Archive for ‘Pedagogy’

I am about to prepare a presentation for an upcoming conference. The topic is effective use of PowerPoint and other slideware for online and blended courses. The topic is all about digital delivery. So, of course, I will begin preparing with PAPER.

P1: Paper
I start with paper for a number of reasons, two of which are creativity and constraint (for more on that, see Presentation Zen by Garr Rynolds). When I can write, draw, and think on paper, I feel free to be more creative. I am not bound by the limitations of a software program.

Rather, my only constraints are the size of the paper and my artistic ability. Artistic ability doesn’t really matter at all, since these drawings are only for me. However, by limiting the size of the paper (sticky notes are my preference), I limit myself to only one idea per note. This mirrors the simplicity I want IF I decide to use a slide presentation.

Paper and pen(cil)* provide the perfect platform for creative conception (I can hear Dr. Avon Malone now…”Always avoid alliteration…”). The thing is, even as a child learning motor skills, I drew. I drew before I could write. I drew before I had the adequate words and syntax to express myself. This childish freedom allows me to think differently than I do even as I write this post.

Paper and pen(cil) allow me to visualize my thoughts, to put on paper a scene that would take pages to describe in detail. This ability for quick visualization frees me to move on quickly, and helps me to see what success will look like even as I begin.

Using paper and pen(cil) is intensely sensory, as well. I am using my hand to create the shapes, feeling the friction of the surface of the paper as I move my pen(cil) across it. The sensory components activate a different part of my brain, allowing me to use more of my mind in my creativity.

As I draw and as I think, I can begin organizing the thoughts freely when I use sticky notes (Garr and Duarte prefer this method). I can move them all over a surface, re-order them, place them aside, or decide they don’t fit with little effort. This process is also highly sensory, and as I use my body, my mind is engaged in a way that I believe is superior to moving a pointer on a screen.

P2: Prepare
Next, I write on my computer. It’s like a script, but it’s really a paper. Now that I have organized my thoughts, I expand. I wouldn’t even necessarily use a computer, but I can type faster than I can write longhand. I love this part, because I never know exactly what I think until I write it down.

Once my thoughts have been put into words, I think about how to visually support the main points. If visuals will help support my information, then I make a slide, find a prop, or decide visuals aren’t’ helpful. There are some key things to consider. First, everyone in the audience should be able to see it. Second, it should not compete with my spoken message (like a lot of text would). Third, it needs to increase understanding of my point – simplification is the purpose.

P3: Practice
Yes, practice matters. A polished presenter practices perpetually (Yes, Dr. Malone, I remember. I just LIKE a lot of alliteration). Practice your words. Practice your pauses. Practice your emotion. Practice your movements. Practice WITH your visual aids.

P4: Present
The time for the presentation will finally come. I’m feeling good about presenting this material at this conference because I know I will be prepared and practiced. Time to get started.

So, the Four P’s of Power Presentations are
1)Paper,
2)Prepare,
3)Practice,
4)Present.
Got them?
Perfect.

*I prefer a dry erase board or a Sharpie©

My mother made me say it, even when I didn’t want to say it. “Thank you.” I was forced to write thank you cards, call and say thank you, and to say thank you to people I didn’t know who complimented her by complimenting me. I disliked it very much as a child, but now, I think that “Thank you” is the most important phrase in my vocabulary.

What does this have to do with teaching? Simply this – say thank you! It can make you seem more affable to your students, and can even begin to make you feel more appreciative when interacting with them.

Here is an easy way to use this grateful phrase and enhance group discussions at the same time. When you ask a question to the whole class, after each response (right or wrong), say “Thank you. Who else?” You don’t affirm the answer, but you do affirm the answerer, which encourages more learners to attempt an answer.

It might look like this.
Instructor: “What did Jesus mean when He said, ‘Blessed are the meek.’
Student 1: “I think He meant that you don’t have to be strong to be blessed.”
Instructor (NOT laughing): “Thank you. Who else?”
Student 2: “I always thought it meant that Christians have to be meek if we want to survive the Rapture.”
Instructor (NOT cringing): “Thank you. Someone else.”
Student 3: “Doesn’t it have something to do with, like, not being overpowering or a bully?”
Instructor (encouraged): “Thank you. One more.”
Student 4: “I think it has more to do with being humble and submissive to God.”
Instructor (hopeful): Thank you all for your responses. Let’s take a look at this Beatitude.”

“Thank you” thus creates a safe context for students to think, guess, and risk embarrassment of being wrong. The risk is minimized because your response becomes welcomingly neutral. After fielding a few answers, without calling on anyone as the right or wrong answerer, go on with your lesson. You may be surprised how, after a week or two, students become much more willing to participate in class discussions, all because you followed your mother’s advice and said, “Thank you.”

