Fall Newsletter #2

Learners Communicating for

Active Learning Classroom | Did You Know?

Visionary Status | Book Review Hot 5 | Badges, Anyone? | Difficult Students

BGSU’s Active Learning Classroom

BGSU is debuting a new Active Learning Classroom (ALC) test-bed space in 126 Hayes Hall. The CTL has prepared several opportunities for professional development in support of the ALC and active learning strategies. Each of these opportunities is available to all educators at BGSU, including educators at BGSU Firelands College.

1.The ALC workshop offers an overview of the room, and the pedagogical methods that inspired the design of the room.

2.Teaching with Tablets is a workshop built to inform participants about trends in tablet (iPad) use that support student learning.

3. Individual CTL consultations can be designed to investigate or cultivate an idea to enhance a course to encourage active learning.

ALC Workshops are scheduled for December 4, 10, and 13. Register at http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page96846.html Note: All of these workshops can be offered for educators at BGSU Firelands as well. Just inquire at ctl@bgsu.edu.

The ALC is a cutting-edge learning space that enables instructors to engage students deeply in active learning experiences. The ALC design includes four round tables

that seat up to nine students each. Each table is equipped with rolling chairs to encourage movement and flexible, easily rearranged groups. These tables make the ALC a natural fit for student group work. The arrangement of the tables eliminates the typical notion of a room having a “front” or “back,” which, in turn, keeps students focused on collaboration rather than on the instructor. Also, the table configuration encourages the instructor to move throughout the room and promotes dialogue with students individually and in groups. Lastly, with movable chairs, students can easily turn any direction to view and engage with work that is being displayed throughout the room on large-screen monitors.

The design of BGSU’s Active Learning Classroom is based on similar efforts such as SCALE-Up at North Carolina State and initiatives at the University of Minnesota and McGill University as well as on research supporting effective teaching. Each aspect of the design is supported by research on the relationship between classroom space and student learning and engagement. (Continued on p.2)

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2 Active Learning Classroom (Continued from p.1) The ALC also supports teaching and learning with emerging technology. Students can easily use laptops, tablets, phones, or any other Internet-ready devices to supplement their learning. Student work can be displayed from mobile devices onto any of the multiple flat-screen televisions mounted on each wall. As an alternative to electronic technology there are also removable white boards, called “huddle” boards, located on each wall. These removable white boards allow students to write their ideas in small groups, then post them for the large group to read.

Are you interested in using this new space for an active learning exercise for your class? For the fall and spring semesters, and after attending a training session or workshop, instructors can request to teach a limited number of class sessions in the ALC. If you are interested in more information, would like to reserve the classroom for portions of your class, or would like to attend workshops to better prepare you for teaching portions of your classes in the Active Learning Classroom contact ctl@bgsu.edu or call 419-372-6898.

2012 Winter Conference Don’t miss the no-hassle, no-cost Winter Conference at the Center for Teaching and Learning, Wednesday, January 2 through Friday, January 4, in 201 University

Hall. For a description of the sessions and registration information, visit http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page96846. html.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is willing to bring many of its services to you? We offer one-on-one consultations on various topics and technologies, and we will also bring the workshops we do at the Center to your department or area if you can gather a group of interested participants.

To see our slate of workshops, check out the workshops

page on our website: http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page96846. html. If you don’t see what you want, contact Karen Meyers at meyersk@bgsu.edu or 2-7874 and we will talk about the possibility of customizing a workshop for you.

Fall 2012: Issue Two

3 Visionary Status: John Dewey In this column, we have typically profiled contemporary thinkers who have influenced how we think about teaching and learning today. In this issue, however, we look back to one of the early educational philosophers: John Dewey. His significance is still felt and appreciated, and his ideas continue to inform our teaching practice.

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1859. He received his bachelors from the University of Vermont and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Upon graduation he obtained a faculty position at the University of Michigan but soon moved to the University of Chicago. Eventually he found a home at Columbia University.

Philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, Dewey was a catalyst for social reform who advocated linking theory and practice across disciplines. The founder of functional psychology, he considered thought and behavior in relation to active adaptation to one’s environment and emphasized action and application. Dewey was a proponent of empirically based theories of knowledge, and he challenged our understanding of both logic and of epistemology (that is, about what knowledge is and how it is acquired). Dewey argued that problems are contextual and constantly changing; hence our ability to know them changes, and reality or truth is individually constructed.

Known for his progressivism, Dewey rejected authoritarian teaching methods. This stance was considered a radical attack on teaching methodology. Touted as the “father” of the experiential education movement, he was a proponent of varying interactions and experiences and numerous opportunities for reflection as necessary aspects of teaching and learning. Well before his time, this translated into what we now call active learning strategies and pragmatic teaching grounded in reliable methods.

In Democracy and Education (1916) Dewey reconceptualized vocational learning within the context of education. In his 1933 publication How We Think, Dewey emphasized the importance of each student’s thought process, ability to reflect, and relation to learning. Dewey notes that we, as instructors, must actively engage our students, validate their capacity to know, and act as facilitators of learning where knowledge is mutually constructed for deeper, more meaningful and lasting learning.

A proponent of progressive education and liberalism, Dewey’s foundational works and ideas still inform our

practice in many fields and disciplines. His vision paved the way for a teaching revolution that is still very much alive in the educational community.

Dewey was a member of numerous associations, most notably serving as president of both the American Philosophical Association and the American Psychological Association. In addition to his work on education, psychology, and philosophy, Dewey also wrote about nature, art, logic, inquiry, democracy, and ethics. Dewey published extensively with over 700 articles and approximately 40 books. Among his most significant writings are: The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology (1896), a critique of a standard psychological concept and the basis of all his further work; Democracy and Education (1916), his celebrated work on progressive education; Human Nature and Conduct (1922), a study of the function of habit in human behavior; The Public and its Problems (1927), a defense of democracy written in response to Walter Lippmann’s The Phantom Public (1925); Experience and Nature (1925), Dewey’s most “metaphysical” statement; Art as Experience (1934), Dewey’s major work on aesthetics; A Common Faith (1934), a humanistic study of religion originally delivered as the Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale; Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938), a statement of Dewey’s unusual conception of logic; Freedom and Culture (1939), a political work examining the roots of fascism; and Knowing and the Known (1949), a book written in conjunction with Arthur F. Bentley that systematically outlines the concept of transaction, which is central to his other works. While each of these works focuses on one particular philosophical theme, Dewey included his major themes in most of what he published.

References and further resources: http://www.siuc.edu/~deweyctr/ http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm http://wilderdom.com/experiential/ JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey-political/

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4 Book Review Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do about It, by Donald McCabe.

Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do about It ( Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012) is a new book by Donald McCabe, Kenneth Butterfield, and Linda Treviño and a “must read” for anyone with a particular interest in academic integrity. The authors have been researching the issue of college student cheating for more than 20 years and do an excellent job of compiling their own research and that of others into a comprehensive resource about what is known about who cheats, how often students cheat, why they cheat, and how cheating has evolved over the years. The authors have sliced and diced the data to the extent that their book will answer nearly every question anyone might ask about cheating: Do men cheat more often than women? Do some majors cheat more than others? Does socioeconomic status make a difference?

How about the tendency to take risks?

According to the research the authors cite, nearly two-thirds of students admit to cheating sometime during their college years, and, because students self-report, it is natural to assume that the actual number is even higher than that. The authors also note that the rate of cheating is high across the board–in secondary school, college, and even professional schools–and they are especially concerned about the level of cheating they and others have found in pharmacy, dentistry, and business programs. They also point out that both the kinds of cheating students do and their attitudes toward cheating have changed over the decades.

Cheating on tests has declined, for example, but what the authors call “cut-and-paste” plagiarism from the Internet has sharply increased. And students seem willing to selfreport much of what an earlier generation would have called “cheating,” because they do not regard what they do as dishonest.

