Month: April 2012

The Art of Science – No Marks Attached — Lauren S. Singroy

Bacteriophage meets iPod Dance- by Lauren Singroy
Bacteriophage meets iPod Dance- by Lauren Singroy

As instructors, we often gripe about students not completing our assignments despite the marks attached to them.  We’re even more upset when we have spent so much time creating the assignment, one which we know would really help students learn if they would only do it.

An amazing class that exceeded my expectations in many regards especially in terms of the professor’s passion for the subject material, and his desire to help students think about this material beyond the four walls of a lecture hall: these are my sentiments after having taken Fundamentals of Microbiology (BIOL 140) with Dr. Josh NeufeldI entered BIOL 140 with two goals in mind: to fulfill a degree requirement and not to fail the biggest exam (with it being potentially worth 70% of my final grade) I would ever write at university. I came out of BIOL 140 having accomplished so much more than the latter two things: I gained a basic understanding of and interest in microbiology as a discipline, and discovered a new way of studying and thinking about the world around me.

One of Dr. Neufeld’s unique teaching methods was partially responsible for these pleasantly surprising outcomes. Early on in the semester, Dr. Neufeld announced the initiation of an art gallery, to which he encouraged all BIOL 140 students to submit artwork (e.g. drawings and paintings) having some relevance to the course. At the end of the semester, the BIOL 140 students would vote for their favourite gallery submission, and the winning artist would receive a prize. In preparing a submission for the gallery, I was forced to think about how I could create a piece of art that was relevant to microbiology, demonstrated my uniqueness as an artist, and would be capable of winning over my classmates – after all, they were the ones ultimately deciding which gallery submission would be named the class favourite. After some thought, I came up with an idea for a painting that I thought just might satisfy the aforementioned criteria. By combining two concepts that I hoped my classmates would be familiar with (bacteriophage and the “iPod dance”), I created an art-piece that was amusing to both my classmates and my professor.

The microbiology art gallery was not only effective in helping me engage with course material during the term, but also inspired me to be creative in studying for my final exam. I documented this creative process in the form of a stop-motion video to show fellow students that there is so much more to studying than memorizing course material in the days leading up to an exam. Similarly, there is so much more to teaching than having a professor stand at a podium and deliver one discourse after the next. I appreciate Dr. Neufeld giving the BIOL 140 students a chance to be creative in a class in which people wouldn’t –or at least, I know I didn’t – expect such an opportunity to arise, and I encourage other professors to do the same (or be willing to try an unconventional teaching method from time to time).
H. BSc. Candidate in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. You can see Lauren’s artwork in the Daily Bulletin.

Case-Based Teaching in A.H.S. – Chad E. Gooyers

A few months ago I attended a workshop facilitated by Professor Ian McKillop from the School of Public Health and Health Systems, entitled “The Case for Online Cased-Based Learning”.  This inspired me to further explore how this teaching method could be applied in my own discipline of study, Kinesiology.

As a multidisciplinary body of knowledge, it is imperative that post-secondary training in Kinesiology develops a conceptual understanding of theories in the basic sciences (i.e. chemistry, biology, and physics) and promotes the necessary analytical and problem-solving skills that are essential for challenging today’s most the complex health problems.  Traditionally, Behaviorist (i.e. teacher-centered) instructional methods have dominated science teaching, reducing education to a transfer of information (Mazur, 2009), even though most experts teaching in these fields recognize that post-secondary education should foster “higher-level” thinking in their students.

Interestingly, despite having “success” with traditional teaching methods, a considerable number of health science students struggle with the application of factual knowledge to real-world problems (Watters et al. 2007).  For this reason, A.H.S. programs around the globe have been searching for methods to better prepare their students for the world of practice.   Borrowing from pedagogy applied in professional schools (e.g. law, business and medicine), many instructors are now using case-based teaching to compliment the more traditional lecture-textbook-laboratory courses.

The Association for Case Teaching defines case-based instruction as “a means of participatory and dialogical teaching and learning by group discussion and of actual events.” This definition encompasses a wide variety of approaches to case-based teaching (e.g. written, video, interactive, etc.).  For this reason, there is no single, best, method for integrating this pedagogical approach in post-secondary courses, as many instructors have devised creative ways for capitalizing on its educational strengths (e.g. directed, ‘real-time’, online cases, etc.). However, most variations of case-based teaching have many of the same objectives: (i) they foster an interactive and engaging form of student-centered learning, (ii) develop students’ ability to work with others and (iii) reinforce students’ confidence to think critically and articulate their ideas (Dunne & Brooks, 2004).  Moreover, case-based teaching allows course content to be structured in ways that can easily be applied in practical settings, and facilitates the integration of knowledge and skills from multiple domains of learning.

For those interested in learning more about case-based teaching and learning in A.H.S., my colleague Dr. Diana De Carvalho and I will be facilitating a 90-minute workshop entitled “Case Method Learning: Applications in Kinesiology” on Friday, April 27 @ 10 a.m.  Please send me an email if you are interested in attending.

 

References:

Dunne, D. & Brooks, K. (2004).  Teaching with cases. Halifax: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Mazur, E. (2009). Farewell, lecture. Science, 323(5910), 50-51.

Watters, D. J. & Watters, J. J. (2007). Approaches to learning by students in the biological sciences: Implications for teaching. International Journal of Science Education, 29(1), 19-43.

Videotaped Microteaching Sessions – Plinio Morita

Over the last two terms, I’ve been scheduling and running CTE microteaching sessions for graduate students. Our  microteaching sessions (MTS) focus on providing feedback to the participants on their teaching skills. A series of three microteaching sessions is structured as a developmental cycle in which participants are presented with an opportunity to practice their teaching skills in a safe environment, having the opportunity to focus on their weaknesses and try new teaching techniques. The feedback is provided by 3-4 peer graduate students who participate in the microteaching, plus one Graduate Instructional Developer who facilitates the session. However, the feedback provided is constrained to a few components that we, as observers, have the capacity of noticing and writing down. There are still numerous other aspects of teaching that either go unnoticed, or fall outside the standard observation items in which most of the feedback is grounded.

At CTE, we are constantly trying to improve the quality and impact of our graduate development programs. This term we will offer video recorded microteaching sessions. Based on the experience of other teaching development programs that include a videotaped teaching component, video feedback provides one of the most effective, solid, and comprehensive tools to raise awareness of individual teaching strengths and weaknesses.

Starting on April 10th, 2012, we will offer a number of video recorded MTS  as an additional  tool for teaching development. These sessions will be available for all participants of our Fundamentals of University Teaching program and can be scheduled the same way as regular MTS. Each participant will receive a video of their mini-lesson  at the end of the session.

This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to do a self-review of their teaching after the event. Check out the the dates of upcoming sessions that will be video recorded by going to our website and schedule yours.

The safe environment of a microteaching in a peer group  presents the perfect opportunity to try new methods and improve teaching. See you around at upcoming sessions!