Making teaching
work
- helping tutors and students to think about
what drives successful learning
Tralee Institute
Phil Race
BSc PhD PGCE FCIPD ILTM
Assessment, Learning and Teaching Visiting Professor,
Leeds Metropolitan University
Monday, 09 October 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Welcome
™ Today, we’re following on from
yesterday’s workshop, where we looked
at factors underpinning successful
learning, and at ways of wording learning
outcomes so that students can see what
they are expected to become able to do.
™ In particular today, we’ll look at what
we can get students to do in our
sessions, and at what we do when we
teach.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Introductory post-it exercise
™ On a post-it, please write your own
completion of the starter:
“Teaching would be much better for
me if only I ….”
™ Please swap post-its so that you’ve no
idea who has yours.
™ If chosen, please read out the post-it
you now have.
™ Finally, please place them all on the
chart as directed.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Galileo
™ You cannot teach a man anything.
You can only help him to find it for
himself.
™ Women?
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
More quotes…
™
™
™
™
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only
make them think – Socrates.
The only real mistake is the one from which
we learn nothing. - John Powell
Learning is not a spectator sport. - D.
Blocher.
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to
provide the conditions in which they can learn.
Albert Einstein.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
And more…
™ The mediocre teacher tells. The good
teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher
inspires - William Arthur Ward.
™ The biggest enemy to learning is the
talking teacher. - John Holt.
™ Education is what survives when what
has been learned has been forgotten. B. F. Skinner.
™ To know yet to think that one does not
know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty. - Lao-Tzu (6th
century
B.C.)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What is ‘excellent’ teaching?
™ Who knows?
™ Students know.
™ Rate yourself against each of the
items on the next four slides:
™ Very like me;
™ Sometimes like me;
™ Not yet like me.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Excellent teaching - 1
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
I learned difficult things successfully, and the
teacher made this easier for me.
I looked forward to my next session with this
teacher.
I wanted to become more like the person this
teacher projected.
What I already knew was celebrated, built
upon, and valued.
I felt good about the learning, because I felt
good about the teacher.
I felt I could talk openly to the teacher, even
if I never did talk.
The learning was made manageable for me, a
bit at a time.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Excellent teaching - 2
™
™
™
™
™
The teacher made the targets clear, and
helped me to see what was in it for me to
reach them.
Even when in a large class, I felt I was being
responded to as an individual by this teacher.
The teacher was enthusiastic about the
subject – even passionate about it.
This teacher, when marking my work, gave me
feedback in a sensitive and caring way.
The feedback always included suggestions
about how I could build on my strengths and
bring them to bear on improving my next piece
of work.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Excellent teaching - 3
™
™
™
™
™
™
If I missed one of this teachers’ sessions, I had
really missed something, just getting the notes or
the handouts didn’t compensate for the learning
experience I missed, so I quickly made up my
mind not to miss any sessions from this teacher.
Each session with this teacher felt like a learning
experience, and not just a lecture or tutorial.
I feel ownership of the success of my learning –
at the end of the day I felt that I had done it
myself.
The learning was made relevant to me, to my
world, to my work.
I developed as a learner with this teacher,
alongside learning the subject.
I was never put down, nor allowed to feel small,
nor felt that any question I asked would be seen
as
silly or trivial – evenMaking
when
it was.
Monday, October 09, 2006
teaching work (Phil Race)
Excellent teaching - 4
™
™
™
™
™
™
I admired and respected the teacher, and
wanted to be more like this person.
The teacher seemed to care for me as a
human being, not just as a learner.
I felt that the teacher was on my side, at
those times when the learning was a struggle.
The teacher didn’t condemn me when I just
couldn’t do it.
I felt that there was a warm, personal
relationship between the teacher and myself.
I continue to want to learn more from this
teacher.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
A little more about five factors
which underpin successful learning
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Ripples on a pond….
Wanting/
Needing
Doing
Making sense
Monday, October 09, 2006
Feedback
Ripples on a pond….
Wanting/
Needing
Doing
Making sense
Monday, October 09, 2006
Feedback
Teaching?
Ripples on a pond….
Assessing?
Wanting/
Needing
Doing
Making sense
Monday, October 09, 2006
Feedback
Designing teaching to optimise learning
We can each address these five factors in our
teaching.
™ We can try to get our learners to want to
learn.
™ We can help them see the point, and take
ownership of theWanting/
need to learn.
Needing
™ We can keep them busy, learning by doing,
practice, trial and error, repetition.
