TDU Talk
Issue 3 – December 2014
Amanda Lowry
AProf Winnie Crombie
Brydget Tulloch
AProf David Bainbridge
Dr Heather Connolly
Dr Joseph Lane
Dr Ryan Ko
Judith Mills
Prof Alison McIntosh
Sue Wardill
Celebrating Teaching
with the winners of the 2014 Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards
1
The Teaching Development Unit presents
Celebrating Teaching Day
Guest Presenters
We invite you to join us as we
celebrate teaching excellence with
a morning of inspiring presentations
AProf Winifred Crombie,
School of Maori and
Pacific Development
by the winners, both current and
previous, of Faculty Teaching
Excellence Award. Presenters will
share their teaching philosophy
Dr Heather Connolly,
Lecturer, Strategy and
HR Management, Waikato
Management School
and practice.
Date:
Monday, 1 December 2014
Time:
9:30am to 12:30pm
Venue:
The Upstairs Lounge,
Dr Alison Campbell,
Senior Lecturer, Biological
Sciences, Faculty of
Science and Engineering
Gallagher Academy
of Performing Arts
Register on www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/events
or contact Lissa Smith extension 4839 e-mail [email protected] by 28 November 2014
There’s no stopping you
E kore e taea te aukati i a koe
2
For more information contact www.waikato.ac.nz
CONTENTS
Editorial Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards:
Dorothy Spiller
Senior Lecturer, Tertiary Teaching and Learning
Teaching Development Unit
TDU congratulates the 2014 winners
Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning
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Teaching Development Summer Workshops February 2015
13
Online Evaluations and Boosting Response Rates 14
If You Have Been... Thanks for Listening
AProf Winifred Crombie
School of Maori and Pacific Development5
Building a Foundation for Enhanced
Student Learning Through Concept Maps
Dr Heather Connolly
Lecturer, Strategy and HR Management
Waikato Management School7
Lifelong Learning and Chocolate Fish
Judith Mills
Lecturer, Maths, Science and Technology Education
Faculty of Education 10
3
12
EDITORIAL Kia ora koutou
Best wishes
Welcome to the final edition of TDU talk for 2014. It is a good moment to reflect on
the year’s achievements and to reimagine the way we do things in all aspects of our
academic life. We hope that when you reflect on your teaching and plan for the next
year, you will be inspired by some of the teaching and learning approaches that we
feature in this edition. It has become a tradition to dedicate our final TDU Talk of the
year to celebrating award-winning teachers at the University of Waikato. It is a great
opportunity to honour their commitment and dedication to their students but also to
disseminate ideas about effective teaching and learning practices.
The award winners that we feature in this magazine come from a variety of academic
disciplines and are at different stages in their academic careers. The winner of the
award in SMPD in 2014 is Associate Professor Winnie Crombie who gives us a glimpse
of the evolution of some of her core educational beliefs and approaches to practice. Some of these values involve challenging students
to question their assumptions and values and lead them to explore their thinking through hands-on, creative and playful activities.
The course The Myth Busters (Tika 360) with the theme song of “You don’t impress me much” aptly sums up Winnie’s approach and
her determination to develop students who question their world. We would also like to take this opportunity to honour Winnie for her
contribution to language education both internationally and in New Zealand.
Another contributor to student education who we feature in this magazine is Dr. Heather Connolly one of the award winning teachers
in WMS this year. While relatively early on in her academic career Heather is well known for the energy and enthusiasm that she
brings to her teaching, not least in her very large first year compulsory Management class. If you have, by any chance, encountered
a stray zombie or escaped zoo animals on the campus or seen paper aeroplanes whizzing through PWC, you will know that one of
Heather’s classes is under way. In addition to the fun, Heather is continually thinking about ways to enhance the learning experience
of her students, always particularly challenging in a large introductory class. This year, one of her particular goals was to assist the
students to organise their learning and to start building relationships and connections between different ideas. The ability to see
patterns and connections is a higher order skill that essential to meaningful academic inquiry, but one which academics assume will
just happen. Heather’s article describes the implementation of concept maps to help students to build relationships between ideas and
articulate these relationships. Importantly, as she explains, the process of using concept maps was not implemented in a piecemeal
way but integrated into all aspects of the students’ learning experiences.
