Teacher Feature: Brushing Up on Your Classroom Technique

Thursday, February 21, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time

Barbara Gross Davis is assistant vice provost for undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley, where she oversees the Office of Educational Development, the campus's faculty-development unit, and eight academic-support services for students. Ms. Davis holds three degrees from Berkeley, in psychology and educational psychology, and has been working on the campus since 1978, as a researcher, an academic coordinator, and an administrator. She is now finishing the second edition of her 1993 book, Tools for Teaching, which will be published by Jossey-Bass this year.

A transcript of the chat follows.

Paula Wasley (Moderator):
    Hello and welcome to this week's Brown Bag. I'm Paula Wasley, a reporter at The Chronicle. I'll be moderating today's discussion with Barbara Gross Davis, who is here to answer questions on teaching and course design.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Dr. Davis. It looks like we have a number of questions coming in already, so let's get started.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    I'm very excited to chat with people today and I'm looking forward to your questions.

Question from Molly M., UC Santa Cruz:
    What what do you find is the best way to keep a lecture on track when students start asking off-topic questions?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Good question! Some questions do go beyond the topic of discussion: they may anticipate an upcoming topic, seek more detail or raise a tangential issue. When such questions occur, offer to answer the question after class or during office hours. If a student asks a long-winded question, you might quickly answer the question and then recognize another student. For example, "You want to know why the university refuses to divest. The Regent's position is that the Sullivan principles are sufficient. Let's hear from Rita: she had her hand up for a long time."

Question from Rochelle, University of San Diego:
    What do you think about using Power Point in your class presentations and lectures? Thanks!

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Proponents say that PowerPoint saves the instructor time, reduces note taking burden on students, and allows presentations to be easily modified, annotated and archived. Critics use slogans like PowerPointless and Death by PowerPoint to describe the intellectual and pedagogical disadvantages of these slide shows: the hierarchical outline structure drives the presentation, requiring that ideas be reworked and truncated into bullet points, the click-click format dilutes content, oversimplies complex ideas, discourages spontaneity, hinders serious analysis and turns viewers into passive and uncritical thinkers. I'm not a big fan. On the other hand, sometimes it works well...

Question from Don McCabe, Rutgers University:
    Not sure this qualifies as a discussion question, but your brief bio on Professor Davis suggests the second edition of her 1993 book will publish this year. I refer often to the first edition and was disappointed a year or two ago when the proposed second edition was withdrawn. My question - when is the second edition now scheduled to appear and is it possible to get a preview of how it will differ from the original edition - in other words, what's new.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Well, I am so glad you asked! The book will be out sometime this year published by Jossey-Bass. The title of the book, many of the chapter titles and the format are the same, but the content is much expanded. There has been a lot of research between the first and second editions and a sea change in how we think about student learning, not to mention all the developments in technology. I've tried to cover both classic topics (what will likely endure no matter what) such as asking and answering questions, encouraging discussion, explaining clearly. I've also tried to bring in new issues: involving undergraduates in research, promoting civic engagement, exploring Web 2.0, learning in groups, teaching veterans, deciding whether to use turnitin.com, and so on.

Question from Anonymous:
    Increasingly, we see requests and discussions about contemporary approaches to teaching. In your view, is this simply a way of saying "latest technology applied in the classroom" or is there something really to it as far as methods are concerned? Thank you.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    "Contemporary approaches to teaching" is not just a code phrase for technology. There are many new ideas, derived from research on how learners acquire, process, integrate, retrieve and apply information that faculty are putting into play in their classes. For example, research tells us that students who have inaccurate or incomplete assumptions and beliefs about a topic will have difficulty grasping new concepts. Learners tend to place new material in a framework of what they already know about the subject. When new material conflicts with students' earlier understanding or beliefs, they may distort the new information to fit their existing framework. You may want to devise a diagnostic test or other means to identify what students know and don't know. There are many other areas that don't necessarily involve technology that are influencing how people teach, such as formative/early feedback, classroom assessment,learning in groups even in large classes, library based research assignments, and so on.

