Do We Need to Know…?Those who have the courage to teach must never cease to learn

Jeffrey Pommerville, Ph.D.

Glendale Community College

2008 Carski Award Lecture Reprise

ASMCUE–Ft. Collins

May 31, 2009

What Do We Need to Know…?

1. …What Type of Professor We Are?2. …Our Students?3. …How Students Learn? 4. …How to Be a Personal Trainer?

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Active learning ahead

Warning!

Critical thinking ahead

Course assessmen

t curves ahead

1. …What Type of Professor We Are?*

• Professor- instructor– Teacher

controlled and centered

– Disseminate information in lecture fashion (telling & testing)

– Extrinsically motivational

– Short-term reasoning patterns

* Lord (2008). Trimorphic college science professors. Journal of College Science Teaching 37(5): 80-82.

• Professor- teacher– Student

controlled and centered

– Discover information through hands-on/minds on (guiding & questioning)

– Intrinsically motivational

– Long-term reasoning patterns

• Professor-researcher– Teacher/student

centered– Train students in

discovery and invention (researching & discovering)

– Intrinsically motivational

– Long-term reasoning patterns

Teacher-ScholarEarly career Mid careerCurrent career

1. …What Type of Professor Are We?*

How Faculty Members Use Their Class Time (Survey: >9100 faculty at 104 institutions)

Class time 0% 1-19% 20-49% 50-74% 75-100%

Lecture 2% 27% 40% 22% 9%

Teacher-led discussion

4% 47% 38% 6% 3%

Small group activities

22% 53% 20% 4% 1%

Student presentations

39% 50% 10% 1% 1%

In-class writing 50% 41% 7% 1% <1%

Student computer use

50% 32% 10% 4% 4%

Hands-on practice 27% 34% 22% 9% 7%* 2006 Institutional Report. Overview of National 2006 CCFSSE: Cohort Survey

Results.

2. …Our Students?

Nuclear cap

Nucleus

No

M

L

F

Sirenin

Allomyces macrogynus

Above all, one must have a

feeling for the organism.

2. …Our Students?

• 27-year-old woman with 2.5 kids

• No “typical” community-college student– Ethnically diverse

• What do students want us to know about them?

Diversity

Hispanic = 25%African-American = 10%Native American = 2%

Foreign studentsAfrican = 6%Asian = 12%Eastern European = 10%

2. …Our Students?

• Net generation is highly and easily distracted; short attention span

• Poor time management skills

“Setting priorities is something that many of us lack.”

― Anna/Spring 08

Miller, Pfund, Pribbenow, and Handelsman (2008). Scientific teaching in practice. Science 322 (5906): 1329-1330.

3. …How Students Learn?

Assumption Pedagogy Andragogy

Need to know

Role of experience

Readiness to learn

Knowledge

Motivation

No concern to their lives

Of great concern to their lives

Has little worth Has great worth

When teacher tells them

When adult needs to know

Is received Is constructed

External motivators

Internal motivators

Learning fromprogrammed informationalways hides realitybehind a screen.

2. …Our Students?

• Don’t read!!I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

3. …How Students Learn?

Creating

Evaluating

Analyzing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

Anderson & Krathwohl (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Higher-order thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy—Revised

Reading

3. …How Students Learn?

• Reading can move students to higher-order thinking

“… were afraid that if people learned to read they would fall into the vice of thinking…”

Tahuti in the Land of Sleepers

Teaching is leading students into a situation in which they can only escape by thinking. — Anonymous

“Dr. Pommerville should teach us what we need to know, not how to

think!”

3. …How Students Learn?

Creating

Evaluating

Analyzing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

Anderson & Krathwohl (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Higher-order thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy—Revised

3. …How Students Learn?

“Dr. Pommerville told us to be creative but he

didn't tell us exactly how he wanted that done.” ― Student/Spring 08

3. …How Students Learn?

• Be aware of the cognitive load

Intrinsic + Germane + Extraneous = Total

cognITive loadWhat is

required by the thinking

task

Processing of new

information into more complex associations

Designing additional

materials for complete

understanding

Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work. Educational Psychology 41(2): 75-86.

“Memorization is what [students] resort to when the information makes no sense.” — Anonymous

4. …How to Be a Personal Trainer?

We professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the

equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be

demanding.

4. …How to Be a Personal Trainer?

• You don’t teach a class—you teach a student

• One-on-one feedback• How to give feedback?

– In advance of and separate from any summative assessment

– Constructively rather than simply judging the student’s effort

– By explaining where and why the student made errors

– By discussing a plan to close the gap

Algebra 1

“Well, he’s certainly smarter than you are!”

4. …How to Be a Personal Trainer?

• What other ways to stimulate intrinsic interest and sound thinking?– “Closing the loop”

Fascinating!

Childbed Fever

In past centuries, childbed fever was the greatest killer of women. One sixth of all women died of this fever. Few complaints more justly excited the dread of the doctor than childbed fever..

In the early 1800’s, childbed fever was found in many of the lying-in (obstetrics) wards in European hospitals – including those in Vienna, Austria.

It is January, 1830.

Semmelweis’ Epidemiological Study

“…I must confess that God only knows the number of patients who have gone to their graves prematurely by my fault.”

Close the loop—through small group activities

4. …How to Be a Personal Trainer?

• Getting students to write– Reveals a student’s distinctive individuality

and personality as a sound thinker– Importance of processing information rather

than just presenting it– Reveals the nature of the student’s mind at

work in understanding the world

Rise of the Superbugs

Watching the DVD gave us a feeling of power and ability to stop the superbugs by raising funding, awareness, and compassion. The responsibility of the future belongs to all of us. — Chad/Fall 07

I work in a phase one medical research center as a research coordinator… As I sat there watching the DVD, I thought about all the drugs we have tested (more than I can count), including sleep, diet, kidney, and heart medications. It dawned on me that in my two years of [coordinating] clinical studies, only ONE was for a potential antibiotic. — Alicia/Spring08

All I can say is … WOW! Watching the DVD was like a huge reality slap in the face. Not only did I learn much, it also opened a place in my heart to truly want to help in the fight against deadly bacteria. — Sandra/Spring 08

Close the loop—through writing

Before Closing…

• Thanks to…• The Ultimate in Teaching Success—students making

a mark

Kate/Fall 07 Ben/Fall 07 Maggie/Fall 07

Most of us go into teaching not for fame or fortune but because of a passion to connect.

Thank you

“If we teach today the way we taught yesterday,

we rob our [students] of tomorrow”

—John Dewey