Insights into Teaching and Learning Featured Articles
Spring 2016 In this issue: What to Emphasize in Writing Emphasis [WEM] Courses Making Effective Teaching Decisions What TCU’s Teacher-Scholars Are Learning about Global Citizenship: Faculty and Instructional Staff Reflections on QEP Connections
Charlotte Hogg
What to Emphasize in Writing Emphasis [WEM] Courses
Clark Jones
Active Learning Strategies in a Classroom of Any Size
Robin Griffith
Making Effective Teaching Decisions
Developing and Sustaining a Culturally Responsive Environment Active Learning Strategies in a Classroom of Any Size Taking a Deep Dive into Teaching with Twitter
What to Emphasize in Writing Emphasis [WEM] Courses Charlotte Hogg
Department of English
Writing is a complex activity, and writing researchers have long acknowledged that extensive practice in writing over time within a context that 1) allows for greater understanding of rhetorical conventions, 2) employs discipline-specific endeavors, and 3) invites extensive opportunities for generating and revising writing can offer success. TCU affirms and fosters its commitment to the import of writing as a mode of learning through the Core Curriculum in requiring two Writing Emphasis courses (WEM) as essential competencies for every student TCU. The competency for WEM courses states, “graduates will demonstrate the ability to use writing as a means for learning and communicating in a specific discipline.” Each WEM course seeks to meet one or more of the following outcomes: 1) Students will demonstrate a working knowledge of the rhetorical conventions of the target discipline. 2) Students will exhibit the ability to use writing as a means of gaining and expressing an understanding of disciplinespecific content. 3) Students will show the ability to employ writing strategies and rhetorical practices learned in lower division writing courses (i.e. Written Communication 1 and 2). 4) Students will produce writing that demonstrates clarity and precision of thought.
The wide range of upper-level courses—190 sections were taught, for example, in over 40 subjects in fall 2015— provides students with opportunities to gain a foothold on the types of writing in particular fields, from accounting to nursing. And yet, because of writing’s complexity, writing instruction can be vexing, particularly when disciplinary training in fields outside of writing may not come with writing instruction themselves. In fall of 2015, the Koehler Center hosted a workshop for faculty members who have proposed, taught, or were currently teaching a WEM course in their discipline. Over 20 faculty members participated in the workshop in which we discussed the important features of WEM courses as well as how to provide the best opportunities for student learning through writing in WEM courses. The workshop asked participants to reflect upon their goals in teaching a WEM course, and instructors discussed their desires and plans for students to produce writing within the conventions of the disciplines they hope to contribute to in the future. But how do we best design and foster a course to get the best results with student learning and writing? Writing research confirms that the kind of feedback students receive is critical to the learning process, provided that students, of course, are equally invested in the process. During the workshop, I shared the results of a longitudinal study done within the past decade with 400 Harvard students about their insights on writing instruction they’ve received. Not surprisingly, they revealed that their best writing experiences included opportunities to 1) write about what matters to them and 2) engage with the instructor through feedback. Among their greatest frustrations? They wanted instructors to understand that they aren’t fullyformed writers in upper-level courses. The latter certainly matches writing research—and writers’ lived experiences— that suggests continued writing practice over time can lead
Team-Based Learning Monday, March 21, 2016 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Smith Hall, Room 104B Team-Based Learning is a form of collaborative learning that uses a specific sequence of individual work, group work, and immediate feedback to create an engaging and educational setting. Students hold each other accountable for coming to class prepared and contributing to discussion, taking education and responsibility into their own hands.
“Feedback doesn’t need to be monumental, but its influence often is” (255). Writing instruction, then, that focuses on the process across drafts, as students receive feedback and reconceive of how to satisfy conventions for a discipline-specific audience, allows instructors and students to be invested in the work and to affirm that writing is not merely transcribing thoughts onto a document but writing and thinking occurring recursively. For those who want to more fully integrate writing instruction into their courses, the workshop ended by generating ideas for assignment creation and enactment—such as structuring feedback and revision activities into a course—to work to achieve the greatest impact from the inclusion of writing.