Question from Cheryl Lewis, COSTAATT, community college, Trinidad & Tobago W.I:
    There is the tendency for faculty to take the easy route in course development and make courses very "text specific". What are some successful techniques that would move people away from that approach.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    You're right. There is a fine line between overreliance on the textbook and not referring to it at all, and students complain in both circumstances. The textbook should be the background and often faculty will pick out the difficult concept or major issue for the day and focus on that. In addition, you might bring in current events or outside resources relevant to the topic. For ex, in an intro biology class, you could talk about examples from medical field that illustrate concepts in slightly different ways. In other disciplines, there might be news events that could be linked to the textbook's treatment of a particular topic.

Question from Anonymous, community college:
    What is the best way to promote critical thinking within large lower-division lecture classes?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    In large enrollment classes it's not so much what you tell your students but what you ask them to do. Even in large classes you can engage students in informal learning activities such as posing a problem and have students turn to their neighbor for a quick discussion, ask students to quickly draw at their seats a concept map of the key topics for the day,or other strategies that encourage students to practice and review what they are learning. In general students need to be taught in any discipline what critical thinking means and be given the opportunities to generalize, apply, and transfer what they have learned.

Question from Gary, large university:
    Several of my colleagues and I have been talking about this issue for a while. What is your opinion of grading on a curve?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Grading on the curve is popular because it is flexible, easy to implement and is useful when the intent is to identify those who are outstanding in comparison to their peers. But grading on the curve has several drawbacks: the grade doesn't tell you how much or how little students have learned--only where they stand in relationship to the class. In addition, no matter how strong the class is,some students will receive low grades; or no matter how weak the class is some students will receive high grades. Further, grading standards could fluctuate with each group of students. A student whose work earns a C+ in the fall term could receive a B+ in the spring term with the same knowledge but a different curve. I'm not a fan.

Question from Kellie, Howard University:
    How can we be more equitable when assigning and grading group work?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    This is only half the answer.There are several options for assigning students to groups:

-- based on specific criteria: some people try to maximize group heterogeneity, creating a mix of males and females, verbal and quiet students, etc.

-- assigning students to groups randomly

-- have students chose their teammates: self-selected groups seem to work best in small classes and some research shows they are more cohesive. However, self-selected groups may be uncomfortable for students who are shy or who don't belong ("last one chosen")

- use a combo strategy: some fac select groups after asking students to express their preferences ("name three students you most want to work with") and assign them into groups with at least one person they expressed a preference for.

For group grading, there are a variety of options. The main point is to have peers grade one another and students to grade themselves, in addition to your own assessment.

Question from Anonymous, public university:
    How do you recover, personally and professionally, from a bad class? How do you pick yourself up and try to prepare for the next class?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Start first with what went right in the class, even if hard to find. There is always something good there. Then it's best not to approach this emotionally but analytically. Once you break it down--what were the specific factors that led to the class being "bad"-- it may not be as traumatic.Everyone has had a bad class from time to time. Often classes that are going badly can benefit immensely from a midsemester evaluation and discussion with trusted colleagues. And please take advantage of your faculty development office for a consultation on something like this; they can either visit the class or discuss what has happened and help you put this in perspective.

Question from Steve Shawl, U Kansas:
    In introductory courses, what role do you think student evaluations should have in one's teaching?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    If the implication is that students may not know enough in an intro course to evaluate a faculty member's teaching, in fact students can report on how much they have learned. There are two roles that student evaluations can play in a faculty member's teaching. Most people are familiar with the end of course questionnaire which really provides information to instructors too late to make changes for the students who made the comments. I prefer the use of midsemester evaluation strategies such as the Minute Paper, short questionnaire or student reps reporting to you on student reactions to the class. These efforts can really help an instructor identify what is working well and what might be changed. End of course questionnaires should be shorter and focused on those items necessary for an outside group to make judgments for merit and promotion.

