Dr. Anne Hlas on Attention

Attention is a limited resource and one that must be established, directed, and maintained. Dr. Anne Hlas, Department of Languages, provides strategies on how to structure your class to get the most out of student’s attentional resources:

The first 10 minutes of the class is the most attention rich time for students. When we are passing back papers or going over logistics the beginning of class, it’s not as effective as if we were to use that time to target new material. Last semester, my student researcher, a colleague, and I conducted research on attention where 274 students—from all different levels of Spanish—were given clickers so they could self-report when they were having an attention lapse.  In addition to learning that students were paying more attention the first 10 minutes of class, our findings also suggested that more active learning techniques, such as cold calling (randomly calling on students), interactive speaking tasks, and working on individual white boards, may also increase attention.

For more information on this subject, consider checking out the book Brain Rules, by John Medina. 

Interview by: Jon Pumper

Dr. Jeff Vahlbusch on Scripts

A class script is a student produced summary, interpretation, and commentary on a class discussion. Each class period, one student is assigned the role of “scribe,” where they must document the class conversation, noting everything from who-says-what to specific references made to texts. Additionally, scribes are responsible for analyzing and synthesizing the discussion within the framework of the course. Dr. Jeff Vahlbusch, Department of Languages, speaks to his success with implementing scripts:

It works very well with courses that are heavy discussion. It’s almost an automatic flipped classroom in a way, where the learning goes on outside of class and then you deepen and extend it through conversation. Students get accredited for their contributions, and this reinforces the notion that everyone’s input is equally valued. In the end, you have a record not of what the professor thought the course was, but what it looked and sounded like from the student perspective, with all the commentary, humor, and acerbic asides included.  

Interview by: Jon Pumper 

Faculty Projects - Clear Rationale

Professor:  Kaishan Kong

Department:  Languages

Name of Group: Successful Teaching Practice

Life is simply more enjoyable when you understand why you are doing the things you do. For instance, a person might demand that you swallow a stalk of celery whole, a rather unpleasant if low-calorie experience, and you would be utterly miserable if you were not aware that it was to compete in the local celery consumption contest and now you had a chance to go home with brand new, celery-themed cook book. Assignments are much the same way: homework that may otherwise be deemed as “busy work” is more likely to be enjoyable when the purpose behind it is well contrived and clearly articulated to the students. Dr. Kaishan Kong, department of Languages, speaks to this technique (among others) in her project associated with CETL’s group “Successful Teaching Practice:”

"The project was to create a collaborative video for the final summative assessment in the Beginning Chinese course. The purpose was to engage students to use Chinese language in a context, encourage negotiation strategies and enhance their collaborative skills. The techniques I applied from the CETL Successful Teaching Practice workshops included:

-Giving clear rubrics and peer review.

-Grouping students with a purpose.

-Clear delivery of the group project purpose, rationale, process and expectations.

-Role play in class to prepare for the final project.

-Develop a process for the overall project: prepare, introduce, monitor and end."

Refocusing on purposeful learning, Kong cites that the students were much more receptive to the assignment when they knew the reason for it:

"I shared my rationale for the group work and clear expectations. Students understood that this project was an opportunity for them to apply what they have learned in a comprehensive way and to enhance their communicative skills, so they were very willing to do it."

She notes that it’s simply a matter of voicing what you are already doing:

"I always have students’ best interest in mind when preparing for my lessons, but making it explicit to the students was helpful to connect me with students. By sharing the rationale of this project, I made students understand the benefit of this activity and my intention. They trusted me more and were devoted to achieve learning."

In addition to this change, Kong also altered her project design in relation to group composition, classroom work time, and project segmentation:

• Grouping Students: "I grouped students based on their proficiency level and the dynamic that I have observed in class." 
• Work Time: "I designated some time in class for them to prepare for the project.  I observed group interactions and gave feedback. Students approached me with their questions and inquiries for confirmation and clarification. I also alerted students to the common pitfalls, from sentence patterns to uneven workload distribution."
• Segmentation: "I broke the project into several segments and was transparent with the points to each segment. I also gave each student a peer-review form to grade on their colleagues’ contribution to the team project."

She ends by referencing the significance CETL’s best practices had in her alterations she enacted not only to her project, but also for her course:

"It was an experiment of backward design for my course. When I had a list of expected outcomes for the final project, I moved backward to consider how I would design my teaching so students would be able to achieve these skills in order to demonstrate these skills in the project. In this way, instruction and assessment became more relevant to the final objectives."

Write up by Jon Pumper

Teaching Tip: Dr. Anne Hlas on Framing Questions

Creating a classroom environment where everyone contributes is not an easy thing to do. Dr. Anne Hlas, Department of Languages, speaks to the significance questioning has in engaging every student:

Questioning is one of the most important things we do. A carefully constructed question can help engage more students and guide their thinking. In many classes you get the really eager students who will raise their hands or blurt out answers right away; however, you also have the shyer students, who need to be actively drawn out. Framing a question is one way to build in some processing time and increase the quality of answers provided by students. Framing the question consists of teachers clarifying how they want students to answer a question. For example, we might say,  ‘I am going to wait for ten hands before I take an answer’ or ‘take time to think and write the answer down, I’ll take answers in one minute.’ In addition, we may frame a question in a way that asks students to show their response with their hands (e.g. thumbs up/down), by sitting/standing, or with visual indicators (e.g. agree/disagree).  In this way, we can engage a broader range of students, and ultimately, the entire classroom. 

Interviewed by: Jon Pumper