Economics has often been called as the “dismal science,” and after eight chapters one is almost compelled to label this book as being even more dismal than economies. In their final chapter, however, the authors enthusiastically

endorse strategies that they feel can stem the tide of academic dishonesty. The authors, long defenders of traditional honor codes, acknowledge that these codes may no longer be as effective as they were a generation ago. But they believe firmly in “the development and maintenance of an ethical community–what we are calling a culture of integrity” with or without a formal honor code. They identify a complex set of conditions that can lead to such a community. The first involves administrative leadership.

The authors discuss at length what this might involve and add that they believe that each institution needs a seniorlevel academic integrity administrator to ensure continuity of vision and policy. The second major component of an ethical community involves the recruitment and selection of students who are aware of and in agreement with an institution’s policies regarding academic integrity.

The third component is “restorative justice” a system that has three basic objectives: “restoring victims, reintegrating offenders . . . and facilitating community healing.” Such a system is especially useful for first offenses, when students are most likely to be able learn from their mistakes.

The authors also emphasize training of faculty, administrators, and students so that all parties understand exactly what constitutes cheating, what ethical behavior involves, and what consequences exist for violations of ethical behavior.

The authors go on to offer more components that a university must add to construct a culture that encourages honesty and prevents cheating, and they are hopeful that these changes to culture, applied consistently and across the board, can reduce cheating in college. They recognize that any agents of cultural change will face numerous challenges but insist that overcoming such challenges is both possible and worthwhile.

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5

Hot 5

Our Hot Five in this issue are megasites—sites in various subject areas that provide links to many other sites in the same subject area.

1)

“Best” History Websites http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.php/ research

Best of History Web Sites aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories and has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students; however, general history enthusiasts will benefit from the site as well. Ranked #1 by Google for history web sites, Best of History Web Sites receives upwards of 140,000 visitors per month. While some of the information on the site is geared to K-12 teachers and students, much is very appropriate for studying at the college level.

This site is maintained by the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), which was founded in 1979 to promote information exchange among university and college educators actively concerned with teaching biology in a laboratory setting. The focus of ABLE is to improve the undergraduate biology laboratory experience by promoting the development and dissemination of interesting, innovative, and reliable laboratory exercises. A vast collection of educational biology websites.

3)

“Best” Literature and Writing Websites http://www.uwc.edu/depts/english/info/dept/ links/current-links.cfm

4)

This site, maintained by the University of Wisconsin Colleges, includes links to reference materials, research, citation, and plagiarism sites, as well as literary research theory and context sites, and sites dedicated to specific authors and subjects, e-zines, and literary journals. A very nice resource for literature and writing instructors.

5)

2)

“Best” Biology Websites http://www.ableweb.org/resources/ hotsites.htm

“Best” Math Websites http://mthwww.uwc.edu/wwwmahes/files/ math01.htm

This site includes links to several hundred math websites in the US and around the world. It is maintained by M. Maheswaran of the Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Marathon County. A comprehensive site.

Best Psychology Websites http://www.psychology.org/links/Resources/ MetaSites/

Under the title of “Encyclopedia of Psychology,” this site provides a wealth of resources for the student and teacher of psychology. Another massive compendium.

Fall 2012: Issue Two

6 Badges, Anyone?

In our Spring #2, 2012, issue of Communicating for Learners, we wrote about the use of badges, particularly in the world of programmers. Badges are digital awards, often bestowed by peers, that confirm the skills a person possesses.

In a larger sense, badges represent an alternative method for credentialing learners.

In our article we wondered about the future of badges as a way of documenting learning on college campuses. As it turns out, a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education highlights the potential of badges to fine tune college assessment. The article notes that badges have the potential to signify that a student has mastered a particular concept or to identify soft skills, such as teamwork, that are not usually measured in college courses. Many educators believe that badges may end up being of more interest to employers than grades, which are actually rather crude measures of specific skill sets.

