Educational Developers Caucus Resource Review

Fall 2011 EDC Resource Review

2011-11-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Fall 2011 Resource Review is now available. Thanks to all our contributors and sponsors!

Prize giveaway: Shaping the College Curriculum

2011-11-10T06:07:00.000-08:00

FURTHER UPDATE: Our original winner, Nicola Simmons, has opted not to claim her prize, so I have randomly selected another winner. Commenter #14, V. Mac, you are the lucky winner! Thanks again for participating, and please contact me to arrange for delivery of your prize.

UPDATE: The winner of this book, as determined by a random number generator at random.org, is commenter #2, Nicola Simmons! Congratulations, Nicola! Thank you to everyone for participating. Stay tuned for more exciting giveaways!

Thanks to our friends at Wiley Canada, we have a copy of Shaping the College Curriculum to give away to one lucky reader. Enter to win by posting a comment below, telling us a little about your/your department's/your institution's approach to curriculum design. And don't forget to read the review of this title in the Fall 2011 EDC Resource Review!

Entries must be received by midnight Pacific time on Friday, November 25. One entry per person. Winner will be selected randomly and announced on this blog, so please check back after Saturday, November 26 to see if you are the winner. You do not need to be a member of the EDC to enter. No geographical restrictions apply.

Prize giveaway: Journal Keeping

2011-08-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: The winner of this contest, as determined by a random number generator, is Katie Linder. Congratulations, Katie!

To win a copy of Journal Keeping by Dannelle D. Stevens and Joanne E. Cooper, which was reviewed in the Summer 2011 issue, post a comment below telling us your opinion about using journals in teaching.

Entries must be received by midnight Pacific time on Friday, August 26. One entry per person. Winner will be selected randomly and announced on this blog, so please check back after Saturday, August 27 to see if you are the winner. You do not need to be a member of the EDC to enter. No geographical restrictions apply.

Thank you to our sponsor, Stylus Publishing.

Summer 2011 EDC Resource Review

2011-08-02T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Summer 2011 EDC Resource Review is now available! Thank you to all our contributors and sponsors.

Review: The Syllabus Institute

2011-08-02T00:00:00.002-07:00

The Syllabus Institute

http://syllabusinstitute.org

Reviewed by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

This free, newly-launched online resource offers sound advice on syllabus design and content, especially for the online syllabus. It addresses topics such as the information that belongs in a syllabus, legal issues surrounding syllabus transparency, syllabus compliance with Universal Design principles and practices, syllabus templates and in-house systems developed by various universities, and model faculty training programs in online syllabus design. A syllabus self-assessment instrument is available. The site developers say that their best-practice recommendations are based on their research on over 2,500 syllabi from more than 500 institutions. Your feedback about the content, design, and additional materials for the site is explicitly invited, and you can even be a guest blogger.

This site was recently announced on the POD listserv and caused a bit of a stir. The Syllabus Institute claims to be built on the controversial belief that excellence starts with the syllabus. Educational developers could more effectively argue that course excellence starts with a firm commitment to student learning, clear and assessable student learning outcomes, cohesive course design, or consonance between outcomes and methods; the syllabus just maps out the plan to help students achieve the outcomes. One POD member objected to the site’s focus on the syllabus as a contract, an assessment instrument, and a way to draw students into the subject matter, versus the syllabus as a learning tool. These are fair critiques, but they do not make the resources on the site any less useful to relatively new faculty and graduate student instructors who are struggling to compose a high-quality, legally-sound syllabus.

Educational developers and instructional technologists, such as learning management system specialists, should find this site useful in developing or refining their faculty and graduate student training programs in syllabus design, as well as in providing individual consultation on the topic. If the site continues to develop, it should serve as a good resource to keep up with evolving syllabus issues. Of course, faculty can mine this site on their own for good ideas and models, especially with respect to Universal Design and accessibility.

Review: Just-in-Time Teaching

2011-08-02T00:00:00.001-07:00

Simkins, Scott and Mark H. Maier (ed.). Just-in-Time Teaching. Stylus: Sterling (VA), 2009.