Question from Beth Dailey, Nicolet College:
    Would you talk about alternatives to face to face office hours? Have you found online chat and instant messaging effective ways to communicate with students?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Actually it is important to have face to face contact with students to learn more about them, to help students feel engaged in the course and to make them feel recognized as an individual, particularly in large classes. Online chat and IM are not alternatives but supplements. Online technologies are best for specific questions but do not allow for the sometimes the rather rambling conversations that can produce the best learning.

Question from anonymous, public university:
    I like to assign writing assignments however this is challenging in a class of 180+. Do you have suggestions for group writing assignments or other means to utilize writing in large classes?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Of course we know that if students write things down they will learn better. You can assign writing tasks without grading them as long as you make some use of them. Or you can simply give a piece of writing a plus or a minus. For example, ask your students a "Dear Abby" or "Dr.Science" question (what happens when an ice cube is put in a full glass of water--- will the water overflow?). Then you can pick two or three of them to read in class the next day. One failure in large classes that are not writing specific is that faculty don't take time to make clear that good writing is important in the discipline.

Comment from Denise Blumenthal, WGBH, Boston's Public TV:
    Are any of you aware of "Getting Results" a free online course for teaching in community colleges? We designed it for adjuncts, but it is really "teaching 101" for anyone teaching at the college level. It is filled with videos, readings, discussion questions, etc. Would love to get it used widely. Available at: www.league.org/gettingresults

Question from cj, anonymous:
    What is the best strategy to deal with a very small class and keep the interest up?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    A small class depends less on the instructor and much more on the students. Students need take the responsibility for leading discussions, engaging their peers and so on. There are a variety of strategies that give students a leadership role in the class such as debates, case studies, simulations, role playing, author's chair, etc.

Question from Antoinette - UT Arlington:
    Any tips/suggestions on how to decrease/eliminate talking between 1 or 2 students sitting next to/behind each other during class? These are first-year students in a college success class that are still adjusting from the high school classroom environment to a college/university classroom setting.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Decorum! I have spent a lot of time thinking about civility. First you need to make your policies clear about what you find incredibly annoying. During class, it's best if you deal with incivilities promptly and consistently. Address the student politely and calmly, name the behavior that is disruptive and give clear instructions about what you want the student to do. The back of the room is a traditional gathering spot for bored or disruptive students. You might mention to students that research shows that students who sit in the front of the room earn higher grades than students who sit in the back. Sometimes disruptive students are unaware of the problems they are causing. To interrupt a side conversation, move toward the talkers making eye contact or pause until they quiet down.

Paula Wasley (Moderator):
    Unfortunately, we've come to the end of our hour. A full transcript of this Brown Bag will be available shortly at The Chronicle's website, but if you'd like to continue discussing these issues, please visit our "In the Classroom" discussion forum: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?board=25.0 Thanks to all who submitted comments and questions, and thanks again to Barbara Gross Davis for sharing your thoughts with us today.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    I'm sorry I didn't have enough time to address everyone's questions. Feel free to contact me offline. I wish I could have gone into more depth on each topic. Almost all of these are covered in depth in the second edition of Tools for Teaching. Thank you for the thought provoking questions.

Paula Wasley (Moderator):
    Because there were so many questions, Dr. Davis kindly offered to respond to a few we didn't have time for offline:

Question from Paul, University of Illinois at Chicago:
    What tricks and tips do you recommend for dealing with a class of 450 + students taking Introductory Biology?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Gee, there are so many aspects to teaching a large enrollment class that I'm not exactly clear what specifically you have in mind. A few random thoughts on some different aspects: - capitalize on the strengths of lecturing which is the opportunity to motivate and inspire students by letting them see how an expert thinks about complex content, organizes knowledge and applies the methods of the discipline; and show them the kinds of analysis and arguments that shape your field: Try not to lecture for the full period every single class meeting. Studies show that incorporating opportunities for discussion or problem solving exercises can enhance learning and increase long term retention. Ask students to solve a problem at their seats, in pairs or small groups; pose a question to the entire class and have students yell out answers or give a give demonstration. Make an attempt to get to know some of the students by coming early to class and talking informally with whoever is there; writing two or three randomly selected names on the board once a week and taking those students to lunch or coffee. Challenge students' notions about the large class. Most students assume that they can sit silently, take notes and just watch the instructor do all the work. But students learn best when they take an active role: discuss what they are reading, practice what they are learning, apply concepts and ideas to new situations. Do some type of midsemester evaluation to get a feel for what is working well and what you might change.