™ We can help themDoing
to make sense of what they
are learning…
Digesting
™ …particularly by making sure that they get
Feedback
feedback on what
they are doing and thinking.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
And how do we measure learning?
Evidence of achievement of the intended
learning outcomes?
Learning
including
outcomes
Evidence
Assessment
Monday, October 09, 2006
Feedback
We can align our teaching, learning
outcomes, and assessment…
We can:
™
Adjust our learning outcomes so that learners want to
achieve them;
™
Use our learning outcomes to show learners exactly
what they need to achieve;
™
™
Learning
including
Formulate evidence of
achievement so that this links
outcomes
directly to the learning outcomes;
Align assessment criteria with evidence of achievement
Evidence
of the learning outcomes;
Give our learners feedback
on the extent to which the
Assessment
evidence they produce demonstrates their achievement
of the intended learning
outcomes.
Feedback
Monday, October 09, 2006
™
Beyond content
‹ In
former times, syllabus content was not even
defined, and what was taught was simply what
the teacher knew, or felt like teaching.
‹ Then, later, syllabus content was written down
as a list of subject topics, and these served as
a kind of agenda for the teaching.
‹ Assessment was left to the teacher, and was
very variable from institution to institution.
‹ Nowadays, outcomes-based education is widely
accepted as best practice.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Outcomes-based
education
‹ This
focuses on what is learned by
students, and not just on what is taught
by teachers.
‹ In outcomes-based education, the syllabus
content is specified in terms of intended
learning outcomes, and these are linked to
assessment.
‹ In other words, students are expected to
become able to demonstrate that they
have achieved the outcomes, as the basis
Monday,
09, 2006
forOctober
their
assessment.
Benefits of outcomesbased education
‹ Transferability
‹Institutions
‹Countries
‹ Open-ness
‹Students
of syllabus content to:
‹Employers
‹Government
Monday, October 09, 2006
of standards between:
agencies
Teachers still have
freedom to:
‹ Plan
how exactly students will become able to
achieve the intended learning outcomes…
‹ In class – lectures, tutorials, practicals;
‹ Out-of-class – independent study, web-based
learning, peer-group learning;
‹ Plan what students will do to demonstrate their
achievement of the intended outcomes.
‹ Allow students to demonstrate their achievement
of things they have already learned by
themselves, without having been taught.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Beyond learning styles
™
™
I believe in getting people to think about what
drives their learning (see my questionnaire and
discussion in Chapter 3 of ‘Making learning
happen’ which asks learners to decide whether
100 statements are:
™Very like me
™Often like me
™Sometimes like me
™Not-at-all like me.
Other people who get learners to think include
Neil Fleming and Alan Mortiboys.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Neil Fleming and VARK
™ Google vark-learn, and get to his (free)
website in Christchurch, New Zealand.
V Visual
A Auditory
R Read/write
K Kinaesthetic
™ In higher education in the UK we’re
much too ‘stuck’ in the read/write
domain, both in our teaching, and
(particularly) in our approaches to
assessment.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Alan Mortiboys and Emotional
Intelligence
Alan works part-time at the University of Central
England in Birmingham.
subject
Teaching
and
learning
processes
Emotional
Intelligence
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Alan Mortiboys and Emotional
Intelligence
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Emotional
Emotional Intelligence
Intelligence
™ “The capacity for recognising our
own feelings and those of others,
for motivating ourselves, and for
managing emotions well in ourselves
and in our relationships”
™ (Daniel Goleman, 1998, 2005)
Making learning happen
Susannah
Susannah Temple
Temple and
and David
David Evans
Evans
(1997)
(1997)
™ “The argument that the most
important tool an educator has is
him/herself is currently redefined in
terms of whether the teacher is an
effective technician in delivering a
predetermined curriculum. It is
rarely considered whether or not the
teacher is a powerful person in
enhancing learning and the ability to
learn”.
Making learning happen
Alan
Alan Mortiboys
Mortiboys (2005)
(2005)
Teaching with emotional intelligence means:
™ Planning for the emotional environment;
™ Planning for the physical experience of
learners;
™ Dealing with your learners’ expectations;
™ Acknowledging individual learners;
™ Listening to your learners;
™ Reading and responding to the feelings of
individuals and groups;…
Making learning happen
Alan
Alan Mortiboys
Mortiboys (2005)
(2005) cont…
cont…
Teaching with emotional intelligence means:
™ Responding to learners’ comments and
questions;
™ Developing self-awareness as a teacher;
™ Recognising your prejudices and
preferences;
™ Checking your non-verbal communication;
™ Acknowledging and handling your feelings
as a teacher;
™ Revealing your feelings
to learners.
