INLS 309 - Seminar in Teaching Practice

Spring 2001

Meeting times will vary but generally be about an hour and a half in duration. Folks are welcome to come and go as their schedule demands.

February 23 -- 2-3:30 pm -- Room 304

The topic of our first session will be How to deal with varying knowledge and skill levels in a class. This topic was suggested by Jack Dagg in relation to the challenge of teaching undergraduate minor classes. We might consider techniques of determining beginning points, whether mastery learning is an appropriate method, whether independent modules or track choices would help. We might also discuss effect on grading of varying entry and end points -- contract grading, competency-based grading (related to mastery learning).
In preparation for the session, I will try to find a few readings but if others have suggestions, it would be good. Please come and share your experiences and opinions.

March 6 -- 1:30-3 pm -- Room 215

Our topic today is Student Engagement. What are some active ways to involve students, for example, game playing, role playing, etc.?
Just a note or two after the session to recap some of the good ideas that folks shared. Many of the students said they enjoyed roleplaying, for example the role of a manager, a worker, an interviewer, or a person being interviewed. Brian described his "Pass the Face" exercise (one person makes a face and holds it; the next person has to copy it in a way that the rest of the class find sufficiently similar; that person then makes a new face for the next person) as a way to break the ice. Barbara spoke of a group exercise where five people have to model a system, for example, being a toaster. Diane has a Lego exercise in which each group has all the same pieces and one person from each group is given a few moments to see what the finished construction should look like and then must communicate that fact non-verbally to the rest of the group. Greg in the Communications class used a version of Trivial Pursuit in which the "known" answer called for in the question becomes the unknown. Students receive Jolly Ranchers as rewards for right answers. Paul described students in the International class telling a fairy story in a foreign language to see if people could pick up enough of the cadence, intonation and nonverbal expressions to guess what the story is. Meredith said she enjoyed discussions especially with "reality questions" where definitions can be induced from anecdotal material. She also described David's use of characters from something like Studs Terkel's Working that individuals in a reference or a collection development class had to assume and then think like and act on their behalf throughout the semester.
David talked about bringing a set of tools to a reference class (carpenter tools, office tools, kitchen tools) and then asking questions about them to draw out the analogy between the mechanical tool and the intellectual reference tool. Questions included "What would life be like without this tool?" addressing issues of precision vs efficiency vs cost vs specificity, "What are we now able to do because of the availability of the tool?" addressing predictability, "What constitutes mastery in use of the tool?" addressing the notion of how to use it without going too far, "When should one shift to a different tool?", etc. All the questions are based on the principle of looking at the everyday in a new way as a technique of encouraging divergent thinking.
In another example of the use of metaphor, David described bringing in domain information structures, like a Chinese menu (kind of food, method of preparation, degree of "hotness", cost) as a surrogate for displaying 50-60 dishes laid out. Other examples were the TV Guide to consider the interpretation of symbols, the telphone white pages for Smith with the question "What is Jeff's phone number? -- What additional information do you need?", the yellow pages to compare differences (example spiritualism and sperm bank), a road map. Barbara W commented that the use of the artifact or example is to create an "outsider" situation and to stimulate adaptive thinking. She described the "show and tell" activity students do in the Interface Design class where each week one or two students present an example of either good design or bad design.
David also talked about the use of synectics -- making things strange (Ex., how is a giraffe like a rubber band?) and problem solving exercises that encourage divergent thinking as a way to converge on an answer to a reference question. Brian described using metaphor -- passing around familiar items and asking students to create something else -- ex. a comb can become a bed of spikes or a jail.
Meredith asked what happens in a class when there's no response? After several suggestions -- waiting, explaining intent up front, showing undergraduates (for ex.) that there's more than one right answer, Kathy said she remembered Greg's advice in the 180 class, "You don't have to be quiet and you don't have to be the leader" suggesting that people could take on previously unassumed roles. David talked about the use of focus groups in which the facilitator's job is to raise the "relevant but unspoken questions." To illustrate this point he talked about a recent class that addressed race, a discussion area where there are often relevent but unspoken questions. His lead-in question was, What kind of questions do you have on the topic of difference -- perhaps you don't have any because after all, we're all alike except in areas of gender, geographic background, education, experience, race, culture, etc. Diane suggested "The Story of X and O" by Rosabeth Moss Kanter about groups of Os and groups of Xs and how they feel about the differences. A Dr. Seuss story on the sneetches was also suggested.
David said a quote he finds helpful is that education is not about "filling a pail but lighting a fire." He said he wanted to see museums and libraries filled with incendiary activities. Evelyn suggested that index cards can be a useful prop, illustrating this with an opening activity for the seminar of asking participants to complete a sentence on the topic for the day ("Three ways I can involve students in active learning activities are ... "). A nominal group activity like this focuses students' thoughts and gives them ready access to a response which encourages discussion. The "Power of 2" follow-on activity asks students to compare their list with that of a neighbor and further involves them in the topic for discussion. We talked about using colored cards as a technique for expressing agreement or disagreement or for assuming a particular role. Barbara described using pink cards for those who wanted to argue a position (in her Ethics class), yellow for a reflective comment, and green for the leader (which gave him/her the power to interrupt).
In addition we spoke about whole group and small group discussions. Evelyn distributed a short article David had written for TAP Talk, a Newsletter for Teaching Assistants entitled "Causing Little Troubles: Some Generic Discussion Questions." She called attention to the last paragraph:
"If asked at the right time, questions can be like little engines, subtly moving big ideas forward, even if it is nearly time for the discussion to end. It is always useful to close a class with unanswered questions or unfinished issues, suggesting an agenda for the future or for the starting point of the next class."
Much more was said but leaving with an unfinished discussion seems like a good way to end in anticipation of our next (and last) session this semester.

April 19 -- 12:15-1:45 pm -- Room 215

Our topic for this session is Feedback/Evaluation/Improvement for the Instructor. We will consider the value of videotaping, how to solicit and then respond to feedback, techniques for self-improvement.

Date revised 3/6/2001.
Evelyn Daniel