Reaction to Readings (Blog #11)

~*My Freshman Year*~

What was the most surprising aspect of the book, and why did it surprise you?

The aspect of the book that I felt was most surprising was Nathan’s observation of the public and private divisions allocated by the students and that academics is placed in the public domain and rarely in the private. She discovered a “…conversational boundary between course/formal time and free/informal time” (pg. 97). She stated that conversations or issues presented in class that seemed likely to spill over across the boundary to the world outside of the classroom was dropped the moment students walked out of class. It seemed to Nathan, and myself as I read, that the students simply put on a show for the professor only to leave the classroom, dropping the act, and to never, at least out loud, think about the issue again.

I found this division of class and free time surprising because it did not seem to represent my experiences as an undergraduate. Perhaps it was a unique combination of professor, classmates, and my own interests, but often if we had a very engaging debate in class, my friends and I would find ourselves continuing to discuss it after class. Although it was not always a formal discussion after class, we typically still talked about the issue and continued chattering about it and I often found myself sharing interesting issues or debates from class with my family or significant other. One possibility is that the peers I associated with and myself, fall into the “outsiders” category of students; those who value intellectual discourse, respect good grades, and have close relationships with faculty.

In light of the challenges faced by undergraduate students highlighted in the book, what advice would you give new college instructors?

The first piece of vital advice I would give a new college instructor is to remember to make clear how each and every reading, assignment, or issue is relevant to the class or to the students’ past, present, or future lives. This is important for two primary reasons. First, students are more likely to complete the work if it seems relevant to them. Often in the book, students reported that they did not do “busy work” or readings that did not seem important or relevant either to the class, their lives, or what they wanted to do in life. Second, student responses to Nathan’s inquiries about cheating also indicated that it is OK to cheat “when the info on the test/paper/homework is totally irrelevant,” “when it’s a liberal studies class that has no relevance to your major,” and finally “…they are making you learn [info] you know you won’t ever use again” (pg. 126). Relevance, to the class and to student’s lives, both past and present, is a recurring issue that seems to present itself again and again. Obviously there will always be the student’s who simply don’t care to do the work or will cheat no matter how relevant the information is, but by making the relevance apparent to the class, the overall number of these incidences might be greatly decreased.

The second piece of advice is to give students multiple options for a large assignment, such as a paper, throughout the term. For example, if students must complete two term papers, then provide them three to four opportunities to complete the paper. This is important for two reasons. First, it may help undergraduates who are struggling to juggle the many academic and personal balls they have in the air manage their time. They can plan to complete the paper at a time when other courses do not have major work due. Secondly, by providing students with choices, the professor is catering to their need for “freedom.” A large theme in the book was that student’s like to appear to have choices and freedom in their decisions.

My last piece of advice would be to remember that although your particular class is important, it is NOT the only class that students are taking. There have been numerous times that I’ve very much wanted to tell one of my professors that, but held my tongue and did my work. Students will not tell you when your demands are perhaps too taxing when taking all their other course work in mind. New college professors should not “dumb down” their course work load, but should keep this piece of advice in their mind when scheduling and creating their course.

Has this book changed your perspective on undergraduate students? If no, why not? If so, how so?

Apart from a the aspect already mentioned above, that the students have private and public domains of academic information, I would have to say that this book did not change my perspective on undergraduate students. This is because I currently find myself with one foot in each world, straddling the line between student and teacher. It was not long ago, only three years, that I lived in the dorms, and just over four years since I was a freshman. I am still very much juggling many balls, trying to keep them all into the air. I still find myself having to sacrifice some of the school work for other school work or even for a brief personal life. I was the undergraduate described in this book at one time in my life, and although I feel that I did quickly become an “outsider,” I very recently was a part of this culture. I believe my transition to an “outsider” began in my sophomore year, therefore I experienced the culture described by Nathan for an entire year.

I once read an article as an undergraduate that stated that this generation, and those to come, is the most egocentric generation the U.S. has ever experienced. This is apparent in college. Course schedules, subject matter, assignments, and extracurricular activities all best serve the undergraduate population when made relevant to their world.

Reaction to Readings (Blog #10)

This week's readings covered the final chapters of McKeachie's Teaching Tips. Following the traditional blog format, I've outlined the concepts I felt were useful, how I plan to implement them in my own teaching experiences, and how such concepts are or could be implemented in the field of psychology.

The first suggestion I feel is important to note is the concept of being sure to encourage students to set useful goals for class. This is important because it helps students develop strategic learning skills and most importantly, it helps generate and maintain motivation. I plan to implement this suggestion in two ways. First, I hope to frequently identify how material in class might be useful to the students and their overall goals. Second, I plan to also discuss how the various topics we're focusing on in class relate to students past, current, and future lives, in other words how the material personally relates to and affects them.

In the field of psychology, this is done quite frequently, however, often for other reasons than for goal setting. Usually, the material covered in psychology courses is abstract and can be difficult to understand. However, all of our lives, ever single student's life, is affected by psychology and the concepts covered by psychology are present in every day life. Instructors often use the approach of relating information to students' lives in order to enhance comprehension.

The second concept I feel is important is to be sure to help students build bridges between what they already know and what they're trying to learn. This is important because, according to McKeachie, this type of strategy has been shown to increase comprehension tenfold. I plan to implement this suggestion by frequently tying new topics into previous ones. For example, when discussing each new clinical disorder chapter, I would be sure to refer back to our discussion on the definitions of abnormal behavior, the process of diagnosing and assessing, and how previously learned treatment strategies apply to new disorders.

Next, I think an interesting, and useful, suggestion from the reading is to not answer every student question. Instead, turn student questions into an opportunity for all the students to think, brainstorm, reflect, and provide opinions. I would be there to provide suggestions, facilitate discussion, and of course make any corrections necessary. This is important because it is a type of active learning in which students can help one another and feel more involved in the learning process. A similar suggestion I hope to implement is to encourage students to share examples of successful approaches with each other. This is an important self-regulation technique which is useful because it provides students with an opportunity to discuss what works and what doesn't, learn new learning strategies, and to learn self-regulation skills (determine what self strategies are beneficial and harmful). I plan to implement this suggestion after exams. On the day that we discuss the results as a class, I plan to allow for time for the class to have an open discussion about studying strategies that worked and did not work for them. This would also be a good teaching and modeling moment on my behalf for the students. This suggestion also fits well with my previous ideas of implementing study groups in the classroom. The groups could discuss these issues on a small group basis rather than as a large class, and thereby encouraging more discussion.

The last suggestion, similar to the previous one noted, is to provide examples to the students of specific student DOs and DONTs. I would choose common mistakes student's make and discuss them, providing visual, concrete examples, and being sure to preserve anonymity. Similar to the previous suggestion, this is important because it helps students self-regulate, recognizing mistakes and providing them the opportunity to correct, and to learn successful learning strategies. I plan to use this suggestion before the first large paper assignment, before any "diary/blog" assignments, and before the first exam. Following the first introductory stage of the assignment, I feel it is the student's responsibility to remember the examples and utilize the opportunity to their benefit.

