Teaching in Higher Education

Learning outcomes

- to discuss teaching practices in different contexts

- to plan for interaction and student engagement

- to reflect on current practice - to develop an action plan to refine approaches used to maximise engagement and learning

Powerful ideas in teaching*

* Gibbs, G. & Habeshaw, T., 1992. Preparing to Teach: An Introduction to Effective Teaching in Higher Education, Technical and Educational Services.

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Learners construct knowledg

e

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danisarda/3939008630/

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Learners need to see the whole picture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slightlynorth/3470300872/in/photostream/

Learners are selectively negligent

Learners are driven by assessment

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Learners often only memorise

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Learners’ attention is limited

Learners’ can easily be overburdened

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Adults learn differently

About... Pedagogy Androgogy

The Learner Dependent personality Increasingly self-reliant

Role of Learners’ experience

To be built on To be used as a resource for learning by

self and others

Readiness to learn

Determined by age and stage in the course

(maturity)

Develops from life tasks and problems

Orientation Subject Centred Task and problem- centred

Motivation By external reward By internal incentives. curiosity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danisarda/3939008630/

Learners learn

well by doing

Learners learn well when they take responsibility for their

learning

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Learners have feelings!

Preparing to teach...

3 questions

Q1 - Who?

A1: Students in Higher Education

Q2 - What

do you want students to learn and achieve?

Q3 - How

do you want students to learn and achieve the goals you set

for them ?

Constructive alignment 1 2

1 - students construct meaning through relevant learning

activities --> creation (teaching as a catalyst for learning)

2 - what the teacher does to support learning

--> facilitation (of an environment for learning)

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4 - Arriving at a final grade.

Constructive alignment requires 4 steps:

1 - Defining the intended learning outcomes (ILOs);

2 - Choosing teaching/learning activities likely to lead to the ILOs

3 - Assessing students' actual learning outcomes to see how well they match what was intended

....is a statement of what a learner is

expected to know,

understand and be able to

do at the end of a period of learning and of how that learning is to be demonstrated. (Moon, 2002)

A learning outcome...

Moon, J. (2002) The Module and Programme Development Handbook. London: Kogan Page Limited

Learning outcomes should:

• be written in the future tense

• identify important learning requirements

• be achievable and

• assessable use clear language easily understandable to students

When writing outcomes, it may be useful to use the following expression

At the end of this module you should be able to.......

Evaluation Create

Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) Anderson & Krathwohl's Taxonomy (2001)

action driven

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Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Wheel

http://www.johnbiggs.com.au/solo_graph.html

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/solo.htm

http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/RevisedBlooms1.html

Let’s write some learning outcomes!

Choosing learning activities...

...for small groups

...for large groups

Active learning in laboratories?

Adams, D.J., 2009. Current Trends in Laboratory Class Teaching in University Bioscience Programmes. Bioscience Education, 13(2009). Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ858371 [Accessed October 7, 2012].

You have it easy! :-)

Research advocates interaction!

Learning activities in labs

Let’s designactivities for learning!

Things to consider:

• How does the learning outcome relate to the learning activity?

• How long will the activity take?

• How do you communicate the activity to the students?

• How will students be engaged?

• How will students demonstrate their learning?