in fact do not promote learning. This session will dispel learning myths, reinforce sound
methods, and encourage participants to foster learning strategies supported by cognitive psychology and education
research. The interactive quiz format will serve as an excellent framing device, as recent studies have shown that
immediate testing and feedback is among the most effective approaches to learning (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel,
2014).
References
Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknapp Press of Harvard University Press.
Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence. British
Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786.
Bruyckere, P., Kirschner, P. A., & Hulshof. C. D. (2015). Urban myths about learning and education. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers
and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Hart, C. (2012). Factors associated with student persistence in an online program of study: A review of the
literature. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 11(1), 19-42.
Kinash, S., Knight, D., & McLean, M. (2015). Does digital scholarship through online lectures affect student
learning? Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(2), 129-139.
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R., E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An
analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based
teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.
Lalley, J. P., & Miller, R. H. (2007). The learning pyramid: Does it point teachers in the right direction?
Education, 128(1), 64-79.
Lilienfeld, S. O. (2010). 50 great myths of popular psychology: Shattering widespread misconceptions about
human behavior. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (September 2010). Evaluation of evidence-based
practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Education.
Rourke, L., & Kanuka, H. (2009). Learning in communities of inquiry: A review of the literature. Journal of
Distance Education, 23(1), 19-48.
Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 153-189.
Wilson, J. H., Wilson, S. B., & Legg, A. M. (2012). Building rapport in the classroom and student outcomes. In
Schwartz, B. M. (Ed); Gurung, Regan A. R. (Ed), Evidence-based teaching for higher education (pp. 2337). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.