communicating for
LEARNERS
SPRI N #1 G 2012
featured in this issue
Teaching & Learning Fair
Hot 5
Visionary Status
Did You Know?
Book Review
Think Smarter
2012 Teaching & Learning Fair A Celebration of Teaching and Learning!
Keynote
The Lenhart Grand Ballroom in the Bowen Thompson Student Union was a crowded and lively place on Friday, February 10, as the campus community celebrated teaching and learning at the Sixth Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair, featuring an Undergraduate Research Showcase. More than 100 educators offered poster presentations about their efforts to enhance teaching and learning at Bowling Green State University. Joining them for the first time this year were more than 50 undergraduate students who were sharing their meaningful research and creative activities in all fields of study. Educators’ presentations ran the gamut from “Developing Video Games to Meet Classroom Objectives” to “Formative Assessment Techniques in College Classes,” and from “Teaching Statistical Thinking” to “Music of the Spheres.”
The Fair’s Keynote speaker, Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, delivered two keynotes, one in the morning intended for educators and entitled, “How Students Learn: Strategies for Engaged Learning” and a second in the afternoon intended for students, “Enhance Your Academic Potential: How Research Can Help You To Be a Successful and Engaged Learner.”
The undergraduate presentations were just as varied, ranging from “Family Environment and its Effects on Female Delinquency” to “Effector Destination in Plant Cells” and from “An Application of the Debate between Isocrates and Plato to Modern American Education” to “Programmatic Music.” After the Fair, undergraduate students migrated across the hall to the Multipurpose Room where they enjoyed a panel discussion and performances by students in the arts.
Zakrajsek is executive director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the inaugural director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University and the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Southern Oregon University, where he also taught in the psychology department as a tenured associate professor. He also directs the Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning at Traverse City, MI, and the International Conference on Improving University Teaching. To some extent, Zakrajsek’s first keynote followed his own personal journey from teacher-centered to learner-centered teaching. He talked about some of the research that started him wondering what his students actually learned from his lectures. One study in particular, (Hake, 1998) caught his attention. The study followed the learning of 6000 students in high-school and college physics classes, some of whom were taught by the traditional lecture method and others of whom were taught using an interactive model. The results were vivid and undeniable: students in the best lecture class showed less improvement than any of the students who were in classes that used interactive engagement.
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Zakrajsek’s training in cognitive psychology underlies much of what he says about student learning. One concept that
Zakrajsek discussed is the mindset of students who continue to push themselves to new and more difficult challenges. Students who are told or believe that they have succeeded at a task because they are “smart” or inherently talented, tend to give up when faced with more difficult work because putting forth effort to understand a concept is not a part of their self-image. On the other hand, students who believe that they have succeeded because they put in a significant amount of effort are able to step up to challenges. Zakrajsek noted that praising students for the effort they expend is not a popular idea among many parents and teachers who feel that the self-esteem of young people requires that they be constantly flattered and told how “smart” they are. Thus, Zakrajsek suggests, praising students for their hard work–what they actually do–has more beneficial long-term effects on learning than praising them for traits such as intelligence.
gotten his biggest laugh when he shared an article from the satiric newspaper, The Onion, entitled “Parents of Nasal Learners Demand Odor Based Curriculum” (3/15/2000).
Zakrajsek also debunked the myth of “learning styles” by citing a 2009 study that found no evidence that such styles actually exist or that teaching to certain styles helps students learn better. Zakrajsek’s sense of humor was evident throughout his engaging presentation, but he might have
Zakrajsek also talked to students about the importance of hydration and a proper diet to assist the brain in absorbing and retaining information.
HOT 5 (click the link to visit)
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POPURLS http://www.popurls.com POPURLS is a free dashboard for the latest information on the web, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the minute headlines from some of the most popular sites on the Internet. On one page find stories from The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Onion, Google News, the BBC, Newsvine, and many others, plus videos from Hulu, YouTube, and Videosift. Check out POPURLS Quickies-headlines and stories on dozens of topics including business, technology, politics, and education. A comprehensive site.
