Category Archives: Reflections

To post or not to post?

A colleague recently asked me what my thoughts were on posting slides before class, after class, or at all. Here was my response, in case it’s helpful. Colleagues, Students: What do you think?

I don’t post them until after class for 3 main reasons

  1. I can’t guarantee they’ll be ready early enough in advance so all students can have a chance to print/review them
  2. Giving them in advance prohibits me from (a) surprising students with reveals, (b) including the clicker answers in the slides (so students can review later), (c) being spontaneous and responsive to that class (e.g., cutting/adding content/examples in response to what that group needs — if students have the slides, then I have to communicate what we *didn’t* get to and what won’t be tested, adding in what slides we build together during class…)
  3. There isn’t any scholarly evidence to suggest they help (on average — I recognize that special needs groups may be different).

I do post the class period’s learning objectives before class though, to help (keen) students prioritize while note-taking. Here’s what I put in the syllabus:

PowerPoint slides and handouts will be available after class on our course Connect site. Learning Objectives will be available there before class. Slides cannot be posted before class because they will undermine clicker questions. Moreover, data shows that having notes in advance rather than after class does not influence performance (Babb & Ross, 2009).

Babb, K. A., & Ross, C. (2009). The timing of online lecture slide availability and its effect on attendance, participation, and exam performance. Computers & Education, 52, 868-881. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.12.009

2015/2016 Student Evaluations Response Part 1: Intro Psych

Thank you to each of my students who took the time to complete a student evaluation of teaching. I value hearing from each of you, and every year your feedback helps me to become a better teacher. Each year, I write reflections on the qualitative and quantitative feedback I received from each of my courses, and post them on this blog. I have graphed the quantitative student evaluations here. Note that I was on sabbatical for the 2016/2017 academic year, so I’m writing these posts in response to 2015/2016 student feedback in preparation for Fall 2017.

A recap on this course: After teaching students intro psych as a 6-credit full-year course for three years, in 2013/2014 I was required to transform it into 101 and 102. Broadly speaking, the Term1/Term2 division from the 6-credit course stays the same, but there are some key changes because students can take these courses in either order from any professor (who uses any textbook). These two courses really still form one unit in my mind so I structure the courses extremely similarly.

Across PSYC 101 and PSYC 102, the two halves of Introductory Psychology, are pretty consistent in how I teach them and the reception they get from students. In both cases, I think the things I need to keep strong are enthusiasm and care for students as humans, as well as a variety of activities during classes, including engaging students with each other, but also lecture, videos, demos. My area for growth is around assessments (i.e., the least fun part of teaching, but an essential part of learning!). Two-stage exams are here to stay – they make test day fun, offer students feedback, and help them learn. After all these years I still haven’t quite managed to find the right balance between textbook-only and class-only material (and do I unassign portions of the text that won’t be tested?). And students have long been calling for representative practice questions. Fingers crossed that MyPsychLab can help with that. [Follow-up: As I suspected, questions in MyPsychLab are not challenging enough. Erg.] Regarding the written assignments with peer assessments, I got a mixed bag of feedback that really only point me at something’s not quite right for some students. I wonder if I need to devote more class time to the exercise (e.g., show examples of papers, feedback, including the grade range to be expected by peers)? Not sure. Time to consult the experts! If you’re interested in a distilled version of student comments, all summarized in a table that sort of compares 101 and 102, interjects some of my thoughts and recommendations for students, here you go…

STLHE Handout

Hello!

Hope to see you at our STLHE conference presentation today: “Contributions and experiences of teaching focused faculty in Canada: Results from a national survey” (CON1.11a at 11:10am in McCain 2116, Dalhousie University). Here’s our handout:

STLHE 2017 Conference Handout Rawn Fox (Final)

Tweet us your questions! @cdrawn @joannealisonfox #stlhe17 #con111a

Our Abstract…

CON1.11a – Contributions and Experiences of Teaching Focused Faculty in Canada: Results from a National Survey

Many Canadian institutions are implementing faculty positions that specialize in teaching, yet little scholarly understanding of these positions exists. We conducted the first national survey of Teaching Focused Faculty (TFF). Launched during STLHE 2015, we surveyed 251 TFF working in 18 institutions across seven Canadian provinces, representing a variety of disciplines and experience. TFF regularly engage in diverse scholarly activities spanning teaching, service, leadership, pedagogical and disciplinary research, and professional development. TFF value their positions more to the extent that they feel integrated as part of departmental and institutional cultures, feel fairly compensated, have clarity regarding promotion and tenure expectations, and participate in mentorship regarding teaching careers. We recommend that institutions continue to cultivate permanent TFF positions to offer positive career paths for people who contribute productively to the educational mission of universities. We offer best practice recommendations for institutions and departments.

