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Hi everyone, Recently I was offered the opportunity to teach a course this fall semester at the university where I am currently a history graduate student. This is, quite literally, a dream come true. But its also quite... scary, for lack of a better word. I didn't think I would be teaching for at least another year, possibly two, but it turns out I am pretty much the only one in the department both qualified and available.
So I'm nervous. I also feel like I am perhaps slightly out of touch with students today. Even when I was an undergrad I actually enjoyed learning and did the work, which I'm guessing I should not take for granted in most of my students. So I'm looking for some advice. What are some characteristics of teachers or teaching styles or methods that worked really well for you as a student? What was something you always wanted to tell your teacher never to do with another class? Really, any help at all I would appreciate.
The class is History of Science. It is a junior level course that fills requirements for a lot of different majors, so it's not just going to be history majors. Right now there are over 100 people registered. Edit: The course is three days a week, 50 minutes per class.
Also, I will be taking a full course load as well, so I won't have time to do everything.
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Are you going to be writing the lectures (content) for this course?
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LongTimeReader
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Yes, I should have said that the course is entirely my responsibility. I assign the textbooks, write the lectures, write the tests, assign the papers, all that jazz. I've already chosen textbooks and right now I'm about half way through writing lectures for the semester.
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Discussion, group work, anything other then just standing there and talking for 60 or 90 minutes. I taught middle school history for 3 years, and I honestly believe a lot of the tips apply to higher level as well. (Obviously discipline shouldn't be an issue.)
Also, know your students. Is this a 101 course? Most won't be as interested in the subject as you are.
Try to come up with something hands on. Make them get up and out of there seats.
If you use Power Point, go with the 10 - 20 - 30 rule. No more then 10 slides, no more then 20 minutes, no smaller then 30 point font.
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Fantastic combination of topic name and username. Kudos.
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LongTimeReader
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quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Fantastic combination of topic name and username. Kudos.
. Thank you. I was quite proud of it.
Stephan, it's a 300 level course, technically for juniors. I'm sure, because it fits so many requirements, that I'm not only going to have juniors, but that's the course designation.
As far as discussion goes, I'm a little wary of discussion in a classroom of 100+ students. Obviously I've never done it before, but it seems hard to manage. But I definitely agree that just standing up and lecturing is bound to put some people to sleep.
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Ouch, lecture hall. For a 300 level course? Must be a big university.
Also being at that level, I'm sure more then a few of them are going to be teachers some day. Put them in groups and make them teach the subject.
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Does your school have an education department? You could also talk to some of those professors for tips.
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Discussion with 100 people is no harder than discussion with 10 people. Establish rules for how discussion will work, either in your course expectations or in the first couple days of class, and then follow those rules.
Three different ways you can handle discussion (not all inclusive, just three variations).
1) Call on people yourself. Don't let people shout out.
2) Have whoever has just spoken call on the next person. They won't all know each other, but they'll still be able to say "Near the front," or "The person against the wall."
3) On the first day (of class, or discussion) have everyone write their name on a popsicle stick. Draw names from a hat during discussion.
Other thoughts: Make sure everything you assign has a purpose. If they see the readings in the first week are coming back in class discussion, they'll read. If they don't see they need to read, they won't.
Even if you don't do discussion, let them talk. Try to find something 20-30 minutes into the class for them to think about, and share with their neighbor. 2-3 minutes of chattiness like this works really well with 20 year olds. The question doesn't even have to be relevant to the topic, it could be off-the-wall (E.g. "What is the first thing you will do tomorrow morning,"). The chatting will help refocus them.
Let them free-form a bit. Rather than assigning specific paper topics, give them guidelines and let them pick the topic. They'll write better papers if they are interested in the specific topic.
Don't be a stiff. If you remember your best teachers, they were all slightly odd.
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I have had several history classes, and I never minded the classes where the teacher lectured the entire time, as long as the information and the teacher was interesting.
As long as you aren't droning and each of your lectures has a good structure (intro, outline of points to come, content, reiterate important points, questions to consider), I think it'd be totally fine if you talked for the entire time. I'd certainly rather hear the professor speak than fellow students when the subject is this interesting and this obscure.
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Katharina- THere are very few 20 year olds who will act as if they feel the way you did. If it were a class of 10 students taking an elective, solid lecture would work. But in a class of 100 for a general ed requirement, he'll lose most of the kids if he just lectures.