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Student Keynote In the afternoon, Zakrajsek’s grounding in cognitive psychology was even more evident as he talked to students about a variety of strategies to improve learning and answered some age-old questions about studying. Should you cram for a test? Or study over an extended period of time? The answer, it turns out, is both. Cramming before a test can actually improve performance on the test. But the knowledge acquired by cramming tends to be quickly forgotten. On the other hand, knowledge acquired by studying over a longer period, is remembered for a longer period.
ERGO Energetic Ray Global Observatory http://www.ergobservatory.info An amazing site that was inspired by a “TED wish.” At the 2009 TED Conference, astronomer Jill Tarter said “I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.” In response to Jill’s wish to involve students actively in scientific discovery, audience member Tom Bates and Euclid Laboratories collaborated to put cosmic ray sensing devices all around the world, effectively creating the world’s largest telescope. The telescope project allows students to gather and analyze cosmic ray events in real time and in the process learn more about astrophysics, nuclear physics, astronomy, electronics, mathematics, cosmology, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the scientific method. A great opportunity to be a part of modern science.
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INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY (IPL2) http://www.ipl.org This is a public-service organization and a learning/teaching environment. To date, thousands of students and volunteer library and information science professionals have been involved in answering reference questions for the “Ask an IPL2 Librarian” service and in designing, building, creating, and maintaining the IPL2’s collections, which include resources by subject, newspapers and magazines, special collections created by IPL2 as well as special collections for kids and teens. A helpful and very well organized site.
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EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.edu Educause is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The Educause site is chock full of resources on such topics as information literacy, mobile internet technology, instructional technologies, online learning, and the digital divide. Educause also sponsors a number of initiatives, including The Center for Applied Research and Next Generation Learning Challenges. A superb resource for anyone interested in the use of technology in higher education.
PANORAMAS http://www.panoramas.dk A collection of more than 700 panoramic (360 degree) photos of various places and events. This site was started in 2002 with the intention to make immersive panoramic images more known to the general public. Photos include Niagra Falls, the Moon, the Grand Canyon and various other sites around the United States and the world; events such as some of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the Royal Wedding in Stokholm, and a gala concert for Queen Margrethe of Denmark; works of art such as Carl Bloch’s paintings and Fredericksborg Castle, and medieval Danish church cartoons. Many wonderful images.
meet the
VISIONARY L. Dee Fink
consultant, educator, author
When the Center for Teaching and Learning held its first BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair on March 23, 2007, the keynote address was given by Dr. L. Dee Fink. The theme of that first Fair was “Promoting Student Success,” and fitting with this overall topic, Fink’s presentation was entitled “The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well.” Now working as an instructional consultant in higher education, Fink has served as an adjunct assistant professor of geography at the University of Oklahoma, where he was the director of that institution’s Instructional Development Program for 26 years. Fink received his doctorate in 1976 from the University of Chicago, where his studies focused on the teaching of geography at colleges and universities. He joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma that same year, having a joint appointment in geography and higher education. At the University of Oklahoma, he received the American Association of Higher Education’s Jaime Escalante “Stand and Deliver” Award in 1989 and Oklahoma University’s Outstanding Faculty Award in 1992. He has been an active member of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education. Fink served as a member of the POD executive committee from 1999-2002 and served as the network’s president from 2004-2005.