Additional Links and Information:

From an APA Journal - Teaching Students How to Learn

A Professor's Duties: Ethical Issues in College Teaching

Ethical Issues of College Teaching Professionals

Colloquium Presentation

I know this class is about college teaching tips, but on Friday there will be a speaker on campus discussing how to broaden the view of K-12 classrooms to include student culture. I thought I'd let everyone know since some of the information might be applicable to college environment as well.

Nathan Wood, PhD, Assistant Professor
School of Education, North Dakota State University
"Broadening a View of K-12 Classrooms to Include Student Culture"
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 3:30 pm in the Family Life Center room 122

Reaction to Readings (Blog #9)

This week's readings covered a wide variety of topics, including: teaching tips for large class sizes, lab instruction, experiential learning, and feedback from students. In this week's blog, I've outlined some of the concepts I feel are most useful and how I plan to implement them into my own future teachings.

The very first suggestion that I feel is extremely useful is the concept of organizing students to meet either in class or out of class for discussion and study. This is useful for many reasons. First, it allows for active learning through discussion in small groups when the class is very large (which makes discussion and active learning for every student difficult). Second, organizing students into study groups or discussion groups helps to reduce some of the anonymity some students may be experiencing in a large class. And third, as I've stated in a previous post, study groups allow students to compare notes, gain information they might have missed, and clarify issues that may be unclear. By utilizing groups in a large class, students can get to know each other, discuss important issues, and struggling students can benefit from students who are doing well.

I think a great way to implement the creation of discussion groups would be to prior to the first class, randomly assign students to groups of 5-7 (depending on class size). Then on the first day, since most of the first day is syllabus and getting acquainted to the class anyways, introduce the groups and let the students know that this is their discussion group for the first part of the semester and give the students the remainder of the class to find one another and exchange information. I would then plan to create new groups part way through the semester to ensure students are hearing new ideas. I liked the suggestion of creating a student availability schedule for study groups as suggested in the text. This would allow students who would like to study in groups to see when others are available. Otherwise, I thought I could utilize the discussion groups created or have students who are interested in studying in groups email me and I would connect them.

The second suggestion I felt was useful was utilizing technology in a large classroom to ensure active learning. This is important because active learning has been proven to be more effective in retaining information and learning more. I plan to implement the concept by forming online discussion boards for the students to react to on a weekly basis. Once per week I will pose a question or problem for the students, who will then have to react/answer within a week to either my question or problem or to another student's post. I plan to use this activity as a low-stakes writing assignment, for which will not be graded but simply checked to see if students have participated. I will of course also participate and put my two cents in but will ensure the students I will not grade or evaluate their posts (other than for effort). I believe this is commonly used in the psychology field. Since psychology is one of the most common undergraduate majors, it is often the case that class sizes are very large. At NDSU for example, I've TA'ed classes that have been anywhere from 200-500 students. In order to ensure quality discussions, teachers often use blackboard to post questions for the students. I think this is the best option available, in addition to dividing the students into smaller groups.

The third concept brought up in this week's reading that I feel is useful concerns "distance education." The reading suggested that those instructing at a distance do not underestimate the workload of the class. This is a very important idea because, according to McKeachie, too high of a workload is the number one reason for dropping out of distance courses. This is important for me in particular because, currently, my plan is to gain teaching experience with my master's degree at a community or technical college. These colleges commonly offer psychology classes online or in distance education courses. I plan to implement this suggestion by using everyday language, keeping topics concrete and simple, and choosing familiar examples when explaining a concept. A large part of my ensuring I am not assigning to much of a workload, especially during my first few years of teaching, will lie in my next important concept from the reading: student feedback.

The final concept from this week's reading that I believe is very useful concerns both formal and informal student feedback. First, I felt it is an important idea to inform the students at the beginning of the term that I am interested in feedback and thoughts on the course throughout the semester. This is important because it allows students to provide input on assignments, lectures, readings, discussions, and the class format overall. Getting this information is vital because as a teacher, I want to verify that my teaching is effective and the course activities and assignments are accomplishing my goals. I plan to request informal feedback from students by asking them to email or stop by office hours with thoughts/concerns and having them provide a one-minute paper a few times throughout the semester about their current thoughts and feelings about the class.

Next, I plan to implement formal feedback at the midterm and final weeks of the semester. Other than the university's required form, I will ask questions adapted from appendix H of First Day to Final Grade (page 200). These questions will more than likely include:

• How could our discussions be made more helpful and relevant to you and your own interests?
• For the next paper, how much or little freedom in the choice of topic would you like, compared to the previous assignment?
• How could I make my comments on your papers more helpful?
• In what ways would you adjust the assignments for the second half of the term?
• Please complete the following:
• I would like to see more time devoted to:
• I would like to see less time devoted to:
• I am still confused about:
• Please comment on any other aspects of the course that are on your mind.

I think it will be important to remember to encourage students to be honest and remind them that I appreciate their suggestions and take them seriously. Finally, I think it is vital to remember to talk briefly about the feedback in the next class. This could simply be commenting on a few general trends that I saw in the feedback or even mentioning a change I've decided to make. This is important because it reiterates the fact that I take the suggestions to heart and actually read what they write. The students therefore might be more likely to contribute useful suggestions in the future.

In my experience, I feel the field of psychology doesn't request student feedback often enough. It could simply be the classes that I have taken, but I recall usually only completing an end of the term evaluation and never being asked to provide feedback at any other point in the semester. The professors in psychology would benefit by regularly requesting feedback from their students in order to ensure what we are teaching them is benefiting them in the way we believe it is.

Further Information:

A great website full of information and suggestions for those of us who might have to teach an online course some day: Teaching Online and also a good find: Three Kinds of Online College Instructors

Preparing to Teach a Large Lecture Course

Evaluation of your own teaching: Tips for Designing Course Evaluation Forms

Reaction to Readings (Blog #8)

This week's reading focused primarily on active learning, as well as using technology in the classroom. For the first part of the blog, I have described three class activities I'd like to implement in my final project when designing my "dream course".