Winnie’s article refers to the importance of play in learning and it should be apparent that play is also a feature of the learning
experiences that Heather designs for her learners. This playfulness is also evident in the very different teaching context in which
Judith Mills teaches, the development of Mathematics educators. When I think back to my own agonising experiences of learning
Mathematics at school it was anything but fun. It was about grinding through exercises and completely disassociated from life. This
bleak Mathematics learning is in stark contrast with Judith’s philosophy and the way in which she makes Mathematics learning and
teaching come to life in her classrooms. Like Heather, Judith is driven by a wish to enable students to make connections and to give
her teacher educators the strategies do achieve these goals with their young learners. Hopefully, the next generation of young people
who are taught by teachers who have been inspired by Judith will not be bedevilled by Mathematics anxiety but instead associate it
with fun and see its value in all aspects of life.
These are only few instances of effective teaching practices at the University of Waikato in the year 2014 that we hope inspire others
in setting their goals for the coming year. The team at the TDU would like to thank all the academic staff who have contributed to the
TDU over the past year. We wish you all a great summer break and a happy new year.
Dorothy and the TDU team
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IF YOU HAVE BEEN... THANKS FOR
LISTENING
by Associate Professor Winifred Crombie, School of Maori and Pacific Development
At school in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s, I was initiated into an educational system at the core
of which were rote learning and punishment. The tawse, a pronged leather strap, was often on display
on teachers’ desks to remind pupils of the penalties associated with failing spelling or arithmetic tests
or asking too many questions. The boredom, misery and frequent humiliation of school days were not
left behind when I became a student at the University of Edinburgh. There were no course outlines of
the detailed type we now take for granted. There were no generally agreed achievement objectives. The
competition for library books was fierce and often unsuccessful. Laboriously hand written assignments
were returned, often months after they were submitted, with nothing more than a mark at the end
or, occasionally, covered in comments in red ink that were difficult, sometimes impossible to read. The
content of examinations was unpredictable, with topics raised in passing in lectures often featuring
prominently. Failure to meet the expected standard – whatever that might be – was an ever-present
possibility. In spite of all of this, I was excited by much of what I read and heard and I managed,
somehow, to survive the ordeal. And I had had an important lesson in teaching and learning - one that took some time to appreciate
fully.
After graduating and moving to an industrial city in the south of England, I began my first real job - teaching English language
and literature at a further education college. I also volunteered to teach English to new migrant women in their own homes in the
evenings. While I was trying, and generally failing, to find effective ways of teaching English to these women, they were quietly
and unobtrusively teaching me to cook delicious Indian dishes, to make my own clothes and to manage a budget wisely. My first
attempt at Indian cookery was met with applause - and a suggestion, conveyed by holding a jar of spice upside down and shaking
it, that more coriander could be added next time. Although I was not aware of it at the time, my education in effective teaching had
begun. I had had personal experience of the value of modelling, clear objectives setting, hands-on activities, group participation, and
praise tempered by appropriate advice. Even so, in my daytime job, I went on doing what I was already doing – spending many hours
preparing lectures, writing them out laboriously by hand, reading the written scripts to the students (very quickly if I thought I might
not get through everything before the end of a class) and then starting all over again. I should have remembered the catchphrase with
which John Ebdon always ended the U.K. radio programme he hosted for 26 years: If you have been, thanks for listening.
In the mid-1970s, I began my first full-time teaching job – teaching English language, literature and linguistics in the Humanities
Department of a polytechnic in the south of England. Most of the staff were young (or, in some cases, young at heart), enthusiastic,
energetic and eager to try out new ideas and learn from one another. We began to have weekly informal gatherings where we talked
about the things that particularly worried or interested us about our work. At these meetings, I first encountered some of the ideas
of John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and Paulo Freire. I thought it must be exciting to work in a context in which all of these ideas were directly
relevant. Then we started working together to design a range of new degree programmes and I gradually began to realize that I already did.