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Fink has written many books and articles on the subjects of college teaching and instructional development; some of his recent works include: Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses (2003), and, as co-editor, Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching (2004). One of Fink’s major areas of focus is integrated course design. He asks teachers to consider what they want their students to remember from their course several years from now. Fink urges teachers to rethink the way they plan their courses and to shift from teacher-centered courses to learning-centered courses. He argues that when instructors focus too much of their attention on communicating the content of their course, they may be unaware of the different ways in which students learn. If students are to achieve powerful kinds of learning, then it is the task of educators to develop and use powerful kinds of teaching. In designing a content-centered course, an instructor identifies major topics and decides how much time to spend on each. On the other hand, a learning-centered approach to course design requires the instructor to determine what kind of learning he or she wants the students to engage in and then identify the learning and assessment activities for each of these kinds of learning. Whereas content-centered courses
focus on giving information to students, learning-centered courses employ pedagogies like inquiry and problem-based learning to engage students directly with course content. According to Fink, teaching well helps students retain the learning and understand how the learning has an impact on their personal, professional, social, or civic lives. During his work with the Instructional Development Program at Oklahoma, Fink created a list of five basic principles of good course design. Fink’s Five Principles state that a good course meets the following standards: 1. A good course challenges students to higher-level thinking. 2. A good course uses active forms of learning.
3. A good course gives frequent and immediate feedback to students on the quality of their learning.
4. A good course uses a structured sequence of different learning activities. 5. A good course has a fair system for assessing and grading students.
In addition to his consulting, Fink is active through the nonprofit IDEA Center, which promotes improving teaching and learning in higher education. His consulting work focuses on promoting good teaching on the college campus and on faculty development programs. In this capacity he has traveled across the United States to over 200 colleges and universities, and he has consulted with universities in 14 different countries.
Links: The IDEA Center http://www.theideacenter.org/ Fink Consulting http://finkconsulting.info/
Dee Fink & Associates http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/
Designing Better Learning Experiences http://www.designlearning.org/
“The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well” the presentation given at BGSU’s First Annual Teaching and Learning Fair http://www.bgsu.edu/downloads/provost/file28734.pdf
Did You Know? Reacting to the Past On January 18, the Center for Teaching and Learning hosted a discussion with Dr. Andy Schocket about his experience with an inspirational teaching method called “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP). RTTP was developed at Barnard College in the mid-1990s by Professor Mark Carnes. This method of teaching, according to Barnard’s website, consists of “elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas.” Pearson Publishing has partnered with Carnes and a number of other scholars to develop a series of guides that lay out the situations, provide instructions and roles to students, and often include primary source material which students must use to play the games. To date, Pearson has published nine of these guides and has a number of others under development. Descriptions of the guides can be found at http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/ series/Reacting-to-the-Past/10510.page. The guides run the gamut of topics from literature, to psychology, to science. They also range in time and place from the United States, to ancient Greece, and from Victorian England to India during Partition. Dr. Schocket, an Associate Professor of History, has used two of the Pearson guides, The Trial of Anne Hutchinson: Liberty, Law, and Intolerance in Puritan New England and Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 17751776. Schocket notes that the two guides he has used, as well as many of the others, focus on seminal moments in the past that involve major decision points. The guides are designed this way partly because these moments are inherently dramatic and partly because each of them has a built-in end point when the decision is made that provides a convenient end to the game as well. Is Ann Hutchinson guilty of heresy? Will New York City support the loyalists or the rebels in the Revolutionary War? According to Schocket, students become very involved in the games and are motivated to engage with primary source materials much more actively than they might otherwise. They must make oral presentations and write papers in character, and the primary source material becomes a crucial resource for completing these assignments. Students also develop an empathy with historical figures and a sense of the contingency of historical events. For the first time, many students realize that the American Revolution was not a foregone conclusion and that
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there were many loyalists in the colonies who had good reasons for their opposition to the rebellion. Schocket outlined his experience with RTTP to discussion participants and answered many questions about the logistics of running these elaborate and engaging games. The CTL has copies of the nine published guides available for anyone who would like to review them.