1. The first activity involves Low Stakes Writing. On the first day of class, I plan to have students "free write" for 5-10 minutes. Before I officially provide students with a definition of abnormal behavior (which by the way needs to be defined before one can understand psychopathology), I will ask students to free write about what they believe abnormal behavior is, without stopping, putting down whatever comes to mind. This is important because according to the reading, this type of low stakes writing helps students involve themselves in an idea that matters in the course. It's more beneficial for students to allow their minds to work and actively think about what "abnormal behavior" means to them than for me to straight out provide the definition in a lecture format.
2. The second activity I plan to implement in my course design is an Active Learning activity. I like the idea of using The Learning Cell suggestion when motivating my students to read for class. I would have students develop a few questions based on the required reading for the week, then randomly pair students together to discuss the questions. Student A asks student B one question, student B answers, and discussion ensues. Next, student B asks student A one question, student A answers, and discussion ensues, and so one until the majority of questions have been discussed. I will wander from pair to pair to check the progress and make any suggestions/corrections that might be necessary. This is a useful activity because not only does it increase motivation to read, it increases understanding of the reading, and, as stated in the reading, students learn more from interacting with each other and are more likely to discuss in small groups than in large ones.
3. The third activity I found interesting is a Problem-Based Learning activity. I would implement this in my course design in a way that combines two suggestions from the reading: Case Method and Games & Simulations. Prior to the activity, I would create a few roles for a few of the students. Each role would portray a case study of an individual with one or two psychological disorders, although they would not explicitly state which disorder. The individual would demonstrate some of the diagnostic criteria. In class, I would divide the class into small groups. One group would consist of the mock patients. These individuals would each receive one of the case studies in a sealed envelope and be asked to read, rehearse, and prepare portray the case. While they are preparing, I would ask the remaining groups to review diagnostic criteria and descriptions of primary disorders. I would assign one individual with a case to each group. The groups job would be to draw a conclusion about which disorder(s) the case study has. The group would need to provide evidence and make recommendations based on their conclusion. Any group that correctly identifies their case study will receive extra credit! This activity is important because not only is it fun, but it also helps students develop skills that are important in the class and will help the class meet a primary course objective of understanding diagnostic criteria of major psychological disorders.

The remainder of the blog outlines best practices for conducting learning activities in class:

Procedural Issues

• Provide clear instructions for the learning activity. These instructions should be (if possible) provided in both a verbal and written format.
• Inform the students of time constraints for the activity.
• In a similar suggestion, allot sufficient time for instruction, participation, questions, and processing
• Be sure to ask for questions from the students and to walk around the classroom and be actively involved in the activity yourself
• Conclude the activity with a time to process what the students should have learned, discuss what they thought about the activity, and summarize major points.

Demeanor Issues

• Be enthusiastic about the activity
• Emphasize the importance of the activity and connect the activity to prior, current, and future information covered in the course, as well as overall course goals
• If discussion is involved, and class conduct has not been discussed, review conduct policy and helpful discussion techniques
• Be interested in student responses, questions, conclusions drawn
• If a question is asked that you do not know the answer to, don't lie, but instead let the student know that it is a great question, so great that you don't know the answer but will be sure to look it up and let everyone know what you find.

Pedagogical Issues

• Include a "debriefing session" following the activity, during which the class will discuss and summarize what was learned
• Learning activities that actively involve student participation have been shown to increase interest in class and amount learned in the class
• Include these activities in order to allow students to demonstrate learning in a "non-graded" method, which removes anxiety over grades
• Ensure that each activity is made apparently relevant to class goals and course material in order to help motivate students to complete the activities

Additional Information:

These will be useful in developing my "dream course" design - Psychology Applied Learning Scenarios

More information about High and Low Stakes Writing

From the Center for Teaching Excellence, some Low-Stakes Writing Assignments

An article about Teaching Naked (without technology that is :) )

Handbook for Instructional Technology in the Classroom

Reaction to Readings (Blog #7)

This week's readings discussed motivation to learn, culturally diverse students, and learner-centered teaching. This week's blog is formatted slightly different and will focus on three questions: What is learner-centered teaching, which aspects of LCT could I incorporate in my own teaching, and which aspects of LCT would be difficult or unwise to incorporate in my own teaching?

1. What is learner-centered teaching?

Learner-centered teaching is a format of teaching in which the students share in the decision making process. Power and control in the classroom is shared among the students and instructor. "Shared" is the key word of both of these points. Power and control over decisions are not given completely to the students. Faculty still make key decisions, but no longer make all of the decisions. The instructor is seen more as a guide and a coach. According to Learner-Centered Teaching, the goal is to equip students with the learning skills necessary to teach themselves through a gradual process. It is important to distribute the power in amounts that are representative of the students' ability to handle the power and make the decisions.

An important part of equipping students with the necessary self-reliant skills is motivating the students to learn. McKeachie outlined several ideas for increasing motivation in students. He states that student's need to feel there is a reasonable possibility of success and that the work is valuable in order to be motivated to learn. I feel that by utilizing a learner-centered approach and involving the student's in the decision process, they would not only feel that there is a higher chance of success, but will also feel that the material they chose to cover is more valuable, and in turn also be more motivated to learn. This could be implemented through a simple explanation of the relevance of the material being taught. McKeachie also stated that classrooms that are mastery focused increase students' motivation to learn. I feel learner-centered teaching is a great example of a mastery focused approach. It provides students with opportunities to demonstrate their power, improvement, and take "intellectual risks", all of which are valuable in motivating students through a mastery focused approach. Therefore, by sharing power with the students, they will be more motivated to learn and more likely to learn and be successful in the classroom.

Examples of power and control over decisions in the classroom include the syllabus, the assignment and test structure, the pace, classroom policies, and evaluations or grading. In a traditional sense, many of these aspects of the classroom are controlled by the instructor. In learner-centered teaching, many of these decisions can be jointly made by both the instructor and the students. For example, student's can be involved and have input on the due dates of assignments, what content they feel is important to be covered, the structure of exams (multiple choice, essay, etc.). In the remainder of the blog, I will discuss how some of these aspects can (or can't) be incorporated in teaching while utilizing a learner-centered approach.

2. Which aspects of LCT could I incorporate in my own teaching?

One suggestion made by both McKeachie and Learner-Centered Teaching that I hope to incorporate in my own teaching is to provide multiple options for class assignments. I feel this is an important aspect to implement because by providing options, the power to decide is transferred to the students, and they are more likely to choose a topic they are interested in and more likely to feel motivated to complete and learn from the assignment. This idea can be implemented in many ways.

The first way that I like and hope to include in my final project, is that for a required paper, I will provide a list of topics for the students to choose from, and each of these topics are also broad and can be narrowed to specifically focus on a student's particular interests. For example, some of the topics for a paper designed to evoke critical thinking about the influence history and culture has on our view of abnormal behavior and psychological disorders could include:

• Choose a historical figure (either known for having a mental illness or known for abnormal behavior) and discuss the influence of culture and time on our perception of this character
• Choose a popular icon of today's culture and discuss how their behavior might be viewed 200 years ago and discuss why the view did or did not change
• Choose a mental illness and discuss the development of and changes in our cultural perception of it and discuss why it has or hasn't changed
• Choose a mental illness or abnormal behavior and discuss differing current cultural views of it and discuss why the differences might or might not exist.

A second way I hope to implement this idea is through providing three options for completing two required assignments. This could mean at three different times in the semester I would provide a chance for the students to complete the paper. For instance, I would like to require two papers in the class. I will utilize this idea by providing three separate paper ideas. The first could be the historical/culture influences paper, the second could be a critical review of the literature surrounding the treatment of one psychological disorder, and the third could be a paper about the role of environment and genetics in the development of a psychological disorder. The students would only be required to complete 2/3 papers. This provides the students with the power of choice and decision as well as the motivation to learn about a topic that is of interest to them.

The second suggestion from the readings that I hope to implement in my own teaching is involving the students in the process of creating the syllabus for the class. I hope to do this because, not only will it involve the students in the decision making process, but it involves them in important decisions, not just minor ones. I feel that this gives the students an aspect of control in the classroom that they've never had before and it can be used as a learning experience in itself. Also, as an instructor, I might not be aware of the likes/dislikes, time conflicts, or opinions of my students and this helps me to gain corrective feedback on my syllabus.