Making learning happen
Alan
Alan Mortiboys
Mortiboys suggests:
suggests:
The use of emotional intelligence in
teaching should:
™ Be essential, not optional;
™ Be deliberate, not just intuitive;
™ Receive a greater share of our
energy than merely sharing the
subject content.
Making learning happen
Finding
Finding your
your own
own metaphor…
metaphor…
When relating to a new group of learners, decide which
metaphor is most suitable for you?
1. Law enforcer to the potentially criminal
2. Carer to the vulnerable
3. Salesperson to the potential buyer
4. Preacher to the sinful
5. Sheepdog to sheep
6. Website to surfers
7. Gardener to plants
8. Tour guide to tour bus
9. Conductor to orchestra
10. (other:
)
Making learning happen
(Adapted from Alan Mortiboys’
work).
Discussing
Discussing your
your chosen
chosen metaphor
metaphor
™ Discuss with the people sitting close to
you which metaphor you think is closest
to how you teach, and how you treat
your students.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Law enforcer to the potentially criminal
Carer to the vulnerable
Salesperson to the potential buyer
Preacher to the sinful
Sheepdog to sheep
Website to surfers
Gardener to plants
Tour guide to tour bus
Conductor to orchestra
Making learning happen
(other:
)
Please
Please add
add your
your new
new metaphors
metaphors
1. Law enforcer to the
potentially criminal
2. Carer to the vulnerable
3. Salesperson to the
potential buyer
4. Preacher to the sinful
5. Sheepdog to sheep
6. Website to surfers
7. Gardener to plants
8. Tour guide to tour bus
9. Conductor to orchestra
Your new metaphors
™ Parent to child
™ Entertainer to audience
™ Actor to audience
™ Jailer to conscripts
™ Leader to expedition
™ Production manager to
raw material
™ Consultant to client
™ Adult to adult
™ Explorer to a new country
™ Experienced friend to
nervous learner
Psychiatrist
to asylum
Making ™
learning
happen
Please
Please add
add your
your new
new metaphors
metaphors
1. Law enforcer to the
potentially criminal
2. Carer to the vulnerable
3. Salesperson to the
potential buyer
4. Preacher to the sinful
5. Sheepdog to sheep
6. Website to surfers
7. Gardener to plants
8. Tour guide to tour bus
9. Conductor to orchestra
Your new metaphors
™
Making learning happen
References
References
™ Goleman, D (2005) Emotional Intelligence London,
Bloomsbury
™ Goleman, D (1999) Working with emotional intelligence
London, Bloomsbury.
™ Mortiboys, A (2002) The emotionally intelligent lecturer
Birmingham, SEDA.
™ Mortiboys, A (2005) Teaching with emotional
intelligence London, Routledge.
™ Temple, S and Evans, D (1997) Inspirations:
Educational TA Papers Vol.1 Institute of Transactional
Analysis.
™ Zull, J E (2002) The art of changing the brain:
enriching the practice of teaching by understanding the
biology of learning Virginia: Stylus.
Making learning happen
To lecture, or not to lecture?
There’s been a lot of research proving that
‘lecturing’ does not necessarily cause learning to
happen effectively.
Yet large-group lectures continue to be the
mainstay of university teaching.
Why?
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
Creative brainstorm: why we lecture…
™ To get a lot of info across to a lot of
students?
™ To give students a framework into which they
can integrate new material?
™ To highlight what we want students to be aware
of?
™ To get them interested?
™ To pave the way towards them passing the
assessment?
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What are we trying to do?
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Offer a shared learning experience;
Inspire and motivate students;
Provide a topical/relevant gloss to our material;
Help students make sense of what they are learning;
Provide course cohesion;
Brief students about what we expect of them;
Help students to see the wood for the trees;
Tell students things.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
Some less positive reasons for
lecturing
™
™
™
™
It’s what students expect.
It’s what I’m timetabled to do.
It’s the way it’s done round here.
I haven’t time/energy/resources to do it
any other way.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
‘But I’ve got my syllabus to get
through’
™ No, you haven’t.
™ Your students have.
™ All you should do is to ‘spotlight’
well-chosen parts of the syllabus
which need a shared learning
experience, and need face-to-face
contexts.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
Sheull, T J (1986) in Biggs, J (1999)Teaching for
Quality Learning Buckingham, Open University Press
“If students are to learn desired
outcomes in a reasonably effective
manner, then the teacher’s fundamental
task is to get students to engage in
learning activities that are likely to result
in their achieving these outcomes…. It
is helpful to remember that what the
student does is actually more important
in determining what is learned than
what the teacher does”.