Winter Conference This year’s Winter Conference at the Center offered a free, no-hassle, no-cost professional development conference experience for educators during the week before classes started, January 3-6. We offered a total of nineteen sessions on such topics as Active Learning Strategies; Problem-based Learning; Inquiry–based Learning; Designing a Learner-centered Syllabus; Formative Assessment; Facilitating Classroom Discussions; From Personal Accounts to Quantitative Studies: Engaging in the Research on Effective Teaching and Learning; Learning 2.0 with Web 2.0 Tools; Teaching with Tablets; and Introducing QizBox: A Social Learning Environment for the Lecture Classroom. We had 74 registrations, and several faculty members commented that the timing of the conference was excellent for them, since they were often unable to find the time during the semester to attend workshops. Look for us again next year and mark your calendar for the week before classes start during the Spring Semester 2013!
the Culture of Teaching on Campus: How a Book Review: Advancing Teaching Center Can Make a Difference Centers for teaching excellence celebrate a milestone anniversary in 2012. The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan (UM) at Ann Arbor, the oldest and first teaching center in U.S. education, was established in 1962 by the UM Board of Regents and charged with instructional development for faculty. As the first teaching center of its kind to reach a 50-year anniversary, numerous members of the CRLT’s staff collaborated to share their story in Advancing the Culture of Teaching on Campus: How a Teaching Center Can Make a Difference. Edited by the center’s director of over 18 years, Constance E. Cook, and managing director Matthew Kaplan, this compilation is a detailed description of what the CRLT does with its large staff of 24 full-time staff members (including a dozen Ph.D.s) supported by a similar number of part-time graduate student staff and a few support staff. It is clear that this book has one primary goal in mind: to help centers across the country enhance teaching for the improvement of student learning. The resources provided will undoubtedly help any center for teaching and learning implement aspects of the UM model. There is a strong emphasis on collaboration, demonstrated by the nature of the book itself, a compilation of chapters contributed by the staff and other stakeholders involved in the CRTL (such as the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs). A further example of the UM CRLT’s emphasis is demonstrated by extensive partnerships with other institutions. The last chapter of the book includes
entries from directors at neighboring institutions describing challenges faced and strategies to overcome them. This section addresses common issues like the challenge of balancing research and teaching priorities, changing from a teaching to a learning perspective, and responding to institutional change. Part of the authors’ message is that creativity and adaptability are essential and that change is inevitable. The authors hope they can provide some insights regarding how to adapt to change and continue to maintain the priority of developing instructional methods to foster student learning. Possibly the most beneficial aspect of the book is that Cook and her colleagues do not shy away from describing the politics of their endeavors and the limitations of each of their initiatives. It is clear they value assessment and reflection to grow and develop as an organization. A noteworthy tidbit from the book is that only 21% of higher education institutions in the U.S. have a center dedicated to research and support regarding faculty instruction. Three-quarters of these institutions are doctoral and research institutions, so Bowling Green State University is on the forefront of this trend. Constance E. Cook and Matthew Kaplan. (2011) Advancing the Culture of Teaching on Campus: How a Teaching Center Can Make a Difference. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
BGSU Firelands StudentsThink Smarter! During fall semester the Firelands College Learning Community (“Developing Student Learning Guides: A Collaborative Effort among Faculty to Support Effective Student Information-seeking and Research Behaviors”) worked with Samantha (Sami) Stephenson, a senior majoring in VCT and a Teaching and Learning Consultant at the Center for Teaching and Learning to design a website on the Firelands library home page. The site, “Think Smarter,” helps students make more efficient and effective use of library resources. In addition, the site is intended to motivate students to think critically about information using such strategies as engagement, inquiry, and research— the “three pillars of an educated mind.” Each of these three pillars is represented by a tab that takes the student to additional information on the topic. In addition to
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work on the architecture of the site, members of the Learning Community (Chris Mruk, Elsy Kizhakethalackal, Johnathan Williams, Kate Dailey, Michelle Brodke, Pat Antonelli, Ruth Steinbrunner, Stephanie Walls, and Jolene Buehrer) created a number of library guides organized by subject matter to help students find good sources of data in particular fields of study. The guides represent the arts, business, education, health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, technology studies, and Firelands’ transition courses (ACEN and UNIV). Check out Sami’s work and the great resources compiled by the Learning Community participants at http://www.firelands. bgsu.edu/library/index.html
This newsletter is a publication of the Center for Teaching and Learning Visit us online at www.bgsu.edu/ctl or in 201 University Hall.
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