Educators at several universities are currently experimenting with badges. Bill Watson of Purdue University awards badges to his students in his course on learning design when they achieve specific learning objectives. Daniel Hickey, a professor of learning sciences at Indiana University at Bloomington, is experimenting with the idea of awarding badges for collaboration and other forms of class participation at Indiana University in Bloomington. Alex Halavais of Quinnipiac University is awarding badges to graduate students in his interactive communication classes. Halavais adds up the number of badges earned to compute each student’s grade. Students who have earned badges in particular areas are empowered to approve badges for peers, subject to Halavais’ review.

The Mozilla Foundation now provides a platform that allows students to post the badges they have earned to their websites. Earlier this year, in cooperation with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla sponsored a competition for the development of digital open badges.

One of the first winners was the UC-Davis’s sustainableagriculture program, which was developed by asking practitioners and scholars in the field what specific skills, knowledge, and experience graduates would need to succeed.

Students first enrolled in this program in Fall of 2012.

When they graduate, their transcripts will show their courses and grades, along with evidence to specific skills such as “systems thinking,” and “integrated pest management.” In addition to UC-Davis, the Walt Disney Company, NASA, and Intel also created badging programs that won awards through the MacArthurMozilla collaboration.

There are voices on the periphery of US education today who are already hailing the end of grades and, indeed, institutions of higher learning as we know them.

Kevin Carey, director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation and columnist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, says that “Compared with the new open badge systems, the standard college transcript looks like a sad and archaic thing.” He adds that badging, if the concept gains wide acceptance, “will create hardship for traditional institutions.” The questions for universities to ponder now are to what extent badges are likely to be more appealing to employers than grades, to what extent students may come to prefer the ability to identify specific skills they have mastered, and to what extent a badge system can co-exist with or supplement the current grading system. What do you think?

Further Reading: Ash, Katie. “Colleges Use ‘Digital Badges” to Replace Traditional Grading.” Education Week, June 13, 2012.

Carey, Kevin. “A Future Full of Badges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 8, 2012.

Young, Jeffrey. “Grades Out, Badges In.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2012.

Fall 2012: Issue Two

7 Difficult Students and Classroom Civility Instructors at the college level may assume that dealing with disruptive and uncivil behavior is not something they need to worry about. Although it is assumed that university students would have learned civil behavior at home and been reinforced in this behavior throughout their primary and secondary education, the unfortunate truth is that there are some students who do not know the basic expectations for behavior in the college classroom. Those instructors who have dealt with disruptive or uncivil behavior know how frustrating it can be. Disruptive behavior, as defined

by BGSU’s Office of the Dean of Students, includes any “behavior a reasonable person would view as being likely to substantially or repeatedly interfere with the conduct of a class.” This can include behaviors ranging from unauthorized use of cellphones during class to physical threats. Instructors have the right to determine what they consider as disruptive in their classrooms and have broad authority in managing their classroom environment.

There are two important concepts to remember about classroom management issues. Firstly, do something to address an issue as soon as it arises in class. The longer an instructor ignores or tolerates undesirable behavior, the more difficult it becomes to address. Secondly, it is always easier to prevent inappropriate behavior than to deal with it after the fact. Defining (and sticking to) expectations of student behavior, decreasing student anonymity by

learning names, seeking student feedback, and using active learning principles are some strategies that can help prevent troublesome behaviors by creating a constructive classroom environment. When disruptive behavior does occur, it is always best to handle the issue in a calm and reasoned manner. When dealing with minor issues such as talking or texting during class, unprepared students, missed assignments, and repeated tardiness or missed classes, it is a good idea to remind students of the policies you have articulated in your syllabus. For example, if you have a policy in syllabus regarding the use of cell phones or other technology during class, be sure to remind students of that policy if you find them texting or updating Facebook or Twitter.

The Center for Teaching and Learning offers a workshop titled “Dealing with Difficult Students” to provide instructors with more information and strategies for classroom management in the college setting. Check the Center’s website for dates and times to sign up. CTL staff are also available for one-on-one consultations if your schedule prevents you from attending one of our workshops. See information on handling classroom disruptions from the Office of the Dean of Students at BGSU: http://www.bgsu.edu/downloads/sa/file96415.pdf

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