In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to [1] transition from traditional lecturing to methods that guide students to learn on their own, [2] form strategically diverse teams in which students work together to help each other learn, [3] employ the power of the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT®) “scratch and win” method to engage students in collaborative learning, and [4] describe the characteristics of effective peer feedback methods. Please note: this workshop requires faculty to prepare beforehand by watching a short video and reviewing a short article.
Register for this workshop. to successful writing (think sports practice analogies rather than an end point of mastery). More significantly, 90 percent wanted more specific comments from faculty that are anchored to the specific text rather than vague directives (i.e.: awkward or unclear). In the best of circumstances, feedback “is a bridge to future writing assignments” and “is rooted in the partnership between student and teacher, and as in any relationship, it develops its own language and meaning” (Sommers 254-5). As Sommers expressed,
Works Cited Nancy Sommers, “Across the Drafts: Rethinking Nancy Sommers’s ‘Responding to Student Writing,’ 1982.” College Composition and Communication: 58.2 (December 2006): 246-66.
Making Effective Teaching Decisions Robin Griffith
College of Education
Teachers make hundreds, if not thousands, of teaching decisions daily. The same can be said for college professors. Some teaching decisions are planned while others occur “in-the-moment.” Some decisions are subtle and intuitive, like moving next to a group of learners who seem to be confused about the content being discussed; while others are overt and deliberate, like deciding to reorder the course
schedule to accommodate a field-based component. Other teaching decisions are a direct result of reflecting on a particular aspect of a class session and making a decision that informs future instruction. Many of us give little thought to the many teaching decisions we make on a daily basis, yet research on teacher effectiveness highlights thoughtful, adaptive teaching as a key characteristic of effective teachers. In my research on teacher decision-making, I found that when I asked teachers to identify, reflect on, and evaluate their teaching decisions, with a process I call “metacognitive decisionmaking,” they made more powerful and effective teaching decisions the next day, the next hour, and the next moment. How does one engage in the process of “metacognitive decision-making?” I frame the process around four domains of teacher knowledge: 1) content knowledge; 2) knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values; 3) pedagogical knowledge; and 4) pedagogical content knowledge.
As college professors, we excel at content knowledge— meaning we are experts in the content we teach, whether it’s British Literature or Microbiology. Our content knowledge helps us make decisions about what to teach and in what order to teach it. Drawing upon our content knowledge, we are able to make decisions about how the course topics can spiral from big ideas down to specific details or how proficiency in a certain skill must precede instruction on another. As Shulman noted, “To teach is first to understand. We ask that the teacher comprehend critically a set of ideas to be taught. We expect teachers to understand what they teach and, when possible, to understand it in several ways” (14). Content knowledge can also help us make powerful in-the-moment decisions. With an in-depth understanding of the content we teach, we can see the intricacies and connectedness of the discipline so when students take us on circuitous routes, we are able to adjust accordingly. Reflecting on the educational ends, purposes, and values also aids in teacher decision-making. When we ask
Teaching and Learning Conversation with Nada Elias-Lambert: Bystander Intervention: Establishing a Community of Responsibility Wednesday, April 13, 2016 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Smith Hall, Room 104B In 1996, Jane Tompkins called for a more comprehensive view of education saying, “We are educators of whole human beings.” Given the rise of campus sexual assault and national legislation about sexual violence prevention and intervention on college campuses, her statement has never been more true. TCU faculty members interact with students on a daily (even hourly!) basis, and as a result are in a position to recognize, discourage, and prevent a culture that enables sexual violence. In this Teaching and Learning Conversation, faculty will learn the concept of bystander interventions to prevent sexual violence; learn about TCU’s campus-wide sexual violence prevention initiatives, and discuss and practice bystander intervention skills that can be especially helpful when interacting with students in the classroom and beyond.