Reviewed by: Colleen Bell, University of the Fraser Valley

Part of the New Pedagogies and Practices for Teaching in Higher Education series, Just-in-Time Teaching discusses a strategy developed for use in (and out of) the physics classroom, but which, as the book so aptly demonstrates, can be adapted to any discipline.

The editors, both economists, have grouped the book’s 10 chapters into two sections: the first four chapters describe the strategy itself, as well as its relationship to a number of other strategies, including peer instruction and collaborative learning; the remaining chapters discuss how just-in-time teaching (JiTT) has been employed in various disciplines, including biology, geoscience, the physical sciences, economics, history, and the humanities.

Before I picked up this book, I had a vaguely formed idea of what might be involved in JiTT – my own daily work with students involves giving them just enough to chew on to move ahead with whatever assignment they’re working on. But in reality, JiTT is so much deeper and more complex than what I had conceived. It involves structuring students’ out-of-class and in-class activities to build on and play off of each other, and it is grounded heavily in theories of student engagement and cognitive learning; the authors in this volume repeatedly cite several key works, in particular Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000), Bloom (1956), and Chickering and Gamson (1987).

JiTT is deceptively simple. Students prepare for class by completing the assigned readings and the JiTT exercises, which most often consist of “short, thought-provoking questions that, when fully discussed, often have complex answers” (p. 6), usually due 10-12 hours before the class. In class, the instructor incorporates students’ responses to the JiTT exercises into discussion and activities that are designed to complement, supplement and extend the JiTT exercises. As the creators of the strategy note, “students enter the classroom ready to participate actively” and they “have a feeling of ownership because classroom activities are grounded in their own understanding of the relevant issues” (p. 6). But JiTT requires that instructors be able to respond quickly to whatever turns up in the student responses. For seasoned teachers, with a repertoire built from years of teaching, this may not be a problem, but for newer instructors, or those just starting out with JiTT, this aspect might prove somewhat daunting. Fortunately, the book offers many examples, and there are also resources available online.

One of the main benefits of JiTT is that it requires students to engage in deep learning strategies – to apply the concepts from the readings, personalize the knowledge in some way, and engage in metacognitive learning. Well-designed JiTT questions “are effective at uncovering misconceptions, promoting curiosity, and encouraging active student engagement in the learning process” (p. 8). It’s almost impossible to argue that these are not desirable effects.

I have two small criticisms of this book. The first is that it is overly repetitive – even though the basics of the JiTT strategy are thoroughly described and discussed in the first section, each of the chapters in the second section, where authors describe how they have applied JiTT within their own discipline, also includes a sometimes lengthy description of the strategy.

The second criticism is that it would have been nice to see more applications within the humanities. Perhaps it’s just that there are more faculty in the sciences and social sciences who have incorporated the strategy into their own teaching, but that just makes me more curious about how it can be employed in those disciplines in which it is not so common a strategy.

In spite of these criticisms, however, I found the ideas presented by the authors intriguing, and I’m already thinking about how I’m going to make use of them myself.

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York: McKay.

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7) 3-7.

Review: Journal Keeping

2011-08-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Stevens, Dannelle D. and Joanne E. Cooper. Journal Keeping: How to Use Reflective Writing for Learning, Teaching, Professional Insight, and Positive Change. Stylus: Sterling (VA), 2009.

Reviewed by: John Grant McLoughlin, University of New Brunswick

As the title suggests, this is a comprehensive effort to extol the virtues of journal writing. Stevens and Cooper (the authors) remain true to their mission of addressing the value of journals for personal development, transformational learning, and pedagogical purposes. The tone of the book clearly informs the reader that the authors are believers and (long-time) practitioners with respect to using journals as both educators and individuals. They impressed me with their willingness to raise various issues, such as, the implications/tradeoffs in using computers versus handwriting for journal entries, or matters like evaluating journals as being entirely private (and not to be read but marked only for completion) as opposed to responding to individual entries.

