CETLNM(06-03)
The following three extracts are taken from the longer writing tasks in the portfolios (the Critical Overview of their teaching and Comparison of Two Learning Events) as described in the Module Guide for An Introduction to Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Warwick.
STUDENT A
A Critical Overview of my Teaching[1]
Introduction: Previous Learning Experiences and Teaching Influences
Before critically evaluating my reflections and experiences of teaching in higher education, it is important to reflect – if only briefly – on my experiences as a learner and on my experiences of teaching which have influenced my personal development as a teacher. I consider these points worthy of reflection as one’s experiences as a learner – whether good or bad – are likely to inform one’s style of teaching. To this end, I have chosen to introduce this critical overview by commenting on how my period of study in XXXX as a third year undergraduate in XXXX has informed my current approach to teaching.
The quality of teaching was excellent in XXXX and the teachers endeavoured a high level of enthusiasm and support. These language teachers demonstrated many examples of good practice including: use of worked examples, variety of teaching and learning activities and provision for practice and consolidation of work completed. The aspect of the lessons which helped me the most as a learner was their teaching of how to learn. For the first time in XXXX I saw the way in which teachers successfully integrated study skills alongside the subject. Learning techniques and strategies were based on visual, auditory and kinaesthetic styles of learning. Arthur maintains that ‘while many language learners benefit from visual imagery, others have aural (sound-oriented) or kinaesthetic (motion-orientated) learning style preference, and therefore benefit from linking verbal material with sound or motion (2001: 41).’ The teachers suggested, for example, tape-recording information or writing verbs on post-it notes and placing them around the house. As a result of my positive experiences as a learner, I now integrate study skills in my teaching of XXXX.
I shall now go on to evaluate my reflections and experiences of teaching under the following categories: desired learner outcome, role of the teacher, use of feedback and evaluation in teaching, interaction patterns and underlying ideologies, in order to illustrate my development as a teacher in higher education.
Desired Learner Outcome
‘Many students would like to do what’s expected but don’t know what’s expected and don’t know how (Brown and Race, 2002: 117).’
The citation above suggests that although most students have the desire to fulfil their learning goals, they seem to lack knowledge of what they should be doing (pre- and post- sessions) and how they should be approaching their work. The initial question arises: what are students expected to learn at university? Although, most learner objectives depend to a certain extent on the subject area, students are expected to use a variety of higher level cognitive processes such as ‘theorizing, interpreting, generating ideas and reflecting (Biggs, 1993: 8).’ Otherwise said, in higher education students are expected to meet intellectual as well as skills-based outcomes.
My experience as a school teacher teaching for the first time in higher education enabled me to identity the way in which students transferred their expectations of learning and teaching from a school to a university context fairly early on in the course. I assumed that students would arrive at university already knowing their role was to learn, instead, they just expected to be taught. Teaching first year undergraduates has raised my awareness of the fact that transition from school to university is a key issue for consideration in my teaching. Railton and Watson state that subject specific skills and high-level academic skills are key factors in the transition from school to university and suggest that they should be taught alongside one another (2005: 182).
In accordance with the views above, the desired learner outcome I have in mind – regardless of the course being taught – is for students to become autonomous learners. In other words, for students to develop self-management skills which enable them to undertake learning independently inside and outside the classroom as well as manage their study time effectively. As a result, my first step was to make explicit to learners that as well as developing subject specific skills; the ultimate aim was for them to become autonomous learners. The question remains: how can teachers teach students to become autonomous learners?
Teacher’s Role
‘Students need to become autonomous learners and they need to be made aware that levels of achievement at university are directly related to the development of the skills of autonomous learning (Railton and Watson, 2005: 191-2).’
The observation above has implications for teachers’ roles in higher education. First of all, teachers need to make the students’ responsibilities to learn explicit, as good student learning depends on the role of the student and the teacher. (Brown and Atkins, 1988: 1). From the beginning of the academic year, I have been advising students to ‘go and read’ or to ‘do secondary reading’. As a result of reading for this assignment, I have found that the instruction to ‘go and read’ is useless unless it is accompanied by specific guidance such as what to read, how to read it and what to do with it (Railton and Watson, 2005: 183).