Register for this workshop.
ourselves, “What are my goals for this particular course or class session?” we make better decisions about what content to include and what activities and assignments will allow us to teach this content in a meaningful way. For instance, if the discipline requires rote memorization of formulas or a list of terminology, we may make the decision to use direct instruction in the form of a lecture. In another situation, the goal may be to develop reasoning skills around a certain topic so a debate format might better serve the purpose. Regardless of the content being taught, having clear goals in mind, both long-term and short-term, allows for more powerful teaching decisions. As college professors, we are all passionate about the content we teach. Sometimes in our zest for sharing the content for which we hold dear, we lose sight of the fact that we are teaching students not simply content. To use the domain of teacher knowledge called pedagogical knowledge, teachers focus on their knowledge of the learner. To frame it for a college professor, you might ask yourself, “What are the characteristics of learners who tend to succeed in my courses?” You can extend this point further by asking, “What are the characteristics of individuals who tend to succeed in this discipline or field?” This knowledge can help teachers make powerful teaching decisions as they consider the goal of preparing students for the job market and future careers in their fields. Finally, the heart of making powerful teaching decisions requires proficiency in pedagogical content knowledge— the intersection between content and pedagogy. In this domain, teachers make decisions about which instructional strategies to use. Pedagogical content knowledge involves knowing how to teach specific content. For example, a teacher may choose to incorporate a variety of instructional strategies within one class session from small group discussions to class lectures; from group presentations to
artifact analysis; from guiding questions to video analysis, all of which are the result of a teaching decision. Teaching well is a skill that requires ongoing refinement. Identifying, reflecting on, and evaluating our teaching decisions are ways to hone that skill. The first step is recognizing the opportunities for decision-making; the second is using our teacher knowledge to act upon those opportunities. Works Cited Shulman, Lee. “Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform.” Harvard Educational Review 57.1 (1987): 1-23.
What TCU’s Teacher-Scholars Are Learning about Global Citizenship: Faculty and Instructional Staff Reflections on QEP Connections Sarah Ruffing Robbins
Department of English and Honors College Koehler Center Fellow for Global Citizenship
When Political Science Professor Manochehr Dorraj first arrived at TCU in 1990, he found, he now confesses, a place “decidedly ‘parochial’ and even ‘nativist’” in its stance toward the rest of the world. Now, fifteen years into the twenty-first century, he celebrates the “new energy, presence and elevated international consciousness” evident in our university’s culture. Many factors, external as well as internal, have contributed to this felicitous shift. One
important impetus has been the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) associated with being accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS). In choosing “Discovering Global Citizenship” (DGC) as its QEP initiative, TCU embraced global learning as a priority. Now several years into the work of DGC, TCU, in Dorraj’s estimation, has undergone a genuine “transformation.” Guiding that transformation, while learning from it themselves, are TCU’s teachers, the faculty and instructional staff from all over campus who’ve been plugging into various connecting points between their own curriculum and QEP resources. I’ve been privileged to observe that process informally through participation in the regular meetings of the QEP leadership team as a “bridge member” by virtue of serving as the Koehler Center’s global citizenship fellow. The conversation in our DGC meetings percolates, lively and generative. Discussions range from brainstorming new initiatives to considering how best to assess student learning that’s been occurring through various programming elements. These regular meetings of the steering committee are certainly not secret; indeed, almost every time, there are a few guests on hand from across and beyond campus, bringing their expertise to the collaborative enterprise. Nonetheless, this ongoing work by QEP team members has perhaps not been highly visible to most members of the TCU community. But their work has been vital to DGC’s many successes, and the seeds they are planting and watering now will be crucial to ensuring that global learning remains central to the TCU in the future. In the understandable, indeed essential, push to “measure” student learning through grids galore, through surveys and counts of attendance and analysis of test scores and, even, e-portfolios, we should also be documenting the learning of faculty and instructional staff. After all, although students
come and go from TCU, the keepers of the culture remain. And, if they/we are learning about global citizenship and how to impart its lessons, students will continue to learn. With that in mind, I recently asked some of the most active faculty and instructional staff participants in the QEP program to reflect critically on their own learning. Individually and as a group, their written responses provided clear evidence of ways that sustained collaboration by teachers builds networks of affiliation and understanding. From those networks, new practices are generated, along with a shared vision that, in turn, enables more initiatives. Mapping that process and its impact would be valuable indeed. Here, I present just a few examples of its ongoing development through their observations. James English, who co-facilitates the Global Innovator QEP program, responded to my query by drawing on an email he’d received from one faculty member who’d used QEP funding to launch an initiative that’s now including partners from around the globe: this teacher-scholar reported that giving faculty and instructional staff access to such resources pays big dividends. One example James himself cited was a DGC project in Haiti that is reaching disabled citizens through an innovative outreach program, which students in Economics Professor Dawn Elliott’s Developmental Studies class recently “visited” through the QEP’s “Virtual Voyage” program. Hearing from the Haitibased program director Gauthier Dieudonne, Professor Elliott’s students learned about how some of Haiti’s most challenged inhabitants are now receiving new access to health care; through such stories, students become inspired to envision their own social justice initiatives in the future. Excited as I am to consider how these learning outcomes are emerging for students like Elliott’s—or for those of another colleague James English wrote about in his