Monday, 09 October
2006
Making learning happen
42
Hic quad
demonstrandum
Using leisure equipment contributes to
more than 696000 hospital visits per
year, compared to only 216 visits
through using bottle openers.
Monday, 09 October
2006
Making learning happen
43
How appropriate is lecturing?
There has been an information explosion, and this
is continuing.
We are in the middle of a communications
revolution.
We no longer need to use large group sessions to
‘transmit’ information to students.
The ‘transmit-receive’ model never really worked!
‘The receiver makes the message’.
But most of the receivers are switched off.
Many of the transmitters are not too hot!
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What’s different nowadays?
™ The impact of IT in the classroom
(PowerPoint,interactive opportunities, multimedia)
™ The impact of IT outside the classroom (access to
web-based resources)
™ Changes in student expectations/ experiences
(MTV generation, paying customers, earning,
caring responsibilities)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What is very much the same?
™
™
™
™
™
Large numbers of students;
Uncomfortable/unhelpful environments;
A dependency culture;
Timeslots of 1 hour or less;
Pressure to get through the material.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What do students want?
™ A good set of notes;
™ Explanations, illumination, inspiration;
™ The chance to feel part of the collective
learning experience;
™ Opportunities to ask questions and seek
clarification.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What goes wrong? (students)
Boredom, attention deficit, alternative activities,
getting lost, getting annoyed with other
students, getting irritated by the lecturer,
sleeping, struggling to make links, finding the
material going over your head, failing to keep up
with note making, copying things down wrongly,
failing to see the point, writing down without
understanding… (you can extend this list a lot!)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
What goes wrong? (staff)
Anxiety, going too fast, going too slowly, losing
your place, forgetting where you left off last
week, interruptions from students, not knowing
answers to questions, equipment failure, external
interruptions, running out of material, getting
tongue tied… (you can extend this list too!)
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work in large groups
Working out what makes learning
happen in lectures
Let’s explore how we can maximise the learning payoff for
our students in large-group teaching contexts…
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What do students actually
do in your lectures?
™ Privately, please jot down a list of things
which your students do in your lectures.
™ Make them all
phrases.
Monday, October 09, 2006
‘…ing’ words or
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Please prepare to go into groups at
the flipcharts…
A, B, C, D,…
Then write each of the main ‘…ing’ words
or phrases on separate post-its,
plastering them randomly on the
flipcharts.
™ Next, please re-arrange your post-its in
order of ‘learning payoff’ for students, in
‘diamond-9’ formation (but you can have
more than 9).
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What students do, in order of
learning payoff …
Most productive in
students’ learning
9
8
7
6
5
3
2
1
Monday, October 09, 2006
4
Less productive
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What Tralee students to in lectures, in order
of learning payoff…
™ Thinking
™ Listening actively
™ Applying what has been taught
™ Participating
™ Enjoying
™ Questioning
™ Problem solving
™ Practising
™ Brainstorming
™ Sharing information
™ Mapping
™ Responding
™ Debating
™ Discussing
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
™ Tutoring
What Tralee students to in lectures, in order
of learning payoff…
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Challenging
Making connections
Engaging
Responding
Listening
Conceptualising
Questioning
Participating
Interacting
Presenting
Internalising
Brainstorming
Discussing
Enjoying
Monday, October 09, 2006
Laughing
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What Northumbria students to in lectures, in
order of learning payoff…
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Experiencing
Participating
Asking questions
Enjoying themselves
Questioning
Exploring
Engaging
Comparing
Thinking
Listening
Concentrating
Discussing
Debating
Critiquing
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What TCD students do, in order of learning payoff…
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
questioning
(learning)
Problem-solving
Engaging
Discussing
Listening
Thinking
Challenging
Role-playing
Debating
Monday, October 09, 2006
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
reflecting
Explaining
Interacting
Writing
Reacting
Answering
Responding
Listening actively
Evaluating
Imagining
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What students do, and factors underpinning
successful learning…
Wanting
Enthusing students, empowering them, giving
them things they enjoy doing.
Please annotate your
Giving students ownership
the need,which
showing
post-itsofshowing
them what they need
to become
able to
factors
underpinning
achieve, helping them to ‘see the point of it
successful learning are
all’.
in each
ofgiving
the
Getting them going andinvolved
keeping them
going,
students practice, learning
through
mistakes,
activities
you’ve
chosen.