I hope to implement this in a way that was described in the reading. The instructor distributed a syllabus on the first day with the word "DRAFT" displayed across the top. I will first cover the points I have made in the syllabus and discuss why I made them and why I feel they are relevant and important. Next, I will have students gather into small groups of 2-3 and have them discuss the syllabus and generate a list of ideas, corrections, and feedback. I also think I would like the students to take the syllabus home with them, look it over, and return to class with individual suggestions. Not only will this empower each student individually, rather than in small groups, but it also helps to motivate the students to read the syllabus! I will collect these lists and look over the ideas and try to include as many as I feel are beneficial, helpful, and possible. Of course, many of the classroom policies, such as late work, cheating, attendance, and conduct, will probably be unchanged for the most part, since I have written them because I feel they are essential and beneficial to the students. I will try to incorporate as many ideas of the students as possible and will voice to them prior to the activity that I will do so and that although not all ideas may be implemented, all ideas are important for me to hear.

The last aspect of learner-centered teaching that I hope to implement in my own teaching is to let the student's decide what content gets worked on. This is important because not only does it engage the students in the decision making and power process, it also ensures that I cover material that is important and of interest to the class. I still plan to create the basic structure of the course's lectures. However, I had a teacher use this method that I also hope to use in my own teaching. On the first day, the instructor distributed note cards to the students and asked them to write down 1 or 2 ideas/topics that they are most interested in (keeping in mind the class subject). As the TA, I then divided these cards according to chapter, lecture, and an other category. By doing this, the teacher ensures that she is more likely to include the information the students are interested when she writes her lectures.

3. Which aspects of LCT would be difficult or unwise to incorporate in my own teaching?

As stated in the reading, I think the students should not be given all the power. It would be unwise to let the students completely control the syllabus. I stated this earlier, but I would still decide the major aspects of classroom policy (attendance, late, conduct, academic honesty). I feel that this is important because I feel that this is my job as an instructor and that if these policies weren't important to the classroom and learning environment, I wouldn't write them. Learner-Centered Teaching states that it is unethical to transfer a level of power that is inappropriate to the level of student ability to make decisions.

I also feel it would be difficult to involve the student's in the process of deciding the timeline of the classroom. I do not think it would be impossible, and shouldn't be tried, but I do think that incorporating anywhere from 30-500 student opinions and schedules would be extremely difficult. It would be easier with smaller classes, of course, and this will need to be kept in mind when deciding whether or not to implement this idea. Instead, I think I could ask student opinions on whether to keep the deadlines of larger assignments (such as papers) distributed throughout the course or whether to have the 2 required papers due by finals week and allow the students to self-discipline and time manage.

RECOMMENDED LINKS:

• Critical Behaviors and Strategies for Teaching Culturally Diverse Students
• A powerpoint on Helping Students Be Active Learners
• 8 Simple Rules for Motivating Students

Reaction to Readings (Blog #6)

This week's readings concerned one-on-one interactions with students, focusing primarily on dealing with student's problems. There were several important suggestions in this week's reading. Two general office management tips I'd like to note for future reference include saving old email records and meeting in the department office rather than in public. First, I think it is important to save the old emails in separate folders for each semester. Not only does this promote organization, it ensures there are no questions about my interaction with students in the future since I can provide evidence of such interactions. The second suggestion, meeting in the departmental office, I feel is simply good practice. Often what is being discussed with a student is sensitive and personal, such as grades, and therefore should not be discussed in situations that can be overheard. In addition, it helps to establish my professional nature and boundaries between myself and my students. Beyond these more general suggestions, there were specific aspects of the reading I feel are important to note, which are outlined in this post.

I related to a few of the areas discussed in the reading on a personal level this week. For example, as a young freshman, from a small town, attending a larger state university, I experienced a shock in regards to problematic terminology. Although I'm ashamed I used such terminology ("that's so gay/retarded"), I'm not ashamed to admit it because I feel the experience of learning how these common phrases affect other people was an important part of my maturation. I was fortunate enough to have an individual in my life who would regularly bring my attention to what I was saying and remind me to use more proper language. Eventually, the habit stopped and I learned not only to stop by why such language should be avoided. I hope to be that person in my students' lives. I plan to implement corrective feedback in response to problematic terminology. I think that it is a great teaching opportunity me and learning opportunity for all of the students to push them to understand how word's affect people. I think that the first time a student uses such terminology, I will point the phrase out, and ask the student not to use such terminology in my class. I will relate and empathize with the student that I realize it is a common phrase and that it often becomes habit to say such things. However, I will point out the importance of being aware of our words and how they affect others. I could continue the teaching lesson with asking the class to come up with a few ways in which words can or have hurt people. If the problematic terminology continues to be a problem, I will seek one-on-one correction with the student after class or during my office hours.

The second area discussed this week that I have personal experience with is belligerent students. Technically, my experience is with belligerent adults with mental illness, but the de-escalation and coping skills I've learned should be applicable to situations with students. As suggested in the reading, I plan to implement the technique of remaining calm when faced with an angry student. If I've done my job and covered by decisions, by following my carefully outlined and detailed syllabus and keeping records of our conversations, I should be confident that I have made the right choice and that what I'm doing is for the benefit of the student. I think the suggestion of remaining calm and confident is important because, just as my work experience has told me, if I rise to the situation, their reaction will only escalate further, risking my emotions continuing to rise, and the cycle continues. Just as with the use of problematic terminology, this is a teaching opportunity. It is important for the student to learn to respect my decisions and communicate their needs more effectively, rather than becoming angry. Also, if I waiver in my decision, the student will see this and possibly detect this as a weakness on my part or even an opportunity to get future grades or decisions changed in their favor. It is only fair to all of the students in the class, as well as to myself, to adhere to the guidelines established. Lastly, if I am in the wrong (an no body is perfect so I anticipate there will be times when I am wrong), I plan to graciously correct the mistake, but still explain to the student that there are more effective ways of communication, still utilizing the teaching moment.

The last aspect of this week's reading that I have personal and professional experience with is interacting with student's with personal problems. The reading from these week makes several very important suggestions for how to approach students who might be experiencing some personal problems:

• Use examples of differences in or difficulties with class work or involvement to show the student you have noticed that there might be a problem. This is important for an instructor because it provides the student with solid evidence to back up your concern. Without this evidence, it may seem strange or inappropriate to a student if a professor is questioning them about their personal life.
• Ask the student to meet with you after class or during office hours to discuss the issue. This is a vital suggestion because it shows the student that not only do you care about them as a person and are taking time to seek them out, it provides a more private environment to discuss the personal matters.
• And perhaps most importantly, refer the student to the campus counseling center. This is important because as an instructor, you do not want to blur the boundaries between you and the student by providing counseling services yourself. Also, this guides the student in an appropriate and the most helpful direction. I currently work at the MSUM Counseling Center and several of my clients ultimately came in to seek help because a professor or advisor advised them to do so. In my experience, people tend to minimize their problems and it often takes several suggestions from outside sources to help them realize the extent of their issues. As a professor, I feel it is part of my responsibility to the students to let them know the services that are available to them if I believe they need help. If the student decides not to take the advice, I believe my suggestion would at least register with them and perhaps add to others suggestions, ultimately making the difference in the student getting help. In the field of psychology, I believe this suggestion is implemented to a greater extent. As former graduate students in the field, and many also have clinical experience to draw from, professors in psychology often have skills in this area of work that others professors may not have. I feel that I can draw from my educational and applied experiences to be more observant when it comes to my students and be more diligent about referring students for help.

