Centre for Teaching Excellence Blog – Page 11

Self-Care Through Your Studies – Natasha Knier

The fall term of the school year is a busy one for not only staff and instructors, but also for the undergraduate students on campus. This is especially true for students that are starting university for the first time or students who have transferred from another university or program. Many adjustments need to be made in one’s life when entering a new school year, like how students can spend their time and the work demands that are placed upon them as the semester unfolds. So how do students go about managing all of these different deadlines, extracurricular activities and other aspects of their lives? Well, the key to this is to constantly work towards overall wellness. This encompasses both the physical and emotional parts of self-care, renewal and management.

As a Residence Life Don, my position with the university has a similar goal to that of a professor or instructor, as we are both striving to teach students new skills and ways to prepare for their future endeavours. One of the main things that makes us different, however, is that my time spent with them and my area of knowledge and resources is generally during the time that they aren’t spending in the classroom. So what does this mean? This means that I’ve seen several students struggle with the balance between different aspects of their lives, such as maintaining good grades as well as making new friends, or trying to get involved with extracurricular activities but still being able to get enough sleep. I will admit, however, that most of my advice and knowledge comes from experience. As an upper year student who has learned (and is continuing to learn) how to best manage a full course load, co-op applications, part-time jobs, and a long list of extracurricular activities, I have become passionate about helping first-year students learn from my own experiences, failures, and successes. So, here are my top 10 tips for maintaining a healthy, balanced, lifestyle throughout an undergraduate degree:

Make exercise a priority. Adults are recommended to have two and a half hours of moderate to intense aerobic activity and muscle strengthening activities per week (World Health Organization, 2010)! For those that don’t have a lot of experience with exercise, this may seem daunting, however the university provides many opportunities to make physical activity a convenient and fun process. At the University of Waterloo, students have the opportunity to try a wide variety of fitness classes by buying a “Shoe Tag”, which allows them to attend any class offered that fits their scheduling needs. There are also three gym and recreational facilities, with one of them located right in our very own Ron Eydt Village (REV) residence!
Try to get at least 6-8 hours of sleep. Sometimes this can be hard with lengthy assignments, midterms and exams to prepare for, but getting enough sleep is actually really beneficial to improving your grades and allowing you to focus during lectures (Moore, 2008).
It’s okay to slow down. This is especially true for when you are sick and/or recovering from an illness. Your body often needs time to recover and heal, and by continuing to push yourself through this time, you can do more harm than good. Sometimes there are commitments in your life that are fixed, such as assignments, work, and other responsibilities, but if you do your best to minimize other activities and take time to rest, your body will thank you.
Set aside time for yourself. This could be done in a variety of ways, depending on whatever activities you do that make you happy or help you to recharge. As for myself, I spend time doing something relaxing or working on a hobby that I enjoy, like walking my dogs or updating my blog. This step is easily overlooked even though it is one of the most important.
Learn how to say “no”. One of the hardest things I had to overcome during my first two years of undergraduate studies was learning that it’s impossible to do everything. Of course, getting involved is an amazing part of the university experience, but it’s important to have a realistic approach to what you can handle during your busy class schedule. In addition to that, don’t be afraid to lessen or increase the amount you take on during your years in school.
Be open to talking with someone. When times become stressful or difficult, it is important to be open to sharing your feelings and concerns with someone else. This could be a counsellor, a friend, a Don, or another trusted individual that will be a listening ear. Even just having someone to listen to you can help calm stressful feelings.
Be someone for others to talk to! Relating to my previous tip, why not be a friend to someone else in times of need? Even if you feel like you don’t know what to say, sometimes people just want someone to listen to them to feel better. Besides, it always helps to know that you are not alone in your struggles.
Find a mentor. A mentor is someone that you can look up to and gain insights from his or her life. No, this does not mean that you will find a “perfect” person, however, someone who is more experienced in life or who has traits that you admire can often provide useful guidance or words of wisdom. For example, if you know someone who has great stress or time management skills, this would be an excellent person to ask for advice when you are having trouble managing those areas in your own life. Many of the faculties at UWaterloo offer different mentorship programs so that first year students can learn from upper-year students.
Learn management skills. This could mean learning how to manage time, stress, academics, or whatever is affecting your mental health. How does one go about doing this? Well, this could involve many of the above steps, such as reaching out and talking to someone, focusing on your physical well-being, or learning more about different management strategies. There are several different workshops and services on campus that can help students develop strategies for success, such as the Student Success Office (SSO) and Counselling Services.
Develop a plan! Now that you know about different resources and options available to helping create a balanced lifestyle, it’s time to act on it! Create new habits that point towards a healthier lifestyle. Even slow, small changes can make a huge difference!