Question from J. Hudson USC:
    In a classroom discussion, how do you recommend transitioning from small group discussions around specific questions to a discussion with the entire class? I find students don't like "reporting" or simply repeating what they discussed in small groups to the larger class.

Barbara Gross Davis:
    If the reporting goes nowhere beyond the reporting (first we talked about this and then we discussed that), then I agree. The reports must mean something. If you aren't planning to use what comes out of the small group discussion, then there's no point in having students share what they talked about. And by the way, you don't always have to have groups report back. Help students have something worthwhile to report by giving them guidance on the charge for their small group discussion (come to a conclusion? solve a problem? develop a hypothesis?). Here are some ways to report back:

1) Ask each group to share a single point (most important, most surprising, most controversial; key conclusion, specific hypothesis, answer to the problem or whatever fits the directions for the small group discussion); if one group mentions a point that another group also came up with, the second group takes a pass

2) Ask a single person from group A to move to group B to report while the other members in group A hear from a member of group C

3) Pick only one group to report back then open the discussion to the full class: do you agree with this group's assessment? why? why not?

Question from Tracy, Emory U. :
    How do you keep up-to-date on research-based methods of instruction?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    It's hard because there is so much out there in disciplinary journals (e.g., Journal of Educational Psychology), disciplinary teaching journals (e.g., Engineering Education, Teaching Sociology, Journal of College Science Teaching), books, Chronicle of Higher Ed, newsletters (e.g., Teaching Professor, Tomorrow's Professor, National Teaching and Learning Forum), and the websites of faculty development offices around the country. And of course professional conferences are another source of information as are listservs for teachers in your discipline (e.g., Psyteach). It can easily be overwhelming! My intent in writing the second edition of Tools for Teaching was to try to distill this vast amount of literature about teaching and learning for all those who don't have time.

Question from Julie, liberal arts college:
    What is the role of the teacher in classes intended to broach and discuss values issues? Can you suggest techniques to facilitate such discussion classes?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Since I wasn't sure about the best answer to this question, I consulted my colleague at UC Berkely, Steve Tollefson, who is director of our Office of Educational Development. Steve points out that the role of the teacher is even more vital in courses where values are discussed. He notes that even before such issues can be addressed, students must spend time learning about discussion vs. argument, about intellectual disagreement, and about researching topics so that they don't spout generalizations and stereotypes. It's best if the first part of such a class is devoted to reading and learning skill sets and strategies, rather than launching immediately into sensitive issues. Once the discussion does get going, the role of the instructor becomes part traffic control officer and part philosopher--challenging students' opinions or comments when they when seem off kilter or based on faulty assumptions.

Question from Adam, Claflin University:
    What techniques have you found effective for encouraging accurate and effective student-to-student feedback as well as student self-evaluations on coursework? As a student, I always felt this was unfair for professors to ask of me. What can we hope to achieve from such exercises?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    Students are often unprepared to give feedback to their peers. To help students develop these skills so they can give effective feedback, instructors often create rubrics, which are guides students use to comment on another's work. A rubric is a set of components of an assignment (e.g., purpose, organization, evidence, etc.) accompanied by definitions of performance levels for each component (e.g., developing, competent, exemplary). Instead of asking students to provide a self-evaluation, some faculty ask students to write a short reflective piece on the process of working on the assignment. This piece, to be taken seriously, allows students to recall the process and their successes and failures with the project/paper.