As I asked in class, one thing I am worried about for my future teaching is not recognizing plagiarism and correctly addressing plagiarism, therefore allowing students to get away with this unacceptable behavior. Therefore, I think the authors' suggestions of how to minimize and recognize plagiarism are very important. Curbing plagiarism is vital because not only is it a form of cheating, but I'm interested in what the student's are learning, not reading others' work. Teachers can recognize plagiarism through noticing changes in tone and writing and also finding that the papers do not quite fit either the topic or guidelines of the paper. According to the reading, professors should design papers as specifically as possible to the class. I plan to implement this through being creative in my paper topic ideas, making the topics as detailed, interesting, and least general as possible, and also to provide specific guidelines for my papers. The second suggestion offered by the readings is to ask the students to turn in drafts or outlines of the paper. I think this is possibly the most important suggestion because not only will it help recognize plagiarism and reduce a student's temptation to engage in plagiarism, according to McKeachie, it will also help me check the progress of the assignment and reduce student excuses for not having it done. These suggestions have been commonly implemented in the field of psychology, according to my personal experience. I've frequently had classes for which I had to turn my paper in to an electronic database which checks for plagiarism. Also, since the topic of psychology is so vast and interesting, there are a wide number of paper possibilities and my professors have tried to change paper topics to a specific topic on a regular basis.

One last suggestion I feel is important and plan to implement it in my future teaching, is the use of study groups for struggling students. As an undergraduate I worked as a peer academic advisor and created study groups for all of the major classes based on which dorm the students lived in. I plan to do a similar procedure for my students. I plan to not make these study groups mandatory, but simply encourage students to meet and study because chances are it will increase the likelihood of the student earning a higher grade. Study groups are important because students can compare notes and gain information they might have missed, clarify issues that might have been unclear, and if the group is made of a variety of achievement levels of the students, those who are struggling can benefit from learning from those who are doing well. Also, I've found that those who are doing well can actually benefit from "teaching" those who are doing poorly.

Further Information:

• A RECOMMENDATION FOR ALL TA'S AND PROFESSORS: From the Counseling Center for the University of New Hampshire - How to Recognize and Handle Students in Distress: A Guide for Faculty
• From Collegeboard- The Power of Study Groups
• From the University of Oregon Counseling and Testing Center - Strategies for Dealing with Angry Students Outside the Classroom

Reaction to Readings (Blog #5)

This weeks readings mainly concerned testing and assessment of both students and ourselves as instructors. I found many suggestions in the reading that were both interesting and useful in implementing in my own teaching in the future. In this blog, for my personal future reference, I've divided the useful suggestions between assessment of students and assessment of the instructor.

Assessment of the Students:

I felt the most important suggestion was found in both McKeachie's Teaching Tips and the reading excerpt and it was the idea tests and assessments should facilitate learning. I feel this is important because the primary goal of being an instructor is to teach students and therefore assessment should also be a technique in furthering the knowledge of our students. I would implement this through essay questions on exams. I feel that essays, rather than multiple choice or fill in the blank questions, really tap into a higher level of thinking. If the questions concern critical thinking, they will further assist the student in assimilating information together into one cohesive answer. I also plan to implement this suggestion through "hands-on" exams or labs, as some of my psychology classes have done. During my Psychobiology class, one exam involved dissecting brains and correctly labeling areas and parts of the brain. Not only did this exam test our recall of these parts, but it also facilitated learning through the actual dissection and the experience of seeing and touching a brain. This idea also ties into another suggestion made by McKeachie. He suggested that teachers should construct learning situations in which they can observe student performance. This is done in the field of psychology regularly, as well as other "hands-on" experiences, such as my practicum placements and video-taping role playing in class. Both these experiences are assessed and graded, but both provide vital information and practical practice that a paper and pencil exam couldn't. I also like his suggestion of implementing a portfolio as a class assignment in order to assess student learning over the long term, the entire semester. I would like to use a portfolio possibly by having the students create a case study throughout the semester. The portfolio would have to include aspects from each unit of the semester, that way I could assess the students development and improvement over time.

Another important suggestion arouse from the McKeachie chapter. He suggested that we use a variety of assessments when measuring the goals and learning development of the class. "...not every student can show understanding on high-stakes tests; some students might do better on written assignments or on projects or shorter assessments." I feel this is important because students learn in a variety of ways and methods. Some people are visual learners and really prefer powerpoint presentations and hand outs. Other students are more audio-directed learners. These students benefit more from purely listening and hearing the instruction as well as verbally participating in discussion. Yet there are still other types of learners: those who learn through class participation, those who prefer to learn through reading, some prefer to work alone, others prefer group work, or yet others who do much better writing. I plan to implement this suggestion in the obvious fashion: administering a variety of ways both students can earn points towards a final grade and I can assess their level of learning and progress towards class goals. These could include examinations that include a variety of question types (short answer, multiple choice, fill in the blank, essay), written assignments, hands-on assignments, group projects, ecetera. I feel this could be implemented to a greater extent in the psychology field. Currently, the majority of my experiences as an undergraduate psychology student as well as a TA for undergraduate psychology classes consist of multiple choice item examinations and written assignments. Not many of my classes utilized other types of methods. Hands-on assignments and group projects really didn't start to much extent until graduate school. I feel the field would benefit by implementing more of these various methods.

When creating examinations, I plan to implement a couple of McKeachie's suggestions. I feel it is important for me to first lay out the number of items I want from each chapter. This is important because, since I'm new at writing test questions (no easy feat), this will assist in speeding up the test writing process. I also feel it is important to use materials with somewhat greater apparent relevance to the course goals. This is important because not only will it be easier to assess progress towards goals, it will be more fun for the students if they feel the tasks are relevant. It seemed to me while reading McKeachie's chapter this week, that he "frowns" upon multiple choice exam items. Unlike McKeachie, I like to utilize multiple choice items when I write exams (for the classes I TA for). I feel they determine if the student has done the required reading and assesses if the student has acquired the very basic understanding and comprehension required for more critical thinking. I also plan to implement the following quick tips for estimating the time to allow for the exam: 1 minute per multiple choice item or fill-in-the-blank item, 2 minutes per short answer item, and 10-15 minutes per essay questions.

The last suggestion concerns involving students in the assessment process. I think it is important to ask students for test questions. This is important because it involves students in the learning process rather than simply telling the students what they should think is important, they actively learn and decide what is important for themselves. I plan to implement this through having the students create questions from the readings and including a select few of these in the exam. This serves two purposes: ensuring the students do the reading and involve them in creating some of the test items.