Reflecting back on previous practice, in a school context, I would have given more specific instructions; at university level however, I must have assumed that students would automatically know how to conduct secondary reading. I now realise that teachers need to teach these skills and in future, plan to provide students with more detailed guidance on what is expected of them during the course. Although, this may absorb some seminar time, I think that in the long term, students will benefit from learning how to prepare adequately for lectures and seminars as well as developing their skills as autonomous learners.
Following my reading on autonomous learning, I approached lesson planning with the aim of developing study skills at the forefront of my mind. I attempted to devise seminar sessions incorporating a variety of learner activities to shift the focus from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach. In reality, what tended to happen was that as the teacher, I would initiate and guide the students through all the activities and instead of the students working independently in groups discussing and thinking about the topic, the session would develop into a class effort at guessing the correct answer. The teacher-centred approach that I found myself reverting to is characterised by the way in which I sometimes ask questions and provide the answers straight away or give explanations before the students have had sufficient time to complete the task. I would also direct the conversation prompting a particular answer. According to Newble and Cannon, the autocratic and authoritarian style of leadership I adopted may have produced purposeful activity, but there would have been a limited amount of spontaneous participation’ - ironically this is one of the activities which teachers are trying to encourage. Consequently, my lessons provided little scope for the development of academic skills such as critical analysis or creative thinking. This is corroborated by the student feedback received at the end of the second term. Some students only gave the ability of the module to enhance the areas mentioned above two out of a possible five (see appendix iii).
I plan to improve my practice by giving students a set time limit to complete a task, listening to their responses and only explaining once they have had a chance to respond independently. As a result of my personal reflection and secondary reading, I have learnt that when to explain is as important as knowing how to explain (my emphasis) (Brown and Atkins, 1998: 68). Explaining too much information, too soon can have a counter-productive effect causing students to learn passively. My aim is to dominate seminars less with teacher-talk by focusing instead on student-centred activities that require students to play a more active role and take responsibility for their own learning in lessons.
The Use of Feedback and Evaluation in Teaching
‘A characteristic of award winning teachers is their willingness to collect student feedback on their teaching, in order to see where their teaching might be improved (Dunkin and Precians, 1992: 247).’
In this section I shall discuss the use of feedback from students as a tool for teachers to help evaluate and improve their teaching. Students provide the most direct and immediate source of feedback as they are experiencing the teaching and learning first-hand. The XXXX department requires teachers to carry out student evaluations at the end of each term. The type of questionnaire varies from a comments sheet at the end of term one, to a more generic questionnaire using a number scale at the end of term two.
In the same way that students eagerly await feedback on assignments, teachers are also keen to find out students’ views on their teaching and the module in general. The instruments for gathering data are already set and form part of departmental policy. Therefore, of interest to teachers is to what extent these instruments are effective for gathering student feedback – bearing in mind that each method of collecting data will have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of conducting a questionnaire are that it is an extremely efficient way of collecting student responses and that all students answer the same questions. The disadvantages are that students easily tire of completing these documents which often result in them making ‘unconsidered, off-the-cuff judgements that may not accurately reflect real feelings […] (Brown and Race, 2002: 172). The reading undertaken on conducting student feedback has raised my awareness as to the importance of how and when questionnaires are administered.
The questionnaire conducted at the end of term one, was completed with care and attention because it was carried out collectively and at a point when students were focused. The first questionnaire comprised of open questions which enabled students to provide positive as well as critical feedback specific to the module, (see appendix ii). The second questionnaire was more generic and included a number scale (see appendix iii). This questionnaire did not provide much constructive feedback as the responses were very brief. This could have been due to the fact that it was administered during a break and as a result was completed with little care and attention. It could also be dependent on the format of the questionnaire itself as it is possible for students to misinterpret the number scale and indicate the opposite to what they mean. The more generic type of questionnaire is also limiting as it does not allow students to give detailed comments which refer to the specific module (Brown and Race, 2002: 173).