The book is divided into three core sections: Journal Writing and its Theoretical Foundations (Ch. 1-3); Using Journals in Classrooms and Professional Life (Ch. 4-8); and A Collection of Case Studies (Ch.9, 10). However, it is noteworthy to mention what precedes and follows the core. The Preface provides readers with guidance concerning the content of the book. Further, Appendices A (Journal-Writing Techniques) and B (Contributor Contact Information) are helpful resources. The latter is unusual in that it provides the names, email addresses, disciplines, and journal expertise of a dozen individuals including the authors. This is a neat feature that goes beyond an acknowledgment, per se. The final feature of the book is References. The comprehensiveness of the book is reflected in the hundreds of references covering about fourteen pages. I will touch upon this comprehensiveness in my concluding comments below.

As mentioned, this book has lots in it about journaling. If you are new to the idea and want an excellent introduction, the material is here. If, like me, you have used journal writing in classes, or kept journals yourself, then the book will be somewhat uninviting to read from cover to cover. In fact, I could not get engaged in the book as a formal read but acknowledge its place as a significant resource. I could see having this book on the shelf of an EDC or in a library, as it is bound to benefit people interested in learning more about journals and/or addressing specific issues pertinent to the broad area at a pedagogical level.

On that final point, I should mention what impressed me most as a reviewer given my background (and likely that of many EDC members). The initial chapter, Journal Writing: Definition and Rationale, provided an excellent entry point for this reader. I was struck by the clear articulation of a working definition: “We define a journal as a sequential, dated chronicle of events and ideas, which includes the personal responses and reflections of the writer (or writers) on these events and ideas (p. 5).” The authors go on to identify and explain the six defining attributes of journals: “written, dated, informal, flexible, private, and archival (p. 5).” I appreciated the fact that the authors early along opened with the definitions and relevant language, while acknowledging the tensions between the competing needs for flexibility and definitions.

In summary, I commend the book on the whole as one that belongs in a resource centre to support teaching and learning. After that opening chapter it is probable that five or six of us would select different chapters (or features such as appendices) as being most valuable to us. That is the beauty of the book, in that it is a resource rather than a book to be read in its entirety.

Spring 2011 EDC Resource Review

2011-06-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Spring 2011 edition of the EDC Resource Review is now available!

If you would like to win a copy of Catherine Black's edited volume The Dynamic Classroom, reviewed in this issue, please leave a comment on this post telling us one strategy you have used or experienced that made the classroom a more dynamic place. Contest closes at midnight Pacific time on June 30, 2011. Winner will be randomly selected. No geographical restrictions apply. Thanks to contest sponsor Atwood Publishing.

Review: World History Sources

2011-06-12T00:00:00.003-07:00

World History Sources

http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/index.html

Reviewed by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

This site is a project of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University that was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The materials address every region of the world--some resources are specific to Canada--from the beginnings of human society through the present time. They include 1) scholarly evaluations of online archives of primary sources with a view toward quality and teaching value; 2) eight guides written by prominent world history scholars on strategies for analyzing major types of primary sources--specifically, music, images, objects, maps, newspapers, travel narratives, official documents, and personal accounts; 3) eight multimedia case studies of scholars interpreting and adding historical context to these types of primary sources; and 4) sixteen case studies written by high school and college instructors describing how they used a particular primary source to teach in their classes.

Given its broad historical and geographical scope, this site holds value for faculty in literature, classical studies, anthropology, political science, sociology, geography, music, art, and area studies, as well as all for history faculty of all specializations. However, many of these faculty may not know about the primary sources available and the most effective ways to use them in the classroom. This site will help educational developers advise faculty on creative ways to teach with a wide variety of primary sources. It could even serve as a base for a workshop on teaching with primary sources.

Review: The Dynamic Classroom and Win Them Over

2011-06-12T00:00:00.002-07:00

Black, Catherine (ed.). The Dynamic Classroom: Engaging Students in Higher Education. Madison: Atwood Publishing, 2010.

Linehan, Patricia. Win them Over: Dynamic Techniques for College Adjuncts and New Faculty. Madison: Atwood Publishing, 2007.

Reviewed by: Trevor Holmes, University of Waterloo

At first I wondered why, with many extant standard works in the areas of active learning and preparation for teaching, we need two more to give us scholarly and practical advice about teaching in higher education. Two recent books from Atwood Publishing prove to be useful additions for our new decade with immediate application to the field of practice, though for different reasons and written in quite different tones.