Center Fellows Workshop with Sarah Robbins:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Global Learning in a “Book Club” Context Tuesday, March 15, 2016 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM Smith Hall, Room 104B In 2007, in the wake of 9/11 and the “war on terror,” Moshin Hamid published The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was short-listed for the Booker prize and adapted as a movie that was highlighted at the Venice Film Festival. Hamid’s novel—while fiction—raises many productive issues associated with cross-cultural interactions within the US and beyond, including how we in the United States have responded to Arab Americans in the years since the attack on the World Trade Center. The book reached #4 on the New York Times bestseller list and sold well over a million copies in the first years after its publication. Since then, it has been the first-year common reading at a number of US colleges and universities, including Davidson, Tulane, Washington University in Saint Louis, Drake, Siena, Lehigh, Rollins, and more. The novel has also become a mainstay in Asian Studies programs and global literature courses. Come to a “book club” discussion of the novel and its interplay with historical and cultural issues in a global context and of its potential for interdisciplinary teaching. The first 20 of those signing up to attend will receive a free copy of the novel. Light refreshments will be served.
Register for this workshop.
reflection, Mike Slattery—I also want to celebrate, and, in turn, take energy from, the ongoing learning being achieved by these teachers themselves. In his email reflection, for instance, James invoked how much new content knowledge he and others have learned from Mike Slattery’s Global Innovator project, linking up with activists addressing the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa. “Together,” James English noted in the context of such projects, “we are taking a journey without necessarily knowing our final destination.” Embracing uncertainty and open-ended experience as a pathway to learning goes beyond the purview of “global citizenship” as a necessary focus of education today, of course. But this stance may be especially important for teachers and students to cultivate in the area of crosscultural learning, whether it’s being sought through travel abroad or through such initiatives as one of the most accessible domains of TCU’s QEP, the “local global” connection. As College of Education faculty member Cecilia Silva noted in her reflection, in fact, pushing students—and ourselves—beyond our comfort zones to embrace opportunities for engaged connections with cultural differences is challenging. We don’t know what will happen. Quoting one of her own students, Cecilia acknowledged that such work is “challenging, exciting, and, at times, overwhelming.” So, reflecting on both her students’ and her own experiences connecting with refugees and immigrants at the International Newcomer Academy (INA) here in North Texas, Silva highlighted how they moved from feelings of discomfort to recognizing that their own initial anxiety about interacting with academy participants wound up being transformative. As one Cecilia’s students explained: “It felt kind of like a different world,” like being in “a different country” right here in Texas. From her own experience, therefore, Cecilia recommended that other faculty members take advantage of QEP
resources (including colleagues who have tried out projects already) to embrace uncertainty in teaching, and to explore without knowing the destination. One faculty member who adopted that open approach this fall semester is Rima Abunasser. Partnering an entire class on women’s writing with a QEP-sponsored multinational journey being taken by reconciliation activist Michael McRay, Rima and her students traveled through social media on several trips he was taking to study (and contribute to) peace movements: in Norther Ireland, South Africa, and the Middle East. Rima’s students followed McRay’s pathways, but they also “storied” what they themselves learned by “making short documentaries from Michael’s travel and interview footage,” Rima explained. Beyond being duly impressed with her students’ products, Rima also took away from this DGC project a reaffirmed belief that TCU students “have important contributions to make, that their voices are clear, strong, and ready,” and that an especially energizing avenue to global learning is from “communal” activity. The power of communal learning also emerged in reflections provided by Suzy Lockwood and Jane Kucko. Lockwood’s reflection cited a specific program—the Global Impact in Healthcare event—as a striking instance of how “the QEP can impact TCU students’ worldview and show them that there are a multitude of opportunities for them to participate—big and small—in changing the fabric of not only their life but that of a population, a community or society.” Lauding the inter- and cross-disciplinary methods enabled by this event and its spin-offs, Lockwood underscored how fostering those learning networks enables students to “truly live out the TCU mission statement.” But she also pointed to ways in which TCU’s teachers can find such collaborative experiences “life-changing,” so that they continue to “inform our. . . instruction in amazing ways.”