We decided that all of the students should take an
introductory course in the History of Ideas and that the
same topics should be explored in different ways in each of
the different subject areas. The topics for the first year were
certainty, power and persuasion. I designed a group of courses:
Language and the Law; Language and Advertising; Language
and Politics and, lastly, Language, Power and Control. The
students brought to class the texts they wanted to analyse
(e.g. magazine advertisements) and we worked on them
together. In the final course, they were encouraged to revisit
Aristotle’s Poetics and Rhetoric (to which they had been
introduced in the History of Ideas course) in the light of some
of the things they had discovered in analyzing texts. One
of the students handed me an assignment about perfume
advertising which she had entitled On the Scent of Persuasion.
She was applying, rather than simply recounting, what she had
5
learned about the power of metaphor and ambiguity. My anxieties about whether our approach to course and programme design would
actually work began to disappear.
A developing interest in incorporating play, music and verse into classroom activities was reinforced when I first read a book called
Homo Ludens (Man at Play) by Johan Huizinga which was first published in 1938. Two extracts from that book are printed below:
For many years the conviction has grown upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play. . . . [Law] and order,
commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play (Foreword).
Wherever there is a catch-word ending in -ism we are hot on the tracks of a play-community. (p. 203)
As an example of my current approach, I refer here to a course which I developed in collaboration with a colleague (Hēmi Whaanga,
one of my former PhD students).
TIKA 360: The Myth Busters - Debunking Myths about Māori
This 300 level course is offered through the School of Māori and Pacific Development. Its theme song is That don’t impress me much
by Shania Twain. The course is a multi-disciplinary one underpinned, in particular, by critical discourse theory and analysis. Students
explore and critique some of the stereotypes of Māori that are widely articulated (e.g. Māori are genetically predisposed to violence),
some beliefs about Māori-related issues that are widely held (e.g. Treaty-based settlements are unfair to non-Māori – a waste of
taxpayers’ money) and some of the mantras that are employed in order to justify maintenance of the status quo (for example, one
law for all). The course was first offered around the time of the 2011 general election and we had easy access to interviews in which
politicians discussed their views on a range of social issues. We analysed a number of these in relation to the course themes. Along the
way, the students became familiar with the main policies of a number of different political parties and discussed MMP in the context
of different perspectives on democracy. They also became familiar with some of the ideas
of thinkers whose works have contributed to the development of critical discourse theory
(such as Foucault and Althusser) – without, I think, realising that these ideas are often
considered to be particularly difficult to understand. It was not, however, until near the end of
the course that there was any explicit discussion of critical discourse theory and analysis.
The first time this course ran, the assignments involved writing short newspaper and
magazine articles or letters to newspaper editors about issues raised during the election
campaign that related to topics introduced in class (e.g. child poverty). Another assignment
involved taking part (in groups) in a debate in which each student played the role of an
interviewer or a representative of one of New Zealand’s political parties – National; Act;
Labour; Mana; Maori and
Green. The debate was held
in one of the university’s
lecture theatres and was
open to members of the university community and whānau. Each
student was provided with a podium which, except in the case of the
interviewers, was labelled with the name of the political party they
represented. The students, having practiced in class, had an opportunity
to demonstrate not only their understanding of Party policies, but,
more importantly in terms of one of the achievement objectives of
the course, what they had learned about presenting and defending a
particular point of view orally.
Over the years, my beliefs about teaching and learning have evolved
but I always refer back to what I learned – the good and the bad – in
my early years as a teacher. I try to make sure that the courses I teach
are socially and politically embedded, that learning relates directly to
the prior experiences of the students and that theoretical discussion
arises out of supported hands-on activities and problem solving. I try to
design assignments that reflect the types of activity in which students
are likely to engage (or might usefully be encouraged to engage) in their
working lives or in exercising ‘responsible citizenship’. I don’t always
succeed.
