![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2018-06-19_12-01-31.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\nOn June 19, 2018, I had the opportunity to attend an AAC&U Webinar entitled:<\/span><\/p>\n Teaching Techniques to Improve Learning and Ensure Classroom Success<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It caught my eye because of the presenters, as fantastic people who have important things to say on the topic of teaching techniques and because of the quality of everything I have ever seen AAC&U produce. <\/span><\/p>\n The presenters were as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n They each started out with an overview of how they see teaching and learning.<\/span><\/p>\n Barkley<\/strong> sees college teaching techniques as a way to make learning about teaching and learning more digestible. She recommends we consider breaking these big ideas and extensive research into bite-sized chunks. She used a recipe metaphor in thinking about how to grow our skills and knowledge about teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n The Rules of Engagement in NEA Higher Education Advocate, by Elizabeth Barkley<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Bowen<\/strong> said that we need to look for ways to design our instruction in such a way that our students do the work, instead of us taking on the entire burden. He showed us a picture of a really buff guy and compared that to how we think about our own research. We may love doing 200 pushups at a time, while our students may just be tackling their first few and experiencing challenges we have long since forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are content experts and students are on the outside.\u201d We have to think about the entry point for them into our subject matter.<\/span><\/p>\n Howell Major<\/strong> shared how complex teaching is\u2026 We need to consider how we:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to do these base level things and to be able to do them really well, teachers have to have a special kind of knowledge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pedagogical content knowledge<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhere really great teaching happens is in the middle part, where the two things come together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n How do faculty learn how to teach more effectively?<\/span><\/p>\n Another way to deepen that pedagogical knowledge is through educational research.<\/span><\/p>\n Interactive Lecturing: A Handbook for College Faculty 1st Edition, by Elizabeth F. Barkley (Author), Claire H. Major (Author)<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Q. Is there a particular technique for student engagement that you have seen work in a lot of different contexts?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A. Barkley<\/strong> – Teaching and learning is more complex and is a larger task than a single technique. I introduce techniques with a framework that refers more of a design approach. Have to attend to many elements, including: motivation, active learning, create tasks that were challenging – but not too hard, valued as a part of a community, and addressing cognitive and social emotional elements.<\/span><\/p>\n One technique that works is the contemporary issues journal. Connect them to the themes within the course.<\/span><\/p>\n Contemporary Issues Journal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Q. What would you say is the most valuable thing that higher education has to offer students in terms of learning and how can we ensure that students can have access to that learning?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A. Bowen<\/strong> – \u201cWe are in the change business.\u201d Great teachers should want to make themselves obsolete. Most of what they need to know, we can\u2019t teach them anyway. Learning how to change is vital. Learning how to change one\u2019s mind. This happens in a course, and across a campus. How do students become more self-regulated in their learning, how to change themselves?<\/span><\/p>\n Neuroscience helps us think about teaching. The flight or flight reflex impacts our ability to learn. The techniques we are talking about help more at-risk students. There\u2019s a disproportional benefit to transparency, for example, to at-risk students.<\/span><\/p>\n Q. Lecturing has been demonized. What are your thoughts on the research on active learning vs lecturing.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A. Howell Major<\/strong> – All lecture (100% lecture) is compared to lecture plus active learning. That\u2019s what is most often being compared. What happens if you add active learning to your lecture? Straight lecture benefits more traditional white male students, but even those students do better with active learning. More marginalized students benefit even more.<\/span><\/p>\n What the research helps us see is not what works (for sure), but what could work. Collecting data helps us see who these approaches are working best for\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n She spends a lot of time thinking about both what she is doing as the teacher and what the students are doing, as learners. When she is lecturing, for example, she offers guided note taking tools for her students to use to help them stay engaged.<\/span><\/p>\n Bowen<\/strong> recommended using a cognitive wrapper<\/a> to promote metacognition, in class, and handing back the papers with ten minutes to go\u2026 and asking them to read the feedback on the assignment and reflect on it.<\/span><\/p>\n Cognitive Wrapper Template<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Q. How do you address students who don\u2019t care as much about our areas of expertise as we do, as researchers?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A. Barkley<\/strong> – \u201cCaring is something that we really want students to feel.\u201d This is a normal desire to have. The digital story technique is one approach she has used to help students care more about the content. The immigration story is one topic they tackle and create a short video.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
![\"AAC&U](\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2018-06-19_11-03-02.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bowen's](\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/where-to-begin-bowen.png\")
\n
![\"venn](\"https:\/\/images.coachingforleaders.com\/cb:ztCJ~31fd5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/2018-06-19_11-13-18.png\")
<\/p>\n\n