Assessment of Instructors:

The one suggestion from the excerpt article that I felt is useful is the idea of peer assessment among instructors. Although the text outlines a problem with this method, instructors simply comparing each other to one another's teaching style, I feel this can be overcome by creating a set of what should be assessed. Departments for example could create a rubric for assessing each other and rather than "grading" it could be more of a suggestions and feedback exercise for instructors. I think this is important because if utilized effectively, it could increase the overall quality of teaching. I plan to implement this by asking fellow instructors to look over my syllabus, student assessments, the nature of my class assignments and reports. As a new instructor, I also plan to compare my ideas with past instructors. Obviously I plan to implement fresh and new ideas, but it helps to have other instructor's experiences to compare to. And lastly, an important part of this implementation is my peer reviewing of other instructors. This will, hopefully, not only help those instructors, but will also give me an idea of other's methods and give me new ideas for methods and assessments.

A suggestion that was offered by the reading excerpt I feel is both useful and I would like to implement, but my experience in teaching and being a student in psychology classes tell me it would be extremely difficult. The reading suggested that successful professions learn as much as possible about their students, their lives outside of class, hobbies, interests, involvement, and some go so far to have lunch with their students. I would LOVE to be that teacher! However, most psychology classes that I've TA'ed for and taken as a student consist of at most 500 students and at least 40. If I am assigned to instruct smaller courses I would like to implement getting to know my students on a more personal level, without compromising the teacher/student relationship. I would like more instruction on how to do this without overstepping boundaries or allowing myself to look less professional and perhaps be taken less seriously. Although I'd like to see the field of psychology implement this, I feel it wouldn't work the majority of the time due to the sheer volume of students in the class.

Additional Resources:

• Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment
• From the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Peer Review of Teaching: An Overview

"Helicopter Parent" Article

A few weeks back in class, we discussed the phenomena we often encounter as professors and TAs known as helicopter parenting. When reading Psychology in the News today, I found this interesting article, Beyond the Jokes on 'Helicopter Parents', which tackles this concept and provides personal and professional experience, as well as makes a few suggestions in regards to approaching these situations.

Reaction to Readings (Blog #4)

This weeks reading primarily focused on grades, with a little information regarding cheating also included. As a TA, I have experience in both of these areas, and am still not comfortable with either process! I am aware I spend too much time reading and re-reading student's essay answers, second guessing myself on grading, and after TA-ing for a huge (450-500) class, I have quite a bit of interesting experiencing with cheating on exams. Therefore, the information provided in this weeks readings was particularly useful to me. However, I listed and identified the most useful information in this blog:

McKeachie described recommendations to prevent cheating in Chapter 10. I felt this some of the most useful information in the whole chapter because, according to McKeachie, it seems that cheating is common and inevitable in every class. Therefore, tips to help reduce the instances and probability of cheating are going to be useful. Since I'm more interested in what the student's learned rather than if the students are getting good grades, I feel these tips are helpful to get that point across to my students. The author makes an interesting point that students often engage in cheating due to the pressure of grades and that they believe there is a large reward for success at any cost. This means that they are looking at the potential of a good grade, good GPA, graduating, and getting a job rather than the immediate cost of cheating. Thus the first recommendation is reduce the pressure. This could mean providing a number of opportunities, rather than just one or two exams, to earn a grade.

This idea should be implemented in the field of psychology. Because the field studies people, it is common knowledge to psychologists that students learn in many ways (visual versus auditory, etc), that some students are better able to show achievement through discussion and writing rather than sitting an examination (test anxiety plays a large role in student's test results). I personally would implement this suggestion by providing an opportunity to drop one exam, providing several assignments, a few papers, a few discussion sessions, and regular exams. I feel this would cover a variety of learning and assessment methods. I also think it would be beneficial to alternate forms of exams to prevent the "wandering eyes". Its more work for the professor (creating multiple versions and keys) but I feel it makes a huge difference in eliminating cheating.

From the First Day to Final Grade, I felt some of the most useful information regarded fair grading strategies. Grading fairly is an important issue in all fields and from both student and teacher perspectives. I feel the advice this chapter gives helps because I constantly worry while grading the papers and exams as a TA that I'm grading too harsh or worry that I gave one student too little or too many points and spend too much time going back and re-reading student responses.

I particularly would like to implement one of the useful strategies in which the professor waits to assign grades until after he or she has read all of the papers. Then the papers are put in order of quality and the grades are assigned within that range. I like this idea because often as a graduate student, and I'm sure it will only get worse, I lose touch and forget what an average range of abilities for an undergraduate is. An alternative to this method, which I feel would be equally affective and perhaps the two could be combined, is to grade the paper immediately, but place the grade on a separate sheet of paper so that it can be reassessed. All too often when I'm grading I give a student a so/so grade only to find their answer was the best out of the bunch when I'm finished. Now I have to go through and regrade them according to the class's ability. The only time this would be difficult to implement in the field is that, psychology being as popular undergrad major as it is, many of the classes are very large. For example, this would be nearly impossible to implement in the current class I TA for of 200 and even harder in the intro class of 500 I TA'ed last year. There is no way I could remember each student's responses in order to put them in order of quality. Here I think the best solution would be to grade using criterion grading.

I also felt the information on grading group work, found in First Day to Final Grade, was extremely useful because all of us have experience in being in a group, but I don't have experience in having to assess or grade a group project. I want to give the students the important opportunity of working together, but I also want to ensure that I am grading fairly. The authors state that professors tend to lean towards one of two groups: those who love group work or those who believe group work allows lazy students to ride the coattails of harder working students. I happen to belong to the group that believes group work allows lazy students an easy way out. I probably believe this due to my own personal experiences as an undergraduate student. Obviously group work is still important because it mirrors real life and provides students with an opportunity to learn valuable interpersonal skills. Therefore, I felt the book was useful in that it outlined pro's and con's of different grading styles of group work. Personally, I felt the pro they described of giving each student the same group grade that the book listed was soft. They said the pro was that it was easy for the professor to give everyone the same grade, and I don't feel this is a valid reason and that this grading method does not let the grade represent the achievement and ideals that McKeachie stated grades should represent. I feel a better solution was the alternative the chapter offered.

I would implement that each students grade is based on individual contribution to the group. I thought the step by step approach provided by the chapter (assign over all grade, ask each student to rate other student's contributions, average percentages, take percentage of overall grade). I also felt that the con (tension between group members) could be overcome. If each student knows they need to contribute before hand, why should they feel tension towards other members. Also, I've played with the idea of not letting the students know that they will be rating each other until after the group project is completed. Then I would ask the students to spur of the moment rate their group members. This way it would be confidential and group members could not influence other group members. After the first time, if i utilize group work again, students should understand that contribution to the group is important. I also feel that a solution could be to assign "roles" in the groups. Then each time a group project is assigned, the "roles" can be switched. This would eliminate the excuse that one student dominated the project and did not allow others to contribute. I feel that grading group work on individual contributions should be implemented in the psychology field. As a social science, much of the work we do concerns people, individuals and groups. Before we can understand group dynamics, we must first experience them. Psychology classes should implement more group work (but like I said, I'm against it purely because I have been abused by lazy students in the past) and grade it based on individual contribution.

