Saturday, October 31, 2015

7 Ways of Learning



If you haven’t read Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning:  A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College Teaching by Davis and Arend, I highly recommend it. (We've ordered it for the library but I would be happy to lend my copy to anyone who wants to take a look at it right away.)
Their thesis is that we learn in different ways depending on which of seven desired outcomes we are targeting: building skills; acquiring knowledge; developing critical, creative and dialogic thinking; cultivating problem-solving and decision-making abilities; exploring attitudes, feelings and perspectives; practicing professional judgment; or reflecting on experience). Each way of learning, they believe, requires different ways of teaching. Teachers who don't use a variety of teaching methods, therefore, are teaching too narrowly. 

If we simply want our students to acquire knowledge of a topic, for instance, we can teach via lecture and readings.  If we want them to learn specific skills, on the other hand, we can’t lecture that skill- building knowledge into existence; we need to provide practice exercises and set tasks for students to work through. If our desired outcome instead is for students to become good problem solvers, we can’t just provide canned practice exercises—we need to help them work through real-life problems, case studies, labs, projects.
It was eye-opening to consider the differences in learning outcomes, the related theories of learning associated with each, and the common teaching methodologies (See table with summary below) that lead to the desired outcomes.  Here, though, is the passage that made me stop and think hardest:
Almost anything that once required class time can be done outside class electronically, technologies can often perform educational tasks more efficiently than humans, and information is readily available for free to anyone with Internet access.  So the fundamental question arises:  What is class time for?
How would you answer that question?


Summary of Seven Ways of Learning
Intended Learning Outcomes
(What Students Learn)
Way of Learning
(Origins and Theory)
Common Methods
(What the Teacher Provides)

Skill building
(Physical and procedural skills where accuracy, precision, & efficiency are important)
1.       Behavioral learning
(behavioral psychology, operant conditioning)
·         Tasks and procedures
·         Practice exercises
Acquiring Knowledge
(basic information, concepts, and terminology of a discipline or field of study)
2.       Cognitive learning
(cognitive psychology, attention, information processing  memory)
·         Presentations
·         Explanations
Developing critical, creative, & dialogical thinking
(Improved thinking & reasoning processes)
3.       Learning through inquiry
(Logic, critical and creative thinking theory, classical philosophy)
·         Question-driven inquiries
·         Discussions
Cultivating problem-solving and decision-making abilities
(Mental strategies for finding solutions & making choices)
4.       Learning with mental models
(Gestalt psychology, problem solving, & decision theory)
·         Problems
·         Case studies
·         Labs
·         Projects
Exploring attitudes, feelings, & perspectives
(Awareness of attitudes, biases, & other perspectives; ability to collaborate)
5.       Learning through groups and teams
(Human communication theory, group counseling theory)
·         Group activities
·         Team projects
Practicing professional judgment
(Sound judgment  & appropriate professional action  in complex, context-dependent situations)
6.       Learning through virtual realities
(Psychodrama, sociodrama, gaming theory)
·         Role playing
·         Simulations
·         Dramatic scenarios
·         Games
Reflecting on experience
(Self-discovery & personal growth from real-world experience)
7.       Experiential learning
(Experiential learning, cognitive neuroscience, constructivism)
·         Internships
·         Service-learning
·         Study abroad

from:
Davis, James R., & Arend, Bridget D. (2013). Facilitating seven ways of learning:  A resource for more purposeful, effective, and enjoyable college teaching.  Stylus: Sterling, VA.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Lincoln's Tenure and Promotion Policy



This week’s blog narrows its focus from general teaching issues to one specific—and extremely important—policy at Lincoln:  Promotion and Tenure.  

The PTS committee, in its effort to ensure the integrity of a stellar professorate at Lincoln University, has reviewed the current promotion, tenure, and sabbatical processes. As a result it is circulating this recommended modification for faculty review and input
At the request of the PTS Committee, I am asking you, whatever your rank and years of service at Lincoln, to read the revised PTS policy first presented in March of 2015 for faculty review


and make suggestions for improvement.   
What, for you, are the essential issues this policy should include? Are they included?  Do you agree with the rating categories for promotion and with the separation of tenure and promotion? I look forward to a spirited debate.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Online or Not Online: The Question Persists



I had just left a Distance Learning committee meeting this week when Elizabeth Pitt, librarian, passed along a “Fast Fact” from College and Research News, October 2015. It summarizes the main findings of a Gallup poll commissioned by Inside Higher Ed last year that surveyed 2,799 faculty members and 288 academic technology administrators.

According to the summary, “A majority of faculty members with online teaching experience say those courses produce results inferior to in-person courses. They say most online courses lack meaningful student-teacher interaction. Only about one-quarter of faculty respondents (26 percent) say online courses can produce results equal to in-person courses.What should we make of these results?  

If even experienced online teachers believe by such a large margin that online education is inferior to face-to-face learning, should we question whether our efforts here at Lincoln to put together a distance education plan—the purpose of the DL committee meeting I had attended—are warranted?  At most should we be planning distance learning options only for those populations we cannot feasibly meet in person?  

Or is that majority opinion simply skepticism without foundation, our human preference for what has always been and our innate distrust of the new?  Do you come down on the side of the studies that have shown no significant correlation between mode of delivery and learning outcomes? 

So your question for today (come on, you know that you need to take a break from thinking about midterms) is a simple yes/no one.  Do you personally believe that online teaching and learning—assuming the necessary technology, course design, and instructional expertise—can be as effective as classroom-based instruction?  (Of course if you have any additional energy, I would love to hear the reasoning behind your answer, whichever side of the issue you champion.)

Saturday, October 10, 2015

What We Teachers Worry About


Those of you who read Faculty Focus probably saw the following list in a recent posting. It categorizes the concerns expressed by new teachers, listed from most to least important. 
  • Exhibiting command of the material (being able to answer student questions, give relevant examples)
  • Balancing "teacherly" authority and student rapport
  • Dealing with communication anxiety (public speaking)
  • Engaging rather than boring students
  • Managing students’ perceptions of teacher
  • Juggling roles (teaching, research, service, life)
  • Resolving grade complexities
  • Being memorable
  • Negotiating flexibility in policies, assignments
  • Overcoming cultural differences between teacher and students
I was struck, when I read through this “top 10” list how little I worried about some of the issues but how much some of the others, after all my many years of teaching, still cause the occasional sleepless night.  I don’t spend much time anymore thinking about authority vs. rapport, for instance; my comfort level there developed over the years, as did my comfort level with student perceptions of me, whatever they may be.  Similarly, being appropriately--but not too--flexible in my demands and being able to resolve student grade protests do not cause me much concern any more; one learns from experience, I guess.  
On the other hand, despite my experience I still find myself struggling with how to get my tired, busy, adult students focused and engaged, and with each new  semester I still experience nagging doubts that I have prepared enough to show that I’m up to date and in command of new scholarship.
One item I would add to the list, that I never used to worry about, is just what my role in any given class period should be.  Am I  still, too often, being that sage on the stage even if I am standing off to the side and talking about material on students' computer screens?  Did I prepare enough material to keep the learning going?  Too much?  The wrong sort?
I’d be interested in hearing--wherever you might be in your teaching career trajectory--what worries you the most as you strive to be successful in your chosen profession. Or what you don't worry about at all.