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BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR ENHANCED
STUDENT LEARNING THROUGH CONCEPT
MAPS
by Dr Heather J Connolly, Lecturer, Waikato Management School - Strategy & HR
Management
“Meaningful learning can be facilitated through teaching but ultimately the making of new
meaning is a personal endeavour.”
(Hay & Kinchin, 2008, p.180)
How a student organises their knowledge has a profound effect on their learning (Ambrose et al.,
2010) and often as teachers we fail to appreciate this. After teaching a first year management paper for a number of semesters,
I began to recognise that students were having great difficulty in linking concepts and ideas together in a meaningful manner. I
struggled to comprehend how linkages, which I regarded as quite simple, were not being forged by students. I must admit that this
did frustrate me and no matter what technique I used in the lecture environment to simplify concepts to a level that I considered
would be acceptable for learning, the results from assignments and exams still showed substantial knowledge disconnection. What
could be happening?
Research has shown that the novice learner has a tendency to build superficial versus meaningful knowledge structures and this
can affect their ability to use what they have learnt effectively (Chi & VanLehn, 1991). If students have limited connections in their
knowledge network, it is suggested that when they have to retrieve knowledge, possibly in assessment tasks, they will be slower
and it may be more difficult (Bradshaw & Anderson, 1982). Further, prior knowledge and learning has a significant influence on the
quality of the learner’s knowledge organisation (Ambrose et al., 2010), and appreciating the patterns of knowing used by students
can allow educators to create environments that empower student learning (Magolda, 1999). Given this, I was left pondering the
question:
How could I assist students to integrate new concepts and create more meaningful knowledge connections?
Based on the work of Novak and colleagues (Novak & Gowin, 1984, Bascones & Novak, 1985; Novak, 1998; Novak & Canas, 2008),
and also grounded in the earlier work of Ausubel (1963; 1968), I came across the tool of concept mapping, a “schematic device for
representing a set of concept meanings embedded in a framework of propositions” (Novak & Gowin, 1984, p.15). Research has
shown that concept maps have been used successfully to foster meaningful learning in a number of educational settings (Abel &
Freeze, 2006; Hay & Kinchin, 2008; Rendas, Fonsceca & Pinto, 2006) and that meaningful learning requires linking of new concepts to
existing knowledge (Mass & Leauby, 2005).
On a mission to improve the learnings of my students I carefully redesigned my first year course to integrate concept mapping into
all aspects of learning from delivery of lecture and tutorials through to alignment with assessment and the final exam. The outcome
was astonishing.
I designed each class to begin with a declarative question of the day; concept
maps start with a question and the more focused this is the stronger
the quality of the resulting concept map (Derbentseva et al., 2006). For
example, in the first class the question was ‘what is management?’ Students
discussed the question in groups, sharing with their peers and creating new
knowledge. Then, I brought the whole class together and recorded their ideas
on the document camera. Before I could begin to supplement this with
new concepts and knowledge (Hay & Kinchin, 2008), and in order to ensure
meaningful learning takes place, it was necessary for me to understand the
prior knowledge that students brought to the learning space (Novak, 1998).
Therefore, as we discussed new material during the session I continuously
related it back to the prior articulated knowledge of the students on the
document camera. The tutorial after the lecture also used the same material
from the document camera supporting student’s interconnection of new
7
knowledge and learning back to their prior knowledge base. The first two weeks ran with this structure so that students could become
comfortable with the facilitating strategies I was using in the learning space.
In the third week I took the question of the day to the next stage with creation of a concept map with students during the lecture.
After introducing what concept maps were to the class, I provided students with a ‘parking lot’ of concepts, some of which they had
come up with during their group discussion on the question of the day. To assist students I also supplied a list of appropriate linking
propositions, e.g. ‘can be explained by’, ‘involves’, ‘influenced by’. In groups students were set the task of creating a concept map for
the question, starting with the more generic concepts in the ‘parking lot’ and moving through to the more specific ones and even
adding their own. After consolidating the group concept maps into an overall agreed class concept map, I discussed how concept
maps can be developed in groups, even though they are also very meaningful when done individually. Students continued to work with
concept maps both individually and in groups in subsequent lectures and tutorials and received effective feedback, scaffolding the
learning process and developing their confidence in using the tool to assist with learning.
