Learning and Teaching

Ellington, H. How to Become an Excellent Tertiary Level Teacher.  Seven golden rules for university and college lecturers. Journal of Further and Higher Education Vol 24, No 3 2000

Review

This article highlights the changing role of lecturers, from being teachers, the expert 'sage on the stage' imparting knowledge to being a more informal 'guide on the side' or facilitators of student learning (a concept familiar to me from previous reading¹.).  I do wonder about this change though, sometimes academics I speak to say they are now more like 'teachers' rather than 'lecturers' referring to being more like secondary school teachers and that students now require more direction and motivation than previously, not less - I wonder if this is reflected in the literature anywhere or am I misunderstanding? Anyway, this change means a fresh approach is needed, all this in tandem with requirements for increasingly high standards from validating bodies (QAA and ILT now the HEA?) and increasing technological developments and remember this article is written long before Web 2.0. It also includes detailed, practical advice, which is what I am particularly interested in.

The seven rules are:
1. Find out how your students learn
2. Set appropriate learning targets
3. Use appropriate teaching/learning methods
4. Use appropriate assessment methods
5. Monitor and evaluate your teaching
6. Always try to improve your performance
7. Keep yourself up to date

1. Find out how your students learn
Students learn in different ways:

• systematic
• holistic

Need to encourage development of both styles, as each can be applied in different situations. How does this apply to teaching a skill like legal research skills? I think the holistic approach probably because I try to explain the structure of legal literature and concentrate then on teaching how to find a particular part of that literature e.g. how to find case law.

And:

• surface (who scrape the surface only)
• deep (to encourage this get them actively involved in the learning process - 'how to' is covered later)
• strategic learners (who get away with least effort and 'playing the system'.  I see this with the cases exercise! Need to match assessment methods to learning outcomes to avoid this, with all key LOs being properly assessed in some way.)

Adult learners are:

• independent
• autonomous

They learn from own experience rather than being taught, they prefer:

• task
• problem

...centred approaches. Influenced by internal rather than external motivators. First years not necessarily 'adult learners' but as they move through course they become more so. Don't patronise adult learners (2nd/3rd years and postgrads).

Honey and Mumford's learning styles (I am familar with this work):

• activists
• theorists
• pragmatists
• reflectors (I am primarily a reflector)

Need to cater for all styles and find out how students prefer to learn - I find this a lot to think about when planning mostly 'one shot' lessons, especially when I don't really get to know the students well.  I guess the best way around this is to try to include all the styles and hope at some point in the lesson at least some of the students will be catered for.

2. Set appropriate learning targets
Two significantly different approaches

• learning outcomes (most degree level courses use this)
• competence based approach (most sub-degree level courses use this)

The targets should be clearly relevant to the overall aims of the course/programme, covering all essential knowledge and skills, especially process skills e.g. decision-making, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, IT (in my case legal research skills) etc.  I like this quote:

'B.F. Skinner [says] that true education is what remains after the facts are forgotten...'

Learning outcomes should be progressively more demanding, but still be realistic and achievable.  There are QAA guidelines on this, are there UoG ones?  They define:

• general direction
• guide teaching/learning methods
• assessment procedures

3. use appropriate teaching/learning methods

LOs first > T/L methods follow! Not other way round! Use different methods suited to the LOs.

• Lecture, film/video/programmes (mass communication)  - lower order skills,  useful for presenting basic facts and principles (teacher is expository, students passive, dependent)
• Projects, case studies, role plays - higher order skills, useful for analysis, evaluation, problem solving, directed study of textbooks, open learning, web based/online learning, student exercises and activities e.g. assignments and projects (individualised learning) - higher order skills (teacher takes a step back, acts as a guide when needed, produces the learning resources, students responsible for their own learning, independent)
• Buzz sessions, small group activities, class discussions, seminars, group tutorials, games, simulation, case studies, projects - higher order skills, useful for higher cognitive, affective, interpersonal and communication skills (teacher takes a step back, acts as organiser of group activity and facilitator, students responsible for their own learning, but dependent on one another for quality and depth, inter-dependent)

4. use appropriate assessment methods
Most important thing that teachers do for students at HE level. Key part of learning process. Should have 5 characteristics:

• valid (actually assess what it sets out to assess, not something else e.g. speed of writing in exams)
• reliable (produce same results under different but comparable conditions, same work, different markers = same result, requires standardised marking criteria)
• practical (cost, time taken, ease of application)
• fair (not make unreasonable or unexpected demands of students)
• useful (helping to facilitate learning process and providing feedback on progress)

When planning assessment, ask yourself these questions about the mode of assessment:
see p317
Give some thought to method(s):

• lower order skills - objective tests, short answer tests
• higher order skills - extended answer questions, continuous assessment - essays, assignment or projects.
• other skills - practical tests, situational assessment, portfolio based assessment

5. monitor and evaluate your teaching
Constantly monitor and evaluate:

• reflect deeply and critically on own performance as facilitator of student learning, keep reflective log of all teaching you carry out
• seek feedback from students, via informal discussions, class questionnaires, results of student assessment (gives very clear indication of whether you are effective or not!)
• seek feedback from colleagues, ask someone whose opinion you value to provide constructive, critical feedback (use UoG RAP scheme)

6. always try to improve your performance
'Excellent teachers are never satisfied with their performance; they are always striving to do even better.'

• Measure yourself against standards e.g. HEA
• Reflect critically - think of specific ways to improve for next time

7. keep yourself up to date
try to keep up to date with latest developments and put these into practice in own teaching

• commit to CPD - read books/articles/blogs, attend conferences, seminars etc
• keep up with technology e.g. Web 2.0

I found this a very useful, practical article which covered all the basics and although somewhat dated now, I was able to take a lot from it.

To do:
Check LOs for the 'I need to find case law...' workshop
Check assessment exercise is matched to them
Maybe find out more about 'approaches to learning' - ('How Students Learn' Ellington & Earl 1996)
Find out if there are UoG LO guidelines

1. King, A. From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side.  College Teaching Vol 41, 1993.