Riding the wave of “engagement” as a precondition for learning (these days, I often find that people will pin such high hopes on engagement as to make it in fact a PROXY for learning, but that’s another story), The Dynamic Classroom: Engaging Students in Higher Education invites any postsecondary educator to consider how best, from design principles, to support all sorts of students in active and deeper learning. I find that from introduction to conclusion, Catherine Black’s edited collection is welcoming, inclusive, and respects practitioners and students alike. The book’s strengths include its diversity of authors and strategies, as well as its often-seamless movement between theory, principles, and practice.

Divided into four parts, Black’s collection offers practical advice (some of it research-based) for tertiary educators who are either new or considering teaching in a new way:

Preparing the Ground for Engaging Students (Questioning, Universal Design, Mind-Mapping)
Engaging Students in a Variety of Settings (Discussion in small and medium classes, teaching large classes, inquiry circles)
Engaging Students with New Technologies (Blogs, discussion boards, LiveJournal, Online Teaching, ePortfolios, Personal Response Systems, Podcasting)
Assessing Students’ Engagement (Online Participation, Portfolio Assessment)

Within and across sections are a few different approaches. There are course-specific stories of techniques and how they have worked, together with suggestions for how they could work for you. A number of chapters set down principles to improve instruction or guide instructional choices. Some of these and several additional chapters offer specific tools or recommended elements of tools and how to implement them.

The book closes in an innovative manner: authors of five of the chapters provide questions for further reflection and integration. They are of mixed quality as prompts, and perhaps most enlightening for those for whom such thinking isn’t already habitual or instinctive. I would consider moving each back to its own chapter or section as a means of effecting both closure and door-opening at once.

One gem among several excellent articles is T. Haffie’s article on “broadcollecting” using clickers. It is compelling not only because of his nine principles for personal response system use, but also because of his obvious respect for the capacity of professors and students to sustain engaged intellectual inquiry together. He asserts that the proper role for clickers is formative feedback, and acknowledges the vulnerability involved in changing one’s practice. Also, and this is I hope not because I have some deep-seated need for NINE principles, J. Specht’s chapter on engagement and learning disabilities covers important history and explains well the reasons behind Universal Design, Universal Instructional Design, and Universal Design for Learning. Her work will, I hope, find its way into workshops on my own campus.

While separately each of the articles was strong, I would have appreciated a little more alignment between E. Wood’s delineation of questioning modes and K. Cawsey’s later thoughts on pauses, question posing, and discussion. As well, I remain befuddled by the inclusion of the E. Meyer et. al. K-12 ePortfolio chapter (with its examples of parent feedback and comma-abusing teacher feedback). Recommendations for higher education in that chapter seem an afterthought, and there are many tertiary education examples that could have been pressed into service instead for this important emerging tool.

For a text authored by so many Canadians, I noted the North American hegemony of its research base. The majority of cited literature comes from the U.S. paradigms, when a great deal of wisdom exists in international research. This gives us the occasional glimpse of behaviourist and mechanistic underpinnings. Thank goodness there are counterexamples in a few cases; wisely, the editor neither sought in advance nor demanded afterward fidelity to any particular theoretical norm.

At the same time, the volume is unapologetically practical; in fact, it is a (mostly) good example of what Maryellen Weimer might group under “Wisdom of Practice” (1) pedagogical research. Some of it relies on educational research, but some chapters seem to have little added value among the cited assertions from other experts (a conference paper here, a website there, some respected guide unmoored from its original research base). And, ultimately, that is fine. Those of us seeking ways to re-energize or invent anew in our own classrooms or help others do the same will find, for the most part, clear descriptions and principled designs from which to learn. The variance in cited studies need not concern readers who can accept that chapters within each section do different kinds of work.

