Teaching in Higher Ed

The reading has been assigned. You have prepared the questions, in advance. As you ask them, you are met by blank stares. This week on Teaching in Higher Ed: How to get students to participate in discussion with Dr. Stephen Brookfield.

My guest this week is Dr. Stephen Brookfield. His career has spanned decades, with a focus on helping those of us in higher ed more effective at facilitating learning.

Dr. Stephen Brookfield

His band: The 99ers

Playing music… brings a completely different part of your being into existence. I love that I have this very visceral and emotional side, right front and center in my life, which is a nice contrast to the cognitive element of thinking about teaching.

His bio

Teaching as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms, by Dr. Stephen Brookfield

It isn’t people talking. You can actually have silent techniques, like when you use the chalk talk technique.

When a majority of learners are involved in exploring some topic that is of mutual concern to them. In exploring that topic, they’re trying to gauge its multiple shades… by taking into account other people’s views on it…

Creating the conditions under which that kind of “to and fro”ing can take place.

Class participation grading rubric

Allows for thinking time

Structured silence

TodaysMeet

Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Stop Talking

50 Great Ways to Get People Talking (coming in 2015)

Actualizing democracy

Critical incident questionnaire (been using it for 22 years now: out of thousands of responses – “We really appreciate when you tell us why we’re doing what we’re doing.”)

The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom

Modeling discussion when teaching

Google voice + hangouts (Bonni)

“Try to find some way of researching how your students are experiencing your teaching.” (Stephen)

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Dave and I talk about how to deal with students that we perceive as difficult, engaging them in the learning experiences in higher ed.

Guest: Dave Stachowiak

Dave and I talk about how to engage students that we perceive as difficult. We start by describing the dangers in labeling people as difficult.

Be cautious about focusing on the more challenging students, at the expense of the learner who is engaged and desiring to learn.

Dave tells a story about how his chemistry teacher created a memorable experience for his students.

Distinguishing students who don’t want to be there, but aren’t distracting other students from learning, and those who are barriers to others’ learning.

Help students save face, when possible.

Attempt to keep conversations one-on-one, unless there’s a compelling reason that the dialog needs to happen in the classroom community.

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Shelia Heen

Hear Shelia Heen talk on Dave’s Coaching for Leader’s podcast about her latest book about feedback

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[reminder]What do you think about when you’re driving down the road? How do you try to engage your more difficult students?[/reminder]

Help classrooms become worthy of human habitation… a dialog with Chip Espinoza on generational cohorts, specifically millennials.

“We aren’t saying that all these people are the same, just because they are the same age.”

“My desire is not to have a conversation about millennials, but have a conversation with millennials. I don’t want to have a conversation about professors; I want to have a conversation with professors.”

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Won’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

The “before” and “after” of teaching in the early 90s and today

In the 90s – no one would look at a syllabus

In the 2000s – more legalistic view of the syllabus

Teaching multi-generational audience: Baby boomers, GenX, and Millennials

What did you think about the book you were assigned (Chip’s book)?

“What’s your theoretical framework for saying it’s hogwash?”

Access to information – where subject matter experts come in

Sage on the stage >> Allison King 1990s article to Guide on the side >> to Learning with…

KickStarter campaign for getting Chip’s book into the hands of millennials

Importance of immediate feedback

Managing the Millennials

Millennials at Work

Take the quiz

iRobot Roomba

It that season again: A lot of new faces and a lot of new names. How to get better at learning students’ names.  

Dave and I talk about the approaches we use to learn students’ names.

Attendance2 iphone app on iTunes (iOS) There is an iPad app, in addition to the iPhone app, but they don’t sync/connect with each other. It is best to choose the device that you’ll have with you during each class session, to make the process of attendance tracking easier.

SoundEver app on iTunes – saves audio recordings into Evernote

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie  (Dave)

Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle  (Bonni references this book, in relation to Dave’s recommendation)

Visual thinking talk by Giulia Forsythe – her bio on Twitter is great: “I work at a university supporting teaching & lifelong learning. I think in pictures. Doodling helps me be a better listener, problem solver and communicator.”

Article: A learning secret: Don’t take notes with a laptop from Scientific American Counter-point article: Study proves why we need digital literacy education

Pencast example from Bonni on marketing (created with a LiveScribe smartpen)

Doodle breaks My visual notes from Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipine

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It can be stressful to head back into another year of teaching in higher ed. However, there certainly are actions we can take to make our experience more peaceful and be more present for our students as we get our new academic year underway.

Sandie and I share about where we are focused for the start to our academic year. We both have very different roles at the university, but share a desire for continually wanting to improve our students’ learning experiences in our classes. We talk about the technology tools we will be using to support our work this year, along with other ways we will seek to facilitate learning more effectively.

Updates to classes

Technology-using professors on LinkedIn

Cheating Lessons, by James Lang

Attendance 2 iPhone app

Remind

Check list for class planning

Grant Wiggin’s checklist resources

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Asana

Camscanner app, which connects with Evernote (Sandie)

Evernote‘s use in giving students feedback on their resumes (Bonni)

Ending Human Trafficking podcast

Free ebook: Educational Technology Essentials

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