Similarly, for Jane Kucko, reflecting on the QEP’s impact certainly surfaced an awareness of the “true crossdisciplinary interaction” the DGC has promoted. But also like Professor Lockwood, Jane has found her own personal learning from DGC work to be especially meaningful. Kucko noted that her QEP-supported “Exposure to the developing world has opened my eyes and has spurred me to think on how I can be a better citizen.” Thus, while she takes pride in ways that the QEP has “enhanced international education on campus” overall, she also argues that faculty and staff involved in this endeavor should celebrate how “we have inspired ourselves to become better global citizens.” Given all the powerful learning that’s going on for all those who’ve been involved in DGC-related work so far, John Singleton of TCU’s International Services office has some advice for anyone not yet fully connected to the QEP. “Find a faculty member who has participated and ask about their experience.” As Singleton observed in his own reflection: “The QEP is itself in the process of transformation from a program-design model to a program facilitation model, and we need more partners engaging more students to make this work.”
Spring Faculty Open Labs Monday - Thursday* 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Closed Fridays *closed Feb 29-Mar 3 and Mar 7-9 Koehler Faculty Lab, Winton-Scott 108 No registration required. Go to the Faculty Open Lab page for more information.
Developing and Sustaining a Culturally Responsive Environment Marla McGhee
College of Education Koehler Center Fellow for Student Engagement
“I understand,” Cory called out. “I finally get him!” The graduate student in one of my educational leadership courses was referring to her husband. Cory, an Anglo married to a Latino, had been studying concepts of culture in the course and exploring the varied worldviews of self and others. What Cory had grasped were real world examples of the cultural concept of collectivism. When I probed more specifically about what she meant, she shared, “I understand why my husband gave our lawn mower to his brother—if it belongs to one of us, it belongs to all of us. I also see why, when we invite one family member to dinner, often everyone comes over!” Reflecting on this incident reminds me that students come to my classroom steeped in worldviews shaped by diverse personal and family cultures, rituals, and traditions. When I have failed to reach or fully engage a learner, it is often because I have not been culturally responsive to his or her needs. The lenses our learners use to examine and make sense of the world are ever present. And while part of my role as an academic is to orient students to higher education and our rigorous instructional expectations, I do not expect the students to do all of the adapting; I, too, have made pedagogical and curricular changes to reframe my teaching approaches. Below is a series of questions I ask myself when planning syllabi, materials and
resources, activities, and assessments to see if I am tending my courses and my students in responsive ways. 1. In addition to independent tasks and assignments, am I offering opportunities for group work or collaboration across the arch of the semester? While independent instructional assignments let me monitor and measure individual performance and achievement against a common set of standards, collaborative and cooperative tasks emphasize and value interdependence, shared responsibility, and the importance of belonging to a community (Hofestede). Moreover, using group or team tasks allows students to learn from and with one another and helps to balance individual initiative and achievement, so commonly prized in most academic settings. 2. Besides lively, real-time oral exchanges in the classroom, am I engaging students with diverse communication patterns and offering a variety of ways to share ideas so that some voices will not be privileged over others? Most educators have experienced it—classrooms where some students consistently dominate the discourse while others remain quiet or seldom speak up. In addition to establishing routines or structured procedures for oral exchange or expressing ideas, using strategies such as small group discussions, quick writes, admit and exit slips, journaling, threaded discussions, social media, and blogs can provide opportunities for all voices to be heard and myriad ideas acknowledged. 3. When selecting readings or planning for guest speakers or expert panels, am I enlisting a variety of viewpoints? Am I making certain students have the opportunity to engage with richly diverse sources, perspectives, and experiences? When I am more intentional and purposeful about having students explore diverse sources and interact with individuals who have unique perspectives, in my
Center Fellows Workshop with Marla McGhee:
Waking up White: Examining White Privilege in a “Book Club” Context Thursday, April 21, 2016 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Smith Hall, Room 104A While we’ve become accustomed to hearing terms like “multiculturalism” and “diversity,” rarely do we openly discuss whiteness or white privilege and how these factors impact our lives and the lives of others. In Debby Irving’s recent book, Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, she explores the racial tensions she experienced for much of her life in both personal and professional relationships and shares her journey of white awareness and the shift in her worldview. This session will involve reading Irving’s text during the spring semester and will culminate in an April 21st book study roundtable. Through participation in this activity, we should gain insight on how such factors impact engagement, interactions, and relationships with our students and our colleagues. The first 15 participants who register for the April session will be provided with a complimentary copy of the text. Light refreshments will be served.
Register for this workshop. experience, learning is enhanced. When students grapple with notions that challenge their long held paradigms, they may begin to shift perspective more readily. And, for students who often find themselves at the margins, they may see individuals and hear ideas that resonate more fully with them and align with their perspectives.
To improve cultural responsiveness, we must understand how cultural identity is nested in various aspects of education such as how our classrooms operate, what instructional materials we use, and what is truly valued in the academic environment (Nelson and Guerra 90). When we begin to ask ourselves critical questions and reshape our practices accordingly, we will engage our learners more fully and accomplish the richness of teaching and learning we sincerely desire. Works Cited Hofstede, Geert. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Nelson, Sarah and Patricia Guerra. “Educator beliefs and cultural knowledge: Implications for school improvement efforts.” Educational Administration Quarterly. 50.1 (2014): 67-95.
Active Learning Strategies in a Classroom of Any Size Clark Jones
Department of Biology
The time for a traditional classroom setting where an instructor disseminates knowledge standing at a podium in front of a class is gone. In that setting students arrive to class unprepared, they passively listen, frantically take notes, watch the clock tick, sometimes doze off, and leave the lecture to read and memorize their notes as their exam approaches. The same pattern repeats itself for each subsequent lecture. So what is the problem with this classroom approach? In my opinion: absolutely everything.
I find when students come prepared to class and are engaged in the conversation with both the instructor and fellow classmates, the best learning takes place. This type of approach is called Active Learning. In my classroom, I have students come prepared to class to participate individually or in a small group, engaging in activities such as group discussions, case studies, writing, problem solving, and presentations. This method promotes analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and application of the course content and enhances their communication skills and learning. I teach class sizes ranging from 17 students to 130 students, and have found great success with this approach in both settings. How can faculty implement an active learning environment into their course? I will discuss how pre-class preparation and in-class participation can improve student learning. In order for an active learning environment to be successful, the students must come prepared to class. I have students complete a reading assignment, take their own notes, and complete an online homework assignment, all due before 11:59 PM the night before class. I find that giving students a solid deadline for completing their preclass assignments ensures students have managed their time to prepare and get some rest before my 8:00 am class. So how do you know students have prepared to contribute in the classroom discussion? I use a number of strategies including iClickers, grading rubrics, and oral exams in the class to assess student learning. Each day I start out with a brief lecture announcement to make sure the students know what pre-class work is required for the next class time. I immediately begin the class with iClicker questions to assess how each individual student has prepared for class. iClickers engage all students by asking them to respond to questions about the course content
Developing Grading Rubrics Tuesday, February 16, 2016 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Smith Hall, Room 104A Rubrics can be valuable tools for teaching and learning. They can help instructors identify priorities in assignments, help students identify learning outcomes in those same assignments, and make grading easier (and faster!). Join us for this hands-on workshop to discuss the pros and cons of using rubrics, examine different types of rubrics, and begin the process of developing rubrics for your own courses.