One nagging sense I have is that the book is more optimistic than it ought to be about the individual teacher’s role in causing engagement and learning; I would almost want to see a companion piece written by the same authors, with the same topics, FOR the learners themselves. Teacher-doing is only part of the equation, and not always the sovereign part; learners (not just “millennials,” natch) need to find their own internal motivation and independence sometimes, not be seduced or tricked into doing so by overscaffolding course designers and deliverers. Disengagement is not something always to leave at the doorstep of course design or delivery; there are multiple reasons why those in the role of “student” may not be participating in their own education, many of which might or might not be mitigated by individual instructor behaviour or design skill. I’d like to see a collective responsibility in a community of learners, so that whole programs share books like this in designing wider curricular approaches in full cooperation with students. Dream on, I guess, especially in light of the second book under review.

In contrast to The Dynamic Classroom (in which learners and teachers are often represented as journeying together), Patricia Linehan’s Win them Over: Dynamic Techniques for College Adjuncts and New Faculty sets up a less positive tone from the outset. The very title Win Them Over situates learners as resistant beings, difficult and suspicious, perhaps consumers in need of a sales pitch. Higher education comes off as a contest with winners and losers (among the professoriate and among learners). This adversarial construction, while perhaps reflective of some hard truths in our era, rubs me the wrong way, and is part of the book’s larger problem with tone. It is written in one of these wisdom-of-the-trenches, shoot-from-the-hip rhetorical styles to which some will respond favourably, and for those people, its unadorned honesty will be both entertaining and useful. There’s a bit too much of “what could go wrong” fearmongering throughout (in funny illustrations, a few of which could be quite panic-inducing); luckily, there are equal portions of helpful solutions. After something like 16 years of teaching, I have encountered all those things that could go wrong, so it’s not invention on Linehan’s part, but it does set a somewhat negative tone for instructional improvement.

Having said that, on the ground doing consultations with instructors and workshops about course design, I have already found people responding well to the format and content of Linehan’s explanations and tools. Based on experience and some educational literature, she has distilled need-to-know nuggets about every aspect of teaching and learning from basic logistical strategies to complex ideas about motivation, objectives, assessment, and active learning (always written in a humorous way). Sacrificing nuance and deferring divergent theories to a utopian future when you may have the time, Win Them Over’s worksheets, tables, and checklists have already found their way into my own practice as a faculty developer and as a sessional instructor. And although the bibliography is both short and eclectic, weighing in at fifteen texts of different sorts, at least we are invited to make use of these further resources and can get a sense of where some of the advice comes from.

Generally, then, if you are a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, sessional instructor or new full-timer beginning to teach within the next few weeks or months, or if you are looking for immediately applicable tips and organizers, Win them Over will oblige happily and honestly. Even as someone with a lot of experience, I found myself picking it up to double check my own approaches during a recent teaching term, and finding it instantly valuable. It is exactly what it aims to be: no-nonsense and practical; I need to cover my ears to avoid some of its pitch and tone, but that is my problem and certainly will not be universally experienced. I would hesitate to give it out without a warning that we don’t all see students as adversaries! On the other hand, if you have a little bit of time to digest some solid principles or to learn the how and why of a few new techniques, whether you’re an educational developer or you’re are at a relevant stage of a university teaching career, multiple brief or leisurely dips into the warm waters of The Dynamic Classroom will repay effort for the health of your courses. I hope to see another edition of the latter or even a sequel as we find out more about the intersections between engagement, design, assessment, delivery, and learning.

Cited

(1) Weimer, Maryellen (2006). Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning: Professional Literature that Makes a Difference. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley/Jossey Bass.

Review: Teaching What you Don't Know

2011-06-12T00:00:00.001-07:00

Huston, Therese. Teaching What you Don’t Know. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2009.

Reviewed by: Lori Goff, Instructional Designer, Centre for Leadership in Learning, McMaster University

In the delightful and illuminating book Teaching What You Don’t Know, Therese Huston exposes a growing trend in academia - that university professors are increasingly finding themselves in situations where they are teaching outside of their area of expertise. Teaching outside or at the edge of one’s understanding is a practice that is prevalent not just with sessionals and junior faculty members, but, as Huston shows, it is a common dilemma experienced by university instructors at all stages of their careers. While graduate education often prepares faculty members to be experts in a very specific area of their field, undergraduate courses are simultaneously becoming more interdisciplinary and expanding in breadth to provide students with a survey of a field that is rapidly advancing in knowledge. Thus, according to Huston, undergraduate university instructors are finding more and more that they need to learn or relearn content or skills in order to teach their assigned courses well. The practice of teaching what one doesn’t know well is often coupled with teaching students whom one doesn’t know well. Students from the millennial generation are different than students ten or twenty years ago and they are certainly different than their instructors especially in how they learn and how they prefer to receive information. Huston gently suggests that the sooner instructors realise that their students are very different from them, the easier and happier their teaching life will be.

