One challenge that came up in my lectures on theories of human personality was how to make the classes more interactive while maintaining a tight and organised lesson structure. We would typically have very lively and engaging discussions, however these lacked direction and would sometimes divert the flow of the lesson. I was also looking for a way to channel these interactive elements into problem-based learning activities (Barrows, 1986), as it is believed to foster deeper, critical engagement with the material.
I ended up using short “anchored instruction” segments at strategic points through the lectures by presenting an element (a short video clip, a pop-cultural artefact, a historical event, or an episode from the life of a famous person) which would then serve as an illustration of some important theoretical concept, and as a springboard for a subsequent group-level discussion. For example, I started one lecture by playing a short advertisement for a chicken burger, in which the burger was framed as “manly” and flavourful through a contrast with a mock advertisement for a vegetarian burger. I then asked the students to discuss the advert in their groups and to come up with a list of the thematic oppositions that the clip was using to create meaning (e.g., ‘meat’ vs ‘vegetables’, ‘male’ vs. ‘female’, ‘American’ vs. ‘Scandinavian’, ‘excess’ vs. ‘restraint’, etc.).
The benefits of this approach were threefold. First, it allowed the group to explore an interesting and relevant concept in semiology through a practical task, which helps to ground abstract knowledge to a concrete problem, and facilitates the transference of knowledge onto new situations (Savery & Duffy, 1995). Second, it allowed for collaborative learning. And finally, it helped to break up the monotony of the mostly theoretical lectures by introducing some opportunity for participation.
References
Barrows, H. S. (1986). A taxonomy of problem-based learning methods. Medical education, 20(6), 481-486.
Savery, J. R., & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational technology, 35(5), 31-38.
By Nicky Dawson
In my lab class teaching, I introduced an end-of-term ‘pub quiz’ for my group. This involved creating a set of short-answer questions based on the material covered that term (e.g., “There will be a significant difference in IQ score between males and females”. Is this a one-tailed or two-tailed hypothesis?). I got the class to divide themselves into teams and asked them 20 of these questions, giving them a maximum of 10 seconds to write down their team answers. Afterwards, we went through each question as a whole class and discussed the correct answer. The winning team received a prize (usually chocolate!).
I decided to do this based on research showing that ‘retrieval practice’ enhances learning (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011). In other words, testing students’ knowledge can be used as a tool for learning as well as assessment. The researchers showed that retrieval practice had benefits for learning over and above more traditional methods, such as active elaborative learning tasks (for example, concept mapping), with this effect being observed in 84% of the students they tested. While testing has traditionally been viewed as a means by which to retrieve information already stored in memory, according to these findings, it is the reconstruction of this information which helps to promote learning. This finding has been replicated many times, and retrieval practice has been shown to be effective in naturalistic settings, such as schools and colleges (see Agarwal, Bain, & Chamberlain, 2012, for a review).
Another benefit of running the end-of-term quiz was that it provided an opportunity to discuss the answers and clarify any issues relating to the content covered over the term. Research has demonstrated that providing feedback on quizzes not only means that students can correct their initial errors, improving subsequent retention, but it also doubles retention for correct answers that students did not feel confident about (Butler, Karpicke, & Roediger, 2008). Therefore, both the process of testing knowledge and the provision of feedback can enhance students’ learning.
Finally, and relating to Lilla’s post below, the quiz was designed to be fun for students and to create a relaxed setting for learning. Low-stakes testing can play an important role in building and consolidating information in memory, and the evidence discussed above all suggests that this will be beneficial for retrieval when it comes to more formal testing situations.
References
Agarwal, P. K., Bain, P. M., & Chamberlain, R. W. (2012). The Value of Applied Research: Retrieval Practice Improves Classroom Learning and Recommendations from a Teacher, a Principal, and a Scientist. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 437–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9210-2
Butler, A. C., Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Correcting a Metacognitive Error: Feedback Increases Retention of Low-Confidence Correct Responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 34(4), 918–928. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.34.4.918
Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval Practices Produces more learning than concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772–775. Retrieved from 10.1126/science.1199327%5Cnhttp:search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hch&AN=59179948&site=ehost-live
An interesting blog on the topic: http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog/better-studying-less-studying-wait-what
By: Hanna Rooslien
During my first year of undergraduate study, our biology class consisted of 800+ students. A challenge when it comes to ensuring course success, and additionally providing them with important soft and transferable skills. The course coordinator had started using PeerWise a couple of years earlier in this course and presented this option to us. PeerWise is an online platform that allows students to create own multiple choice questions (MCQ), and answer, rate and discuss questions authored by other students (e.g. Denny et al. 2008). The course coordinator explained that it had been successful in previous years, students generally enjoyed it, and marks improved. He suggested that our cohort could also use it if we wanted to. However, if we were to choose this option, then participation would be mandatory and count for 5% of our grade (if we chose to decline, then these 5% would be added to lab-class attendance instead). A large majority wanted to use the platform, so we did. As a student, I found the experience as fun and I, as well as most of my peers, did very well in the exams. On reflection, however, I think that deeper lessons were also learnt.
Firstly, the fact that the coordinator gave us the choice whether to use the platform or not gave us the opportunity to be in control of our learning. This aligns well with student-centred learning which has been linked with better outcomes than traditional approaches (e.g. Freeman et al. 2014; Wilson et al. 2018). A reason for why it may be associated with higher performance could be that may improve the student’s confidence in their ability to successfully self-study. First year undergraduate students have been shown to be insecure about their abilities to complete higher education (Fazey and Fazey, 2001), and thus giving students the freedom to choose may signal to them that experienced researchers believe they have those skills. Additionally, this may be further facilitated by the nature of the platform – it is the students who create, answer, rate, and discuss each other’s MCQs, leading to improved performance for all students (e.g. Purchase et al. 2010; Denny et al. 2010). In other words, our perceived control over our own learning increased, and with that our confidence in these abilities.
Secondly, it made us engage with the material to figure out good questions and answers. Research has shown that by using tools such as PeerWise improve exam outcomes (e.g. Hancock et al. 2018; Duret et al. 2018), and more engagement with the tool is positively correlated with exam performance (Duret et al. 2018; Denny et al. 2010; Purchase et al. 2010). One reason for this may be because students must actively (as opposed to passively) learn the material when creating questions and explaining the answers (e.g. Denny et al. 2010; Aleven and Koedinger, 2002). Moreover, the students need to deeply engage with the material to author questions that could receive high ratings, possibly encouraging the preferable ‘deep’ learning in contrast to surface learning (e.g. Bottomley et al. 2011; Biggs, 1985).
Thirdly, we had to trust the other students to provide appropriate and useful questions. There were worries that relying on peer-study would result in worse exam results despite reassurance from course coordinators that it has not been the case in earlier years. It was found that medical students using PeerWise shared this concern that their peers would provide lower quality questions (Walsh et al. 2017). However, the study also demonstrated that question quality was appropriate. A similar study found that although there were some minor errors in some questions overall the quality was appropriate, and engagement with the platform correlated with improved course performance (Purchase et al. 2010). This points towards that students are able to author good quality questions that are useful for them and their peers to learn the course material, possibly facilitating respect and team-work amongst students.
In summary, the use of this tool seemed to have provided us with skills to independently and actively learn, learn with peers and colleagues and respect their abilities, and showed us that we were able to oversee our own learning. Reflecting on this experience it is interesting how implicitly (and easily) we gained some of the soft skills we did. Moreover, the teaching staff did not have to do much at all – in fact, they said that they even use some MCQs from PeerWise on the exam. Perhaps this is a tool that could benefit Royal Holloway’s taught degrees?
Aleven, V., and Koedinger, K. An effective metacognitive strategy - Learning by doing and explaining with a computer-based cognitive tutor. Cognitive Science, 26, 147-179. 2002
Biggs, J (1985) The role of metalearning in study processes. Brit. J. Educ. Psych. 55, 185–212.
Bottomley, S., & Denny, P. (2011). A participatory learning approach to biochemistry using student authored and evaluated multiple‐choice questions. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 39(5), 352-361.
Denny, P., Hamer, J., Luxton-Reilly, A. and Purchase, H. (2008). Peer-Wise: Students sharing their multiple choice questions. Proceedings of the Fourth international Workshop on Computing Education Research, New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 51–58
Denny, P., Hanks, B., & Simon, B. (2010, March). Peerwise: replication study of a student-collaborative self-testing web service in a us setting. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 421-425). ACM.
Duret, D., Christley, R., Denny, P., & Senior, A. (2018). Collaborative learning with PeerWise. Research in Learning Technology, 26.
Fazey, D. M., & Fazey, J. A. (2001). The potential for autonomy in learning: Perceptions of competence, motivation and locus of control in first-year undergraduate students. Studies
Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H, Wenderoth MP. 2014. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111:8410–8415
Hancock, D., Hare, N., Denny, P., & Denyer, G. (2018). Improving large class performance and engagement through student‐generated question banks. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education.
Purchase, H., Hamer, J., Denny, P., & Luxton-Reilly, A. (2010, January). The quality of a PeerWise MCQ repository. In Proceedings of the Twelfth Australasian Conference on Computing Education-Volume 103 (pp. 137-146). Australian Computer Society, Inc..
Sykes, A., Hamer, J., & Purchase, H. (2018) PeerWise as a Vehicle for Uncertainty-resolution to Enhance Student Learning. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, Volume 6, Issue 1, pages 55-65
Walsh, J. L., Harris, B. H., Denny, P., & Smith, P. (2017). Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance. Postgraduate medical journal, postgradmedj-2017.
Wilson, A. B., Brown, K. M., Misch, J., Miller, C. H., Klein, B. A., Taylor, M. A., ... & Lazarus, M. D. (2018). Breaking with tradition: A scoping meta‐analysis analyzing the effects of student‐centered learning and computer‐aided instruction on student performance in anatomy. Anatomical sciences education.
Psychology is taught by those working in academia, so it is unsurprising that most of the content, examples and issues covered are those most relevant to academia. However, most of our students may not plan to pursue a similar career. Given that employability is a major motivation for students (Glover, Law & Youngman, 2002), we could strike a better balance of examples relevant to broader careers.
This year students seemed to be far more engaged with, and better interpreted the results of, a research project about gender bias in recruitment than about memory for animals versus objects. From discussions with students, it seemed to be due to its link between research and real-world practice (McCormick, Kinzie & Gonyea, 2013).
I would not argue that all examples should be applied, and as other posts mention, ‘fun’ or comic examples make complex topics accessible (Powell & Andresen, 2006). However, even these may be regarded as too abstract and may not always encourage deeper engagement or understanding beyond the immediate assignment. A mix of approaches and styles is needed.
Even current attempts at engaging employability issues have mixed success (Cramer, 2006). For example, simply working in groups is not necessarily sufficient to learn how to work in a group effectively (Channon, Davis, Goode & May, 2017). The course I teach on plans next year to incorporate more explicit development of skills, such as discussions of different roles and working styles (Channon, Davis, Goode & May, 2017) into group work.
Sometimes real-world relevance is omitted because it is not something those teaching (such as PhD students) have sufficient experience with or time to learn, and we usually have limited influence over the content we teach. However, contextualising graduate learning outcomes and incorporating employability examples into class preparation may encourage students to engage more with the material (Knight & Yorke, 2003; Senior, Reddy & Senior, 2014; Jorre de St Jorre & Oliver, 2018).
It seems to be a poor justification to limit students’ employment options outside of academia just because those who teach them chose to stay. For example, when switching undergraduate statistics teaching from SPSS to R, some universities have found the greatest resistance not from the students, but from lecturers reluctant to need to learn a new skill.
REFERENCES
Channon, S., Davis, R., Goode, N. & May, S. (2017). What makes a ‘good group’? Exploring the characteristics and performance of undergraduate student groups. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 22, 17-41.
Cramer, S. (2006). Enhancing graduate employability: best intentions and mixed outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 31, 169-184.
Glover, D., Law, S. & Youngman, A. (2002). Graduateness and Employability: student perceptions of the personal outcomes of university education. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 7, 293-306.
Jorre de St Jorre, T. & Oliver, B. (2018). Want students to engage? Contextualise graduate learning outcomes and assess for employability. Higher Education Research & Development, 37, 44-57.
Knight, P. & Yorke, M. (2003). Employability and Good Learning in Higher Education. Teaching in Higher Education, 8, 3-16.
McCormick, A., Kinzie, J. & Gonyea, R. (2013). Student Engagement: Bridging Research and Practice to Improve the Quality of Undergraduate Education. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 28, 47-92.
Powell, J. & Andresen, L. (1985). Humour and teaching in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 10, 79-90. Senior, C., Reddy, P. & Snior, R. (2014). The relationship between student employability and student engagement: working toward a more unified theory. Frontiers in Psychology: Educational Psychology, 5, 238.
Not all courses offered at university attract the student’s interest right away or even worse are met with anxiety- for example statistics courses mandatory for a lot of fields is often met with “statisticophobia” (Dillon, 1982). The self-motivation might be low and students would not voluntarily engage with the subject, making it hard to teach facing anxious and unambitious learners. Wilson (2013) faced this problem by restructuring a whole course following the idea of “flipping” the classroom also known as „inverted lecture“ (Gehringer and Peddycord 2013) or „inverted classroom“ (Strayer 2012). The flipped classroom refers to a change of teaching objective resulting from the vast availability of knowledge online or from other resources – because most information can be found on the world wide web, teaching content during class is less essential, but the application and understanding of knowledge should be focused on. This can be achieved by introducing learner-centred activities like problem solving tasks or group discussions. Wilson (2013) therefore moved “transmission of knowledge” out of the classroom by implementing mandatory reading and offering online sources covering the courses content while the class includes more activities like group work on problems and presentations. After these changes, students rated the class and instructor higher and the student’s grades improved compared to previous cohorts. A study by Missildine, Fountain, Summers and Gosselin (2013) used the flipped classroom in a quasi-experimental design to evaluate its effects and found also a better performance for the flipped classroom-group of students, but they showed less satisfaction with the course compared to traditional lecture only and lecture and lecture capture back-up. I think the application and understanding of content should be moved into the focus of classes more, like the flipped classroom suggests, but more research might be necessary especially on anxious students to ensure that the increased direct contact with peers and the constant performance evaluation do not increase anxiety.
Dillon, K. M. (1982). Statisticophobia. Teaching of Psychology, 9(2), 117-117.
Gehringer, E. F., & Peddycord III, B. W. (2013, March). The inverted-lecture model: a case study in computer architecture. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 489-494). ACM.
Missildine, K., Fountain, R., Summers, L., & Gosselin, K. (2013). Flipping the classroom to improve student performance and satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Education, 52(10), 597-599.
Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning environments research, 15(2), 171-193.
Wilson, S. G. (2013). The flipped class: A method to address the challenges of an undergraduate statistics course. Teaching of Psychology, 40(3), 193-199
Beatrice Hayes
The concept of transformative learning theory takes into consideration the role of alternative perceptive thinking as a tool to alter one’s frame of reference (Mezirow, 1996; Cranton, 1996). In relation to teaching adults, in particular, learners can often be fixed within a particular style of thinking and can struggle to alter their perceptions in order to discuss, evaluate and critique from varying perspectives. Transformative learning theory proposes that by altering perceptions, learners can broaden their educational horizons (Taylor, 2017).
A useful way of fostering this transformative learning ethos is to provide a tangible change of reference. Specifically, the educator can provide real-world examples to contextualise learning; learners have a more concrete perspective to consider (Taylor, 2017). Within my own teaching, I have found an interesting link between digital storytelling and transformative learning theory.
Digital storytelling involves using digital platforms to outline a narrative (Robin, 2015). As an educator within the Psychology department, I have found this particularly useful in relation to discussing and critiquing studies with my first year students. Below highlights each stage of digital storytelling followed by an example of how I have put this into practice:
1.Point of View : purpose and perspective.
i. Discussing the aim of a psychological experiment and why the researcher may have decided to explore this area. Digital aspect: a mind map incorporating the ideas of my students
2. Dramatic Question: question posed and answered by the end of the narrative.
i. What is the research question/hypotheses of this experiment. Digital aspect: summarising the mind map with a single sentence – I would often write this in capitals or in another colour on a whiteboard, I will also draw learner’s attention to this throughout the narrative.
3. Emotional Content: a powerful or personal element.
i. Relate this experiment to personal experiences or to greater real-world contextual experiences. Digital aspect: images/videos which link to the experiment, perhaps of previous similar experiments or of alternative experiments which suggested/provided conflicting results.
4. Gift of Your Voice: personalising the story context.
i. Relate to my own personal experiences. Digital aspect: images/videos.
5. Economy: content and detail.
i. Divide the experiment by sections and give to small groups to read rather than getting all learners to read the entire report, then report back. Digital aspect: Each group has this section printed out for them and they then spider diagram ideas around it on a large piece of paper to support them when reporting back.
6 .Pacing: speed and pace.
i. Ensuring that learners have enough time to discuss and record ideas without rushing them or taking too long. I often play this by ear and follow the learners in response to how long they say they need.
In summary, it is beneficial to engage learners with a more experiential learning experience. By applying real-world experiences with sensory foci, learners are more likely to alter their perceptions and discuss and critique more effectively.
Robin, B. R. (2015) The effective uses of digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool. In Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts (pp. 429-439). New York, NY: Routledge.
Mezirow, J. (1996) Toward a learning theory of adult literacy. Adult Basic Education, 6(3), 115-127.
Cranton, P. (1996). Professional development as transformative learning: New perspectives for teachers of adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Taylor, E. W. (2017). Transformative learning theory. In Transformative Learning Meets Bildung (pp. 17-29). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.
Aysha Bellamy
Mancuso, Desmarais, Parkinson & Pettigrew (2010) described the ‘disappointment gap’, which means that students have higher expectations of their own ability at university than what they can realistically achieve. This disappointment gap influences drop-out rates (Lowe & Cooke, 2003) and increases depression (Greenaway, Frye & Cruwys, 2015), so we must be able to address this as teachers. The disappointment gap drastically effects under-achieving students, or those receiving one grade less than they expected (Cole & Gonyea, 2008). If under-achievement affects disappointment, then we must try to decrease this. One factor that may lead to under-achieving, particularly amongst students who are predicted higher grades, may be their aversion to taking risks, preferring a by-the-book approach to writing essays and lab reports (Ames & Archer, 1988).
In relation to statistics, this inability to take risks does raise issues. Statistics is commonly taught to have a right or wrong answer at undergraduate level, which disadvantages our MSc students. In fact, statistics is subjective, with the modern alpha value of 0.05 debatable (Dienes, 2018). Thus, this fear to fail may discourage students from actively engaging with their data to begin with.
How can we as teachers encourage thinking outside the box, and reduce this fear of failure in under-achieving students? I will try to keep my suggestions as generic as possible to any discipline:
• Bring in personal experiences: I’ve often had students tell me that they wouldn’t show their face again if they got less than a 2.1 in any assignment. I tell them that I got a 2.2 in second year, and I am still doing a PhD here, so there is always hope!
• Reframe negative thoughts: A mature, English-as-second-language student (who had never studied statistics before this year) told me with despair how she could only answer the first two questions of her exam. I pointed out that going from no experience, to confident in two statistical tests in such a short time was phenomenal, and the rest we could help with.
• Encourage class discussion: Prince (2000) suggests that both too much or too little peer work can reduce student ability, so try small group-discussions to expose students to different interpretations of their assignment (Mulder et al., 2014).
• Encourage under-achieving students to become involved with voluntary research roles: Under-achievers often see the biggest increases in engagement from these roles, and they often improve their grades, too (Haave & Audet, 2013).
In summary, we as teachers are uniquely available to help students to bridge their gap between underachieving and receiving the grade that they want and expect from their degree.
References:
Ames, C., & Archer, J. (1988). Achievement goals in the classroom: Students' learning strategies and motivation processes. Journal of educational psychology, 80(3), 260.
Cole, J. S., & Gonyea, R. M. (2008, May). Differences in high school engagement and college expectations between underachieving and overachieving students. In annual meeting of the Association for Institutional Research. Seattle, WA.
Dienes, Z. (2018, 26th April). Introducing Bayesian analysis. Retrieved from https://moodle.royalholloway.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4182 on 28th May, 2018.
Greenaway, K. H., Frye, M., & Cruwys, T. (2015). When aspirations exceed expectations: quixotic hope increases depression among students. PloS one, 10(9), e0135477. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135477
Haave, N., & Audet, D. (2013). Evidence in Support of Removing Boundaries to Undergraduate Research Experience. Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 6, 105-110.
Lowe, H. & Cook, A. (2003). Mind the Gap: Are students prepared for higher education?, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 27,1, 53-76. DOI: 10.1080/03098770305629.
Mancuso, M., Desmarais, S., Parkinson, K., & Pettigrew, B. (2010). Disappointment, misunderstanding and expectations: A gap analysis of NSSE, BCSSE and FSSE. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. Available online at http://www. heqco. ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/NSSEBCSSEFSSEENG. pdf.
Mulder, R. A., Pearce, J. M., & Baik, C. (2014). Peer review in higher education: Student perceptions before and after participation. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(2), 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787414527391.
Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of engineering education, 93(3), 223-231.
Hi Aysha,
I really enjoyed your post highlighting student’s aversion to risk taking, particularly within statistics. I was able to really identify with this concept, as I, myself, often felt anxious during statistics lectures and workshops during my undergraduate degree. Having been a competent Psychology A-level student, I had high expectations of myself upon commencing my degree and therefore focused closely on doing “well” and avoiding mistakes. During my statistics lectures, workshops, etc I found the content challenging and a definite step-up from my A-level experience and subsequently found myself avoiding “playing round” with software and analyses due to my fear of getting it wrong. I actually found that engaging with the content in my spare time really boosted my confidence as I felt I could be riskier in the safety of my home.
With your post in mind, I think linking students’ personal experiences with their learning could really support them in overcoming their fear of taking risks. In my own teaching, I will encourage my students to make connections between the statistical content and their own everyday lives in order to bring a real-world context to their thinking. I will also encourage them to spend time experimenting with the data and seeing what happens, rather than sticking to a rigid step-by-step guide. By allowing students to personally engage with the data and relate personal experiences, this may encourage a safe space for them to take the leap and subsequently take more risks.
Thanks again for your interesting thoughts!
Best,
Beatrice
Whilst demonstrating in statistics workshops (and teaching at primary school level prior to this) I have realised that accounting for individual differences whilst teaching is important to increase engagement and help students succeed. I have noticed that engagement can be particularly low for shy students.
The following three tips are for dealing with shyness in the classroom:
1. Involve them: It can be easy to wait for students to call upon you when they need help (particularly as a demonstrator), and engage mostly with the outgoing students, but it is important to pay attention to everyone (Cox, no date; Hatch, no date). I have found that it is useful to be friendly and chatty with all of my students, greeting them individually. This ensures that everyone feels comfortable, and this strategy gets more students asking questions.
2. Ask questions: Whilst we are on the topic of asking questions, it is important that teachers ask questions too. If a student is stuck and needs help, but feels a bit too shy to put their hand up, they might not fully understand some key material. I have found that it is useful to go around the classroom asking all students how they are getting on, because this provides the opportunity for them to get help without having to catch my attention.
3. Treat everyone the same: It might be obvious that some students are shy, but it is important not to single students out for this, as it could make them feel more nervous (Romano, Papa & Saulle, no date). If I realise that some students need prompting, and might want me to initiate interactions, I make sure that I am also initiating interactions with other students in the class.
These references also provide more tips for dealing with shy students:
Cox, J. (no date). 5 teaching strategies for working with shy students. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/5-teaching-strategies-working-shy-students
Hatch, A. (no date). 7 great strategies for dealing with shy students. Retrieved from https://boredteachers.com/blogs/the-faculty-room/7-great-strategies-for-dealing-with-shy-students
Romano, L., Papa, L., & Saulle, E. (no date). 4 simple strategies to help a shy student. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/4-simple-strategies-help-shy-student
Louisa Thomas
Some good advice and, as a shy student myself, I absolutely agree not to ‘pick on’ the quiet students to force engagement, especially in class-level discussions. As you say though, it is important not to forget about them, and to keep an eye out for opportunities where they seem like they might feel comfortable to contribute.
Thanks for this summary, Louisa – I agree that this is an issue in almost every class. One additional method that I’ve found helpful is to use ice-breakers so that students get to know one another better (ideas on inSTIL **here** – I usually use ‘two truths and a lie’). In my experience, if shy students feel comfortable within the group, as well as with the teacher, then they are more likely to engage and contribute at class level.
Nicky Dawson
In this video I talk about a teaching method which I found useful during my seminars. In my experience it is usually a good idea to ease up the mood in small groups where students have to do most of the talking. Seminars having a lighter side to them are not only easier to lead, but also helps the students' learning. Studies have shown that people process information in a very different way when they feel stressed. More on:
Lilla Hodossy
This a lovely video, Lilla. It certainly demonstrates your creativity and ability to engage different audiences and makes reference to an important and growing academic discipline, the intersection between neuroscience and education. You may be interested in the Education and Neuroscience Initiative that the Wellcome Trust and Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) established back in 2014. They funded six ambitious research projects with the aim to develop and evaluate the impact of educational practices informed by neuroscience.
Adam Jowett
I find this idea particularly interesting to be used in Mathematics lectures. These lectures generally follow a series of humdrum theory-problems and do not allow the students to be engaged. As a consequence, most of the students just automatically take notes and lose track. Perhaps, it would be useful to start the lecture by introducing a real-life example that students can recognize and that may increase their interest on the mathematical concept.
Maryele1
Small group teaching is an effective technique for engaging otherwise shy or reserved students. Compared to class-level activities or discussions, small group work is often incorporated to create a more comfortable environment for all students to contribute to a given task. Hopson and Scally (1981) found that the use of smaller groups complimented the diverse nature of groups and increased student participation. More recently, Young and Talanquer (2013) found that small group activities were a favourable learning technique associated with increased student engagement. It may be common for students to feel intimidated by class-level discussion and consequently be less engaged with forms of academic instruction that focus on discussion of informed opinions in relation to literature and research, such as the seminars I teach to undergraduate Psychology students.
Intuitively, those who are less engaged during such activities are likely to receive less benefit from the seminar compared to a session that has been tailored to accommodate their reluctance to contribute. However, to acknowledge and account for student diversity we should recognise that not all students are shy and reserved and they may react poorly to being divided into groups of unknown peers to unknowingly accommodate quieter students. From personal experience, it can be difficult to divide students into smaller groups to take advantage of this effective technique without compromising another fundamental aspect of the classroom environment, developing and maintaining good student-teacher rapport to equally encourage engagement. Comprising student-teacher rapport may consequently make the teacher less approachable, a characteristic that has been rated as one of the most desirable by students (Delaney et al. 2010; Voss & Gruber, 2006).
A technique for dividing a class into groups while removing some or all the responsibility for their formation from the teacher was suggested to me by an academic who coordinates the seminars I teach. She suggested I should place one of four coloured cards on each desk before students arrive. These cards could then be used to divide them into groups during the seminar. I have since used this technique and experienced less resistance when asking more outgoing students to move away from their friends and work with unknown peers. Personally, I also feel this encourages students to engage in discussion rather than chat with their friends, although Hopson and Scally (1981) propose that shy group members should be supported by allowing them to work with friends. It may therefore be most productive for small groups to be comprised of both known and unknown peers, which I have found to be the case when using the random allocation of coloured cards in practice.
References:
Delaney, J., Johnson, A. N., Johnson, T. D. & Treslan, D. L. (2010). Students’ perceptions of effective teaching in higher education. St. John’s, NL: Distance Education and Learning Technologies.
Hopson, B. & Scally, M. (1981). Lifeskills Development. McGraw5Hill: Berkshire.
Voss, R., & Gruber, T. (2006). The desired teaching qualities of lecturers in higher education: a means end analysis. Quality Assurance in Education,14(3), 217-242.
Young, K. & Talanquer, V. (2013). Effect of different types of small-group activities on students’ conversations. Journal of Chemical Education, 90(9), 1123-1129.
Comment
This is a really interesting post and it sounds like this technique has worked really well. The creation of small groups outside of the usual friendship circles sounds like a really good way to encourage discussion. This is definitely something I will try and do myself.
Rachel White
I begin seminars, politics and international relations, by presenting the students with a series of questions on the week's topics and then breaking them up into small groups-3-4 students. But I am aware of gender balance in groups, and it is interesting to watch the small groups, that are gender balanced, negotiate between themselves the answers to the questions that they present to the seminar group.
Michael Murphy
This is an interesting post. From my experience, I found that splitting the class in small groups is an effective way of stimulating and encouraging discussion. Nonetheless, I have noted that some students, whether quieter than others or simply unprepared, might take avdantage of the small groups technique to fade into the background, consequently having little, if any, interaction with the rest of the class. This usually occurs when the small group is made up of close friends. They spend time chatting rather than discussing the assignment, and then let the best or more interested student speak. The technique you outline sounds useful to avoid students resting on the input of the more interested ones. Having said that, I have sometimes found the division in pairs rather than small groups more effective, as all students are compelled to talk. In doing so, the teacher will never be considered a 'bad guy'.
Stefano Serafini
Thank you for sharing the colour coded technique of splitting students into groups. I think this is a creative technique, as I find that students in my tutorial groups tend to organise themselves into friendliness, gender and oftentimes racial lines as well. Sitting choices in lecture settings are also usually along these lines of familiarity and perceived commonality. This makes it rather challenging to organise them into groupings that ultimately results in splitting them up. I also found in some classroom settings that group exercises become successful if properly managed and in an inclusive manner in which all members are expected to contribute to group presentations. This can enable us avoid the potential pitfall whereby some members can hide behind the group settings and achieve anonymity. I intend to apply this method in my practices..
Stephen Joseph
Great idea for splitting students into groups. I have used a technique of giving each student a number and then place all students with the same number in the same group. This is the same technique you discussed but using numbers instead of colours. However, this division worked more for me when I used it with first year students. As students become more experienced, they want to stay in their own created clusters, and feel less reluctant to move around, especially also if I am teaching late in the afternoon or towards the end of term. Also, even though I divided students up using numbers, some still lacked the motivation or confidence to join the group discussions. Therefore, I agree with the suggestion mentioned above to divide students in pairs, which is also favourited by Ryan (2000). I also suggest appointing roles in every group, so one student can become a note-taker, another can retrieve information from the Internet, and so on.
- Evronia Azer
Thank you for sharing such interesting post. It is often the case when students come to the first seminar of the term, they sit next to their friends and form a group amongst themselves. While it creates a comfortable environment for them to discuss within the group, it generates (more) room for distraction, such as chatting or joking about something completely different from the class. It also isolated the students who come to the class alone and sit at the edge of the room. So I think by creating groups outside of students’ comfortable circles can be a more effective way to encourage students to concentrate on the class and to interact with each other. I will definitely give it a try.
CupOfCoffee
Jessica Barber
According to Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill and Krathwohl (1956), there are six main cognitive domains that are important educational settings: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Optimal educational programmes should include all six elements of cognition. While during the seminars I have taught, many of these domains are addressed, a novel idea for teaching in these settings would be to structure the seminar based on a progression through these domains of thought. Such structuring would, I believe, ensure that learning progresses to sufficient depth during each session.
As detailed by Exley and Dennick (2004), Bloom et al.’s taxonomy can be mapped onto different methods of questioning. Through the use of different types of questions, I believe that seminars could be structured to move from surface knowledge to the deeper levels of learning associated with synthesis and evaluation. This method would not need to take the format of a tutor-led question and answer session. Students could be directed to work independently for some elements, and in pairs or groups for others and each of the domains could be addressed using various activities. Student debates, for example, would be particularly suited to incorporate ‘evaluation’.
To demonstrate this approach, example questions/activities for each level are detailed below.
1. Knowledge (recall of facts): Please describe the aims, methods and findings of the research paper.
2. Comprehension (extension of knowledge): Please compare and contrast the methods used in paper A with those used paper B.
3. Application (use of knowledge in new situations): Can you think of a real-world setting where these findings could be of use?
4. Analysis (consideration of assumptions, reasons and evidence): Do the authors of this make any assumptions? What are they? OR How do the results of papers A and B fit together?
5. Synthesis (development of new ideas, concepts or plans): Please design a follow-up study in light of the results of the research article.
6. Evaluation (judgements on the basis of given criteria): Please evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this article/method/theoretical approach.
References:
1. Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.
2. Exley, K., & Dennick, R. (2004). Small Group Teaching: Tutorials, seminars and beyond. London: RoutledgeFalmer, Taylor and Francis Group.
This is a very good point Jessica! These seminars are also good platform to help students to apply and practice the aforementioned evaluation skills on their own performance.
Research shows that these processes can help students take control of their own learning, i.e. become self‐regulated learners. You can read about the identified principles of good feedback practice that support self‐regulation here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572090.
Lilla Hodossy
Technology today is developing rapidly, and mobile devices are increasingly being used for more than just communication. A recent survey demonstrated that these devices are being integrated into the classroom and the overall learning experience (Bradford-Networks, 2013). The more traditional method of student response and interaction at class level has used handheld remote controls called ‘clickers’; however, with many students now owning their own device, schools and universities can save valuable funds by using the devices the students already have and know how to use. Additionally, the development of creative apps and websites enables the teacher to provide a more diverse, interactive and engaging experience than with the clickers alone (Wang, 2014).
One such creative platform is Kahoot!, a game-based student response system that takes the form similar to a TV quiz show, whereby the teacher ‘hosts’ the quiz and the multiple choice question is presented on a shared screen, for example via an overhead projector. Students have to answer questions on their group or personal device as quickly and accurately as possible. A leader board of the top scoring students/teams is shown, which has been shown to increase motivation and competitive energy within the classroom (Wang, Elvermo & Gamnes, 2014). The distribution of answers selected by the class also provides the teacher with useful feedback concerning areas that students find easier or more difficult.
Some benefits of using a platform like Kahoot! is that it is free for teachers to use, there is a wide library of quizzes already available, and it is simple to create new custom-made quizzes, which are tailored to the students’ subject and ability. Students do not need a Kahoot! account to take part – they have a game code which allows them access to participate. Research reports that 90% of students think that interactive game quizzes are motivating and fun, and appreciate the immediate assessment of their performance (West, 2013). Teachers also see the benefits: they report higher engagement and attention from their students. I would consider using an online quiz platform like this when teaching next, either as an end-of-class activity to check understanding or as the first class activity to revise previous topics and increase student engagement before the seminar.
Hannah Connolly
References:
Bradford-Networks. (2013). The impact of BYOD in education (pp. 1e16). Bradford Networks.
Wang, A. I. (2015). The wear out effect of a game-based student response system. Computers & Education, 82, 217-227.
Wang, A. I., Elvemo, A. A., & Gamnes, V. (2014). Three social classroom applications to improve student attitudes. Education Research International, 14.
West, D. M. (2013). Mobile learning: Transforming education, engaging students, and improving outcomes. Brookings Policy Report.
Great post Hannah! Interesting! I recently came across a guide that teachers can use to help them implement technology into their teaching (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0719.pdf). Using this guide, I recently implemented Socrative (https://socrative.com), an app which teachers can use to ask their students questions. Students’ answers appear live on the screen and are anonymous.
-David Morgan
This is a great idea, Hannah. I’ve often used quizzes as a fun way to check recall of what has been learnt during sessions. Instead of using the usual paper and pen, or a scoreboard on a white board, I know students will love being able to use their smartphones. This is definitely one I’m going to try.
George Eustice (Media Arts)
This is a great idea – I’ve been thinking about using online quizzes in my lectures, but I had never heard of Kahoot!. One way I think I could implement this is by inserting very short quizzes based on the required reading at the start of each lecture – that way I’ll know which aspects of the lecture I can focus on, plus I hope that it will emphasise the importance of doing the reading before class.
“Every teacher before they draw on the board: I am not an artist”. Traditionally, teachers are expected to uphold their professionalism in the classroom. This tradition deprives both the teacher and student of the enjoyment that can be experienced within teaching and learning. Teaching and learning is not always an enjoyable experience and can lead to boredom for both student and teacher. Indeed, in a recent survey 60% of undergraduate students reported being bored in lectures (The Guardian, 2009).
Boredom is a longstanding issue yet to be resolved in education, which if left to persist may hinder students’ education (Smith, 2007). So, what is the solution? Humour! Humour is a transcendent form of communication which can be used to encourage a group of individuals to engage in any given topic. Research has demonstrated that humour increases student engagement, reduces boredom and reduces the stress associated with learning difficult subjects (Forston & Brown, 1998; Moran & Hughes, 2006; Prodanović-Stankić, 2011). So why is humour so effective in the classroom?
In my own experience, humour can be used to disseminate a complex task which at first may seem dull to students, but through humour it becomes interesting. For instance, in one of my classes students were instructed to design an experiment which tested the relationship between two variables. My solution: Correlate one variable with the likelihood of binge watching a series on Netflix. Students were immediately engaged and came up with a few funny correlational designs (e.g. number of coursework assignments due vs. likelihood of binge watching a series on Netflix). Students’ demonstrated that they could retain this information for upcoming coursework assignments, an evidenced benefit of using humour to aid memory (Schmidt, 2002)
Here is a useful link on the do’s and don’ts of using humour in the classroom https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-humor-in-the-classroom-maurice-elias.
References:
Fortson, S. B., & Brown, W. E. (1998). Best and worst university instructors: The opinions of graduate students. College Student Journal.
Moran, C. C., & Hughes, L. P. (2006). Coping with stress: Social work students and humour. Social Work Education, 25(5), 501-517.
Prodanović-Stankić, D. (2011). Using humour in teaching English as a foreign language at more advanced levels. Zbornik Instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 43(2), 254-265.
Schmidt, S. R. (2002). The humour effect: Differential processing and privileged retrieval. Memory, 10(2), 127-138.
This is a really nice idea! By drawing on the ‘bored’, you have identified a way to alleviate this problem. My only advice would be that certain styles of humour, such as sarcasm, tend to be culturally-dependent, and if your class comprises a diversity of nationalities and languages, be wary of anything that could be misinterpreted by non-native English speakers. Other than that, anything to make your classes more fun is likely to increase engagement, retention and attendance, so I can see how this would be an effective teaching strategy to include.
Hannah Connolly
I can't agree more with this post. The reality is that students are often bored in lectures, seminars... And while some of them may always be dificult to engage (even with humour) a lot of them will respond to it very well. As Hannah comments,and as a non-British student myself, I do think it's important to take into account culture and check that what's funny for someone it's funny for the rest of the class and doesn't offend anybody. But in general, humour is a powerful tool that can improve learning and make classes something enjoyable. I believe it's perfectly compatible with being professional as a teacher.
Silvia Fraga Domínguez