next »

[fiona]

I like this article, because it confirms my beliefs.

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i42/42a00103.htm

The Fiona, Luddite

[barred_owl]

It certainly helped affirm a belief that I've harbored for a while, namely, that students tend to be more passive now than in the past:

"Here's the kicker, though: The biggest resistance to Mr. Bowen's ideas has come from students, some of whom have groused about taking a more active role during those 50-minute class periods."

I noticed a subtle change in students' perception of how much they enjoyed my course once PowerPoint took hold, big time, across my campus.  I used PowerPoint, but mainly as a replacement for showing illustrations or photographs (much easier to tote a jump drive or CD than a carousel full of 2x2 slides, e.g.).  For notes accompanying those slides, I used the board or Elmo/overhead, along with discussions and in-class activities.  Yet, in their other classes, my students were experiencing what Young would probably describe as "boring" lectures of exclusively PowerPoint slides, with text, which were read nearly verbatim as lectures (and then posted on a course website).  My students were allowed to be passive in those other classes, and seemed to resent the fact that they couldn't just sit back and wait for the notes to be posted online in my course.  I only wish I'd collected data (beyond course evaluations) about this phenomenon; Young's article, at least, provides affirmation that my observation was not unique. 

On one point, however, I disagree somewhat with Young.  His qualified assertion that PowerPoint is better than more traditional presentation methods gives me pause:

"It's worth pointing out that PowerPoint presentations are generally better than many older classroom technologies, like slate chalkboards or overhead transparencies filled with hand-scrawled notes..."

At least when the instructor writes out information by hand, students tend to respond in-kind, as opposed to simply copying the information off of a PPT slide or--as sometimes happens--asking the instructor to postpone advancing the slides until they've had time to write out the information in a current slide.  If the instructor makes text-heavy PPT slides available on a course website, and does not use the board or overhead, then students have no motivation to write anything at all.  The main advantage, as I see it, in having written information in a PPT slide is that the medium provides a means of preserving that information in digital form for later reference, whereas chalkboards (especially) or overheads are only temporary repositories.

[parispundit]

I have always been an exponent of the blackboard/whiteboard, with the exception noted above of Powerpoint replacing slides. The pre-digested powerpoint slide, read verbatim (awful teaching technique), and then posted online so students need not learn how to digest and reproduce material on their own, ought to be banned. That kind of teaching might as well be done online.

But the fact that students LIKE it.... is yet another argument that the educational consumer doesn't know squat

[tinyzombie]

I thought this thread was going to be about something else entirely.

[sacroiliac]

Be prepared to expose your shortcomings.

[engmajor]

 Like barred owl, this article also confirmed my suspicion "that students tend to be more passive now than in the past".  Although I've only taught for a year, the students I've encountered seem to have different attitudes towards discussion than what I remember as an undergrad.  My classmates may have been offended or confused by some of the assigned readings/topics for discussion; we may have forgotten to do some readings, but we never completely shut down.  In contrast, when I taught this year using a discussion based approach, students complained on their evaluations about being "forced to talk" and "put on the spot". One group of students would simply stare or giggle when they did not have anyhing to say; they waited for me to give them the "answers," which was nearly impossible because I was teaching a writing class.  However, students  were equally disgruntled with more traditional "top down" activities, as when I "lectured" about (briefly explained) the types of sentences or assigned more structured writing exercises to be done in class...

What struck me most about the article, indeed, was students' seemingly contradictory or totally dismissive attitudes towards all teaching styles:  On the one hand, they found PPT lectures to be boring, but on the other hand, students seemed resistant to Bowen's discussion-based approach.   I know that understanding students as an audience and trying to meet students' needs contributes to effective teaching but it seems as though they're making it impossible, almost mocking our efforts to meet them on their own terms.  It makes me wonder, where do we draw the line between consideration for students' interests/needs and catering to passive consumers? 

[birgitta1415]

I'm so pleased to see this article.  I despise Power Point, have never used it, and never will (though I can see its usefulness for showing images or the like in a discipline that needs that).  I've sat through far too many administrative meetings in which the talking head at the front reads exactly the text that is projected on Power Point slides, which is also the same text placed in my hands on a printout as I came in the door.  Seriously, if all I need to do is receive the information, just e-mail me the file and spare me the two hour long session of soul-corroding boredom!  I would never subject my students to a class structured on this format.  I'm in a humanities discipline, and I've always found short "chunks" of lectures (about 15 minutes at a time) interspersed with discussion and hands-on work to be the best way to go. 

[grasshopper]

I have always been an exponent of the blackboard/whiteboard,

Ditto, but this is primarily for my own convenience, not the students'. Working off a black/white board allows me to go off on tangents. If I look around the room, and see that students aren't getting something, I can draw a little arrow, and go off track much more easily than with PP. I've tried PP before, and felt too confined. Sure I could go off-track, and move to a blackboard, but the transition feels awkward, and I tend to lose momentum.

