Tips on Best Teaching & Learning Practices

Why should I care?

• Duty• Valuable Opportunity for Experience.• Building a Good Reputation• Paving the Road for Future Career• ………

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Things’ I Have Learned about Teaching

• The most valuable service an instructor can provide to his students: to motivate them

• The last thing you want a class to be:a transcription session

• Students will not put more effort than you.• Students cannot keep attention for long periods,

no matter how interesting the subject is.

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Retention Versus Delivery Methods

5%15%

25%

50%

70%

90%

Stud

ent r

eten

tion

of

info

rmat

ion

afte

r 24

hour

s

Lectures

Reading materials

Visual materials

Demonstrations

Discussions

Teaching others

Demonst.

Lectures

Teac

hing

othersReadin

g

materia

ls

Discuss

ions

Visual

materia

ls

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Effective Teaching Methods for Large Classes, J. Carpenter, U. South Carolina, 2006

Teaching method PercentMost Valuable Lecture + Discussion 38%

Lecture 20%Jigsaw 19%Case Study 13%Team Project 10%

Least Valuable Jigsaw 31%Lecture 30%Team Project 21%Case Study 18%Lecture + Discussion 0%

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Scope of Workshop• Techniques that:

– Engage Students– Can be used in class– Do not require class or material

restructuring. • Because:

– Everyone can try– Less resistance from students– Build the “culture” of participation

gradually.

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Why Do So ?• Deeper Impact• Longer Retention• Enhance independent learning.• Improve student concentration.• Student ownership of their learning.• Development of interpersonal skills• More fun, less Boring

(both to student and instructor).• Improves student evaluation !• ….

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Discussion-Stimulating Questions

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Why Do We Ask Questions

• Review of Material• Assess Student Understanding.• Draw Students Attention• Transitioning • Arousing Interest• Maintain Discipline • Stimulate Class participation

– convert lectures to dialogues.

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Features of DSQ

• Not YES/NO questions.• Designed for Higher level of thinking

• “2/3 of questions asked in a classroom required only recitation of a memorized text as a satisfactory answer” (1912)

• “Overwhelming proportion of questions asked by college professors were on the memory level”. (1982)

• Has anything changed today?

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Bloom’s Taxonomy:6 levels of Cognitive Thinking

Kno

wle

dge Com

preh

ensi

on

App

licat

ion

Ana

lysi

s Syn

thes

is

Eva

luat

ion

Describe, List, Define, name, state

Associate, compare, distinguish, differentiate, interpret, order

Apply, demonstrate, modify, prove, construct, develop, establish, use information in new situations.

Analyze, arrange, connect, divide, infer, classify, explain, correlate

Compose, generalize, plan, substitute, create, formulate, integrate, design, anticipate, compile, negotiate, "what if"

Assess, convince, conclude, judge, support, criticize, defend.

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Why HOT Questions?

• More stimulating than purely descriptive questions.

• Those who “do not know” can participate

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And …

• Phrase your question Clearly.– What did we say about FS ? !

• Ask one thing at a time:– What are the disadvantages of X, can we

remove them all, how and at what cost ?!• Write Down Your Questions.

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• When teachers ask questions they typically look for immediate response from students.

• Allowing few seconds for the response …– Promotes higher levels of participation

and longer responses.– The frequency of “I don’t know”

decreases.– Improves language use, attitudes and

teacher expectations.

(Gambrell, 1983; McTighe,1988; Stahl, 1994)

Response Time

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How much RT is needed?

• Allows nearly every student to complete the thinking needed for the task.

• Matches the “HOT” required.• Takes into consideration the Language

Barrier• Keeps students on board.

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Watch Your Feedback• Reinforce good responses.• Praise the student in a strong

positive way– “Absolutely correct”. “I like that”.

• Make comments pertinent to the student response– You were so careful to include all

the conditions.• Build on Students responses

now and then.

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Student-to-Student Q&A• Let students answer each other.• Encourage students to ask review

questions to their peers.– We learn by asking questions more than we

do by answering them.– What is harder for us, setting exams or

solving them?– “It is better to ask some of the questions than

know all the answers”.

Feedback

Response Time

HOTPrepare

S-S Q&A

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5 Tips for DSQ

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Think-Pair-Share (TPS)

T P S

Teacher poses

Q

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THINK Phase

• Advantages:– To promote self-thinking.– To engage more students in the thinking

process, unlike the case of the traditional methods.In college classrooms of fewer than 40 students, 10-15% of students do 70-75% of the talking. (20-80 principle)

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PAIR Phase

Think

Think

Share

SharePair

Why…

and not …

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PAIR• Advantages:

– Guaranteeing that everyone would have thought in the THINK phase.

– Refining their thinking as well as the language used to explain their perceptions in a non-threatening environment.

– Students in many instances learn better from each other then from their instructor.

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PAIR• Advantages:

– Realizing the benefits of sharing ideas with peers.

– Less confident students have the opportunity to rehearse their ideas and be encouraged to present them in front of the class.

– To Improve the communication skills with colleagues of the same level.

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SHARE• Advantages:

– Students who would never speak up in class are now both required and enabled to participate.

– The classroom is no longer dominated by a few students, but is open for contribution from all.

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Management of TPS

• Manage the “Think time”, “Pair time” & “Share time”. The longer the time “less discipline” environment is more likely to happen.

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Thank You

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