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Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Using This Resource

I. Preparing to Teach
Planning a course
--Defining Instructional Objectives
--Teaching and Learning Styles: The   Academic Culture
--Choosing and Using Instructional   Materials
--Writing a Syllabus
--Syllabus Checklist
--Using the Syllabus in Class
--Summary of Course Planning
Addressing Students' Needs
--Importance of Knowing Your   Students
--Planning Considerations
--Getting to Know Your Students
--Students of Different Backgrounds
--Students with Disabilities
--Teaching Strategies: Non-Native   Speakers of English
--Creating a Learning Environment
--Dealing with Disruptive Behavior in   the Classroom
--Common Disruptive Student   Behaviors and Possible Responses
--Dealing with Apathetic Students
--Cultural Differences for International   Instructors
--Summary of Addressing Students’   Needs
Teaching Tips
--Organizing Class
--Ways to Be Accessible Outside the   Classroom
--Six Common Non-Facilitating   Teaching Behaviors
--Wireless in the Classroom: Advice   for Faculty
--Summary of Teaching Tips

II. Teaching Methods
The First Day of Class
--When the Class Meets You
--When You Meet the Class
--Diversity the Instructor Brings to the   Classroom
--Conversing with Students with   Disabilities
--Moving Forward
--Summary of the First Day of Class
Lecturing
--Strategies for Effective Learning
--Advantages and Disadvantages of   the Traditional Lecture Method
--Enhancing Learning in Large   Classes
--Chalkboard Technique
--Writing Assignments in the Lecture
--Engaging Women in Math and   Science Courses
--Formulating Effective Questions
--Summary of Lecturing
Discussion
--Brief Overview
--The “Nuts and Bolts” of Discussion
--Facilitating Discussion of Sensitive   Issues
--Encouraging Student Contributions
--Alternative Instructional Methods
--Potential Problems in Discussions
--Summary of Discussion
Expanding Teaching Strategies
--Practical Examples
--Show and Tell
--Case Studies
--Teaching with Case Studies
--Guided Design Projects
--Brainstorming
Group Work
--General Information about Using   Groups
--Group Work in an Introductory   Science Laboratory
Science Labs
--The Role of the Lab Instructor
--What Do the Students Need to   Know?
--The First Day
--Planning and Running a Laboratory
--Safety Procedures
--Summary of Science Labs
Teaching Outside the Classroom
--Tutoring
--Office Hours
--Teaching Students to Solve   Problems
--Advising and Extracurricular   Activities
--Summary of Teaching Outside the   Classroom
Overcoming Misconceptions
--Societal Attitudes and Science   Anxiety
--Misconceptions as Barriers to   Understanding Science
--Common Difficulties and   Misunderstandings

III. Teaching-as-Research
Assessing Student Performance
--Establishing Objectives for   Assessment
--Assessment Primer
--Formulating Effective Methods of   Assessment
--Helping Students Succeed on   Assignments and Exams
--The Why and How of Tests
--Grading Lab Reports, Problem Sets,   and Exam Questions
--Grading Checklist
--Grading Specific Activities
--Grading Writing
--Summary of Assessing Student   Performance
How to Evaluate Your Own Teaching
--Evaluating Your Own Teaching
--A Note on Teaching-as-Research

IV. Appendices
Inspirational Essays
--Mathematics: The Universal   Language of Science
--Transforming Quizzes into Teaching   and Learning Tools
--Teaching My Students to Fish
--Chemistry: The Other Foreign   Language
--Teaching to Different Modes of   Learning
--Notes from a Career in Teaching
Additional Resources
Websites
Graduate Assistant Handbook Outline
--Department- and Institution-Specific   Information
--18 Questions to Have Answered

Works Cited

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Learning Styles

In recent decades, studies have shown that students have varying learning styles, and that no single teaching style fulfills all students’ needs. Learning styles have very little to do with the students’ motivation or attitude toward the class or the material. Often, professors and TAs complain that some students do not apply themselves to their studies, and therefore do not learn well. However, it may be that the teacher simply has not yet addressed these students’ particular needs in class, and that new approaches will reach the students more effectively. A student’s learning style has to do with the way he or she processes information in order to learn it and then apply it.

Professor Richard Felder of North Carolina State University (Felder and Porter, 1994) has described some of these varied learning preferences:

Some students may be visual learners, and prefer to study graphs, look at models and pictures, and take notes to review later. Such students react well to extensive blackboard use, (especially drawings, models, etc.) and handouts with illustrations.

