Teaching

Tuesday Teaching Talk: Teaching “Disinterestedness”

Last Tuesday, CAST hosted a seminar discussion ostensibly centered around a short and light essay titled, “The Uncoolness of Good Teachers,” by Mark Edmunton. We had six participants and a lively discussion that ranged over a number of interesting pedagogical issues. The conversation gave me a lot of ideas for a TTT topic, so we’ll work through a few of them in the coming weeks. For starters, we’ll take one inspired from our esteemed colleagues Judd Renken, who teaches rhetoric, speech, and philosophy, and Carrie Nepstad, who teaches childhood development and chairs our illustrious Assessment Committee.

Without further ado, here is our TTT question:

What is the importance of teaching “disinterestedness” in the classroom? Disinterestedness is a stance that is often touted as essential in being a careful and objective thinker and scholar. Many of our own professors may have criticized our undergrad paper if we demonstrated too much bias or enthusiasm for one position or another.

But to what extent is this actually possible? If it is not possible, is the requirement for disinterestedness in our students’ assignments a harmful deception? Is it a miseducation? If a graduate walks out into the world and believes they are capable of taking a disinterested stance when in fact they cannot, is it harmful for them as a thinker?

Even if disinterestedness is impossible to achieve, is it perhaps an important stance to strive to obtain in our own thinking and writing? As democratic citizens, for which willful advocacy of a particular stance is important, is it possible that too much disinterestedness is harmful?

Tuesday Teaching Talk (Thursday Edition)

Years ago, Chris Sabino as CAST director and Dave Richardson as Harold Lounge curator hosted the “Tuesday Teaching Talk,” or “TTT,” on the Harold Lounge. Now, CAST wants to resume this practice. We’ll get it back to Tuesday soon enough. 

“Because really good teaching is about not seeing the world the way that everyone else does. Teaching is about being what people are now prone to call counterintuitive, but to the teacher means simply being honest.”  -Mark Edmundson, “The Uncoolness of Good Teachers,” in Why Teach?

What do you do in the classroom that is weird, creative, risks making you look silly, but is all done in service of a lesson for your students? Is it ever a good idea to risk a professional bearing in the service of education? What strange things do you do between your four walls?

As HW faculty have seen in their e-mails, CAST is beginning a series of seminars aimed at fostering a good conversation about teaching, learning, thinking, and sharing what relevant disciplinary knowledge we have to our fellow faculty from across the disciplines. If you are interested in participating, join us this Tuesday, February 3rd, 3:30pm to 4:30pm in room 1046 at HW.

“Reacting to the Past” in the Community College: Introduction

You walk into your class a few minutes before it is scheduled to begin. To your pleasant surprise, six or seven of your students arrived sufficiently early to arrange the tables in a large half-circle, in preparation for discussion and debate. They did this without your request, but it’s exactly the formation they needed today. You also notice a large portion of the students already seated, pouring over their copies of Plato’s Republic.  Some students are wrapped in white linens, in imitation of the tunics worn in Athens, circa 403bc. One has a garland in her hair.  Rather than walking to the front of class and introducing the day’s main topics, you instead quietly take a seat in the back and pull out your own copy of The Republic, turning to the pages on the goals of an excellent education: to make good citizens first, and to give them the tools so that they may contribute to society in the way they are specially suited as individuals. Though you have not provided specific guidance, most everyone is reviewing the same pages.

The minute that class is scheduled to begin arrives and passes. Nothing has changed. You are still sitting in seat, saying nothing, unless a student approaches to ask a question about the text. Otherwise, you can clearly see your students clustered in groups about the room, speaking in hushed voices, The Republic in hand. Occasionally, a student from one corner of the room stares menacingly to another cluster. A young, petite woman raises her fist and booms, “Athens is a city of democracy! The men who fought for us have the right to participate in government!”  A young man from the opposite group retorts, “giving the rule to the mob is giving Athens over to the passions of the appetite! That’s no way to rule wisely or justly!” A commotion begins, and chaos threatens. You continue to sit in your chair, taking notes about who is saying what. Ten minutes after the scheduled class start, you, the instructor, have yet to say a word.

(more…)

An Argument for Democratizing Knowledge in America

I just read a book “Back to school: Why everyone deserves a second chance at education” by Mike Rose.