Needing
Doing
repetition, avoiding logjams or blocks.
Feedback
Making
Some
activities
will have
Making sure that
students
get feedback,
more
than
oneand
offrom
D ,F,
from us, and from
each
other,
all
the rest of their
W,learning
N, M.environment,
including online. Making the feedback
Use a 3-point scale, e.g.
friendly.
Helping students to get their heads
‘WWW’
for a great
deal
round ideas
and concepts,
‘digesting’
of ‘wanting’
‘WW’
information
to add toeffect,
their knowledge,
increasing
andtheir
‘W’.understanding.
sense
Monday, October 09, 2006
Teaching to make learning happen
What students do, and factors underpinning
successful learning…
Wanting
Enthusing students, empowering them, giving
them things they enjoy doing.
Giving students ownership of the need, showing
them what they need to become able to
achieve, helping them to ‘see the point of it
all’.
Getting them going and keeping them going, giving
students practice, learning through mistakes,
repetition, avoiding logjams or blocks.
Needing
Doing
Making sure that students get feedback,
from us, and from each other, and from all
the rest of their learning environment,
including online. Making the feedback
friendly.
Helping students to get their heads
round ideas and concepts, ‘digesting’
information to add to their knowledge,
(Please use multiples
– e.g. WMMFDD and a 3-point
increasing their understanding.
Feedback
Making
sense
Monday,
October
09, 2006
scale
for
each)
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What students do…
9
6
Monday, October 09, 2006
Most productive
How well can we tell, at the
8
7 are giving
time, that these
learning payoff?
5
4
A = very
well
B
=
quite
well
3
2
C = sometimes
D = not 1really Least productive
E = not at all
(we can find out later, of course)
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What students do…
For what proportion
of the time do
students actually do
2
these things?
4
H = high proportion
M = medium
proportion 7
L = low proportion
Monday, October 09, 2006
Most productive
9
7
5
6
How well can we tell?
A = very 8well
B = quite well
C = sometimes
Least productive
9
D = not really
E = not at all
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What students do…
For what proportion
of the time do
students actually do
2
these things?
4
3 = high proportion
2 = medium
proportion 7
1 = low proportion
Monday, October 09, 2006
Most productive
9
7
5
6
How well can we tell?
5 = very 8well
4 = quite well
3 = sometimes
Least productive
9
2 = not really
1 = not at all
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
What can we do?
™ Thinking about our own experience of our best – and
worst – lecturers…
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work (Phil Race)
Things we can do to cause learning
payoff to happen …
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Being enthusiastic
Doing a variety of things
Having prepared properly
Signposting the intended learning
Setting the scene about how the learning should happen
Inspiring
Giving value-added to person who bothers to turn up
Getting feedback from students
Being accessible and approachable
Asking students questions
Making it relevant to students – personalising it
Adapting, suiting the lecture to the actual needs of the group at that
time
Being flexible…
Challenging students’ thinking
Managing the time well
Monday, October 09, 2006
Some things we can do…
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Explaining outcomes/objectives
Listening to the students
Giving them practical examples
Facilitating them working in groups
Questioning
Setting them challenges
Using their experience
Encouraging
Getting them to do things
Getting students to make individual learning plans
Providing notes
Causing them to revise
Giving feedback
Reviewing
Relating their work to the forthcoming/ongoing assignment
Entertaining
Storytelling
Monday, October 09, 2006
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
™
Things we can do to cause
learning
to
happen…
Setting the scene
Using mixed methods
Orientating and guiding
Asking students to identify issues
Stimulating interest
Encouraging participation
Facilitating processing of material
Using real examples
Questioning
Explaining
Using visually attractive material
Initiating discussion
Quizzing, testing, …
Encouraging feedback
Developing students’ study skills
Using
humour where appropriate
Monday, October 09, 2006
Back to our intended outcomes…
How well do you now feel enabled to:
(2 hands = very much better, one hand =
somewhat better, no hands = no better)
1. Address five straightforward factors which
underpin successful learning head-on in various
teaching contexts?
2. Reflect on what makes excellent teaching?
3. Find out more from your learners about what
really works for them?
Monday, October 09, 2006
Making teaching work
Action planning statements
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One thing I’m going to do is…
One idea I’m taking away is…
I’m going to think more
about…
I have found out that …
I’d like to know …
In future, I’m not going to…
Monday, 09 October 2006
Thank you…
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