I have an actual question for my fellow miserables, and it doesn't involve misery. Not really, anyway. I apologize for this trespass against our mores, but I'm honestly curious.
I've been doing this for a few years now and I have yet to settle into a particular way of presenting material to the class. Sometimes we work out way through the assigned readings, searching for the dialectical structure of the piece and examining how it handles the ideas in question. Sometimes I conduct a lecture/discussion section that touches on the same issues as the readings, but we don't really work through the readings per se - we work in parallel to them, using them as reference, in a way. Finally, I sometimes just conduct a lecture/discussion section having only assigned a brief reading to make sure they'll understand the terminology I'm using, with no intention of having them get the content of the lesson from the reading.
I can't quite figure out which I like better, or which I think is more effective for what I'm doing. Obviously, context determines a lot in both cases, but I get the sense that wiser heads than mine have more data on which of these - or other presentation modes - are most generally useful for dealing with, especially, intro-level material that nonetheless requires some solid critical thinking skills.
Any opinions?
sounds to me that you're doing it exactly right. . . figuring out what you want them to *learn* and *do* THEN figuring out how best to present it. Surely all three of these methods you describe have a place in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI imagine, for all the crap that we talk about "student-centered" learning - that this is actually close to what it means--engaging students in material in different ways, demonstrating that there's more than one way to use a reading, or that there's more than one way to think about a topic.
Doing the same thing day after day--no matter how effective it might seem--would seem tedious to me, and, I imagine, to my students as well.
I agree, we all have a we are comfortable presenting the material. We tend to stick with variations of this. Some people love power point presentations, others swear by group projects. In the end it is all a matter of preference. I think that since you switch it up to meet your students needs is a good thing, not something to be worried about. :)
ReplyDeleteI talk. They sleep.
ReplyDeleteIt's gotten us this far...
This is my favorite way.
ReplyDeleteKeep this up.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as you fall into a rhythm, it may feel easier to you, but that's when you become a silverback.
Students learn in different ways. I hate watching movies and learn more by lecture, but a lot of people learn more by reading. Some people learn more by talking. So keep rotating the socratic method with lecture and pause for group work or videos and your kids will get the most out of the material.
Variety. Spice of Life. Etc.
Sometimes it depends on the material, sometimes it depends on the students, sometimes it depends on whether it's late in the semester and how much of the syllabus is left....
ReplyDeleteVariation is good, though. Each of those methods actually teaches something different, and doing a little of each is a good thing.
I'm going to be bland and agree with the previous posters- I think that variety helps to keep students from thinking that class is just the "same old, same old." I'm a TA for 3 weekly discussion sections, and I purposefully vary my pedagogical strategies to suit the material and my mood. I've gotten very good feedback from students on this, and they seem to be learning what I want them to learn. Everybody's happy.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I'm not so much varying them because I perceive some need to do so or some advantage in it, but because I'm mercurial and what's going to feel "right" to me on any given day is anyone's guess.
ReplyDeleteStill, it seems, from the feedback, like this is non-harmful, so I won't worry about it.
Actually, Wylod, you sound like a hell of a good teacher.
ReplyDeleteI shoot for something like, "I don't think Prof. Zymurgy did anything, and I hated the way he ran the course. But damn, I learned a lot."
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you might be interested in looking into some more formal instructional design. Granted, you won't get a simple answer, but I really enjoyed it and it helped me make more sense out of my teaching.
ReplyDeleteIf you are at a bigger school, you can see about sitting in on some education classes. I did at my R1. I also took an instructional design class for my online learning certificate.
Lots of great books out there on the topic.