Assessment for learning in the course included the use of concept maps in both individual and group assignments. Boxtel et al.
(2002) found that collaborative concept mapping resulted in significant learning gains, as it encouraged verbalisation and discussion. I
included a concept mapping task to supplement an assignment were students were asked in groups to write a formal report on a set
case analysis. In previous years there had been inconsistencies in student learning, specifically around knowing what concepts could
relevantly be applied to a case and how concepts are interrelated. By getting students to first draw a concept map, the content of
their reports and the application of the relevant concepts to the case was considerably improved. Concept mapping also recognises the
individuality in learning and allows for the quality of learning to be seen for what it is (Hay & Kinchin, 2008). The active engagement
that the learner develops in creating a concept map leads to greater learning (Twardy, 2004), and allows students to acquire a feeling
of control over the subject matter (Bascones & Novak, 1985; Novak, 1998). Almost all students commented in their individual
assignment that the skill developed from applying concept mapping had helped them make more meaningful connections between
the concepts taught. One student noted:
The concept map definitely benefits the creator the most, because I understood the thought-processes between the
different boxes and can recall where everything is. This reinforces the idea that concept maps are very unique to each
person that makes them.
Evidence from final exam grades, a 20% improvement in the pass rate compared to the semester before, also showed improved
student learning. The only change in the final exam structure was to replace one case-based essay question with a concept map and
short discussion. I purposefully designed the concept map question to be ‘what is management’, as I wanted students to graphically
show their understanding of the interconnections of concepts and theories that had been taught throughout the paper. One tutor
commented:
If students had been given an essay question on – what is
management – they would not be able to articulate as much as
they could through drawing a concept map. The concept maps
in the exam are showing that there is greater understanding and
linkage of concepts. Even if a student had said that they were not
‘a visual learner’ and that concept maps were not for them, the
exam is showing that the tool is really helping students appreciate
and articulate their knowledge. What we are getting is a way [to
observe and ensure] better appreciation of student knowledge and
understanding.
The learning that was gained from the initiative of incorporating concept
maps into the design, delivery and assessment of the course was two-fold.
First, concept mapping provided students with a tool to assist them in
organising and managing the new knowledge being taught, connecting it
to their prior knowledge in a meaningful manner. This improved student
learning in the course, but additionally students gain a tool and skill that
they can continue to use to support future learning. In an email a student
commented: “By the way, I used the concept map method to study for my
marketing test. It made linking concepts and understanding a lot easier.”
The second aspect of learning from concept mapping is more personal
to me as a teacher. I am more aware of the importance of the prior
knowledge that students bring to the learning space and that to create
meaningful learning, and that I need to understand and build upon the
foundation that has already been laid.
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REFERENCES
Abel, W., & Freeze, M. (2006). Evaluation of concept mapping in an associate degree nursing programme. Journal Nurse Education,
45(9), 356-364.
Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., & Norman, M.K. (2010). How Learning Works: 7 research-based principles for
smart teaching. San Francisco: CA, Jossey-Bass.
Ausubel, D.P, (1963). The psychology of meaningful verbal learning. New York: Grune and Stratton
Ausubel, D.P, (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Bascones, J. & Novak, J.D. (1985). Alternative instructional systems and the development of problem solving skills in physics.
European Journal of Science Education, 7(3), 353-261.
Boxtel, C.V., Linden, JV., Roelofs, E., & Erkens, G. (2002). Collaborative concept mapping: Provoking and supporting meaningful
discourse, Theory into Practice, 41(1) 40-46.
Bradshaw, G.L. & Anderson, J.R. (1982) Elaborative encoding as an explanation of levels of processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and
Verbal Behavior, 21, 165-174.
Chi, M.T.H., & VanLehn, K. (1991). The content of physics self-explanations. Journal of the learning sciences, 1, 69-105.