A few final and quick suggestions from this weeks readings that I found useful and that I plan to implement in my own teaching is the suggestions of passing out grades at the end of class in order to avoid students looking over their grades or creating a negative atmosphere to teach in and the helpful hints on how to implement a successful discussion of difficult sections. Lastly, I personally have my own personal idea about missing exams. I had one teacher who I deeply respected who had a no missed exams at all policy. She stated that since we have the syllabus ahead of time, she felt we should be able to respect her enough to respect those dates and be there on those dates. I probably wouldn't go this far because I understand emergencies happen, having had family members funerals and things that are unplanned for occur last minute. I feel that I would allow students to drop one exam, as stated earlier it alleviates some pressure and hopefully prevents some cheating, and further than that, I might (might) implement all essay exam for those who need to make it up.

Additional Helpful Links:

• I had some trouble embedding the video so here's the url for the TOP TEN WAYS STUDENTS CHEAT
• A very funny guide to grading exams
• Facebook use Linked to Lower Grades in College
• How to Grade Fairly and Accurately
• Tips: Grading Group Work from the Center of Teaching Learning and Technology

An interesting side note: One of my favorite ways a student has cheated in classes I've TA'ed for (other than the obvious of looking at others papers) involve the student taping a cheat sheet to the floor and placing his feet over top of it. Pretty smart right? In a class of 500 how would we ever see his feet? He sat in the last chair of the row, practically in the aisle up which three proctors paced constantly. Another, fairly common, way I've experienced here at MSU was students using their mp3 players to download vocab words and listen to them during the exam and also using electronic translators in order to look up definitions of word english (basically using only the dictionary function rather than the translator function).

Reaction to Readings (Blog #3)

This weeks readings were from McKeachie's Teaching Tips. The chapters focused on reading as active learning, facilitating discussions, and effective lecturing. One think I thought was most useful in this weeks reading was the research information the author provided. Each chapter had empirical research either supporting or criticizing the concepts being discussed. This is useful (and interesting) because as a teacher, without this behind the scenes information, you may continue to use methods that have been shown to be ineffective or may miss out on new and improved ways of engaging students. Some examples of research results that McKeachie shared are as follows:

1. "Research shows that most material covered [in lecture] does not get into the students' notes or memory."

2. "Experimental evidence is accumulating to indicate that a certain degree of surprise or uncertainty arouses curiosity, a basic motive for learning."

3. "...found that teachers who used interpretation questions produced gains in student comprehension."

4. "...have shown that developmental discussion techniques improve the quality of decisions compared with freer, more nondirective discussion methods."

Although each of these, among the many others included in the reading, provide information to be learned, new teaching techniques, and suggested alterations in some classroom methods, I did not agree with all of them. Even though the text cites research stating how discussion is superior to lecture, I feel it is important to first ensure basic comprehension and knowledge of the material before an effective discussion can even take place. Therefore I feel lecture is an essential part of the learning process, not to be replaced solely by discussion. I think it would be most beneficial to implement one lecture day and one discussion day a week, or to include partial lecture for half the class period and the remainder be discussion of the material. Overall however, I felt the research results included in the reading were the most useful because future teachers can look at these findings and utilize them (structured discussion preferred over freer methods, interpretation questions rather than content ones, etc.)

As I stated in my Blog #2, I really feel my field, psychology, would really benefit from implementing more discussion and active learning methods of teaching. In addition, the ideas behind encouraging students to read could also be highly useful when implemented in my field. My experiences with the majority of my undergraduate (emphasis on this rather than graduate!) psychology classes is that the reading isn't overly important. What students are tested on, of course still in my experience, was what was lectured (most of this was from the book anyways), so reading the book was unnecessary in the eyes of the students. Since the field is made of a wide variety of opinions, theories, and ideas, it would be more beneficial for professors teaching psychology to implement readings from a wide variety of sources and discussion to integrate and evaluate the ideas.

There were many ideas in this weeks readings that I hope to implement in my own teaching:

1. First I was intrigued by the suggestion of providing study questions to guide student readings and to ensure that the questions that are provided are higher level (not focusing just on content but also ideas). However, I do stand behind the idea that it is the students responsibility to take initiative and read the material, so I would not make these questions mandatory or worth any percent of the final grade. I feel by making them mandatory, I'm making my students read, and like I said, the students don't have to read, its their responsibility to their education and their grade in the class. I would implement these questions in a way that either they would be worth extra credit, facilitate discussion on discussion class days, and I also am playing with the idea of writing three or four study guide questions for the reading and picking one from each to include on the test. I say playing because part of me would want to not inform the students of this and have them learn for themselves, reinforcing those who read and did the questions, but part of me feels this is also bordering on making the students read and not encouraging them to read. I remain unsure of exactly how I would implement the study questions, but I know somehow it will be done. I'm leaning towards combining some of the methods, mixing how I would utilize these questions depending on the class day. Sometimes they would be worth extra credit, sometimes if it is a discussion day they would serve to facilitate discussion, etc.


2. Second, I feel the suggestion of breaking the discussion down into part would be very helpful in facilitating student response. I would implement this by first asking the students what we know about the question, problem, or topic. I would write these on the board for visual reference during the actual discussion. Next, I would pose the question what do we not know. The responses to this question would guide the discussion and students would be able to use points from what we do know that we discussed earlier when answering some of the what do we not know discussions.


3. Third, I would use socratic questioning! For a clinical psychology graduate student who pracitces therapy techniques on a daily basis in class and at an internship, socratic questioning is known to be important and effective (and in the thearpy setting it is almost second nature) I hope to use this practice in the classroom setting as well.


4. Fourth, I like the suggestion of having students write out their answers to discussion questions I pose first in order to encourage talking and coherent ideas. Although, part of the reason I liked this idea was the way it fit so well with the suggestion of study questions to guide the reading. I would like to implement both of these in combination. The study guide questions could serve as discussion facilitators on discussion class days.


5. Lastly, the text stated that professors should encourage students to take fewer notes, writing only what is important. I would implement this suggestion into my own teaching, only in a slightly different way. I think it would be beneficial to post a general outline of the lecture prior to class. I would encourage students to print it out before class and let the outline help guide note taking while both reading and sitting in lecture. Students could use the outline to fill in the gaps when writing notes. I think this would speed up note taking on the students side of things and would also be beneficial for organizing the lecture on the professor side of things.

There were a few suggestions I feel I would NOT implement into my teaching in the future. Firstly, I despise the idea of audio taping and playing back the discussion to the class as well as having class observers note and comment on the discussion. I feel the students would be discouraged from talking when they know they are on tape and will have to listen to it again (fear of embarrassment hightened!) and I think they might feel judged if there are observers. These suggestions do not spell out increased classroom participation to me, but thats just my opinion. I also never liked the idea of stating during a lecture "this will be on the test" in order to capture students attention. I feel the students would gather from this statement that oh yes this is important and would maybe get the idea that not everything in the lecture is important or will listen only for that statement. I feel that if the information is not important enough to even possibly be on the test or just isn't important to the class objectives, why is the professor lecturing on it? Any information I am lecturing on, I want the students to be learning. I also feel that telling them what will be on the test is going to far in "helping" them. Students should be responsible for some of their learning (not all, I do think professors are there to help facilitate their learning, just this is a little much for me).