Through academic research that involved over thirty interviews with faculty members combined with real-life experiences, examples, profiles and case studies, Huston addresses an issue that is seldom discussed and helps take the shame out of teaching outside of one’s understanding. Her compassion, empathy, and commitment to providing students with the best learning experiences possible are evident in the countless practical examples and strategies she suggests to help instructors manage and thrive in situations where instructors find themselves outside of their comfort zone. The sensible tips, appealing examples, and strategic suggestions that cover a vast array of disciplines and learning experiences can help novice and experienced instructors alike to calm their anxieties, reduce stress, and improve the quality and impact of their teaching overall. She identifies several pedagogical advantages that the new instructor has over the seasoned expert, while urging mid- and late-career faculty members to revitalize their passion for teaching by looking for and recognizing the new and unknown elements from every teaching assignment. Huston’s passion and respect for students is paralleled by an equal regard for instructors who face the challenges of teaching content with which they are not completely comfortable and for teaching students whom they don’t fully know.

Teaching What You Don’t Know is a fun, easy-to-read, and hard-to-put-down book that I would recommend to anyone who is new to university teaching or who has an interest in improving their teaching. This book would make an excellent text to distribute to new faculty or engage in the services and programs provided by educational developers at teaching and learning centres.

Review: How Professors Think

2011-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lamont, Michèle. How Professors Think. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2009.

Reviewed by: Isabeau Iqbal, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Educational Studies and Educational Developer, Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia

How Professors Think is a book about the work of committees who conduct peer reviews of fellowships and research grants. The book is based on an empirical study of multi-disciplinary social science and humanities competitions in the United States. As part of her research, Lamont conducted interviews with panelists, program officers and chairpersons and she also observed three panels. In her study, Lamont, who describes herself as a “sociologist of knowledge” seeks to examine “how the worth of academic work is ascertained” (3).

Because this book doesn’t scream “educational development,” I feel compelled to explain that I was drawn to this book for one specific reason: to see if Lamont presents ideas that might coincide with, and help me better understand, the summative peer review of teaching. The short answer is that she does but, admittedly, there is limited overlap between how multidisciplinary panels go about assessing research and how departmental colleagues evaluate teaching for tenure and promotion. So, in order to get the most from this book and then be able to apply it to the peer review of teaching, one needs to have a fairly solid sociological background or be prepared to do much follow-up reading.

Nevertheless, there are ideas in this book that would be of interest to educational developers who wish to deepen their understanding of academic culture. Namely, Lamont refers extensively to a body of literature on “evaluative cultures” (a new term to me) and, in doing so, provides illuminating information on how academics from different disciplines approach evaluation.

Given that peer review is a central aspect of academia, this book is relevant to educational developers who want to expand their knowledge of the context within which they work. However, for the educational developer seeking a more straightforward introduction to academic culture than that provided in Lamont’s somewhat complex book, I would suggest:

Gappa, J. M., Austin, A. E., & Trice, A. G. (2007). Rethinking faculty work: Higher education's strategic imperative. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

How Learning Works prize winner!

2011-04-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who entered the draw to win a copy of Susan A. Ambrose et al.'s How Learning Works. The winner, as selected by a random number generator, is Terry, who commented:

I think having students reflect on how they learn best will help them know themselves better and empower them to seek out information in a format that will help them to "put the pieces together" so that they can place the information in a context that will allow them to recall the information learned in a situation where it is required. In this way they will "learn" the information, rather than just memorizing facts, which is not learning.

Congratulations, Terry! Please contact me to claim your prize.

Stay tuned for another exciting book giveaway coming up soon!

Prize giveaway sponsored by Wiley Canada!