Derbentseva, N., Safayeni, F., & Canas, A.J. (2006). Concept maps: Experiments on dynamic thinking, Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 44(3), 448-465.
Hay, D., & Kinchin, I. (2008). Using concept mapping to measure learning quality. Education + Training, 50(2), 167-182.
Magolda, M.B. (2010). The interweaving of epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development in the evolution of selfauthorship. In M.B. Magolda, E.F. Creamer and P.S. Meszaros (Eds.), Development and Assessment of Self-Authorship (pp. 25-43).
Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Mass, J., & Leauby, B.A. (2005). Concept mapping: Exploring its value as a meaningful learning tool in accounting education. Global
Perspectives of Accounting Education, 2, 75-98.
Novak, J.D. (1998). Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge: Concept maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations, Lawrence
Erlbaum, Mahwah, HJ and London.
Novak, J.D., & Canas, A.J. (2008). The Theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC
CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 2008.
Retrieved from http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf
Novak., J.D. & Gowin, D.B. (1984). Learning how to learn. Sydney, AU: Cambridge University Press.
Rendas, A., Fonsceca., M., & Pinto, P. (2006). Towards meaningful learning in undergraduate medical education using concept maps in a
PBL pathophysiology course. Advanced Physiology Education, 30, 23-29.
Twardy, C. (2004). Argument maps improve critical thinking, Teaching Philosophy, 27(2), 95-116.
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LIFELONG LEARNING AND CHOCOLATE
FISH
by Judith Mills, Lecturer, Faculty of Education - Mathematics Education
When I had my interview for my current role as a mathematics education lecturer I was asked to say
briefly what my philosophy of education was. “Oh that’s easy”, I answered. “Life.” Quite possibly not
the most academic of replies, and I am sure (by the silence in the room) not the expected response.
However, if a philosophy of education is a reflective statement of my beliefs about teaching and learning,
and I had to describe it briefly, what better way to sum it up than to say life. Maybe I needed to expand
on this I thought, so I said, “Life is learning and learning is life.” Still there was silence in the room. I had a
quick conversation with my inner self: “Judith, you do want this job, so maybe you better explain yourself
here.” And so I espoused my theory on the philosophy of education. I’m not sure about the impact this
all had in my interview, but I got the job! I only hope it allowed the interviewers to gain insight into the
person I am, and some of the ideals I hold about life and the impact they have on my teaching and learning. I believe it is very difficult
to separate my personal values and beliefs from my professional practice, and both of these are inextricably linked in my general
philosophy of education.
At the forefront of all the papers I teach is the notion of ‘making connections’ and ‘understanding’. Thomas Sergiovanni (1990; 1992)
often referred to ‘the head, the heart, and the hand’ in terms of leadership. I refer to the head, the heart, and the hand, in terms of the
connections between the inner self and what is practised, in order for learning and understanding to occur and for it to be relevant and
connected to life. I believe that the learning needs to be exciting, ongoing, meaningful, and above all fun. These are key aspects of my
teaching.
All students participating in an education degree are required to complete two Mathematics education papers. For some this is a
daunting task, as their personal experiences of Mathematics education are ones they would prefer to forget. Students are involved in
an education system that places a significant emphasis on ‘getting it right’, ‘getting high marks’, and ‘passing’. Summative assessment
is a necessity in the tertiary sector and it is inevitable that getting the tick at the end of the course has a huge influence on the
students’ thinking. However, I work very hard to get students to focus not only on the end product (i.e. the final grade), but also on
the huge amount of learning within their papers that prepares them for teaching. Having adequate subject matter knowledge to
teach mathematics effectively is very important, and being able to communicate understanding of this knowledge is also important.
Many teachers have struggled with recent reforms in Mathematics education which allows children to take a more active part in their
leaning, and to construct their own meaningful mathematics concepts through an inquiry-based model. This means teachers today
require strong subject matter knowledge combined with effective pedagogy and this must be modelled to our students.
