Back to reflecting!

It's been a long time since I've posted but I'm making an effort this year to spend more time reflecting after teaching.  Yesterday was my first class at my new place of work and, while I'm still processing the experience, there are a number of observations that I can make right away.

First, the learners are different.  My experience with teaching as been in large, public universities.  I'm now teaching in a small, private university.  One of the main differences I saw was in how the students work together.  In my large, public university, I would start explaining the group teaching project I have my students do in class and they were already thinking as a group as I was pulling the groups together and handing out instructions.  In my small, private university, I noticed students were a bit more reluctant to do group work, much as I was in my own small private education.  In my mind, I was almost always against doing group work because I had an easier time processing on my own.  My own educational experience emphasized individual work and that's where I felt my strengths were.  I believe my students in my small, private university feel the same way.  Many of them are strong, high performers who have learned to do so through individual work.  As a result, my group project fell rather flat here.

Second, the environment is different.  I'm used to a large number of similar classes.  While I would ideally spend time planning for each class, once the 'season' hit, I would churn out session after session, knowing that each class was pretty much expected to complete the same or similar writing assignments.  Here, it seems that there is more individuation between classes, making for more prep and a variety of instruction.  I had to prepare a specialized instruction session for how to find a specific resource and that also fell flat.  I didn't build the scaffolding for learning correctly and as a result, I felt the students were confused.  It's hard to teach something specialized without a strong frame of context, otherwise it seems a little pointless from the students' point of view to perform such a specialized task.  It seems obvious now but during my prep time, I couldn't see the problem.  It was only as I was teaching that I realized my mistake. 

This isn't to say that one university is better than another.  Public and private universities both have their benefits and deficits, just like anything else.  What intrigues me the most is how much the differences in environment and learner characteristics can change how well instruction performs.  I've learned that I need to explore activities that are engaging but solitary and I need to take the time to build a logical and obvious learning scaffolding, if I want to avoid confusion.  I have two more sessions this week, so I'll tweak my exercises and instruction and see how it works.

What are some of your favorite prep activities to avoid the mistakes I've made?

How assessment is like trying to cut a square of fabric without using a ruler

Right after I wrote up my class objectives in the previous blog post, I realized that they are probably not easily measured. As I was preparing the materials for class, I wondered how I would conduct an effective assessment of whether or not the activities were a success. My first thought was to assess my orientation activities and see how I should change my objectives to be more testable. And it reminded me of the time I was trying to cut a square of fabric without using a ruler. I can't remember why I didn't just get a ruler but I do remember the outcome: failure. I just kept making a diamond, no matter how hard I tried. I need a ruler for my class objectives so that I can actually cut a square once rather than cutting slightly smaller diamonds for hours. So I went back to the drawing board. What is a learning objective, anyway? Using my trusty old Farmer, I went back to the idea of objectives as resulting in changed behavior. I also went back to basics regarding assessment. When I thought of 'assessment,' I realize that I had been actually thinking 'summative assessment,' which is actually a bit reductive. I have many assessment options before me. I could do a pre-test to determine where my learners are prior to instruction and a post-test to determine where they are when they leave the classroom. I could do a formative assessment during class in order to determine how they are developing. And dozens more. I remembered something that struck me during Immersion earlier this month: the concept of assessment as revealing a picture of learning, which can change based on how assessment is used. I could assess myself as an instructor by including how many instruction sessions I lead in a semester. Or I could draw up strategically important objectives and assess to see how I am meeting these objectives, if at all.