Transcript What should teachers do in order to maximize learning outcomes for their students?

What should teachers do in
order to maximize learning
outcomes for their students?
•Focuses on what students are doing, not what
teacher is doing
•What is the student learning?
•How is the student learning?
•What conditions promote student learning?
•Is the student retaining / applying learning?
•How does current learning facilitate future
learning?
•Lack of confidence central component that
prevented students from doing well (Introductory
course - beginning communication)
•How to develop learning confidence in students?
•Her example: “boat building”
•Closer to home: Office 2007???
•How to connect research on learning to practice
in the classroom
•5 key changes
•Introduce the basic elements to Weimer’s
learner-centered approach
•Identify costs and benefits to each of the changes
suggested
•Discuss the variety of approaches currently used
by McKendree faculty that are learner-centered
•Different disciplines have different needs
and/or issues associated with each type of
change
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Balance of power
Function of content
Role of teacher
Responsibility for learning
Evaluation purpose and processes
Changes are not independent, but
interact in a variety of ways
•Faculty are in control
•Content, pace, assignments, due dates,
evaluation, communication
•Syllabus language as evidence
•Of course we are (or should be):
•Students are not capable (lack maturity, do not
have good study skills, not prepared, do not care
about learning)
•Faculty are capable
•Big question: Can one design course activities and
assignments that responsibly give students more
control over learning?
•Combination of faculty and student decision making
•Benefits
•Students gain confidence – initial resistance
changes to increased motivation
•Increases feeling of ownership of class
•Practical examples:
•Assignments selected from array of options
•Fixed due dates – own scheduling decisions
•Syllabus development
•General course policies and evaluation
methods (Developmental Biology)
•Topics covered (Evolution)
•Can one design course activities and
assignments that responsibly give students more
control over learning?
•How much power is enough?
•How much freedom can they handle?
•When do teachers compromise professional
responsibilities?
•Others??
•Content plays major role in instructional decisions
•Common assumption: More is better
•How much content is enough?
•Entry level vs. advanced courses
•Memorization vs. understanding
•Future uses of content:
•Need to continue to learn new content (it’s
impossible to teach everything about
anything)
•Old understandings replaced by newer
understandings (need to relearn past content)
•Goal – develop learning skills (accessing, organizing,
evaluating) that students will use later to understand
new (or revised) content
•Content is “used” not “covered”
•Develop knowledge base (current use)
•Develop more general learning skills
•Create learner awareness
•Big question: How to balance establishing a
knowledge base with the development of learning
skills
•Practical approaches:
•Think developmentally – learning skills build on
one another
•How to interpret a textbook figure
•Make short learning activities routine
•Students spend 5 minutes at end of lecture
summarizing
•Take advantage of learning center professionals
•Use supplementary materials
•U101 “How to get good grades is college”
•How much content is enough?
•Focusing on learning skills reduces amount of
content covered
•students require more time to access same
amount of content – less efficient
•As skills develop, efficiency improves
•How do we change attitudes about role of content
(among faculty)
•What about students at different skill levels?
•How do I tailor generic learning skills to specific
content?
•Others??
•Current approach remains largely teacher
centered
•Active area of change with increased
awareness / implementation of active,
collaborative, inquiry-based approaches
•Learner-centered approach
•Teacher as gardener, midwife, guide, and/or
coach
•Learners are required to do more of the
actual work as teachers take a more advisory
role
•Do learning tasks less
•Students summarize info
•Less telling – more student discovery
•In-class syllabus test
•Do more modeling
•Demonstrate how an “experienced” learner
would approach a task (adopt-a-paper)
•Get students to learn from (and with) each
other
•Do you intervene (if so – when)?
•What do you do when you intervene?
•Provide answers vs. fine-tuning questions
•Others??
•Actions required of students – they need to
accept responsibility for learning
•Faculty contribution is to provide conditions
that promote growth and movement toward
autonomy
•Show students value of learning
•Make content relevant
•Lead student to resources
•Monitor progress and provide feedback
•Consequences for student behavior
•Involve students in process of setting classroom
climate
•Have students identify climates where they
have learned effectively in the past
•Get feedback on classroom climate
•Help students face poor exam performance
•Accepting responsibility for assignment details
•Empowering students to fix problems
•Establishing guidelines for how students
should address problems that arise during
group work
•How do you move from a rule-based system to
one that relies on individual responsibility
•How do you establish consequences for
students not taking responsibility for their
actions (or inaction)?
•Others??
•Evaluation used to generate grades AND promote
learning
•Grades do not equal learning
•Faculty and students both perform evaluations
•Students learn how to self-evaluate and
participate in evaluating their peers
•Grades strongly influence students beliefs about
themselves
•Evaluating everything decreases students
motivation to develop independent learning skills
(the only things worth learning are things that you
get points for)
•Review periods
•focus on integration of content, organization,
identifying emphasis
•Use the exam to promote learning
•Provide additional short answer questions
•Have students write a question that they
expected, but did not show up
•Debriefing the exam
•Self-assessment activities
•Increase sense of responsibility and confidence
in assessing their own understanding
•Peer reviewed activities
•Should students have any involvement in the actual
grading process
•Potential benefits
• Students take self and peer assessment more
seriously if they are actually real
•Accurately assessing the quality of their own
work and that of co-workers is an important skill
in the work place
•Resistance:
•From students
•From other faculty
•Developmental approach:
•Students skills, background, and maturity
change over time
•Start up time is important since learnercentered approaches differ from most prior
classroom experiences
•Early development of basic skills facilitates more
learner-centered approaches in the future