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You put your opinions out there, and I'll put out mine. Don't worry about what I'm saying - I am not interested in a dispute and I don't care what you think about what I'm saying.
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Fine. I'll reword that so as not to address you.
LongTimeReader- In my professional opinion as a teacher, the advice Katharina is giving is terrible advice, as it is contradicted by all the research I am aware of on how 20 year old students learn.
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Clearly, whatever you do will reflect directly on the people who have posted in this thread. Unless you wish you earn the wrath and scorn of Paul here, you have to to follow his advice, do exactly what he says, and be sure to scorn anyone who says anything contradictory to his advice. This is a huge responsibility. Professional accomplishments and self-respect mean nothing compared to getting strangers on the Internet to listen to you instead of someone else.
If you wish to simply hear a variety of opinions and make your own decisions, then you are disrespecting Paul and his teaching superpowers. He may cry.
Never mind that the best history professor I ever had did exactly what I said, and that he earned Professor of the Year for my state TWICE because he was so awesome. There is only one way! Anyone who says differently is selling something!
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My own thoughts, straight lecture is fine if it is an interesting subject and presented in an interesting way. If it isn't, everyone doses off (except for the few who DO find it interesting).
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I'm watching this thread, I'm hoping to see a reduced level of bitterness and snark.
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LongTimeReader
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I definitely have had at least one professor (now my major professor) who is able to lecture on land reform legislation for three hours and keep everyone's rapt attention. But, considering that this is my first time and I haven't weeded out what material is going to be engaging to everyone and what material is simply interesting to me, I'm worried that straight lecture will end up failing. But I'm also worried that discussions will get off track. I've been in quite a few classes where three people are interested in the discussion and the rest are bored out of their minds.
katharina, when you have had teachers who have been able to be interesting consistently, what have they been like? Have they told a lot of stories? Used powerpoint? Used primary documents?
Paul, would you say having them divide up in to small groups for five minutes is better or just tackling the whole class at one time?
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The problem with teaching from a document/presentation (from a student's point of view) is that it feels like it's not that important to listen to the teacher. Which translates to being bored in class unless the teacher demands attention and interaction (and manages to enforce their demands, not all can).
One of the best teachers I had was constantly involving us in trying to reason about the whys and the hows of the thing he was teaching. We were actually learning by coming up with the solutions ourselves most of the time, with hints from him when we got stuck of course. I have no idea how that would work for a History of Science class though. :/
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Either way would work. One advantage of small groups is that everyone has to talk, but the associated disadvantage is that some will talk about the party they are going to this coming weekend, and with 100, you can't keep tabs on that very well. The advantage to full class is you can keep firm control on the discussion, but the disadvantage is you'll only get a few people talking, and the dialogue that makes discussion so great will only benefit a few people. For a first time teacher, you might do better to keep full class discussion until you get a handle on that, and then move to small group discussion later in the semester. The popsicle stick technique (or some other way of randomly choosing people to participate) is a way of keeping people from getting bored out of their minds. It also prevents people from dominating the discussion.
If you're worried about discussion getting out of hand, make sure you set firm time limits, especially if you do small groups. In a full class discussion, you can limit 6 people to 30 seconds each, for example, while in discussion you can let the students know when they need to refocus, and do something to draw their attention back at the end of their time (slapping a meter stick across a bench is one of my personal favorites, whereas light switching tends to be more distracting than its worth).
Ultimately, the classroom methods you use are going to reflect who you are. Keep in mind, though, that the 100 kids in front of you are not you, they are all individuals with different interests and styles. Feynman said it very well,
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I disagree on the 10 ppt slides rule. I think it depends on what you are showing. We had a teacher who kept good control (I loved the subject so I would have paid attention even if boring) but most of the people seemed to be listening. She did lots of ppts with artwork from the historical period. Also, had music on some slides. Added additional depth to the course I thought. She had breaks for questions, which a lot of lecturers don't do.
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Alternate between lecture (10 min), discussion (4 min), lecture (10 min), silent reflection and writing (4 min), discussion (4 min), lecture (10 min), etc. Get one of those on-screen timers that are real easy to set so that students can see how much time they have left to discuss. This will be really helpful since you'll be in a lecture hall (I'm assuming, with that many students). If you're not sure about your skill at holding their rapt attention, ten minutes (half student age) is about the right amount of time for lecturing before losing everybody (you'll lose about 10% in the first minute or two, but that's typical).