10
The term Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was introduced to the teaching profession by Shulman (1986). PCK is that special
amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding. One
of my hopes for my students is that they will continually be aware of the importance of PCK in their teaching. They will learn not only
‘how to do’ the mathematics, but to ‘understand’ the mathematics, so that in turn they are able to teach it with understanding. This
will ultimately allow their students to enjoy mathematics, and use it to make meaningful connections to the world in which they live. I
therefore like to share my passion and enthusiasm for mathematics, as well as for teaching and learning as a whole.
Connections must be made between mathematical concepts and for this a strong subject matter knowledge is required. It is important
to make mathematics come alive and for students to make ‘connections’ between the mathematics strategies being taught, and real
life, and what better way is there to do this than through food? I am well known for my chocolate fish and chocolate cakes. These are
often used as contextual examples for learning. Chocolate cakes of different shapes and sizes make a great context in the teaching
of mathematics, especially division or fractions, and ‘real ones’ have been known to arrive in class to demonstrate ‘equal shares’.
Chocolate fish are great rewards for those who share ideas and move out of their comfort zones, and ‘big fish’ can be compared to
‘sprats’ when looking at proportional thinking.
One of my favourite sayings comes from a well-known Māori proverb which finishes with the words “Māku e ki atu he tangata, he
tangata, he tangata.” Translated this means the most important thing on Earth is the people, the people, the people. As educators we
are fortunate to work with this most valuable resource (people), and in particular be in the luxurious position of helping to nurture
their developing minds. I really want to see good teachers of mathematics, generating students who understand the subject, and like
me have a passion for it. The phrase ‘lifelong learning’ is more than tokenism with me. As I said earlier, to me ‘life is learning, and
learning is life’. There is formal education and learning which is provided by educators at pre-school, school and the tertiary sector.
However this must be combined with life experiences gained from experiences with whānau and friends.
My wish is that one day in the future, I will meet my current students and they will remember me not only for the mathematics I
taught them, but that I also gave them a love of teaching and learning - of lifelong learning (and possibly chocolate fish).
REFERENCES
Sergiovanni, T.J. (1990). Value added leadership. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Sergiovanni, T.J. (1992). Moral Leadership: Getting to the heart of school leadership. San Francisco, US: Jossey-Bass.
Shulman, L.S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15 (2), 4-14.
11
FACULTY TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD
The Teaching Development Unit congratulates the
2014 winners of Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards
Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences
Amanda Lowry, Tutor
Social Work
Faculty of Computing and
Mathematical Sciences
AProf David Bainbridge
Computer Science
Faculty of Computing and
Mathematical Sciences
Dr Ryan Ko, Senior Lecturer
Computer Science
(also the winner of
2014 University Staff Awards Early Career Academic Excellence,
and, eLearning Excellence)
Faculty of Education
Judith Mills, Lecturer
Maths, Science, Technology
Education
Faculty of Law
Sue Wardill, Senior Tutor
Faculty of Science and
Engineering
Dr Joseph Lane, Senior Lecturer
Chemistry
Faculty of Science and
Engineering
Brydget Tulloch, Senior Tutor
Biological Sciences
(also the winner of 2014 University
Staff Awards - Teaching Excellence)
School of Maori and
Pacific Development
AProf Winifred Crombie
Waikato Management School
Prof Alison McIntosh
Tourism and Hospitality
Management
Waikato Management School
Dr Heather Connolly, Lecturer
Strategy and HR Management
(also the winner of 2014 University
Staff Awards - Teaching Excellence)
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TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT
SUMMER WORKSHOPS – FEBRUARY 2015
Date
Workshop
Facilitator/s
Monday
9 February
Tuesday
10 February
Wednesday
11 February
Monday
16 February
Tertiary Teaching: Exploring
Our Beliefs
An Introduction to Course
Design
Principles of Assessment
Dorothy Spiller
Designing Assessm ent Tasks to
Prom ote Learning