So there you have it – those are my top 10 tips for helping to create balance and finding wellness during the journey of pursuing an undergraduate degree. Hopefully this helps anyone reading this in any way that is beneficial to them – whether that be trying out my tips or offering some new knowledge to a friend. If you have any additional tips or comments about what I’ve said, leave a comment for me and for the readers – we’d love to hear what you have to say!

Photo taken by Natasha Knier, October 2015.

References

Moore, M., & Meltzer, L. (2008). The sleepy adolescent: Causes and consequences of sleepiness in teens. Paediatric Respiratory Reviews, 9(2), 114-121. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526054208000031

World Health Organization. (2010). Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health. Geneva, World Health Organization

Notes from the Music Studio — Christine Zaza

When I reflect on teaching and learning in higher education I realize that much of what I learned, I learned when I was a music student. Here are some of the highlights from the music studio that are just as applicable to university teaching and learning:

Practice, practice, practice. Actually, this would more aptly be phrased Practice-Feedback, Practice-Feedback, Practice-Feedback, but the rhythm just isn’t as good. I wouldn’t expect anyone to become a professional violinist without regular lessons with a qualified teacher. Regular feedback is critical to guiding students as they develop new skills. Without regular feedback, bad habits can become engrained and difficult to correct. In university, students learn a number of new skills and new ways of thinking and they need multiple opportunities to practice these skills with regular feedback. To ensure that students focus on the feedback and not just the grade, instructors can give a follow-up assignment students to make revisions highlighting how they have incorporated the feedback that they received on their first submission.

Practice the performance. When preparing for a recital or audition (a summative test), music students are advised to practice performing in front of friends, family –teddy bears if need be – several times, before the actual performance. Preparing for a performance is different from preparing for weekly lessons. Good performance preparation is crucial because in a performance you get one shot at the piece. There are no do-overs on stage. Similarly, when writing music theory or history exams, practicing the exam is an expected part of exam preparation. To facilitate this preparation, the Royal Conservatory of Music sells booklets of past exams. The Conservatory also returns graded exams so that students can see exactly where they earned and lost marks: considering that the Royal Conservatory of Music administers thousands of exams, three times a year, across the globe, this is a huge undertaking. At university, we know that self-testing is an effective study strategy and some instructors do provide several practice exams questions in their course. However, due to academic integrity concerns, the common practice is to deny students access to past exams as well as their own completed exam. I wonder if academic misconduct would be less of an issue if students were allowed to use past exams as practice tools. Amassing a large enough pool of past exam questions should address the concern that students will just memorize answers to questions that they’ve seen in advance.

Explicit instruction is key. It’s not very helpful to just tell a novice piano student to go home and practice. In the name of practicing, a novice student will, more than likely, play his or her piece over a few times, from bar 1 straight to the end, no matter what happens in between, and think that he has “practiced.” I know. I’ve heard it hundreds of times, and if you have a child in music lessons, I’ll bet you’ve heard it too. Explicit instruction means addressing many basic questions that an expert takes for granted: What does practicing look like? How many times a week should you practice? For how long should you practice? How do you know if you have practiced enough? How do you know if you have practiced well? Similarly, not all first students arrive at university knowing how to study. Many students would benefit from explicit instructions about learning and studying (e.g., What does studying look like? How do you know when you’ve studied enough? I’ve gone over my notes a few times – is that studying? Etc.

Know that students can’t learn it all at once. A good violin teacher knows that you can’t correct a student’s bow arm while you’re adjusting the left hand position, improving intonation, working on rhythm, teaching new notes, and refining dynamics. In any given lesson, the violin teacher chooses to let some things go while focusing on one particular aspect of playing otherwise the student will become too overwhelmed to take in any information at all. Suzuki teachers know that you always start by pointing out something positive about the student’s playing and that you can’t focus only on the errors. Students need encouragement. I think this is true at university as well. Becoming a good writer takes years and novice writers will likely continue to make several mistakes while at the same time improving one or two specific aspects of their writing. While giving feedback on written assignments, it’s important to acknowledge the positive aspects – that’s more encouraging that facing a sea of red that highlights only the errors.

Even if you didn’t take piano lessons as a child and even if have registered your 6 year old for hockey rather than violin lessons, I hope you’ll find these lessons from the music studio applicable to the university classroom.

Photo privided by Samuel Cuenca under a Creative Commons license.