Back to School book cover

The students described in this book could be my own and I find that rather refreshing in a book about higher education!

There was something really powerful about reading the words of students like mine in the pages of this small book. It reminded me that our students all have various reasons for being in our classrooms:

To be a role model for my kids. To get a career to support my daughter. I don’t want to work in a crappy job all my life. I want to learn to read and write. I want to have a better life

I teach in the Child Development program. I’ve always thought of my courses as serving both academic and occupational goals, and I have treated both goals equally. We are a career program, and yet the intellectual life of my students is extremely important to me. I want my students to experience many and varied opportunities for cognitive growth in their time here. I also have a higher responsibility to the young children my students will ultimately serve so I work hard to make sure my students understand developmentally appropriate practices in the profession of early childhood education. This book has reminded me of the importance of developing an academic intellectual life, but it has also reminded me of the intelligence of occupational work.

It’s midterm by the way, in case you haven’t noticed! This is the time in the semester when many of us lament that students are unable or seem unwilling to take advantage of the support resources available to them such as office hours, tutoring, and the like. The book helped me to remember that my personal approach to learning in terms of actively seeking information and forcing myself to take charge of my own educational experience by any means necessary can be really different from how students approach my class.

As Rose states,

Many students with privileged educational backgrounds are socialized from day one to seek out resources and engage members of institutions to help them attain their goals. This seems so much like second nature to most academics that we forget that it is a culturally influenced, learned behavior.

…teaching is more than transmitting a body of knowledge and set of skills but also involves providing entry to the knowledge and skills and tricks of the trade necessary for fuller participation in learning.

It’s a quick read, but it has inspired me to think differently about my students and my teaching. I think it’s worth a look. Let me know if you want to borrow it!

The Flipped Classroom: an experiment

Hi Harold Lounge,
I posted this to my personal blog earlier in the week and thought it might be fun to share.

Let me know what you think!

The Flipped Classroom: an experiment.

In addition to the sources mentioned in the post, I’ve also been reading “Flip your Classroom”, which has some very good suggestions.

Happy midterm!
Carrie

Tuesday Teaching Talk (TTT)

Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. Hold on to your hats.  The CAST coordinators (yes there are 2 of us) are tasked with supplying TTTs to you.  Look for questions, videos, tips, etc.  Enjoy!

Guess what?  It’s Open Education Week.

 

What do you think?

Tuesday Teaching Talk (TTT)

Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. Hold on to your hats.  The CAST coordinators (yes there are 2 of us) are tasked with supplying TTTs to you.  Look for questions, videos, tips, etc.  Enjoy!

What do you think of this?

Tuesday Teaching Talk (TTT)

Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. Hold on to your hats.  The CAST coordinators (yes there are 2 of us, Chris (mathissexy) Sabino and Gitte (no nickname as of yet) Maronde) are tasked with supplying TTTs to you.  Look for questions, videos, tips, etc.  Enjoy!

Click here for something sweet from your two favorite Valentines!

(Be sure to click play.)

Tuesday Teaching Talk (TTT)

Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. Hold on to your hats.  The CAST coordinators (yes there are 2 of us) are tasked with supplying TTTs to you.  Look for questions, videos, tips, etc.  Enjoy!

 

Welcome to Week 4. 

What is your #1 pet peeve this week with respect to teaching?

On Teaching and Cognitive Science

Following up on yesterday’s post about lectures comes this interesting article about a new book that I can’t wait to get (once it’s in paperback) and read:

The invisible-gorilla experiment is featured in Cathy Davidson’s new book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (Viking, 2011). Davidson is a founder of a nearly 7,000-member organization called Hastac, or the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, that was started in 2002 to promote the use of digital technology in academe. It is closely affiliated with the digital humanities and reflects that movement’s emphasis on collaboration among academics, technologists, publishers, and librarians. Last month I attended Hastac’s fifth conference, held at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Davidson’s keynote lecture emphasized that many of our educational practices are not supported by what we know about human cognition. At one point, she asked members of the audience to answer a question: “What three things do students need to know in this century?” Without further prompting, everyone started writing down answers, as if taking a test. While we listed familiar concepts such as “information literacy” and “creativity,” no one questioned the process of working silently and alone. And noticing that invisible gorilla was the real point of the exercise.

