Structuring courses to maximize deep learning

The Teaching Professor Conference
May 16-18, 2008
Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center
Kissimmee, Florida

The Teaching Professor Conference is a special opportunity for all those who care deeply about teaching and learning to network, to discuss and to attend sessions, workshops and exhibitions. It focuses on The Pedagogies of Engagement, Technology, Teaching Large Classes, Undergraduate Research, Faculty, Learning and the Scholarship of Teaching. If you are ready to be successful in academe and to educate, to engage and to inspire, this gathering is surely for you!

The following pre-workshops, sessions and panels were noteworthy at the Teaching Professor Conference:

“Structuring Courses to Maximize Deep Learning” facilitated by Dr. Barbara J. Mills from the University of Nevada (www.millis@unr.edu) was a special pre-conference workshop that I attended . She emphasized that faculty must “learn some key learning principles and some practical applications in the area of “How People Learn” and in “Deep Learning” in order to design better courses that foster inquiry and analysis , critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, teamwork and problem solving.” Dr. Mills also illustrated how Deep Learning Research and “best practices” converge in the classroom and utilized specific classroom techniques based in cooperative learning and writing across the curriculum. Participants were encouraged to gain insights through modeled practices in the classroom and to reflect on their own approaches to teaching and learning. Her primary goal was to make it easier for instructors to think about teaching through cooperative learning and course design. Citing L. Dee Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning in Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses, this presenter underscored how research has shown that we learn best by teaching others and that Deep Learning connects with deep foundational knowledge. A solid workshop; however, the title could be modified to reflect a very strong emphasis on cooperative learning.

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord (www.walvoord@nd.edu) delivered a plenary on “Saving Time in the Grading Process.” Realizing that college professors just have too much work to do and too many papers to grade, she advocated reducing major assignments to one or two and brainstorming about other ways of achieving your instructional objectives. The key for Dr. Walvoord is to demonstrate mastery.
She emphasized that instructors should utilize rubrics, clarify criteria, guidelines and course standards to students, ensure commensurate student effort, offer more guidance, find out what the student knows and manage grammar and punctuation issues. Additionally, the speaker stated that instructors must change their paradigms and utilize time and space more effectively in the classroom and not edit student work since research indicates that it has little impact on students. Teachers should also count informal assignments, claim student time, tape lectures outside of class and only do major work in class. Finally, Dr. Walvoord affirmed that “the most powerful source indicating student learning is “student work.” The aforementioned plenary session was informative, especially for new and overworked instructors.

“Documenting Effective Teaching in a Scholarly Manner: Why and How” was presented by Janice W. Denton (Janice.denton@uc.edu) and Lesta Cooper-Freytag (cooperlj@ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu) from the University of Cincinnati. These presenters concentrated on the importance of documenting college and university teaching as if it were traditional discipline-specific research and shared their model for this endeavor which is based on the work that originated at the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE). They noted that their model was divided into three parts: (1) strategy; (2) model; (3) product which include the following components:
• faculty peers
• three (3) prompts of faculty self-reflection
• faculty scholarly teaching committee
• written student learning outcomes
• syllabus as a learning tool
• Action Research in the classroom
• teaching artifacts
• formative feedback from peers

The presenters summarized their presentation by emphasizing that the model was very successful at their institution and that the most important aspects were the three prompts for faculty reflection, teaching artifacts and formative feedback from a peer. Great session! I strongly recommend it for individuals interested in creating portfolios.

Margo Bowman (man@wayne.edu) from Wayne State University and Debra L. Frame (debra.frame@uc.edu) from the University of Cincinnati presented a discussion on “Going Beyond Expertise in Content: Encouraging Instructors to Become Expert Educators.” This session was profound in the simplicity of its premise “Expertise in a content area does not necessarily transfer to expertise as an educator.” The presenters explained information storage, illustrated how novices (students) differ from experts (teachers) and gave examples of effective learning experiences. They noted how differences between the novices and experts can greatly impact learning and that students should be taught in a manner that encourages the neural networks of knowledge. Hence, information about the brain and how it functions when it comes to memory ( the mind can only retain seven items at a time) is essential for effective teaching and learning. The audience was engage in several exercises that demonstrated how the brain functions. The facilitators ended their presentation with several teaching implications: (1) Teachers should provide multiple experiences that encourage the recognition of meaning and patterns; (2)Teachers should organize basic elements into a larger structure; (3) Teachers should focus on a global context and patterns; (4) Teachers should make connections for their students; (5) Teachers should chunk their information; (6) Teachers should engage in peer review. I highly recommend this session. It was outstanding.
The Teaching Professor Conference was a great experience. Instructors can continue to stay abreast of all the latest developments in teaching by subscribing to the Teaching Professor Newsletter.