Reflections from Yoga Class

One of the gifts I have given myself this sabbatical is a commitment to yoga class. For the past 10 months or so, I’ve been going to yoga class pretty much twice a week (basically whenever I’m in Vancouver). I’m not sure my mind is calmer for it (but maybe it is?), but it’s allowed me to sneak in stretching and core strengthening into my exercise routine — two things I have trouble doing on my own. Recently I’ve been thinking about my yoga classes as adventures in teaching and learning. Here are some of my observations:

  • I enjoy learning in the social context of a class. SURPRISE of the century, I know. But spending all this time in a class has given me the chance to really reflect on that, including my role as learner. I find it motivating to share a physical space with other human beings who also want to learn something I’m interested in learning. I find it motivating to be guided by someone who has deliberately planned a sequence of activities to help me learn and practice skills (whether or not they’re fully “expert”). I’ve met people who are able to practice yoga on their own with videos, but that’s just not me and I’m ok with that. I probably have assumed that my students are motivated by the collective experience of class. What if they’re not? What options can/do I give for students who might be motivated like I am by the collective classroom experience, or motivated differently?
  • As a teacher, I can offer activities and opportunities, but I must do it in such a way as to allow students to go deeper or shallower depending on what they need out of that class/course. That also involves helping students learn to listen to their own needs and trusting that they will make the choice they need to make that day. What’s tricky here is that yoga is optional and there isn’t a final exam. That’s not true in my classes.
  • My regular yoga teacher is inspirational. Her best classes are creative, based in the fundamentals of hatha, and build an arc that begins with warming up specific muscle groups and finishes with a corresponding challenging pose. She explains how movements link to each other, making explicit her pedagogical choices. She brings positivity, and encourages students to listen to their bodies carefully. Her prompts have helped me learn to accept where my body is and what it needs in each moment.
  • Even she gets tired and overworked. She’s been teaching other novice yoga teachers recently on top of her regular teaching. Her classes are still good, and I can tell she’s choosing to focus on what she knows best: the basics of hatha. This is good, but — and I say this lovingly as a fellow teacher — not her best most inspirational teaching. Noticing this about her is helping me reflect on how burnt out I was a year ago and how much I needed a break from the classroom. I love teaching students. It’s fun and creative and in my best moments I’m helping my students create and re-create their understanding of the world. But it’s also exhausting. And after my Aunt died last February I was crawling every day toward sabbatical break. Now more than ever I’m certain it showed in the energy and creativity I wasn’t able to bring to class. Self Care isn’t optional in this line of work.
  • Learning from substitute yoga teachers, novice or experienced, helps me to think a bit differently about my practice. Always learning from the same person–even if she is incredibly skilled and I really enjoy her classes–doesn’t mean I can’t learn insights from someone else, even if I don’t fully love the whole experience (but sometimes I do and that’s great too).

I’ve signed up for a yoga pass that continues indefinitely. My goal is to continue making it to class on Mondays and Thursdays, even after my own classes begin in the fall. Please forgive me when I won’t schedule a meeting that runs past 3pm on those days. I need to engage in this Self Care so I can keep bringing my best.

Laptops in the Classroom?

A few weeks ago I was asked by a colleague how I typically handle the issue of laptops in the classroom. On the one hand, they can be a useful learning tool, and many students like to use them. It’s practically become a perceived necessity for student note-taking. On the other hand, laptops can be incredibly distracting in these days of internet addiction and omnipresent social media. I am not immune to the internet’s pull either, and find it difficult to imagine what it’s like to be a student with that constant distraction.

(I’m reminded of a time when I asked students how they would like to handle laptops and they asked me what happened in my classrooms when I was an undergrad. As I was a relatively young faculty member, they had assumed my classmates all had laptops too. To their shock and horror, I explained it wasn’t an issue because nobody had them back when I started undergrad… last century in 1999!)

Here’s my response to my colleague:

I have a laptop-free zone, after sharing this study by Sana, Weston, Cepeda: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254. I am sure to emphasize the effects of the flickering screen on the people around them, and even ask people to raise their hands if they can see a particular student’s screen. It surprises some folks (especially those who tend to sit near the front, whose screens are in wide view). I explain my role is not to take away their freedoms, but to protect the classroom as a place of learning. If they’re hindering other people’s learning, that becomes my business.
I also discuss “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard” http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581 but encourage them to make that choice for themselves.

What do you think? How do you think laptops should be handled? What are the best solutions you’ve encountered?