Here are some helpful links:

Book: The art of lecturing: a practical guide to successful university lectures. In particular the section on Common Mistakes that Turn Good Lectures into Disasters.

The Center for Instructional Development and Research's Teaching and Learning Bulletins:

1. More and Better Class Participation
2. What Helps Students Learn
3. Helping Students Read Well

Psychology in the News

I found this article today when browsing the psychology in the news section. I found it both entertaining and informative and highly recommend it to any one interested. According to the article, "Rude behavior in college classrooms is often a matter of course: College students more disrespectful, professors find."

Reaction to Readings (Blog #2)

This week's readings covered important information in regards to preparing weekly for class, running a discussion, and various trusted class plans. In this blog I will discuss what I felt was most useful, how I could implement some of the ideas in the readings in my field, and what I would like to incorporate into my own teaching.

I felt the most useful information I learned from this weeks readings was found in the "Why students may not talk" section of the Running a Discussion chapter. As both a student and a TA, and I'm sure everyone else with classroom experience has, I have been there. I have been sitting in the classroom, hearing the buzz of the fluorescent lights, watching the teacher struggle to breathe some sort of life into an attempt at a discussion. I have everything from the student who dominates the conversation to the student who stares at the floor praying the teacher doesn't call her out. This section of the reading was useful because it not only outlined various reasons why students may not be talking but also gave helpful hints for what the teacher can do to put an end to the silence. I've outlined those problems and solutions here:

• Peer Pressure - The teacher should ask opinions rather than answers with a distinct right or wrong answer in order to avoid potential embarrassment
• Time to Think - Sometimes, students may need to ponder the question just posed to them and in this instance, the teacher should count to 20 slowly. Eventually, one of the students (this is so me) will be unable to withstand the silence and will break it.
• Very Difficult Material - Here the teacher should empathize with the students, letting them know you are aware of how difficult the material is and that at some points you also needed clarification and that the class as a whole can work through it together.
• Lack of Preparation - The teacher should be straight forward and ask the class if they read the material
• Class Dynamics - Often the silence in the class is due to the dynamics of gender, race, and age in the class and the teacher should be aware of these issues
• Quiet Students - If making direct eye contact does not drive the quiet ones into breaking the silence, this is a good example of a situation in which the pair and share method works wonders. Teachers can pair students and ask that they discuss what they believe the answer to the discussion question is first before sharing ideas with the class.
• Outside Forces - During particularly busy times in the semester, students may be more apt to sit silently. Teachers should be cognisant of these times and empathise with the students, perhaps planning discussions during weeks that seem to be less busy, weeks without midterms, finals, or homecoming.

This video, although about younger students, explains why some students are silent from the teacher, researcher, and children's perspectives.

Something from this week's readings that I thought could be implemented into my field more was the idea of discussions in the classroom in general. Often in the field of psychology, topics are very open for discussion and opinions, since many of the ideas are relatively new and being researched. There are many many theories available in the field explaning things related to each of us, such as personality, anxiety, depression, substance use, etc. I believe it would be valuable for more teachers in this field to implement student discussions about these theories. First, these students are future researchers and it may be beneficial to hear bright new ideas from young minds. Second, since most topics are up for debate, it would be interesting for students to hear eachothers opinions and compare them to popular theories and research. Most of my undergraduate psychology courses lacked the discussion element. I feel it would be very beneficial for this element to be implemented on a regular basis.

Lastly, something I learned from this weeks readings that I would like to implement into my own teaching in the future is the idea that class formats should vary among the different types, never using the same one format all the time. The three teaching formats are as follows:

1. more loosely planned discussion sections
2. lectures
3. more highly structured classes with preplanned student activities.

How I visualize myself implementing this is that on the first day of a unit, I would focus entirely on lecture. The main purpose would be to get the information out there and clarify it so the students have a general knowledge of the chapter. Once that is met, whether it be the next class period or the next week, I would then like to have the third option of preplanned student activities. I feel these would help to ensure the step beyond knowledge, comprehension. Once I feel the students generally know and understand the ideas, then I would like to implement the loosely planned discussion section. I would wait to utilize this format until last because I feel the discussion would be most useful and beneficial for the students when they have that general knowledge and comprehension basis and feel enough with the material to make contributions to the discussion.

I recommend checking out the following links for further helpful information:

UCSC'S Teaching Toolbox: Getting More out of Classroom Discussion

Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology's Active Learning Strategies: Suggestions for Classroom Discussion (particularly the five types of discussion questions that cause inherent problems)

Reaction to Readings (Blog #1)

This weeks readings were from Chapter 2 of First Day to Final Grade and pages 1-28 of Teaching Tips. I felt the most useful information in this weeks readings, other than the general tips for preparedness, was the guidlines and advice on creating the course syllabus. First Day included required or highly recommended info to include in the syllabus: "bereaucratic" information such as name, office, hours, phone, email; required texts; any and all deadlines and exam dates; breakdown of points; attendance policy (being specific); policy on late work and missed exams (also very specific); info about how students with disabilities and special needs can be accommodated; and the university's policy on plagerism. In addition, McKeachie's Teaching Tips included a very useful acronym to aid in creating a syllabus from scratch:
S- Specific
M- Measurable
A-Agreed (clearly understood)
R - Related, with clear structure and links between assignments
T - Time frame
This acronym could be utilized while writing the information that First Day suggested to include in the syllabus in order to ensure the outline will be specific and as useful as possible. The following website also includes interesting and beneficial information regarding creating a syllabus. http://oct.sfsu.edu/design/syllabus/index.html Dr. Vicki Casella from San Francisco State University created this useful web tool and she describes the syllabus as a "Roadmap", "Organizational Tool", and a "Contract". I highly recommend the sight to any individual seeking more information about creating syllabus.

Something I found interesting from the readings in First Day to Final Grade was their comments regarding the male/female and student/teacher relationship dynamics. I thought these ideas, for example that female students might talk less with male professors or male students might try to undermine female professors, could be more closely looked at in my field of interest, psychology. A research project could be implemented to determine if there is statistical date behind these statements. Perhaps there already has been research done on it, in which case I'd be interested to read the findings because these would apply to all teachers and students in all fields of interest.

Lastly, what I felt I could incorporate into my own teaching were the icebreakers suggestions and tips on successfully implementing them. Although they are often ackward and viewed as "cheesy" by the students, I think they are successful in accomplishing what they are there for, breaking the ice. I am also terrible at remembering names and feel that by utilizing one of their suggested ice breakers, I might remember a students name and face if I can pair it with other information I know about them. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_76.htm This is a link to additional suggestions on using ice breakers in order to facilitate conversations as well as various examples of other ice breakers not included in the book... Check them out!