Verbal learners are likely to absorb reading materials and lectures more easily than other students are. They seem to learn best from written materials, rather than from visual materials such as graphs and illustrations. Most university teachers are verbal learners, and thus find it easiest to relate to and teach such students.

Both tactile and kinesthetic learners prefer “real-life” connections to the topic, rather than theoretical approaches. They are “active learners” who learn best by physically doing things, rather than reflecting about them by themselves, and thus they react well to group work. They may also often learn by induction rather than deduction.

Sensing learners are tactile learners who favor subjects that allow them to work with their hands. These students learn best by handling objects as they apply their knowledge: they enjoy using objects of interest to the topic, such as original documents, photos, magazines or natural objects. Sensing learners may be kinesthetic learners who learn and remember by moving around physically. Moving students into small groups or pairs for discussion, having them participate actively in an experiment, or getting them to “act out” a debate by placing them on opposite sides of the room will help this type of student to remember the content of the discussion.

Most instructors and students find deductive methods – starting with abstractions or principles, rather than beginning with experience or hard data – to be easier to use in a course setting; however, they are not as effective in teaching as inductive methods are.

These different learning styles explain why, in most classes, the student evaluations show that some students see group work as the most important part of their learning experience, while others from the same class complain that they dislike group work and find it unhelpful. Providing a variety of approaches to the material can keep most of the students engaged in the class throughout the semester.

Global learners seem more likely than others to see a project as a whole and have trouble breaking it down into its component parts. Teachers who expect them to start analysis from abstract concepts in order to reach a conclusion may find themselves as frustrated with the result as the students are. Abstractions may be difficult for this kind of learner, because they grasp information in large chunks and have a hard time analyzing a topic from incomplete information. This type of student is excellent at synthesis, and by the end of a class may even outpace his or her peers in coming to appropriate conclusions quickly; however, he or she often has trouble understanding material when first faced with a variety of pieces of information that make an incomplete picture.

Sequential learners, on the other hand, are good at analysis of concepts because they learn linearly. When doing a project, they can take partial information and organize it into a logical order, and they can see what must be done first, next and last. They are patient with the fact that a typical class gives them information in a certain order, and that they must wait until the end of the semester to get the full picture the teacher is trying to present. Since most classes are organized sequentially, this kind of learner excels in the typical college class.

No teacher can make all students happy all the time; partly because of the diversity of learning styles in any class, and partly because each person uses a particular mix of the learning styles discussed above. No student is 100 percent a global learner or 100 percent a tactile learner. Preference for one style over another may be strong, moderate, or balanced. However, it is important to recognize that learning styles differ, and that your students may not learn well if you use only your style.

In order to teach everyone most effectively, a teacher cannot consistently ignore a whole sector of the class simply because their learning styles do not correspond to the teacher’s preferred teaching habits. To reach as many students as possible, the teacher must incorporate varying teaching techniques and strategies into the classroom. Lectures may be appropriate for verbal learners, and group work may be appropriate for kinesthetic learners, but using any teaching style to the exclusion of the others will also exclude those students who do not learn best by that style.

Felder (1993) has devised a useful list of five questions teachers can ask themselves as they get to know their students:

Such questions will provide the basis for choosing a balance of teaching methods and techniques that are the most effective. Any teacher must eventually decide which mix works best for the subject matter and for the kinds of students in a class. The questions themselves suggest that a teacher should begin with a variety of approaches, and, after deciding which are the most effective for the students, select techniques to add to his or her repertoire.

Teaching Techniques to Address All Learning Styles⁶

• Motivate learning. As much as possible, relate the material being presented to what has come before and what is still to come in the same course; relate it to material in other courses, and connect it to the student’s personal experience (global).
  

• Provide a balance of concrete, sensing information (such as facts, data, real or hypothetical experiments and their results) and abstract, intuitive concepts (such as principles, theories and models).

• Balance material that emphasizes practical problem-solving methods (sensing/active) with material that emphasizes fundamental understanding (intuitive/reflective).

• Provide explicit illustrations of intuitive patterns (such as logical inference, pattern recognition and generalization) and sensing patterns (such as observation of surroundings, empirical experimentation, and attention to detail). Encourage students to exercise both patterns (sensing and intuitive). Do not expect either group to be able to exercise the other group’s processes immediately.