Question from Dorothy Haag, St. Joseph's College of Nursing:
    What are the 2 most significant revelations over the last decade in regard to student learning in the lecture hall/classroom?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    The key findings from "How People Learn" (National Research Council, 2000) have major implications for instructors. I have already mentioned some of their findings. A few of their conclusions: Students who have inaccurate or incomplete assumptions and beliefs abut a topic will have difficulty grasping new concepts and information (which means when introducing a new topic, review background and prerequisite information, taking care to dispel common misconceptions) Students can more easily recall what they already know and integrate new material when they are given a conceptual framework (which means presenting material in organized manageable chunks) Students need practice, feedback and review (which means providing opportunities for students to generalize, apply and transfer what they have learned and giving them feedback on how well they do).

Question from anonymous, small associate degree nursing school:
    Could you please give some suggestions for personalizing a large lecture class---100 students, all ability levels---in a technical field--associate degree nursing, fundamental to advanced beginner level, content taught will be tested in high-stakes exam both for progression in school and with standardized test for licensure, and is necessary to be understood for success in employment. Thanks

Barbara Gross Davis:
    I think some of the ideas already mentioned for the large intro bio class could apply here as well. The notion of varying levels of preparation is common in many classes. One suggestion is to design a first day questionnaire that probes students' background in the course content (students might rate their level of confidence or actually answer questions abut specific topics) as well as their interest in the material. Since your students are also looking at high stakes exams, it seems essential to provide them with frequent feedback (through such things as ungraded quizzes) about their progress and knowledge, so that those who are not progressing satisfactorily can seek extra help or know what they need to do to improve. If students request more help, be sure to direct students to specific sources of help.

Question from Diane at a health science center:
    Do you have any suggestions for designing effective writing assignments for health professions students?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    An instructor here at Berkeley has students produce a fact sheet--- usable in various public health venues for clients or practitioners-- on a particular public health issue (e.g., avian flu). Other kinds of assignments, not necessarily specific to public health: article, abstract or book review for a professional journal; research proposal; memo or briefing on a particular issue for a professional audience; memo recommending action; letter to a public official for or against a particular policy or decision; critique addressed to the author of the course textbook; two-page update of a section of the textbook that stresses new research.

Question from Gary Hornung, Garden Valley Collegiate, Manitoba, Canada:
    G'day As a Senior years English instructor, my classes are in the mid-30s to low-40s in size. The cross-cultural nature of our school, with a 30% recent immigrant component (German and Spanish), and the weak skills levels of the immigrant pupil, takes a considerable amount of explanation time. So much so, that the weak to below average pupil can be lost in the shuffle. Marking workload (120 pupils) and other Dept Head duties combined with standards/outcomes test expectations will result in burn-out or stress leave very soon. Younger colleagues are leaving the profession after 4-6 years - already burned out. Any suggestions for the design of effective writing assignments -that would assist in meeting outcomes and still provide time to 'have a life'?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    This is a complex issue with many different components, including workload. But here are some random thoughts:

1)More writing not less is what the students need; but less grading by the instructor. Maybe shorter pieces of writing and more peer review.

2)Less editing of student work and more pointing out problems, including distinguishing between minor errors and those that impede meaning (a helpful resource by Steve Tollefson is Encouraging Student Writing available online at http://teaching.berkeley.edu/publications.html).

3)leverage the use of online writing labs that can take some of the burden off instructors (Purdue's Online Writing Lab is one of the most well known but you can do a google search and find others).

Question from Debra Weinstein, Harvard Medical School:
    Do you have a favorite article or book that provides a cogent summary of the principles of adult learning for the purpose of guiding our approach to teaching?

Barbara Gross Davis:
    These two books may be helpful: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (by J. Bransford et al. National Academy Press, 2000) and How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (by M.Donovan et al., National Academy Press, 1999). The chapter on "Helping Students Learn" from Tools for Teaching, Second Edition, tries to summarize the key principles and implications for practice in these and other books and research articles.