Challenges of Teaching in the Laboratory

1. Teaching in the Lab Workshop: Essential Teaching Tools for Graduate Teaching Assistants Beth L. Overman Doctoral Student, Department of Physiology College of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Barbi Honeycutt Graduate Teaching Programs The Graduate School Dr. Miriam Ferzli Department of Biology Participant Feedback Abstract Teaching in a laboratory setting presents a unique set of challenges pertaining to classroom management, evaluation of student learning, and collaborative group projects. To address training needs of Graduate Student Teaching Assistants (GTAs) who teach in the laboratory setting, we prepared a workshop in collaboration with Preparing Future Leaders and the Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching programs that aim to promote GTA development in teaching. During this workshop, participants discussed the challenges of teaching in the lab, including lesson planning, assessment, managing students in the lab, student integrity, questioning techniques, and more in an active learning, collaborative learning environment. Workshop activities lead participants to develop a master list of ground rules for successful laboratory instruction. Case studies of classroom management situations help to facilitate discussions on different classroom management techniques for teaching in labs. Other activities relate to productive questioning techniques to introduce participants to good questioning strategies, positive reinforcement, wait time, and positive non-verbal language skills. Participants also learn about Lab Write (an online tutorial) and other tools to facilitate assessment of, pre-, in-, and post- lab activities, including lab reports. In addition to workshop activities and discussions, participants receive online and text resources for their own study and teaching development. We initially implemented this workshop to help GTAs, who are teaching in laboratory setting, become successful educators in their prospective fields. “I really enjoyed the open discussion and facilitation of discussion through group activities. Hearing perspectives from different lab settings was very useful! I learned a great deal about how to add structure to the lab and make it more effective (i.e. incorporating questioning strategies during experiments, having students give presentations to other students, etc).” “I learned how to deal with situations in a lab setting spanning from problems involving many students to problems with individual students.” “I learned how to manage students during lab sessions and how to define and implement ground rules.” “Hearing other examples of teaching in the labs helped me to understand situations better and realize I am not alone. I learned how to better manage class size and classroom expectations; being able to relay information to students will help in the long run.” Overview of Workshop Activities • Challenges of Teaching in the Laboratory • Think-Pair-Share activity of challenges of laboratory teaching • Challenges are turned into a FAQ page for participants to access at any time • FAQ Example: How do I balance the lab session with respect to physical (procedural) and mental (content) engagement?The lab is the place for students to get hands on experience and to interact with you and peers one-to-one. Limit the time you talk or lecture to small 5-10min. sessions interspersed as needed throughout lab. Keep students active from the moment they walk in by having an activity ready for them--an assessment or a brainstorming activity, e.g. • II. Lesson Planning for Lab Session • Purpose lesson planning • Criteria for a good lesson plan • Basic Information • Overall Goal • Learning objectives (learning outcomes) • Learning prerequisites • Background information • Teaching strategies • Sequence of student and teacher activities & time allocation • Materials required • Assessment procedures • Self-Assessment • Integrating successful questioning strategies • III. Managing the Lab Environment • Case Study discussion • The Case of Ms. Flip Flop and Madam Sleeveless Shirt: It’s North Carolina, and 92 degrees in late August, with high humidity and not a cloud in the sky.  Even though your chemistry lab has strict rules on lab safety, your students insist on trying to bend the rules and continually wear sandals and sleeveless shirts to class.  • Participant Responses to Case Study: • Give safety/policy ground rules at the beginning of the semester • Send student home • Lose participation or in-class points • Have "boots of shame" or "lab coat of shame" for student to wear in these situations • For repeat offenders, talk to them privately about abiding by the ground rules and explain why it is important • Paradise Lost: Students are very excited about a class lab trip to Lake Johnson to observe different varieties of flora and fauna.  Even though appropriate behavior and instructions were discussed, you can see that the students are not on task and are not completing the assignment to the best of their ability.  • Participant Responses to Case Study: • Conduct a pre-trip assignment • Put students in groups with clear division of labor and concrete products they have to turn in at the end of the lab session • Give them an individual assessment that relies on assignment/task during field trip • IV. Pre-Lab, In-Lab, Post-Lab Assessment • Labwrite: A free online tutorial for teaching and learning scientific thinking in the lab • VI. Resources for Teaching in the Lab • Participants are given access to a website created for the workshop with teaching resources Learning Outcomes • Participants will identify various challenges of teaching in the laboratory through a collaborative and active learning activity • Participants will become familiar with aspects of lesson planning most important for teaching in the laboratory through a group discussion activity • Participants will discuss issues relating to managing the lab environment by working through various case studies Conclusions and Future Goals • Graduate Teaching Assistants were able to share challenges of teaching in the lab to form a Frequently Asked Question page for their own reference in future situations • Participants of the workshop shared previous experiences teaching in the lab and learned from others techniques, teaching strategies, and ideas • GTAs successfully discussed the necessary parts of a lesson plan, as well as the need for careful planning in a laboratory setting • Case study analysis led to problem solving and classroom management strategies • Labwrite tutorials allow participants to create pre-, in-, and post-lab assessments • Networking and interactions between GTA participants provides a community of laboratory TA’s for future teaching support Graduate Student Participants Participants in this workshop are graduate students at North Carolina State University, both masters level and PhD, who were either teaching in a lab currently or preparing to teach as a part of their degree programs in upcoming semesters. Degree programs ranged from hard sciences including chemistry, zoology, and biology, to economics or psychology discussion group leaders. eloverma@ncsu.edu barbi_honeycutt@ncsu.edu mgferzli@ncsu.edu