As we fill our instructional minds with thoughts of going deeper, going higher, and going across curricula, there is one tried and tested learning technique that stands out as the repeat champion of learning – repetition! Indeed, if we want to go deeper, we must also have wide knowledge. If we want our students to synthesize, they must have a firm grip on knowledge. If we want connections across curricula, learners must have knowledge across those curricula. As we strive for higher, deeper levels of learning, we must not leave out that base level of knowledge. As we have all learned when we wanted to remember a list of terms, the steps in a process, a telephone number, or even someone’s name, repetition reigns supreme. We say it over and over to ourselves so that we remember.

We use lots of tricks to remember, and they work for adults as well as for children. Songs, rhymes, and chants help us to recall information that could otherwise be inaccessible in our brains. For instance, how many of us can say the alphabet easily without singing it? What about the books of the New Testament? I’d never get past the Letter to the Romans if I wasn’t singing.

God calls us, in fact, to have lots of repetition to remember important things, especially in the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV) In other words, say it, read it, remember it over and over and over.

Repetition helps us to remember, and we must remember before we can connect or take knowledge deeper, higher, or across. Use this ancient wisdom and build opportunities for repetition into your courses. Here are a few tools to do so.

– “Turn to your neighbor and try to remember the names of these XNumber concepts.”
– Use an acronym for key terms.
– Have students recite a key phrase or concept with you, then to each other.
– Have students give each other mini-oral quizzes before transitioning to another concept.
– Prepare short mini-quizzes for students to take on mobile-devices on the material you have been covering.
– Have students make flash cards for an assignment to help them remember key terms.

When it comes to remembering, repetition is Learning’s Repeat Champion!

There they are – students – faces in their hands, some with their heads on the desks, eyes barely open. What is an instructor to do? The most exciting presentation skills, the newest PowerPoint transitions, even the turn-to-your-neighbor think-pair-share activities don’t seem to break this cycle of disengagement. Professors, instructors, teaching assistants, it is time we stand up for learning! In fact, don’t stop there – have your students stand up for learning!

This trick really is that easy – ask your students to stand up. It’s not a punishment or shame, it’s a learning technique. Break the pattern of sitting idly by, and have your students stand to interact. Dr. Jean Feldman, renowned in early childhood circles as an active learning guru, said this about children and adults alike: “You learn on your feet, not on your seat!”

She has a point. When we stand, we immediately increase our heart rate from the sitting position, which means the brain gets more oxygen, which means our minds are more ready to process information and think creatively. If you want to enhance the effect even more, have your students take a few steps. If they then have to count the steps, they are accessing a part of the brain that works mathematically, and are now using more of their brain than they were when they were sitting and listening to the lecture.

Here’s how this might look in a face-to-face Communication class as a planned activity.

Instructor: “Let’s think about this together. First, everyone stand up.” (Pause for students to stand) “Now, everyone take 11 steps in any direction and pause for more instructions.” (Pause for students to take steps) “Find two other people who are closest to you so you are in groups of three, then wait for the question.” (Pause for groups to form) Now, as a group see if you can recall the major group roles we discussed, then decide which ones you think you saw in our case study this morning.” (Pause for discussion) “Okay, now each group choose a reporter and tell me one role you saw demonstrated in the case study. This group first!”

In this example, the discussion was not limited to one or two students who happened to be paying attention. Everyone in the class was engaged in discussing the application question. Furthermore, everyone in the class was brought out of their comfortable, sleepy seats to interact with students in the class that were previously unaccessible. Yes, some students were annoyed they had to stand up and interact. They wanted to stay seated and sleepy, not engage in the learning. The wise instructor, however, would not allow such apathy. She took a stand for learning.

Takeaways:
You learn on your feet, not on your seat.
Stand up for learning by having students stand up.

What’s the best way to teach? Is it lecture, group discussion, or active training? Is it social or individual? Is it classical or constructivist?

The best answer to this question, I think, is to ask a different question – how does the student best learn? It’s not about the techniques or the technology. It is not about statistics or surveys. Understanding how learners best learn is about relationship. The best way to reach a student, influence a student, and meet a student’s needs are to focus on that student, get to know that student, and love (agape) that student.

This might mean you have an ongoing relationship with 200 students or more. It might mean you have 3 or 4 students you directly mentor.That relationship helps us to understand what motivates a student as an individual, and when we can motivate a student, we can help them learn. As a colleague of mine said recently, “I remember well my teachers that loved me.” I do too, and those are the teachers from whom I learned the most. It is so much easier to learn from someone I like, and that I perceive cares about me.

We talk in academia about child-centered and learner-centered education, meeting a learner’s specific and individual needs. That is important, and the learner truly needs to be at the center of our model. Add meeting those needs to a relationship of agape love, and that equals the best way to teach. At least, that is, for this learner.