Register for this workshop. and allow assessment of knowledge by drawing on the pre-class reading and homework assignments. I receive immediate feedback about student comprehension based on watching the percentage of correct responses from the students. If the majority of students answer correctly, I show the correct answer and move on to other questions. However, if student comprehension is low, then instead of explaining the answer, I have students work in their preassigned groups to discuss the question. That time to discuss the question can range from a minute or longer depending on the complexity of the question being asked. I then stop the discussion and have the students respond individually again to the same iClicker question. If the comprehension is still low, I will discuss the topic in more detail. One class period students responded to a multiple choice question and the response rate was about 25% for each of the possible answers. After group discussion, the response rate to the correct answer was 92%. iClicker grading is based on participation and correct answers to content
questions. Students receive immediate feedback and from my viewpoint, it is amazing to watch the learning and comprehension taking place. I also infuse group discussions on questions and case studies followed by asking individuals to verbally discuss their answers. I will ask questions to one group or randomly walk around asking different students to answer the initial question or follow up questions that I pose. I ask that students speak loud and clearly so that everyone in the classroom can hear and learn from the conversation. This really improves student communication skills and challenges their ability to critically think and connect topics. I also use grading rubrics to have students assess their individual and group work. Grading rubrics help instructors assess student engagement, help students understand expectations and identify learning outcomes, and definitely make grading easier and faster. Students oftentimes think they are performing at higher levels of learning than they actually are. In combination with the iClicker participation and content grades and the self-assessment rubrics, faculty can guide the students’ perception of performance by showing them actual performance data to support their self-assessment. After each major lecture exam I reassign the groups based on upon overall course grades to ensure each group has a combination of academically strong to weaker students. Group diversity facilitates collaborative peer learning. Stronger students become teachers and weaker students get exposed to different learning styles and strategies. All students gain confidence and improve their learning as they feel comfortable and supported by their peers. As a culmination to a rigorous semester of learning, I give an oral final exam. Most students take finals and never get any feedback on their semester of learning. I begin
my final exam with an individual written component. Then students are asked to get together with their groups and discuss questions or work through case studies on selected topics. Depending on the size of the classroom, individual students or groups are verbally asked questions. Again, I ask that students communicate clearly so that all students are part of the conversation. Students are asked to assess themselves and their group using a grading rubric. Students leave the final excited and invigorated by the experience. I have found an oral final exam has been a great learning assessment opportunity, a chance for the students to connect all of the topics covered over the semester, and a celebration of a semester of rigorous work by the students.
Taking a Deep Dive into Teaching with Twitter Tracey Rockett
Department of Management, Entrepreneurship, and Leadership Koehler Center Fellow for Distance Education
Twitter has many uses in the classroom. A quick Google search on the topic of using Twitter in the classroom yields millions of hits, ranging from an article by the National Education Administration to an article in the Atlantic Monthly. These, and other, sites suggest that Twitter is not just a fad and that it has a variety of uses, from simple to complex. Twitter is a microblogging tool that is also a social networking site. When used in a classroom setting, this
means registered students can tweet, follow, and respond to anyone else who is publicly listed on the site. It is a great way to help students form concise thoughts since users are limited to 140 characters when tweeting.
If you have tried some of this and you are looking for a way to create interactivity and community using Twitter, there are a variety of ways to do this. Some of the most popular ways are:
If you are interested in trying Twitter out, the best way to start is to register and follow some people you are interested in. Registration is free and easy. Create a personal learning community of educators and institutions that you are interested in getting updates from. Some quick and easy ways to get started using Twitter include:
• Open up the class discussion (works well with introverts and large classes). Encourage students to reply directly to you and one another on topics you discussed in class.