Keys for a TA to Succeed in the Classroom — Aser Gebreselassie

As an undergraduate student currently in my third year of ERS at the University of Waterloo, I have had the chance to interact with various types of Teaching Assistants (TAs) over the course of my studies, whether it be in labs, tutorials, in class, via email, or having assignments marked by them. There are plenty of great stories about TAs whom I have had in the past, and unfortunately, a few stories of some questionable TAs as well. Being a successful TA consists of many different aspects, but the three characteristics that I appreciate in a TA is their ability to relate to students, knowledge of the course content, and an ability to communicate effectively and efficiently.

Relating to your students helps build trust between the TA and the student which helps to manage the classroom effectively, as the students will have respect for the TA. Quick but effective activities which I have personally seen in my classes include icebreakers during the first day of meeting your students, as well as having a sense of humour and giving out a positive vibe. A few new things I learnt during the Building Rapport with Students workshop earlier this week was that maintaining positive body language throughout the session gives the students a positive impression about yourself, and learning the student’s names as soon as possible to help develop trust and understanding between the TA and the student.

Knowledge of course content is also key. Most people think that their TAs are those who have taken the course before and have done fairly well in it. This isn’t always the case. Sometimes the TA may never have taken the course, or sometimes they didn’t complete their undergraduate degree in the same faculty as the course they are TAs for. If this is the case, doing the readings and making detailed notes would help a lot. The students understand that a TA is a student as well, and if you as a TA can’t answer a question but are willing to do some research to find the right answer, students find that extremely helpful and are willing to wait to get a right answer, instead of getting a wrong or incomplete answer immediately.

Being able to communicate successfully can make or break the trust and respect that students have for a TA. Setting basic rules on the first day can help a TA significantly. I have had TAs in the past tell us a couple of ground rules: for example, they only will respond to emails during business hours (9 am to 5pm), and that students should not email questions about a major assignment the night before it is due as it will be too late to get a response of any value. Prompt responses and setting ground rules can help alleviate pressure from students, and can significantly help boost a TA and student’s relationship. Sometimes TAs respond weeks, even months after receiving an email and it destroys any rapport that they have built with the student.

Lastly, my pet peeve: it is frustrating when students compare grades after an evaluation, and have written two very similar things on their paper, but get two completely different marks. The TA has now lost a lot of the positive feelings that they may have gained over the semester by being inconsistent. Both students are now alienated and concerned, and will go through every little detail of their evaluation to make sure nothing else was missed. Both students will come to the TA with many concerns about their marks. Being consistent, whether it be giving both those students an 85% or a 55%, will save a TA a massive headache.

An Invitation to be Still – Veronica Brown

After many years at Waterloo, you would think I would be ready for September. Yet every year, I feel a bit walloped. The end of August, that rare time on campus when things are quiet, is such a contrast to the energy of the first few weeks of September. But by Thanksgiving, I am ready for a rest.

So, rather than sharing some ideas through this week’s blog post, I am inviting you to take five minutes to be still. I realize for some, the idea of sitting quietly for five minutes is unbearable. For others, it is a welcome respite from the busyness of our academic life. Even if you last only a minute or two, don’t discount the value of this quietness.

If it helps, consider listening to this song (https://soundcloud.com/timothy-corlis/silent-dawn). It is by one of my favourite composers, Timothy Corlis, who studied physics at Waterloo as well as music, theology and peace and conflict studies at Conrad Grebel. The song is performed by the Da Capo Chamber Choir. Another option is to simply reflect on the images at the end of this blog. They are from places where I have enjoyed moments of calm solitude.

Or perhaps, take a few minutes to walk around campus and notice the changing leaves, the crispness of the air. Whatever you do, just take a moment to catch your breath.

Red rock and sand with blue sky and a few clouds at Valley of Fire — Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Farmer's field of dandelions with a grey sky — Near St. Jacob’s, Ontario

Sunset over water with small islands and pine trees — Georgian Bay, Ontario

Economic Repercussions of Illiteracy- Arifeen Chowdhury

Attending or working at a renowned institution like the University of Waterloo, issues such as illiteracy may escape daily conversation or thinking, especially in an academic community like ours. Measuring illiteracy is debatable; the most common method is a formula developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that accounts for the size and structures of a country’s economy ^[3]. Despite the common belief that illiteracy most affects the developing world, a recent report from the World Literacy Foundation (WLF) shows otherwise. It highlights that workforce illiteracy cause losses of about $898 billion every year in developed countries and $294 billion in emerging economies— the global economy will lose $1.2 trillion in 2015 ^[5].