Start the class with a question (on the screen) from the reading and have students reflect or talk about it before starting the lecture (again, with the on-screen timer). Invite two-minute sharing from audience (timer). (In audience sharing, with a class this size, you'll want the timer because some people will get so wrapped up in their own voice that they'll try to take over the class. Two minutes, and they're done! If it is really a scintillating comment, extend their time.)
To get discussions going, have students "turn to neighbor," "talk to someone in row ahead or behind you," "talk to the person in a seat diagonally from you," etc.
Use different modalities: music if appropriate (listening to a piece of music from the time of the scientist you are discussing can make it more interesting), show art from the scientist's era, present a quick overview of world events to help students make a connection between the scientist and what they already know. Mention the literature from the era, or clothing styles or foods. These things just help with making the connections you want the students to have.
Use graphic organizers to help students: venn diagrams, time lines, flow charts, sequence charts, compare/contrast charts, fishbone.
Show pictures of the scientists. Show quick video clips (there are tons of resources out there on the web).
This is just off the top of my head. I'll let you know what else I think of as it comes to me. Posts: 315 | Registered: Dec 2005
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On discussion, I dropped a class once because the teacher annoyed me in the first discussion. It was a lit class, everyone supposedly read the work. He wanted us to sum up what happened in the story. Occasionally people would say things like "I thought this was symbolic of X" or "I was confused on the cultural reasons behind character doing X". the teacher would then redirect, saying right now, we are just covering the basic plot. A whole 50 minutes where all we did was cover the basic synopsis of the story we had all supposedly read. We never got to anything more and I was bored out of my mind (I had read the story). I think some flexibility in what is discussed is needed to keep the group interested (some, not complete). Otherwise, if every viewpoint gets dismissed that wasn't on the list, might as well just lecture straight.
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quote:katharina, when you have had teachers who have been able to be interesting consistently, what have they been like? Have they told a lot of stories? Used powerpoint? Used primary documents?
I can think of three instructors in particular who taught that way that held the class's attention for the entire hour every time. All three taught history: Roman history, European history since the Renn., and a survey of Western Civilization. The Roman history prof is the one who won Professor of the Year twice, and he regularly had people attend who weren't even registered because his lectures were so interesting.
All three lectured with PowerPoint, but never put text on the PowerPoint. They prepared their lectures ahead of time and the content was very interesting, and the PowerPoint consisted entirely of images that supported their topic. The images were generally photographs of people and events, pieces of art depicting events, sometimes random images that supported the topic (like a knot when discussing a tricky diplomatic tangle), and often maps (simple maps with a single message). There were often 30+ images per lecture, although less if the topic for the day wa narrower (this happened more often in Roman history than the survey courses).
The upside was that they were absolutely fascinating and I learned a ton from it. The downside (for the prof) is that preparing those lectures was a LOT of work. Then again, once you have done it, then you have a course in your CV, and the next time you teach that class, it will be much less work - you only have to update.
And yes, all three were storytellers. Not everything was a story, but history particularly lends itself to storytelling. For the history of science, Archimedes and his discoveries would make a rockin' story.
And yes to primary documents, but only in class and not a huge proportion of the time. The independent reading was often analyses of primary documents that had been introduced in class.
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Whether you go heavy on lecture and light on discussion (or vice versa), just be sure that the material is covered appropriately.
What you don't want is for there to be a lot of ponderous discussion followed by poor performance on the first exam. The students will forget all about the interesting discussion if they receive a poor grade. Then, they often look for someone to blame...probably you (fairly or not).
Even worse is falling behind on your schedule so that material is not covered due to the expanded discussion.
So, my recommendation is that you concentrate first on covering the material, answering questions and (if you have time) try some discussion.
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I hate classes that do forced pairings for discussion. Two extroverts, fine; two introverts can just be torture. Small groups work better for me -- with more individuals there is less awkwardness if two personalities don't mesh.
For examples of how to make straight lecture appealing, I'd suggest analyzing some compelling TED talks. Some of the best lecturers I've listened to have been those w/ an angle or unifying theory about their subject matter that was fresh and new to me, and that they were able to explain clearly and with enthusiasm.
This requires both thorough knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to remember how excited you were about the idea before you became an "expert" in it. You need to look at how to engage people at their level and then make them want to follow you up to a higher level. Is there a hook that got you excited about it? Try to remember and replicate the experience for your students. There are tons of things I'm not interested in in and of themselves, but I can become excited about them if the teacher knows how to make me identify with it.