As a result of consulting literature on the topic of student feedback, I managed to define the problem and find some suggestions made by Brown and Race on how to improve the administration of questionnaires. First of all, I plan to make the value of questionnaires to students explicit by stating that their responses could make a difference to the way in which the module is taught for the remainder of the year –which will directly have an impact on them. Also, I plan to conduct the questionnaires a week earlier than usual – in other words, before the students receive questionnaires from other modules. These measures are intended to encourage students to complete the questionnaires more accurately which should in turn, provide teachers with feedback which is worth of serious evaluation and which could potentially make a difference to the teaching of the module. The final step when implementing a change of any kind in a course is to evaluate whether the change has been effective. This could be done by comparing the student questionnaires which have been administered in a new way to those – perhaps from other modules – which continue to be administered in a traditional fashion. There is always the chance that a newly implemented idea will not work the first time. If this is the case, the teacher can make a slight variation and repeat the cycle taking into consideration what he/she has learnt from their experiment (Newble and Cannon, 2002: xvi). I shall now move onto learning and teaching activities which have been influenced – in part – by feedback received from students.
Interaction Patterns
‘Variety is not only the spice of life. It is the essence of effective teaching
(Brown and Atkins, 1988: 81).’
The two major teaching and learning methods which I have employed to teach XXXX are lectures and seminars. I have conducted these methods in a fairly traditional way: lectures have remained teacher-directed, whereas seminars have been based on small-group discussions of questions set by the teacher on different topics. As a teacher, the expectations I have of my students are to engage with the topic and to interact with one another. However, I have found that the old style of lectures and seminars do not cater for all students. In order to maximise the learning outcome in the classroom, I undertook some research into small group teaching (Exley and Dennick, 2004) and large group teaching (Gibbs, Habeshaw and Habeshaw, 1992). This preparatory reading heightened my awareness of the range of teaching and learning activities suitable for a higher education audience which can also be used as a part of lectures and seminars.
Reflecting back on the desired learner outcome, the main reason for seeking alternative learning and teaching activities is to help students develop as autonomous learners. It is crucial for teachers to provide activities which develop these high-order academic skills such as critical thinking and the generation of ideas. In order for this to occur, students need to assume a more active role in class and – as the title of this section alludes – interact with their peers. According to Brown and Atkins, by including a variety of activities during a lecture, a teacher can ensure that ‘students maintain interest, provide opportunities for students to think and obtain feedback on their understanding (1988: 28).’ There are various ways in which the direction of a lecture can be varied by including activities such as: the teacher questioning students or the students formulating questions, small group discussion of the topic and individual reflection on notes. Evidence from research corroborates that activity heightens arousal which increases ones’ level of performance (Biggs, 1999: 77). The argument above shows that in theory, the use of interspersed activities in the lecture is a good strategy for renewing students’ attention. However, some teachers claim that they do not have time to waste on student activities (Brown and Atkins, 1988: 29). In my view the opposite is true; teachers should perceive student interaction in lectures as an investment in learning rather than a waste of time.
After personal reflection on my style of lecturing and feedback received from my students and colleagues, I have decided to implement the use of buzz groups in my lectures. Student feedback at the end of terms one and two indicated that students enjoyed and benefited from student-student discussions. Feedback from XXXX, suggested that I expose students to a topic before conducting a detailed discussion with the class. I feel that the use of buzz groups may be a solution which addresses issues arising from both sets of feedback. The way I plan to implement buzz groups is to set a discussion topic and invite students to form groups of three or four who discuss the topic set. This activity provides the students and the teacher with a break with the intention that students will return to listening and note-taking revitalised with a renewed sense of attention and concentration. As well as providing a break, teachers could use buzz groups to check on students’ comprehension of the topic (Brown and Atkins, 1988: 29). Buzz groups are also a way for students to engage in social interaction which is likely to enrich their learning experience and also encourage them to use each other as learning resources (The Open University, 1995: 30). In order to understand the impact and effectiveness of buzz groups, the teacher could ask students for informal feedback on the teaching session, or data could be collected from the students by administering a questionnaire. My ultimate aim is for sessions to include teaching and leaning activities which allow the teaching of learning skills alongside teaching of disciplinary knowledge (Railton and Watson, 2005: 187).’
Underlying Ideologies
The final section of this overview ties together my underlying ideologies of teaching in higher education and comments on the extent to which they have been influenced by practical as well as theoretical knowledge of teaching methodologies. Each underlying ideology derives from my experience as a teacher and/or learner and reflects my views on some of the elements which constitute good teaching practice. The principles include: teacher motivation, spontaneity in lessons and the role of reflection in the teaching process.