Best Practices on Teaching & Learning

Dr. Maan A. Kousa

Associate Professor

Department of Electrical Engineering

Sep 11, 2014

Why should I care?

• Duty• Valuable Opportunity for

Experience.• Building a Good Reputation• Paving the Road for Future Career• ………

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Things’ I Have Learned about Teaching

• The most valuable service an instructor can provide to his students is to motivate them

• The last thing you want a class to be is a transcription session

• Students will not put more effort than you.

• Students cannot keep attention for long periods, no matter how interesting the subject is.

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Retention Versus Delivery Methods

5%

15%

25%

50%

70%

90%

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ho

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Lectures

Reading materials

Visual materials

Demonstrations

Discussions

Teaching others

Demonst

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Lectu

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Teac

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Discu

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Visua

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Effective Teaching Methods for Large Classes, J. Carpenter, U. South Carolina, 2006

Teaching method Percent

Most Valuable Lecture + Discussion 38%

Lecture 20%

Jigsaw 19%

Case Study 13%

Team Project 10%

Least Valuable Jigsaw 31%

Lecture 30%

Team Project 21%

Case Study 18%

Lecture + Discussion 0%

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Scope of Presentation

• Introduce tips that:– Engage Students– Can be used in class– Do not require class or material

restructuring.

• Because:– Everyone can try– Less resistance from students– Build the “culture” of participation

gradually.

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Why to Engage Students?

• Deeper Impact• Longer Retention• Enhance independent learning.• Improve student concentration.• Student ownership of their learning.• Development of interpersonal skills• More fun, less Boring

(both to student and instructor).• Improves student evaluation !• ….

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Discussion-Stimulating Questions

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Why Do We Ask Questions

• Review of Material• Assess Student Understanding.• Draw Students Attention• Transitioning • Arousing Interest• Maintain Discipline • Stimulate Class participation

– convert lectures to dialogues.

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Features of DSQ

• Not YES/NO questions.• Designed for Higher level of thinking

• “2/3 of questions asked in a classroom required only recitation of a memorized text as a satisfactory answer” (1912)

• “Overwhelming proportion of questions asked by college professors were on the memory level”. (1982)

• Has anything changed today?

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Bloom’s Taxonomy:6 levels of Cognitive Thinking

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Com

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App

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Ana

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Eva

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ion

Describe, List, Define, name, state

Associate, compare, distinguish, differentiate, interpret, order

Apply, demonstrate, modify, prove, construct, develop, establish, use information in new situations.

Analyze, arrange, connect, divide, infer, classify, explain, correlate

Compose, generalize, plan, substitute, create, formulate, integrate, design, anticipate, compile, negotiate, "what if"

Assess, convince, conclude, judge, support, criticize, defend.

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Why HOT Questions?

• More stimulating than purely descriptive questions.

• Those who “do not know” can participate

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And …

• Phrase your question Clearly.– What did we say about FS ? !

• Ask one thing at a time:– What are the disadvantages of X, can we

remove them all, how and at what cost ?!• Write Down Your Questions.

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• 20% of students do 80% of the talking.

• When teachers ask questions they typically look for immediate response from students.

• Allowing few seconds for the response …– Promotes self-thinking

– Promotes higher levels of participation and longer responses.

– The frequency of “I don’t know” decreases.

– Improves language use, attitudes and teacher expectations.

(Gambrell, 1983; McTighe,1988; Stahl, 1994)

Response Time

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How much RT is needed?

• Allows nearly every student to complete the thinking needed for the task.

• Matches the “HOT” required.• Takes into consideration the Language

Barrier• Keeps students on board.

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Watch Your Feedback

• Reinforce good responses.• Praise the student in a strong

positive way– “Absolutely correct”. “I like that”.

• Make comments pertinent to the student response– You were so careful to include all

the conditions.• Build on Students responses

now and then.

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Student-to-Student Q&A

• Let students answer each other.• Encourage students to ask review

questions to their peers.– We learn by asking questions more than we

do by answering them.– What is harder for us, setting exams or

solving them?– “It is better to ask some of the questions than

know all the answers”.

Feedback

Response

Time

HOTPrepare

S-S Q&A

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5 Tips for DSQ

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Think-Pair-Share (TPS)

T P S

Teacher poses

Q

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PAIR Phase

Think

Think

Share

SharePair

What do we gain from …

Compared to …

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PAIR• Advantages:

– Guaranteeing that everyone would have thought in the THINK phase.

– Refining their thinking as well as the language used to explain their perceptions in a non-threatening environment.

– Students in many instances learn better from each other then from their instructor.

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PAIR• More Advantages:

– Realizing the benefits of sharing ideas with peers.

– Less confident students have the opportunity to rehearse their ideas and be encouraged to present them in front of the class.

– To Improve the communication skills with colleagues of the same level.

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Now, when we SHARE …• Students who would never

speak up in class are now both required and enabled to participate.

• The classroom is no longer dominated by a few students, but is open for contribution from all.

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Management of TPS

• Manage the “Think time”, “Pair time” & “Share time”. The longer the time “less discipline” environment is more likely to happen.

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JIGSAW

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Effective Teaching Methods for Large Classes, J. carpenter, U. South Carolina, 2006

Improvement from Pre-test to Post-test

Teaching Method Mean Diff Rank

Jigsaw 2.97 1

Case Study 1.88 2

Lecture 1.624 3

Lecture + Discussion 1.156 4

Team Project 0.78 5

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Advantages of JIGSAW

• Every student learns from his peers.

• Every student teaches his peers.

• Cooperation by Design• Typical for problem

solving sessions.

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JIGSAW at work !

Home and Expert Groups

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3

11

15

710 6

2 14

812

4 16

59

1 133

11 157

1062 14

8 124 16

5 91

13Study Groups

TeachingGroups

Remarks

• The class layout needs little adjustment• The instructor goes around to facilitate the

work of the groups when needed.• Some groups may complete the task early.

Prepare some time filling.• A comprehensive quiz may be given at the

end of the session to students on individual basis.

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How students feel about JIGSAW

• We act spontaneously.• We ask all types of silly questions that never dare to put to the

instructor.• Practice our teaching skills.• We can discuss in Arabic.• Assess our understanding of the subject.• Rank oneself against other students.• No chance to feel bored or sleepy.• Time passes very fast.• Some room for fun

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Did you like any of the ideas

In this presentation?

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