• Follow the scientific method in presenting theoretical material: provide concrete examples of the phenomena the theory describes or predicts (sensing), then develop the theory or formulate the model (intuitive/sequential).

• Use pictures, schematics, graphs and simple sketches liberally before, during and after the presentation of verbal material (sensing/visual). Show films (sensing/visual), and provide demonstrations (sensing/visual), hands-on if possible (active).

• Use computer-assisted instruction when possible; sensors respond very well to it (sensing/active).

• Do not fill every minute of class time with lecturing and writing on the board. Provide intervals, however brief, for students to think about what they have been told (reflective).

• Provide opportunities for students to do something active besides transcribing notes. Small-group brainstorming activities that take no more than five minutes are extremely effective for this purpose (active).

• Assign some drill exercises to provide practice in the basic methods being taught (sensing/active/sequential), but do not overdo them. Also, provide some open-ended problems and exercises that call for analysis and synthesis (intuitive/reflective/global).

• Give students the option of cooperating on homework and class assignments to the greatest possible extent (active). Active learners generally learn best when they interact with others; if they are denied the opportunity to do so, they are deprived of their most effective learning tool.

• Applaud creative solutions, even incorrect ones (intuitive/global).

• Talk to students about learning styles, both in advising and in classes. Students are reassured to find their academic difficulties may not all be due to personal inadequacies. Explaining to struggling sensors or active or global learners how they learn most effectively may be an important step in helping them reshape their learning experiences so that they can be successful (all types).

The Academic Culture and Teaching Styles⁷

As you saw in the previous section, students’ learning styles vary, and a teacher might have a complex mixture of students in a single class. However, the average college teacher is much more likely to be sequential, verbal and reflective than his or her students are.
 

Students are encouraged to work individually, and achievement is measured by their ability to produce “original” materials or answers. Instructors generally emphasize individual accomplishment, verbal assertiveness in class discussion, and competition for grades instead of collaboration. As a matter of fact, the academic community often discourages or even punishes collaboration, because it fears the heightened potential for plagiarism in a collaborative effort. Such a teaching method encourages learners who already share the teacher’s learning style, but it slows down learners who must adapt to conditions of learning that do not come naturally to them.

Thus, a dominant “academic culture” exists in college classrooms, which enables sequential, verbal, and reflective learners to progress quickly to advanced positions in a field. This leaves behind equally intelligent and resourceful students who must wonder if there is a place for them to excel in the academic world.

Learning Styles⁸

Whatever the similarities and differences in learning styles and intelligence among our students, we can help all of them by employing a range of active learning approaches (talking and listening, writing, reading, reflecting) and varying teaching techniques and strategies (lectures, videos, demonstrations, discovery labs, collaborative groups, independent projects). Moreover, by using a variety of teaching techniques, we can help students make sense of the world in different ways, increasing the likelihood that they will develop conceptual understanding.

Active Learning

Those who have studied the learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have concluded that students learn best if they are engaged in active learning, if they are forced to deal with observations and concepts before terms and facts, and if they have the sense that they are part of a community of learners in a classroom environment  that is very supportive of their learning.

The ways in which your objectives are carried out will either facilitate or hinder what you are trying to accomplish with students. This is why it is important to “fit” your teaching techniques to both your course objectives  and to your students’ varied learning styles.

 Asking Questions¹⁰

Instructors can help students become active learners by motivating them with open-ended questions , puzzles, and paradoxes. What happens when. . . ? Why does that happen? But how can that be, when we know that. . . ?

Full integration of new knowledge is enhanced by time to reflect. Reflection is especially beneficial immediately following the presentation of new, challenging material. One effective method (Rowe, 1974) is to provide, after ten minutes of lecturing, short periods (a minute or two) for students to think. The necessary structure can be provided by a pertinent question.

An alternative to asking questions is to ask students to summarize some important ideas from a previous discussion or the reading assignment. This focuses their attention and gives the teacher an opportunity to assess their level of understanding. Because students’ disposition to learn can be influenced by the knowledge or mental frameworks they bring to class, assessing for prior knowledge is an essential component of teaching for active learning. Students often approach learning situations with misconceptions or with prior knowledge that actually impedes learning. Students are most likely to change their beliefs if they first develop dissatisfaction with those beliefs and recognize possible alternatives as they prepare themselves to adopt a new, more acceptable view.