Although many believe Canada is well prepared and established in the education front, the fact is nearly half of the adult population have low literacy skills (42%, between the ages of 16 and 65) and for the past 15 years there has been little improvement ^[3]. Things aren’t getting any better either. It is projected that by 2031, more than 15 million adults in Canada (3 million more than today) will have low literacy rates if the problem isn’t addressed immediately. All this equates to a $32 billion loss in the Canadian economy this year ^[5]. Across the border, the United States is projected to lose $362 billion ^[5] — more than any country in the world. While Canada does have one of the best literacy rates in the world, how literacy is defined distorts the gravity of the situation. With nearly half the working population having low literacy levels, productivity and efficiency is not even close to its best. This extends beyond the bank; low literacy can result in poor health, hygiene, safety and family planning. Andrew Kay, CEO of the WLF expressed, “There’s evidence that a person who is either completely illiterate or has functional illiteracy; that has a lifelong impact on them and their employment, and their ability to earn income. That’s [true] in all countries and all economies.” The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network states that a 1% increase in the literacy rate would generate $18 billion in economic growth every year, and investing in literacy programming has a 241% return on investment, yet nobody wants to chip in due to a lack of short term gains ^[3].

Canada, with one of the best educational infrastructures and high literacy rates of any country in the world, still suffers due to a significant population of people with low literacy levels. The report highlights to establish adult and parental literacy programs; improving school attendance and retention strategies; inculcating a common interest for knowledge; and strengthening government commitment to literacy initiatives. Numbers do not tell us the complete story, but we do know that immediate action at the grass roots is required. Poverty and illiteracy has been proven to go hand-in-hand, Canadians enjoy government support for K-12 education, but many cannot afford to continue towards higher education. However, the problem today lies in low literacy levels— material usually covered in primary and secondary schools. How do we use community based learning to bridge this disconnect? What is our role in this issue?

References:

[1] Anderson, M. (15 August 2015). Illiteracy will cost global economy $1.2tn in 2015. The Guardian News and Media Group. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/25/illiteracy-will-cost-global-economy-1-trillion-dollars-in-2015

[2]Canadian Council on Learning (2010). The Future of Literacy in Canada’s Largest Cities report.

[3] Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (2015). All About Literacy in Canada: Literacy Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.literacy.ca/literacy/literacy-sub/

[4] Martinez R., and Fernandez A. (2010). The Social and Economic Impact of Illiteracy: Analytical Model and Pilot Study. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

[5] World Literacy Foundation (24 August 2015). The Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy: A snapshot of illiteracy in a global context.

The first year is critical – Jane Holbrook

Students leaving campus — Who will stay?

Coming into campus on Monday morning was a shock, but a nice one. We don’t get a lot of downtime on our campus but the last two weeks of August and days leading up to Labour Day are usually pretty sleepy; many folks are on vacation and it’s hard to even find a coffee shop open. The throng that I biked into at the main gates Monday morning at 8:15 was a bit disorderly, but the excitement in the air was electric. And it’s the first year students, all fresh faced and enthusiastic, frantically looking for their classrooms and with high expectations that generate the most excitement.

The first couple of weeks of term are exciting but then, of course, the realities of a five course load, weekly assignments (lab reports, readings …) and then midterms set in and those first year students are often challenged to just make it through first term. Our IAP statistics show that our first year retention rate (percentage of students who return to second year here after first year) is close to 92% (UWaterloo IAP), well above the reported retention rate of 80% for four-year public US institutions (see National Student Clearing house report ) and higher than most other Ontario universities where retention rates hover around 87% (CUDO – Common University Data Ontario). This isn’t the old case of “look to your right, look to your left, one of you won’t be here next year” that we were admonished with as students in years gone by, but if 1 in 10 students do not return after first year, this is a definite loss to the university community and setback for that young person.

Universities have recognized that students face a number of challenges in their first year and provide orientation programs, peer mentoring, study skills sessions and other supports to help new students handle the emotional and educational transitions that they will be experiencing. However, even with these programs in place, our instructors who teach first year courses have a critically important job ahead of them. Studies show that although a student’s personal situation (family background, economic stresses, etc.) and prior academic performance in high school affect first year retention, student engagement in this critical first year is also a major contributor to student retention (Kuh et al., 2008). Creating rich and engaging classroom experiences for first year students in large classes when students are coming in with a wide range of skills is a challenge, but by integrating active learning into large classes (CTE tip sheet – Activities for Large Classes), considering student motivation (CTE tip sheet – Motivating Our Students) and providing frequent, formative feedback to students, instructors across campus are helping to keep students engaged and successful.

Welcome first year students, and kudos to those great first year instructors who work hard to keep them here!

Kuh, G.D, Cruce, T.M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J. & Gonyea, R.M. (2008) Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 79 (5), 540-563.

High Failure Rates in Introductory Computer Science Courses: Assessing the Learning Edge Momentum Hypothesis – John Doucette, CUT student

Introductory computer science is hard. It’s not a course most students would take as a light elective, and failure rates are high (two large studies put the average at around 35% of students failing). Yet, at the same time, introductory computer science is apparently quite easy. At many institutions, the most common passing grade is an A. For instructors, this is a troubling state of affairs, which manifests as a bimodal grade distribution — a plot of students’ grades forms a valley rather than the usual peak of a normal distribution.

For most of the last forty years, the dominant hypothesis has been the existence of some hidden factor separating those who can learn to program computers from those who cannot. Recently this large body of work has become known as the “Programmer Gene” hypothesis, although most of the studies do not focus on actual genetic or natural advantages, so much as on demographics, prior education levels, standardized test scores, or past programming experience. Surprisingly, despite dozens of studies taking place over more than forty years, some involving simultaneous consideration of thirty or forty factors, no conclusive predictor of programming aptitude has been found, and the most prominent recent paper advancing such a test was ultimately retracted.

The failure of the “Programmer Gene” hypothesis to produce a working description of why students fail has led to the development of other explanations. One recently proposed approach is the Learning Edge Momentum (LEM) hypothesis, by Robins (2010). Robins proposes that the reason no programmer gene can be found is because the populations are identical, or nearly so. Instead of attributing the problem to the students, Robins argues that it is the content of the course that causes bimodal grade distributions to emerge, and that the content of introductory computer science classes is especially prone to such problems.

At the core of the LEM hypothesis is the idea that courses are composed of units of content, which are presented to students one after another in sequence. In some disciplines, content is only loosely related, and students who fail to learn one module can still easily understand subsequent topics. For example, a student taking an introductory history class will not have much more difficulty learning about Napoleon after failing to learn about Charlemagne. The topics are similar, but are not dependent. All topics lie close to the edge of student’s prior knowledge. In other disciplines however, early topics within a course are practically prerequisites for later topics, and the course rapidly moves away from the edges of students’ knowledge, into areas that are wholly foreign to them. The more early topics students master, the easier the later ones become. Conversely, the more early topics that students fail to acquire, the harder it is to learn later topics at all. This effect is dubbed “momentum.”

Robins argues that introductory computer science is an especially momentum-heavy area. A student who fails to learn conditionals will probably be unable to learn recursion or loops. A student who fails to grasp core concepts like functions or the idea of a program state will likely struggle for the entire course. Robins argues that success on early topics within the needed time period (before the course moves on) is largely random, and shows via simulation that, even if students all start with identical aptitude for a subject, if the momentum effect is increased enough, bimodal grade distributions will follow. However, no empirical validation of the hypothesis was provided, and no subsequent attempts at validation have been able to confirm this model. The main difficulty faced in evaluating the LEM hypothesis is that the predictions it makes are actually very similar to the “Programmer Gene” hypothesis. Both theories predict that students who do well early in a course will do well later on. The difference is the LEM hypothesis says this was mostly down to chance, while the “Programmer Gene” hypothesis says it was due to the students’ skill.

In my research project for the Certificate in University Teaching (CUT), I proposed a new method of evaluating the LEM hypothesis by examining the performance of remedial students — students who retake introductory computer science classes after failing them. The LEM hypothesis predicts that remedial classes should also have bimodal grade distributions, because student success on initial topics is largely random. Students taking the course for the second time should be just as likely to learn them as students taking the course the first time round. In contrast, the “Programmer Gene” hypothesis predicts that remedial courses should have normally distributed grades, with a low mean. This is because remedial students lack the supposed “gene”, and so will not be able to learn topics much more effectively the second time than they were the first time.

To evaluate this hypothesis, I acquired anonymized data from four offerings of an introductory computer science course: two with a high proportion of remedial students, and two with a very low proportion. I found weak evidence in support of the LEM hypothesis, as all grade distributions were bimodal when withdrawing students were counted as failing. However, when withdrawing students were removed entirely, only one non-remedial offering was bimodal, a result predicted by neither theory.

Although my empirical results were ultimately inconclusive, my research provides a clear way forward in evaluating different hypotheses for high failure rates in introductory computer science. A follow up study, conducted with data from a university that offers only remedial sections in the spring term (removing the confounding effects of out-of-stream students in the same class) may be able to put the question to rest for good, and facilitate the design of future curricula.

References:

Robins, A. (2010). Learning edge momentum: A new account of outcomes in CS1. Computer Science Education, 20 (1), 37-71.

The author of this blog post, John Doucette, recently completed CTE’s Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) program. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Cheriton School of Computer Science.