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Royse, David (2001). Teaching tips for
college and university instructors: a practical guide.
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
CHAPTER ONE: THE MENTAL GROUNDWORK
Spend some time thinking about how you view
yourself as an educator. What is your persona?
How do you want to be viewed by students?
Develop a philosophy of teaching. Are
you a motivator? A dispenser of information? A
facilitator? Recognize that faculty tend to teach as
they themselves were taught. a good exercise is to ride
out your teaching philosophy-- it helps make unconscious assumptions
explicit.
For example, the following emerged as the
author's list of important elements:
- Creating a sense of community
- Giving education as a two way, interactive
process
- Respect for the individual
- Accountability
- Humor
- Timeliness
- Continuing my own education
What research says about effective teaching
Chickering & Gamson (1987) identified
seven broad principles of good teaching practice:
- Frequent student faculty
contact
- The encouragement of
cooperation among students
- Active learning techniques
- Prompt feedback
- Imprecise time on task
- Communicating high expectations
- Respecting diverse talents
and ways of learning
In another experiment, Perlman & McCann
(1988) listed the following as students' pet peeves about
faculty:
·
Poor organization and planning
·
Poor teaching mechanics (e.g., poor use of
the board)
·
Lecture style and technique
·
Testing procedures and exams
·
Poor use of class time
·
Monotone voice
Respecting differences: diversity in the
classroom
·
Instructors who are not themselves members
of a minority group need to be alert to demonstrating subtle
forms of discrimination (e.g., boyfriend or girlfriend instead
of partner).
·
Don't permit students to use "loaded"
terms.
·
Don't single out minority students to represent
"their" perspective.
·
Try to create an open environment where even
strong feelings can be expressed.
·
Faculty should be sensitive to invisible disabilities
like dyslexia.
·
If a student scapegoats you, try to listen
non-judgmentally to their complaint.
Suggestions for inclusive teaching
- Don't assume that your students are Christian
or heterosexual.
- View students as individuals instead of
representatives of separate and distinct groups.
- Cultivate a climate that is accepting and
respecting of diverse viewpoints.
- Don't allow ridicule, defamatory, or hurtful
remarks.
- Encourage everyone to participate.
- Be alert to showing favoritism.
- Provide students with a variety of ways
to learn.
Graduate vs. undergraduate teaching
- People who obtain graduate degrees are
not representative of most undergraduate students.
- Keep in mind that undergraduates are not
graduate students.
Common anxieties of beginning instructors
How to combat first day jitters:
- Be prepared
- Arrive early and engage students in conversation
- Don't try to be perfect
- Talk with colleagues
- Take your time to consider a response before
speaking
- Wear a watch to pace yourself
- Avoid unrealistic expectations
- Visualize yourself doing a great job
CHAPTER TWO: BASIC COURSE COMPONENTS
Constructing the syllabus
The syllabus is a compass that guides and
keeps students and faculty on the right path.
Tips:
- Collect syllabi from colleagues
- Give a copy of the syllabus to every student
on the first day of class.
- Include intended learning outcomes on your
syllabus
- The syllabus should include: course title
& identifier, location of room, meeting times and days,
your contact information, a course description, course objectives,
required readings, grading policies, grading scale, schedule
of topics, texts, explanations of assignments, due dates,
scheduled tests, policies on attendance/tardiness/participation/late
work, and miscellaneous information.
Departing from the syllabus
Your syllabus is a contract, so depart from
it with care. It's a bad idea to ADD requirements later,
though asking them to do less is usually accepted.
Selecting a Text
Computers are an increasingly popular way
of providing instructional material. another possibility is
to symbol a collection of readings and turn them into a coursepack.
however, there's a lot to be said for sticking with a commercial
text. Keep in mind, though, that a third of the students
in your plans may not purchase their own copy of the text.
Students are most likely to buy a text if it's not expensive,
appears interesting, and is perceived as necessary in order
to get a good grade.
(information on evaluating texts)
Problems to avoid
Before you send your syllabus to be duplicated,
check it one last time for errors and ambiguities. Close
possible loopholes.
Weighting tests, assignments, and participation/attendance
- The most fair way to assess students is
to use a mixture of assessment approaches.
- It also helps to use a "soft touch"
when grading student papers and assignments.
- Assignments can be structured so that subjectivity
is minimized.
- Take care to distinguish between individual
versus collaborative work.
- Built in an expectation of attendance (e.
g, 10% of grade). It not only boosts attendance, but
also helps weaker students.
- Ask questions on every test that come from
lecture.
Assignments as pedagogical tools
- Most of us can recall receiving "busy
work". Make sure every assignment is instructive.
- Consider Bloom's taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation).
- Considered the timing of assignments.
- Consider mastery learning, which involves
multiple submission of work until a criteria is reached.
Critical thinking
The teaching of critical thinking should be
a fundamental goal of education. Critical thinking involves
teaching students to analyze data and solve problems by examining,
evaluating, and challenging the assumptions, premises, interpretations,
and evidence that others take for granted.
It is "higher order" thinking and
is exemplified last three categories in Bloom's taxonomy.
Tip: ask questions regarding
- Interpretation
- Point of view
- Assumptions
- Implications
- Relevance
- Accuracy
- Logic
- Evidence
Techniques:
- Graphical diagrams
- Mock trials or debates
- Critiques, rebuttals, or rejoinders
- Minute papers, reflection logs, journals,
or learning portfolios
- Abstracts, reviews, outlines, commentaries
- Taxonomy or categorizations
- Brainstorming
- Group decision-making
- Case studies
- Analogies
Assignments: how much is too much,
too little?
- There is real value inrequesting that students
turn in some of their own handiwork at least once a week.
weekly assignments send a message that you care, and they
also help prevent procrastination.
- Take care, however, not to overload students.
Students have occasionally mutinied when faced with unreasonable
demands.
- Recognize that while most colleges expect
two hours of outside class involvement per week per credit
hour, students actually spend less than one hour per week
per credit hour. Accordingly, shoot for at least three
hours a week's worth of homework.
Grading---Do I have to read every sentence?
- Totally new load, consider peer review.
- Another option is to great simply for completion.
- You can also take up homework randomly.
However, if the student has invested a lot of time in an
assignment, he/she tends to get miffed if you don't collect
it!
Hopefully, that’s enough to give you an idea
of what the book is like. It’s a very practical book
for the novice teacher. Here are the rest of the chapters:
- Chapter three: classroom strategies
- Chapter four: small groups, peer
learning, and role playing
- Chapter five: teaching the large
lecture class
- Chapter six: teaching students how
to learn
- Chapter seven: experiential learning
- Chapter eight: use of instructional
technology
- Chapter nine: examinations
- Chapter ten: Grading
- Chapter eleven: managing problem
situations
- Chapter twelve: cheating-- what you
need to know
- Chapter thirteen: humor in the classroom
- Chapter fourteen: improving teaching
performance
- Chapter fifteen: teaching and the
tenure track
- Chapter sixteen: values and ethics
- Chapter seventeen: have you chosen
the right career?
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