• Use as a virtual bulletin board and post general updates and/or announcements about class. • Tweet information in advance of class to get students thinking and the conversation started. • Tweet and retweet materials (with links) that relate to class topics, like supplemental websites, articles, and videos. All of the above ideas are somewhat passive—that is, you post and students read. If you want to get more interactive and create opportunities for student engagement (with you or with each other) here are a few ideas: • Tweet material that will be later used as quiz/exam questions. • Allow students to tweet questions about class. • Ask students to tweet about the class discussion. • Have students write a summary of class that day.
• Connect classrooms (your own or with other faculty). • Create a “real-world assignment.” Students have to find articles or videos that connect to class materials and tweet on a few of them with links to the source material. You can also have them further build community by responding to several tweets of classmates.
Center Fellows Workshop with Tracey Rockett:
Creating Community and Engagement in an Online Environment Monday, February 22, 2016 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Smith Hall, Room 104A This workshop focuses on strategies and tools for connecting with students and creating an active learning environment online. Topics will range from best practices for managing and assessing discussion boards to incorporating innovative online tools. Anyone who uses online components in their classes will find some useful tips and ideas that they can apply immediately. Light refreshments will be served.
Register for this workshop.
I have been using Twitter in the classroom for four years now and the question that I get the most often is about how I manage keeping track of the tweets. First, I want to say that this does not have to create more work for you. On the contrary, it can lessen your workload if you are reading several 140 character tweets instead of several one-page papers per student. Second, even though it seems like it might not be a challenging assignment for students, I have found that students struggle in the beginning with the limits since it is hard to communicate in 140 characters. The character limit forces students to think about what is really important, and I have found that when I take the focus off of how many pages they have to write, they produce really thoughtful work. I do have a few tips to make managing Twitter easier. First, create a unique hashtag for your so students (and you) can find tweets easily. A hashtag is a “label” that allows users to filter and search so that you don’t have to read every tweet in your Twitter feed when you are grading. The hashtag needs to be unique, so when you are creating it, you might just search for it first to make sure it isn’t in use. I generally create hashtag that has my class abbreviation and TCU—something like #hrtcu. Every time they tweet, they are asked to add the hashtag at the end so that I can search for them. Note, the hashtag does count against the character limit, so make it as short as possible. Next, they have to create a public account (or change their settings to public) for you to be able to view their tweets. If students don’t have an account, or don’t want me to see what else they are tweeting (these are college students, so some of their tweets are NSFW!), you can suggest they create a course specific account like HR_lastname to keep things separate. If you are tweeting a lot as part of the class discussion and/ or grading their tweets, you should strongly consider using a Twitter management tool. There are a variety of tools
available that will help you plan your tweets and organize the tweets of your students. One of advantages of the tools is that they allow you to plan your tweets in advance and set release times/dates. So, you can sit down on Monday and set up all of your tweets for the week. They have builtin link shorteners which free up more characters for tweets and they have built-in search functionality. The biggest perk of using the Twitter management tools is that they allow you to create and manage groups – which is especially useful if you have several different classes running. I generally try to sit down every weekend and catch up on grading the tweets. I signal to students that a tweet has been read by “liking” it and I update my grading spreadsheet at that time. I also have students reply to one another and I also grade those by liking and adding to my spreadsheet. If I see a great tweet, I will reply and/or retweet. The two most popular tools for Twitter management are TweetDeck and Hootsuite. Both have free versions available. I started out using Hootsuite but moved to Tweetdeck and find it much more user friendly for educational uses. Some of the key advantages of TweetDeck include an intuitive interface, ease in setting up groups and total integration with Twitter (Twitter now owns it). The downside is that it doesn’t have a mobile app, but is available as a desktop app. Further, it cannot integrate with other social media, so if you are currently using other tools like Facebook or Wordpress in your classroom, then Hootsuite might work better for you. I believe that Twitter is a fun and easy tool to use to extend the class discussion and hope that you are convinced! If you have any questions, want more information, or just want to connect please follow me on Twitter @TraceyRockett or email me at t.rockett@tcu.edu.