The Marking Process
Dorothy Spiller
Tuesday
17 February
Wednesday
18 February
Re search and Teaching
Maxim ising Learning in Large
Classes: The Lecture Context
Dorothy Spiller &
Arezou Zalipour
Dorothy Spiller &
Arezou Zalipour
Thursday
19 February
Be ginner’s Guide to Blended
Learning
WCeL staff
mem bers
Dorothy Spiller
Guest Academics
Dr Heather Connolly
Dorothy Spiller
Br ydget Tulloch, Sandra
Prebble & Nick Chater
Duration
Venue
9:30am –12:30pm
B.G.24
9:30am –12:30pm
B.G.24
1pm –4pm
B.G.24
9am –12pm
B.G.24
1pm –4pm
Dr Ian Hawthorn
9:30am –12:30pm
B.G.24
9:30am –12:30pm
S.1.03
9am –12pm
TL .2.27c
Fr iday
Expanding Your eLearnin g
WCeL staff
9am –12pm
TL .2.27c
20 February
Horizons
mem bers
Monday
Starter Strategies for New
Arezou Zalipour
1pm –3pm
B.G.24
23 February
Teachers
Tuesday
Evaluating Your Teaching
TDU staff m ember/s
1:30pm –3:30pm
LAW.G.02
24 February
Wednesday
Tutors’ Day: Introduction
Arezou Zalipour
9:30am –3:30pm
LAW.G.02
25 February
to Tutorin g
Thursday
The Role of Convenors:
Dorothy Spiller &
1:30pm –3:30pm
B.G.24
26 February
Supportin g Your Tutors
Arezou Zalipour
PLEASE NOTE: The workshop “ Becom ing a Reflective Practit ioner” will be offered on Wednesday, 10 June 2015 at the University of
Waikato’s Ham ilton Cam pus.
To register please contact: Lissa Smith (extn 4839) or e-mail: [email protected]
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ONLINE EVALUATIONS AND BOOSTING
RESPONSE RATES
by the Appraisals and Evaluation Team, Teaching Development Unit, Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning
THERE IS A RANGE OF PROVEN STRATEGIES THAT YOU CAN USE TO
ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO TAKE PART IN ONLINE EVALUATIONS
Discuss evaluation early in the semester. Explain to students that constructive responses are used to guide changes and improvements
to papers and teaching.
Explain to students how you have responded to evaluations in the past (it helps to provide examples in course materials and/or during
class).
Revisit the importance of evaluations at several points in the semester, as a minimum at mid-semester and again when end of semester
evaluations become available.
Reassure students that the evaluation is confidential and that particular feedback cannot be linked to any named student. Let students
know that you don’t see results until after final marks have been confirmed. That way students will know that their responses cannot
affect their marks.
Share the URL for the BLUE system with students: isg-blue.its.waikato.ac.nz/blue
Display the website details on a PowerPoint slide. There is an example of one that can be used at www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/appraisal/
summary.shtml
Announce to students the time window that your evaluation will be available. Once the evaluation window has closed, students will not
be able to evaluate your paper and teaching.
Use your class email list to remind students to complete the evaluation. The BLUE system automatically sends an initial email, and
reminder emails, to students, but it has been shown to be more effective coming directly from the course lecturers and tutors.
Draw students’ attention to the evaluation block on their Moodle homepage.
You may wish to explain that course evaluations are used in the promotion process for staff (research has shown that this has a slight
positive effect on response rates).
Set aside time for students to complete the online questionnaire during lecture time (leave the room for 10 minutes to allow for them
to complete the evaluations in your absence). Make sure that students know in advance that they will need a device such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Make sure that the room has strong Wi-Fi or book a computer lab.
Look up your response rate via the staff BLUE link and thank the X% of your students who have responded, making sure that they know
you are interested in both the response rate and hearing what they have to say.
A WEB VERSION OF THESE POINTS CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.WAIKATO.
AC.NZ/TDU/APPRAISAL/SUMMARY.SHTML
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enhance your teaching
excite and engage your learners
educate effectively
visit the
TDU
The University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton 3240
New Zealand
Website: www.waikato.ac.nz
Teaching Development Unit
Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning
Phone: +64 7 838 4839, Fax: + 64 7 838 4573
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu
©The University of Waikato, April 2014.
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