Theory and Practice of Undergraduate Teaching

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Theory and Practice of Undergraduate Teaching

• ESG 5300
• September 14, 2004

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Todays Agenda

• Introduction of professor
• Introduction of students
• Overview of the course
• Requirements
• Activities
• Style
• Introduction to Teaching in Academe

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The professor

• Linda Manning, Ph.D.
• Professor of Economics
• Research agenda in integration of technology into
  teaching
• Instructional Technology Consultant (CUT)
• Advanced Placement Economics (US)
• Contact information
• lmanning_at_uottawa.ca
• http//www.courseweb.uottawa.ca/FACDEV101
• Log in using your UOttawa student userid and
  password (as in Infoweb)

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The students

• Now its your turn
• Your name, your discipline, your research focus,
  your professional plans, and what do you want
  from this course?

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The Course

• Designed to help graduate students prepare for an
  academic teaching career. 
• Introduction
• research and theory on undergraduate teaching
• development of practical teaching skills for
  university teaching
• You will actively participate in professional
  development activities.
• Framework is development of teaching portfolio in
  context of
• research in undergraduate teaching and learning
• self-reflection and development of practical
  teaching strategies
• the integration of instructional technologies
  into the university classroom

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Course Goals

• Develop set of instructional objectives for an
  introductory course
• Develop practices for understanding students and
  ourselves as teachers
• Explore different teaching methods and how to use
  them
• Investigate new instructional technologies as
  pedagogical tools
• Explore assessment strategiesfor student
  learning, and our teaching
• Reflect on professional and ethical issues
• Develop a teaching portfolio

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Instructional Methods and Scope

• The focus of classroom activity will be active
  participation. 
• Theoretical basis of discussions will be
  presented on web pages, which will serve as
  textbook. 
• Students will explore answers to questions raised
  with their colleagues based on theory,
  experience, and self-reflection. 
• Each student will make three teaching
  presentations,
• 2 in front of a small group
• By the second class period, I would like you to
  form groups of 4-5.
• 1 in front of the entire class.  
• The final teaching presentation will be filmed to
  provide individualized feedback, and the audience
  will constructively evaluate the presentations. 

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Assignments

• Mini-teaching sessions
• Develop your own instructional objectives
• Description of session and students, how they
  should be prepared before the beginning of the
  session, and what they should be able to do when
  the session is over Mini-teaching sessions and
  supporting theoretical justification. 
• Identify ways you can reach different students
• Prepare a brief theoretical justification for
  your framework of your mini-teaching session.
   Use readings, current approaches to teaching,and
  class discussions, justify your choice of
  instructional objectives, and teaching
  strategies 
• Prepare framework for using technology in your
  own course
• A Teaching Portfolio.
• Prepare a list of assessment tools you've used,
  and professional development activities

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Mini-Teaching Session

• Your audience first year students in a large
  class
• Time 15 minutes
• Topic your choice, but only one
• Theoretical justification? Built around who you
  are, who your students are, and what you are
  teaching.
• Objectives your choice but they must be made
  clear in advance
• Evaluation tools will be made available and
  shared.

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Your Teaching Portfolio

• Contents? You decide
• Requires self-reflection

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Topics

• Teaching in the Context of an Academic Career
• What is Teaching
• Teaching vs Research
• Introduction to Teaching Portfolios
• Instructional Objectivesunderstanding yourself
  and your course
• Understanding your Audience and Yourself
• Connecting with some, reaching out to others
• Motivating students
• Teaching Methods
• The Lecture
• Active and Self-Directed Learning
• Integrating Instructional Technologies into
  Teaching
• Assessment of Student Learning and of Your
  Teaching
• Professional and Ethical Issues in Teaching

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Where will your insight come from?Self Reflection

• Reflective evaluationuses reflective thinking
• Special kind of intellectual activity
• Much like scientific inquiry
• Disciplined and orderly Why teach differently?
• Changing characteristics of students
• Demographics, attitudes and values
• Mental and physical health
• Academic and financial preparation
• Changing characteristics of institutions
• Accountability
• Legal protection
• Performance-based funding

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Some things to consider Need to Know?

• Students as learners
• teaching
• discipline-specific teaching knowledge
• content and how it fits into larger curriculum
• Oneself as teacher
• In general, need to know
• Teaching
• Learning
• Course management

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Some things to Consider the importance of
PLANNING in teaching

• Advanced planning important with assessment and
  flexible response
• Flexible does not mean disorganized
• Students may need structure or appearance of it
• Students learn better if objectives are clear
• Your goals for the course
• Relationship of goals to each other
• Relevance of information, evidence, examples to
  goals.
• Before you can be clear to your students. . . .

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Some things to considercommunication with
students and the Concept Map

• Remember that students do not have your mastery
  of the subject
• Think backdid you always know what was
  important?
• The big picture can give framework for
  organizing and retaining new information
• Requires your planning
• Organized image
• Think of the brain as a web of associations and
  relationships

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Its all about FIT

• How teaching fits into our careers
• How course materials fit together (for students)
• Do questions enhance your understanding?
• Our web is incomplete.
• Students question prompts reasoning that fills
  gap.
• Student questions can be invaluablebe available
  for them
• The Sequential Outline is most common
• Fail to show interrelationships among concepts
• How are chapters and concepts connected?
• Use a Concept Map
• In Econ. . . .

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On Balancing Teaching with other Responsibilities

• Results from recent studies
• Being a good teacher essential to faculty
• Institutions do not reward good teaching
• Research given highest priority
• Conflict between personal and institutional
  values
• Evaluation can be used to reconcile these
• Teaching Portfolio
• ESG5300 Framework
• Professional uses
• Formative
• Summative

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Evaluation has changed too

• 1980s and 1990sbudget tightening
• Evaluations driven by administration
• More recentlynew stakeholders
• Accountability to public
• Legal protection
• New professors
• Fairness and consistency
• Brings us back to using evaluation to resolve
  conflict between teaching and research.

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The Teaching Portfolio

• What is your main purpose in creating this
  portfolio?
• What basic argument about your teaching will you
  make, and why?
• Who are the primary readers?
• What do you know about their beliefs about good
  teaching?
• Are their beliefs consistent with your own?
• What types of evidence of teaching effectiveness
  will be most convincing to these readers?
• What evidence will they expect to find?

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Documenting your Success and Development

• How are your beliefs about teaching and learning
  reflected in your actions as a teacher?
• What evidence will show readers that your
  teaching reflects these beliefs?
• What evidence can your students provide?
• Your colleagues?
• What evidence can you provide?
• Others?
• Which of the above is regularly collected?
• How can you begin to collect the rest of the data
  you need?

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For instance. . . .

• Statement of Pedagogical Philosophy, Strategy and
  implementation
• Summary of Teaching Responsibilities Semester
  Hours Per Year
• Effective Teaching Load
• New Course Development
• Evaluations
• Student Evaluations
• Average Evaluation Scoresgraphical presentation
• Required and Supplementary questions

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For instance. . .

• Peer Evaluation of Teaching and Teaching
  Materials
• Classroom Observation
• Department chair
• Instructional designer
• Evaluation of Course Materials
• Educational Psychologist
• Director of Academic program/Psychologist
• Teaching Research in Economics
• Grants and Awards for Teaching Innovation
• Description of Efforts to Improve Teaching
  Self-Evaluation
• Goals for the next five years