the college classroom week 1: introduction

collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

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The College Classroom

Image: Greinke and Bob McClure by ChrisM70 on flickr CC

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

The College Classroom

Tuesday, October1

Thursday, October 3

Fall 2013

Week 1: Introduction

Who Am I – Peter

Peter Newbury

PhD (Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) 1998

in applied math

Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, 2008 – 2012

Associate Director, Center for Teaching Development

since August, 2012

Teaching and learning interests:

how people learn astronomy, physics, math

how to motivate instructors to transform the way they teach

finding the most effective ways to implement peer instruction (clickers)

Establishing and maintaining an online personal learning network

@polarisdotca peternewbury.org


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Who Am I – Steph

Steph Carmack

PhD candidate in Stephan Anagnostaras’ lab in the UCSD Division of

Social Sciences

The College Classroom and Summer Graduate Teaching Scholar alum

(2013)

Research interests:

The relationship between memory and addiction

Pychostimulant mechanisms in ADHD

Moral attitudes toward academic doping

Teaching experience :

2 accelerated summer classes for high school students (Summer 2012-3)

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (Summer 2013)


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Who are you?


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Why are you taking The College Classroom?

A) I’m looking for a tenure-track academic position and

knowing about teaching will help me get a job.

B) I have little/no teaching experience and I want to

get some.

C) I’ve taught before and I want to

become a better instructor.

D) I’m interested in the theory and

pedagogy of teaching and learning.

E) other

A quick survey:

We have people with different backgrounds in our

audience: Raise your hand if this is you:

Who experienced undergraduate education in the US?

Who has had a teaching experience before?

Who has given a technical talk?

Who has English as a second language?

Who has been a student in a large (150+ students) class?


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Introduction to teaching and learning

in higher education

Survey


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Which of these do you associate with a typical

university lecture?

A) listening

B) absorbing

C) note-taking

D) learning

E) other

The traditional lecture is based on the

transmissionist learning model


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(Image by um.dentistry on flickr CC)

Let’s have a learning experience…


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Here is an important new number

system. Please learn it.


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1 = 4 = 7 =

2 = 5 = 8 =

3 = 6 = 9 =

Test


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What is this number?

Scientifically Outdated, a Known

Failure


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We must abandon the tabula rasa

“blank slate” and “students as

empty vessels” models of teaching

and learning.

New Number System


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Here’s the structure of the “tic-tac-toe” code:

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

Test


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What is this number?

New learning is based on knowledge that you already hold.

You store things in long term memory through a set of connections that are made with your existing memories.

Constructivist Theory of Learning


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(Images by Rebecca-Lee on flickr CC)

Creating memories (aka learning) involves having neurons fire and neurons link up in networks or patterns. fMRI is allowing us to observe learning as it happens.

learning is done

by individuals

How People Learn [1]


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Learning is not about what

professors do.

It’s about what THE LEARNER does!

Corollary:

Students do not LEARN just

by listening to the professor explain

What the best college teachers do [2]


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The best college teachers create environments where

“students encounter safe yet challenging conditions in

which they can

try,

fail,

receive feedback, and

try again

without facing summative evaluation”

a test that counts for marks

Course Information

What are the goals of TCC?


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Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-

level LO

Course-level LO #4


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Course-level LO #2

Course-level LO #3 Course-level

learning outcome (LO) #1

Topic-level

LO Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO

Topic-level

LO Topic-level

LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-

level LO

Topic-level

LO Topic-level

learning outcome



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Course-level learning outcomes (that support, and are

supported by, the topic-level outcomes)

you’ll be reflective and scholarly about your teaching

you’ll be able to explain why certain instructional activities are

successful and why others are not

you’ll be able to identify and support student-centered

learning environments

you’ll know how to succeed as a professional educator in

higher education

you’ll be able to recognize and build upon the diversity of

your students



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Many topic-level learning outcomes in

1. modern theory of Constructivist learning

by the end of the course, you’ll be able to have an

elevator conversation describing the importance of

metacognition in learning.

and more…



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2. best practices for the college classroom

by the end of the course, you’ll be able to write a peer

instruction (clicker) question and explain to a colleague the

rationale behind the question and choices and describe

how it can be incorporated into the lesson.

and more…

Throughout the classes, I’ll be

trying to model best practices

so try to watch how I teach

as well as what I teach.



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3. how to be a successful, professional educator

by the end of the course, you’ll be able to begin to build

a personal learning network (PLN) by, for example,

posting to a Wordpress blog, collaborating with others

using Google docs and interacting through social media.

and more…

Traditional classroom


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first exposure to material is in class, content is

transmitted from instructor to student

learning occurs later when student struggles alone to

complete homework, essay, project

learn easy

stuff together

learn hard

stuff alone

transfer assimilate

Flipped classroom


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student learns easy content at home: definitions,

basis skills, simple examples. Frees up class time for...

students come to class prepared to tackle

challenging concepts in class, with immediate

feedback from peers, instructor

learn hard

stuff together

learn easy

stuff alone

transfer assimilate

What is going to happen in this class

Weekly on Tuesdays at 11:00a -12:30p and repeated on Thursdays at 12:30 – 1:50p in Center Hall, Room 316:

1hr 20 min “lecture” – mixture of theory and practice

interact in small groups (e.g. Peer Instruction)

If you need to attend a conference, job interview or something of that nature, attend the other weekly session and let us know.

To Prepare:

read research paper(s)

do an activity (post on the class blog, leave comments on others’ posts, observe a class, etc.)

Professional career preparation:

write Teaching Statement,

create microteaching experience (details later in quarter)


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collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu


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All course information,

presentations, links to

readings, discussions, etc.

will be on the class blog.

Each of you will have a username and password so you

can post to the blog. (You don’t need to login to access

the course materials or leave comments, though.)

(Image by kitsu on flickr CC)

Clicker question


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Which best describes your experience with blogs?

A) I don’t have any experience with blogs.

B) I read blog occasionally

C) I read blogs often and leave comments

D) I’ve written posts on someone else’s blog

E) I have my own blog

Course blog is public so


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I can only provide links to copyrighted articles, not

the articles (PDF) themselves

you may need to be on-campus so you can use UCSD

credentials to access subscriptions

you may be able to connect from home with the UCSD

web proxy server (search Blink for “web proxy”)

Your posts and comments will be visible to the public:

learn to be careful about what and how you write.

Your posts become part of your digital footprint.

If you include pictures in your posts, they must not be

protected by copyright (use Creative Commons pix?)

How you will be assessed

The College Classroom is not an official UCSD course.

You will not receive an grade on your transcript.

To receive a completion certificate (and for SGTSs, to

be qualified to teach in the summer), you must

attend all sessions

thoughtfully complete all assigned work.

contribute during class in a professional, collegial

manner.


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Syllabus

Week


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2) How people learn

3) Development of expertise

4) Learning outcomes

5) Assessment

6) Digital identities and

personal learning networks

7) Growth and fixed mindsets

8) Diversity of learners

9) Alternatives to lecture,

cooperative learning strategies

10) Teaching as research,

succeeding in academia,

11) and 12)

(topics and/or order may change as the course progresses)

Microteaching presentations

preparation

Teaching Statements

background

first draft

peer review

second draft

Microteaching presentations

Homework for Week 2:

Visit the course blog. Contact info for Peter and

Stephanie is on the About page.

Find the homework for Week 2 (to be completed before

the Week 2 sessions on Oct 8 and 10.)

You will need the password to access certain items. The

password is ________________.


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References


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1. National Research Council (2000). How People

Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded

Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking

(Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies

Press.

2. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.