Most of us are, presumably, the products of compulsory educational practices that were developed during the Industrial Revolution. And the way most of us teach is a relic of the steam age; it is designed to support a factory system by cultivating “attention, timeliness, standardization, hierarchy, specialization, and metrics,” Davidson said. One could say it was based on the best research of the time, but the studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor, among others, that undergird the current educational regime (according to Davidson) depend upon faked data supporting the preconceptions of the managerial class. Human beings don’t function like machines, and it takes a lot of discipline—what we call “classroom management”—to make them conform. Crucial perspectives are devalued and rejected, stifling innovation, collaboration, and diversity.

It wasn’t always that way.

Intrigued? Yes, I was too. Enough to watch the keynote presentation even (available HERE). Cathy Davidson’s presentation begins around the 16 minute mark.

The next big thing? Or just more fetishizing of the new, mistaking the next thing for a better thing? Time will tell, I guess.

UPDATE: If you want to watch the Davidson Keynote in pieces, it divides up this way:

1. Minutes 1-16: Jibber-jabber and introduction of Cathy Davidson.

2. Minutes 16-30:15: The Four Information Ages

3. Minutes 30:15-44:29: Brain Science and Attention (and Attentional Blindness)

4. Minutes 44:29-58:45: Industrial Schooling (A brief history of “Scientific Learning Management”)

5. Minutes 58:45-63:20: Learning for Participation

6. Minutes 63:20-End: 21st Century Skills

 

Tuesday Teaching Talk

Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. It could be a question, an article or a tip to name a few options.

The semester is upon us.  Anyone have any tips to a successful start to the semester?  Let’s tear down the classroom walls, open the doors (which may be unnecessary given the lack of walls to hold them in place) and get a look into our individual sanctuaries. What do you do that first day/week?

Tuesday Teaching Talk (TTT)

Tuesday Teaching Talk will replace the Tuesday Teaching Question as the regular Tuesday feature. Tuesday Teaching Talk, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense and it happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. It could be a question, an article or a tip to name a few option.

Today’s TTT is reminiscent of one I’ve done for the past few semesters.  Here goes.

Here I am at 10 to 7 the week before classes are set to begin.  I’ve yet to put the finishing touches on my syllabus nor exact the changes that I vowed to make at the end of last semester.  If you’re at all like me, at the end of any given semester, you look at what you’ve done and attempt to determine what worked best. What’s your process?  Are you excited about any new things you’re going to try?

Tuesday (Non)Teaching Question

Tuesday (Non)Teaching Question is an irregular feature that attempts to get a conversation going about (non)teaching.  Typically, the questions attempt to be very impractical and begin with an excessively short preamble.  T(n)TQ is brought to you by CAST.  If you have a question that you’re dying to have featured in an upcoming T(n)TQ, don’t e-mail me at hwc_cast@ccc.edu since this is a one shot deal.

So we survived the semester and final grades are (almost) in…

Those of you teaching summer have a few weeks off; the rest of us have a significantly longer amount of time.

What are you planning to read/watch/see during your time off?

It would be kind of fun if we had a faculty book club of sort (similar to the once existent Pedagogy reading group).  Maybe from these responses we could find a book we could all read and discuss in the fall.

Think, Know, Prove: Plus-Delta

Think, Know, Prove is a regular Saturday feature, where a topic with both mystery and importance is posted for community discussion. The title is a shortened version of the Investigative Mantra: What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove? and everything from wild speculation to resource referencing fact is welcome here.

Plus-Delta is a review scheme that I picked up from someone who undoubtedly stole it from some trendy business book, but the idea is that one periodically takes an inventory of actions and identifies the ones that were good (they go in the Plus column) and the ones that either need to be different or need to be added (those are the Deltas, as in “change”).

So, headed into the last week, what is in your Plus column? And what is in your Delta? These may be personal, institutional, or otherwise.

(I’d put my own list up, but there are some personal circumstances that suggest that for a few days at least, less is more; let’s just say that I’m not allowed to operate any heavy machinery, and I include “keyboards expressing personal opinions” in that category given the possibility of dropping an anvil on my own toes with a poorly expressed idea or two. Anyway, I’ll put some up later in the week, if anyone else does.)

What do you think? What do you know? What can you prove?