I also like erasing stuff. I know - sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? But I warn students that I'm going to erase something, and tell them that they should make sure they've gotten all of that stuff down. Guess what they do then? They review the material! Right there on the spot! They look at their notes! They make sure they've got everything before it goes away... forever.

This also helps discussion, because the students are remembering what was said earlier in the lecture. They're bringing it all together.

Grassy loves blackboards.

[larryc]

Engmajor, you have taken the first step on the well-worn path of blaming students for your shortcomings as a teacher. Though it is a popular trail, there is no happiness along it. Turn back while you can. 

[systeme_d_]

The "inverted classroom" is quite popular at my place.   I've got to say, though, that it makes new preps very time-intensive.  One must:

1) prep a lecture, tape it for podcast, post podcast on Blackboard or whatever
2) create a quiz on the stuff covered in the podcast, post it on BB or whatever
3) facilitate discussion in class.

My classes are usually two-hours in length, so my usual model is 1 hour lecture, followed by 1 hour discussion.   "Inverted classroom" pedagogy works better, I think, for 1 hour classes.  It effectively doubles the "classroom" (lecture + discussion) time for students.

[kedves]

Like barred owl, this article also confirmed my suspicion "that students tend to be more passive now than in the past".  Although I've only taught for a year, the students I've encountered seem to have different attitudes towards discussion than what I remember as an undergrad.  My classmates may have been offended or confused by some of the assigned readings/topics for discussion; we may have forgotten to do some readings, but we never completely shut down. 

In contrast, when I taught this year using a discussion based approach, students complained on their evaluations about being "forced to talk" and "put on the spot".

You know how you were, and you attribute your characteristics to your classmates.  (And if the writing course you are teaching is basic first-year comp and you placed out of it in college, then your and your students' experiences of a first-year writing course are probably different in many ways.)

The research discussed briefly in the CHE article (Mann and Robinson 2009) found that students preferred PowerPoint although they found it more boring than other methods, but PowerPoint was not the best predictor of classroom boredom; boredom proneness was.  This is a psychometric scale of need for external stimulation; high scores are associated with reduced educational outcomes.  PowerPoint can be done well or badly.  So can discussion.  If students are quizzed or otherwise rewarded for keeping up with the reading, continually told the educational goals of discussion, and have a chance to collect their thoughts (by answering a question on paper alone or in a small group beforehand), then discussion goes better and is more enjoyable for the students--and for the instructor.  I don't like to be in a tense room full of unhappy people.  If you are dealing with first-year students, then they may have been trained to sit and listen obediently for the last 12 years.  It takes time to change that.

But Larryc is right.  It's not going to get easier with that approach.

[mountainguy]

First of all, I really liked this article and I have to admit that I'm fascinated with the 'inverted classroom' method of teaching. It does sound labor-intensive, but it also sounds like it has the potential to facilitate deeper learning than the "memorize and regurgitate" approach of over-relying on PowerPoint.

And while I agree with LarryC and Kedves to a large extent, let's try to go easy on Engmajor. Learning to strike the right balance in the classroom can be a difficult endeavor. I'm entering into my sixth year of teaching and I still haven't found a format that I'm completely happy with. I've been moving toward a more discussion-oriented model of instruction recently, but I'm starting to realize that it's also possible to over-discuss things or to use discussion as a crutch for a lack of teacher preparation.

[anon11]

Engmajor, you have taken the first step on the well-worn path of blaming students for your shortcomings as a teacher. Though it is a popular trail, there is no happiness along it. Turn back while you can. 

LarryC, have you had bullets for breakfast again? The OP notes that he or she is a beginning teacher.  What evidence do you have that the OP has shortcomings? Apparently your own methods are stunningly successful; why not share them with him/her?

[mountainguy]

To steer this thread in a more productive direction, I too would be curious to hear advice from more experienced forumites about how to manage classes of passive students.

My own strategies for encouraging active learning include: (1) frequent short assessments to make sure that students are keeping up with the reading, and (2) think/pair/share activities to get students talking, even if it's not in front of the entire class. What I'm less adept at managing are students who are passive-aggressive (or just plain aggressive) . . . the ones who look bored and listless in class until it's time for a major assignment or exam, and then lash out about the assignment being "unclear" or "unfair." My response is always "see me after class" to such students, which of course they rarely due. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible to nip this behavior in the bud earlier in the term.

[parispundit]

To steer this thread in a more productive direction, I too would be curious to hear advice from more experienced forumites about how to manage classes of passive students.

1) To make sure they have done the reading, when I think this is or is likely to be a problem, I give a list of 8 terms they must know how to identify the next class, 4 of which appear on a quizz. Get less than 3 right, you flunk the quiz.
2) I break students up into groups, and have them come up with answers to open-ended questions. The group picks someone to present the answer to the class. The answer usually involves taking a position that requires evidence
3) I make them write an answer, and then read it.
4) I have them sepnd 5 minutes of class time "re-reading" a text, and then ask questions about it when it is fresh.

etc.