I pretty much agree with katharina on her examples of how to do lecturing right. That said, class discussion, even in a huge setting, can be a wonderful experience if managed well but I can understand your hesitation.
Good luck, let us know how everything goes through the semester!
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quote:Originally posted by katharina: [QB]I can think of three instructors in particular who taught that way that held the class's attention for the entire hour every time. All three taught history: Roman history, European history since the Renn., and a survey of Western Civilization.
Interesting. The only professor I've ever had that used a straight lecture approach that really *worked* was a history professor as well, and also took a storytelling approach. Today, a good 17 years later, I still remember a good bit of what he taught. There was no powerpoint to turn to back then, but he used slides in much the same way that kat describes.
[Edit - I couldn't believe the degree to which he succeeded in bringing Frederick Barbarossa come to life; by the end of the semester he'd given us a very nuanced understanding of both the man and the time period in which he reigned.]
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LTR, I was in the same boat a couple of years ago, although it sounds like I got more instruction than you did.
One of the things that I was taught that served me in good stead is to be consistent. Establish rules in the class room, especially for how discussions occur, and stick with them. For me, I made the class rules something the students and I developed in a collaborative way during the first class, then I posted them.
What kat is suggesting was something I specifically taught not to do. That's not to say that it can't work, but it often takes a very skilled teacher to bring it off. Instead, I was encouraged to come up with a more directly engaging style of teaching. I tried to work in thought problems, generally focused around how the stuff we were talking about tied in with previous things we had covered, and allowed for open class discussion of it. A couple of times, I got some very interesting ideas that came from a few students building off each other. The key there was to very much take a back seat, unless the discussion is going really off track.
Another thing you're going to find, especially in a class that fulfills gen ed requirements is that some of your students just aren't going to care. There's not much you can do about this. Just accept it and it'll go easier on you. It was always fewer students that I feared, anyway.
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Of the three people I know who pulled it off, one was a graduate sttudent teaching the class for the first time.
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I know one of the teacher's I loved, who was teaching for maybe her third year at an undergrad level, and the first time at this college, asked us what we thought the rules should be.
She engaged us in how we thought we should be engaged, and asked for our suggestions. The next day of class she had printed up a list of her rules and ours, and we were expected to stick to them throughout the semester.
Some of your students may have good suggestions. In my class, somebody suggested using a "safe word" for whenever the conversation got too heated... Something ridiculous, like "Mr. Bojangles" or "banana Possum". We used Alberquerque. We almost forgot about it, but sure enough, after more the half way through the semester, somebody alberquerqued me. And we all remembered what it meant, and calmed down.
Of course, I'm sure she had a very good idea about the rules herself, and how she wanted to handle discussion. But, *we* were much more engaged in the discussion afterwards, because we had had a hand in making its structure. Kind of like a kid who cooks his own vegetables.
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Professors I've had tended to be most successful if they taught in a method appropriate for their particular talents. For instance, the ones with a very theatrical personality and the ability to tell a story well tended to be interesting when they lectured. I've had some who were very opinionated who seemed to be at their best when challenging students in one-on-one discussion. I've had some who did their best with demonstrations. So what sort of teacher do you envision yourself being? How are you good at communicating?
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Counter-point to Tres (who does have a good point). Extend that counter-point to your students. What sort of teacher do they want? What type of teacher are they going to learn best from? With a class of 100, they probably do not all want the same sort of teacher. Some of them need a lecturer, some of them need a funny man, some of them need a story teller, some of them need large discussion, some of them need small group discussion, some of them need group activities, etc. etc.
Being who you envision yourself as being is a part of the learning process, but the people on the other end are the other part, and what they want and need is going to play a huge piece in how much they learn.
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Having taught (though nothing like these groups and very different subject matter) and been taught, I'd throw out this advice: Know what you want them to learn.
This is especially important for group discussion, and it adds spontaneity to your lectures as well. If you can narrow down the material to a handful of things you really want them to take away, then your discussions won't get de-railed. You'll be focusing on those concepts and if anyone brings up a related point, you'll immediately see the connection and be able to reinforce that key concept.
In lectures, knowing what you want them to know allows you to a) write a better, more focused lecture to begin with, and b) weed out any unnecessary anecdotes/sidebars/etc. As you think about the subject you have a criterion to measure whether to share that thought or move on.
When I've taught, I've always written all my basic points (usually between 3 and 5) on one sheet, separate from my other notes, so that I could easily regroup if my thoughts or the group discussion wandered.
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