How to thrive at UST: What Faculty Development offers

1. How to thrive at UST: What Faculty Development offers Ann Johnson and Nancy Hartung August 2013

2. Structure for our session: • What we can learn from the BEST teachers • Some tips for early success: Week 1 • What Faculty Development offers to help you thrive • Presentation of the major features of an integrated course design model (Fink) • Application to a course you will teach

3. What can we learn from the BEST college teachers? • Who are these best teachers? • What do they do that makes them exceptional?

4. What the Faculty Development Center offers to help you thrive at UST • Workshops • Grants • New faculty lunch discussions about teaching and learning • Individual classroom consultation http://www.stthomas.edu/fdc/

5. Interested in ImprovingStudent Learning? Number of Students Initial Grade Distribution From: Workshop by Karl Wirth, Macalester College, 2009

6. What can make a difference? • Cohen (1987): Learning can often be improved by as much as two standard deviations withalignmentof course objectives, assessment and learning activities. From: Workshop by Karl Wirth, Macalester College, 2009

7. Integration of the Course Learning Goals Assessment Learning Activities Situational Factors

8. 1.Sizing up the Situation • Kind of students • Role of this course for those students • Where does the course fit in the curriculum? • External standards? Internal requirements? • Your strengths as a teacher • Learning space you will use

9. Assignment (Worksheet 1): • Choose a course you will be teaching this year • Fill out Worksheet 1 with key information about the “Situation” for that course • Identify situational factors for which you need to get more information

10. Integration of the Course Learning Goals Assessment Learning Activities Situational Factors

11. Starting with Key Goals/Objectives • Puts the focus on student learning • Focuses on skills and abilities that are central to the discipline • Helps inform students about faculty intentions—Increases learning! • Helps integrate your planning with IDEA– our student ratings of instruction system

12. Why Not Give Them A Map? How will they get there… …if they don’t know where they are going ? From: Workshop by Karl Wirth, Macalester College, 2009

13. 2. Choosing Key Goals • How would you want your students to be different from those who did not take your course? • In 3-5 years, what should your students • Know • Be able to do • What attitudes would you want them to have?

14. Bloom’s taxonomy: From:http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

15. Five years out…… Do you want your students to….. • Remember enduring concepts • Transfer knowledge to new situations • Engage in critical analyses • Be curious and engage in learning • Know how to get quality information • Communicate well • Seek, respect and use diverse perspectives • See ethical problems and make ethical choices

16. When Choosing a KEY Goal: ASK yourself whether: • Goal will be ASSESSED • LEARNING ACTIVITIES will be used to promote that goal/objective

17. Assignment (Worksheet 2): Identify Learning Goals for Your Course • Make a list of learning goals you have for this course -- many examples are provided at your table. • Choose 3-5 would you find to beimportantor essentialfor students in that course? • Write these on the Worksheet 2

18. Integration of the Course Learning Goals Assessment Learning Activities Situational Factors

19. 3. Evidence of learning? Assessment • How will you know that your students have learned what you hope they will learn? • Remember: How you assess learning will drive how your students study, approach the course

20. Assessment Can Be • Backward looking-- We have covered topics X, Y and Z. Did you get it? • Forward looking -- Imagine yourself in a situation where people are using this knowledge. Can you use your knowledge of X,Y and Z to do [some type of realistic application of this knowledge]?

21. Forward looking(authentic): • Realistic • Require judgment and innovation • Ask the student to DO the subject • Replicate contexts adults face in the workplace, civic life, personal life • Educative in nature Wiggins, 1998, Educative Assessment

22. Assessment can be Formative-- the “Coach” role • Is evaluative but not part of the grade • Provides information on how to improve • Is done in dialogue • Is frequent, immediate

23. “Classroom Assessment” • Short non-graded assignments that provide feedback to the students and to you about how the learning is going • Minute Paper • Muddiest Point • Clicker questions (class participation pts) • Our first lunch/discussion will look at a variety of methods for formative feedback!

24. Assignment: For your course– On Worksheet 2: • For each goal, list at least one assessment • Share one goal and its assessment with 1-2 people around you.

25. 4. Learning Activities Plan learning activities that help the student make progress on EACH goal Learning Goals Assessment Learning Activities Situational Factors Model: L. Dee Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, 2003

26. Learning Activities ASK yourself: Who’s doing the work?? From: http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/education2.shtml

27. Memory Processes From:web.pdx.edu/~caskeym/caskey_web/Brain_NMSA02.ppt‎ by Micki M. Caskey Barbara Ruben & Lorraine Morgan

28. Working & Long-Term Memory From:http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-to-get-your-learners-to-remember-more/

29. Brain-Based Learning Theory • Learning is an active process of constructing knowledge • Students connect new ideas to what they already know • For long term retention– ideas need to be connected in meaningful ways (conceptual framework) Brain image from:http://www.willamette.edu/~gorr/classes/cs449/brain.html Concepts from:http://cte.illinois.edu/resources/topics/theories.html; & from: Mastascusa, E. et al. Effective Instruction for STEM Disciplines, 2011, Jossey-Bass

30. Learning Activities might: • Provide context & application; opportunities to organize concepts • Give constructive feedback • Have students develop/compare conceptual frameworks • Have students self-assess their own learning (metacognition)

31. Plan “In Class” and “Out of Class” Activities Castle Top Diagram In class problems: compare and contrast In class Short lecture with clicker questions; application problems Exam Problem solving homework Read & answer questions Outside of class Review

32. Watch Out for Breaks in Integration of the Course Learning Goals Assessment Learning Activities Situational Factors

33. References • Cohen, S.A., 1987, Instructional alignment: Searching for a magic bullet: Educational Research 16:8, p.16-20. • Fink, L. D., 2003, Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. 1998. Understanding by Design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. • Wirth, Karl, 2009, Getting Aligned II: Aligning the Elements of a Course using Reverse Design (workshop) • http://cte.illinois.edu/resources/topics/theories.html • Mastascusa, E. et al. 2011. Effective Instruction for STEM Disciplines, 2011, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco