A Fun Approach to Academic Journal Reading (Alexander Vickery)
Last semester I was tasked with teaching a course where the problem sets for each seminar were based upon an academic paper. I’m sure that many of you have had the painful experience of conducting a seminar where students were supposed to have read a paper beforehand and for whatever reason they didn’t.
I therefore decided to think of a way to avoid such awkward experiences, specifically, I wanted to make the seminars enjoyable but also productive. Unfortunately for the students there was no way to avoid reading the paper, so I decided to get this over with at the beginning of the seminar. I split the students into small groups and asked them to spend 10-15 minutes reading the paper together and to make notes of the key points (I gave them some pointers of where to focus etc … ). Then, after the reading time was up, we spent the remaining time playing two games. The first game was a simple 10 question multiple-choice quiz using the Cahoot platform. Cahoot is nice because students can use anonymous names and quiz points are not only awarded for correct answers but also for how quickly you answer; naturally there was a prize of the sweet variety for the winners. Then, the second game we played was a game where each group had to say three statements based upon the paper. Two of the statements were correct and one of the statements was a lie. Then the other groups, upon hearing the three statements, had to work out (using only their notes) which of the statements was a lie. We rotated amongst the groups to include everyone and again there is a nice prize for the winners.
In the end, these games turned out to be a lot of fun for both myself and for the students. It provided the students with a comfortable but incentivised environment to read an academic paper.
Response
This is a great idea and practice to do academic journal reading sessions which I have ever come across. Being a PhD student in physics I know how hard is reading literature, the activity you explained in this blog is very useful to make the reading session fun full and at the same time most rewarding. One of the important practices while doing a literature survey is to keep track of the keywords being used in the article, in your activity, you used the quiz to remember the keywords for a long time which is very interesting. (Giri Mani, Department of Physics)
Response:
Hi, I thought this was simple idea which lead to it working very effectively. With complex reading, I think using a simple exercise works best in order to not oversaturate the students with information. I find that even as a postgrad I struggle with reading academic journals, so I definitely would have benefitted from this sort of activity as an undergrad; you are helping them not only in the present, but potentially preparing them for the future too. Additionally, I like the use of Cahoot, and especially the fact that its anonymous, from my teaching experience and my own experience as a undergrad I think could be a very good way to get people to engage that usually wouldn't. Also another good thing about this is that it is transferable between both classroom and online learning! (Ceres Woolley Maisch, department of Earth Science)
This is an excellent activity. I have had to teach classes where the students had to read a paper as class preparation and know how difficult it is to have the students come prepared and get them to engage. I have found that group work works very well in those situations. You have also included the quiz, which makes it more fun, and the anonymous aspect gives them more incentives to participate as they feel less shy about their answer. (anon.)
Untitled (anon.)
A flipped classroom approach to teaching has worked really well for my students.
Basically, I record a 5-10 minute lesson, link the students to the video and let them watch it at their own pace in the classroom. I have them practice the concept themselves and make myself available for questions while they practice. After this, we all re-group, either at the end of class or within the first part of the seminar, to go over the practice they just did.
The main benefit of this approach is that they all have their headphones on while they watch the video, which keeps them from distracting each other. This helps students to be more engaging as they are usually very quiet for the first half of class, especially if they have not prepared for the class. I believe this method could appeal to a large range of learning styles and has the potential for developing key skills such as being able to ‘work with others’, problem solving and students learn to manage their own learning.
There are limitations to this system which only works if the students have 1:1 tech and the school has fast wifi. It also takes more time to set up than a regular lesson, but you can use the same videos for different sessions, year after year, so you save time in the long run.
Response (Vincent Guermond)
I used the concept of the flipped classroom several times now, and I find it very effective too. I find it very interesting that you make students watch the video DURING the class. I usually ask them to watch pre-recorded short lectures in advance to the lesson. However, as you said, it's then quite difficult to know who watched it and this might influence the general conversation. I might try your technique in the future.
Applying a new teaching strategy to make students engaged more with the session (Daim Syukriyah, Economics)
Unlike the past two years where we could meet and deliver our teaching delivery face to face in classes, this academic year was completely different. I had two course modules for the first year students where all of them were conveyed through Microsoft Teams throughout the year. Since two courses that I had to teach mostly were quantitative based modules which involve a lot of steps of formula derivations, I had to find the best way to make students easier to understand the concepts better despite time and tool constraints.
I then applied a teaching strategy by incorporating slightly the Lewinian model as suggested by Kolb (1984). First, I asked students to prepare their answers in advance so they could practice all questions given and submit their answers every week. It is not easy at first because students were quite reluctant about it. However, since out of these submissions, there is going to be one assignment randomly taken for marking, they eventually complied. During the live session in Teams, I then explained in details how to answer all questions and often allowed students to participate and shared their answers with the group. I found some students were shy about this because they would feel intimidated and embarrassed if their answers are wrong, but I always tried to give them encouragement and compliments how excellent they are to keep trying and at the end, they would learn their mistakes. I tried to emphasize that learning is a process to my students so they will not only focus on the outcomes (Kolb,1984). Sometimes, I used examples that are relatable to their daily activities and showed some videos from Youtube for some sophisticated materials. After around 2 weeks, my students were accustomed to my teaching style and engaged to the teaching sessions better throughout the term. At the end of the term, I received positive feedback from students where they were happy with the approach that I took even though the materials were not new for them and the lecturers whom I assisted on their seminars also provided positive evaluations upon my teaching delivery.
Reference
Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Response:
Thank you, Daim, for such an insightful post. I believe we all faced difficulties having to switch to online teaching during the pandemic. It seems that you did a great job at applying Lewinian model to your teaching style. One of the biggest difficulties I faced during my online teaching was also to get students to work in advance and engage during the seminar. I believe that having one of the homeworks graded is an excellent way to incentivise them. In my seminars, this was not possible, so I used to give them ten minutes at the beginning of the seminar to look at the questions and make a start at working through their solutions. That way, I noticed, they engaged much more. Thankfully, we are getting back to face to face teaching! (Elena L.)
Overhead Projector: An outdated tool or something to bring back? (Elena L.)
I had the pleasure of observing my colleague teach a class a few weeks ago. It was a highly mathematical course in Economics, one of those with multiple equations, Greek letters, and numbers that do not divide very nicely…
After she welcomed the class, she turned on none other than an overhead projector! I remember my lecturers using that in some classes, but I never used it myself. She is not much older than me (I am in my fourth decade) and surely is familiar with new technologies, because alongside the good old overhead projector, she had her iPad to read from.
She had pre-prepared notes and questions that she shared with students, as well as multicolour pens and highlighters. She proceeded with the class and showed the students all the workings and derivations step by step on those sheets, adding more details, comments and highlighting some parts. This left me very thoughtful and in love with the machine.
These days we are getting, if you’ll allow me to say this, obsessed about the new technologies and tools. However, many classrooms and lecture theatres still have this projector to be used, but very few do so. Is it because we do not want to look outdated ourselves in the eyes of students? Or do we actually believe that old methods are not good enough anymore?
Both might well be true. I came to a conclusion, which I firmly believe in, that for some courses, especially those with intricate maths, overhead projector might be that one tool that will keep students engaged and attentive throughout the class. Simply showing a bunch of equations on PowerPoint will not do the job, writing them out on the whiteboard might still not be sufficient. However, letting students follow your own handwriting, letter by letter, number by number, commenting together, highlighting together, pausing and waiting, observing them (you’d face them rather than the board), I think that is the key to having learners engaged. Don’t you agree?
Participation, Feedback and Q&A (Grigory Aleksin, Economics)
In my experience, using online interactive resources such as Vevox can help overcome the pervasive lack of participation and engagement of students during seminars. It is often emphasized in the literature that much of the material taught by teachers without interest or engagement from students is quickly forgotten. What's more, it is unlikely that one would be able to encourage students to analyse and apply material learned, or climb any higher, in Bloom's taxonomy, than the memorization stage. The use of Vevox can meet three goals. Firstly, it allows students to contribute anonymously meaning that students are more comfortable coming forward with suggestions. Secondly, many of these online resources have a Q&A function that means that students can ask questions directly and so information can be given out during the seminar while everyone is still present.
There are limitations to this approach. Often, one wants to encourage public speaking and interpersonal skills in students, and so it is important to generate some creative friction and move students outside their comfort zone when giving answers/suggestions. In an anonymous online environment this is difficult to achieve. To this end, I would like to suggest using a object, be that a children's toy or a whiteboard pen, to control discussions. That is, you would select a student to answer a question, and that student, after answering, would then choose somebody else in the classroom to given another suggestion! After the topic has been successfully covered, the object is returned to the teacher. In the future, I would like to make use of this approach more extensively since it has a number of advantages. Firstly, there is an inherent silliness to it which would act as a away to distract students and break the ice. Secondly, the uncertainty associated with passing objects around the classroom means that students are more likey to be engaged with the material. Thirdly, it means that more students are likely to offer suggestions and participate. This would be a good activity that would complement the online interactive resources above by fostering a more collaborative learning environment.
Comment(Sidharth Rony)
The approach discussed in the passage seems to be a well-structured and innovative way to overcome the challenge of lack of participation and engagement during seminars. Using online interactive resources like Vevox can create a comfortable and anonymous environment for students to express their ideas and questions, which can lead to a more engaging learning experience. A potential criticism is that the use of anonymous contributions may not always promote accountability and responsibility among students.
Coding for Economists(Sidharth Rony)
As a coding instructor for undergraduate economics students the main challenge was their unfamiliarity with algorithmic thinking and code implementation. To address this challenge, I utilized two approaches.
1. Using Real-World Examples and Applications
During each session, I allocated 25% of the time to programming concepts and 10% of the time to explaining an economic problem and how it could be solved using the concepts introduced in the session. The students were then given approximately 25-40% of the time to solve the problem, followed by 15% of the time spent discussing solutions from the students and 10% of the time on my solution. I believe this approach can motivate students to learn and develop their coding skills by demonstrating how coding can be applied to practical problems.
Use Visual Aids and Interactive Tools
The second approach was to use visual aids and interactive tools, such as interactive python notebooks in Google Colab for Python and interactive HTML webpages/RMarkdown pages for teaching R. These tools were useful in discussing solutions and errors, as students could share their solutions in an Microsoft cloud document in the class and I was able to run and demonstrate it in the interactive notebook. These tools were particularly helpful for students who struggled with abstract thinking or had limited programming experience.
Overall, I found these techniques to be effective in teaching Python to third-year students and R to second-year students.
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Leovy Echeverría, Ruth Cobos, Liliana Machuca, and Ivan Claros. Using collaborative learning scenarios to teach programming to non-cs majors. Computer applications in engineering education, 25(5):719–731, 2017