2011-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

It's time for another prize giveaway, sponsored by our friends at Wiley Canada. We will be giving away a copy of Susan A. Ambrose et al.'s How Learning Works, which was reviewed in the Fall 2010 EDC Resource Review.

To enter, leave a comment with your opinion on the following question: How important is it to draw students' attention to the learning process and have them reflect on the ways they learn best?

Entries must be received by midnight Pacific time on Friday, April 15. One entry per person. Winner will be selected randomly and announced on this blog and on the EDC listserv. You do not need to be a member of the EDC to enter. No geographical restrictions apply.

Prize giveaway winner!

2011-02-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first prize giveaway. As selected by a random number generator, the winner of a copy of Teaching Today's College Students by Angela Provitera McGlynn, courtesy of Atwood Publishing, is Lynn, who said:

As a computer instructor, I find that today's students are not as amazed by technology as I was as a student. Today's students have grown up with all kinds of technology in their daily life & it is hard for them to imagine life without it. They just expect technology to be there & to do amazing things and they are very willing to try it!

Congratulations, Lynn! Please contact me to arrange for delivery of your prize.

And stay tuned, everyone, there will be more prize giveaways coming up!

Prize giveaway sponsored by Atwood Publishing!

2011-02-03T13:46:00.001-08:00

Dear EDC Resource Review Readers,

To mark the launch of the Winter 2011 issue, our friends at Atwood Publishing are generously sponsoring a prize giveaway! One lucky reader will receive a copy of Teaching Today's College Students: Widening the Circle of Success by Angela Provitera McGlynn, which was reviewed in the Fall 2010 EDC Resource Review.

All you need to do to have your name entered in the prize draw is to answer the following question:

How are today's college students different from when you were a student or new instructor? (Or, if you are currently a student, how do you think your cohort is different from cohorts of years past?)

Submit your responses in the comments and you will be entered to win! One entry per person will be accepted and the deadline for entries will be February 15, 2011 at midnight PST.

Winter 2011 EDC Resource Review

2011-02-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Review: Internet Archive

2011-02-03T09:00:00.004-08:00

Internet Archive

http://www.archive.org/index.php

Reviewed by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

Stymied by link rot? Looking for artifacts of modern history? Seeking foreign language recordings? The Internet Archive can probably meet these and hundreds of other needs. This site a constantly growing, non-profit collection of Internet sites and digitized cultural artifacts--literally millions of images, audio files, animations, and texts--that are freely open to researchers, scholars, instructors, and the general public. It includes the WayBack Machine, an archive of over 200 million defunct Web sites archived since 1996 in over 40 languages. It contains more than 150+ billion Web captures (over two petabytes of data compressed) including content from every top-level domain. Other highlights of the Internet Archive are these vast collections:

· Moving images: Almost a half million animations, movies, and television shows from all over the world with near-unrestricted access

· Live Music: More than 87,000 concerts

· Audio recordings: Three quarters of a million recordings, from Ave Maria to the Grateful Dead to religious sermons

· Texts: More than 2.5 million works of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts, rare books, and academic books

· NASA images

· Software and software-related material such as shareware, freeware, speed runs of software game play, and information on software titles and games.

Under Projects, you will find an Education link to the Open Education Resources Library, which gives free access to hundreds of online courses, study guides, assignments, video lectures (subject specified), and other supplementary learning materials from universities in the United States and China. Many of these lectures are available for download.

This mega-size site provides a search engine for every major section.

Educational developers can draw on the resources at the Internet Archive to find now-defunct sites and course materials of all types of subject matter. They can, of course, refer faculty to this vast collection as well. It should be especially useful to those developing online courses and online educational development materials because educational users need not worry about the standard copyright restrictions. Instructors of language courses will find unusual foreign language recordings.

Review: How People Learn

2011-02-03T09:00:00.003-08:00

Bransford, J.D., A.L. Brown and R.R. Cocking (Eds.) (2000). How People Learn. Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. Washington: National Academies Press. Expanded edition, 374 pages.

Reviewed by: Alice Cassidy, In View Education and Professional Development

The first time I heard of John Bransford was in November 2006, when I attended the opening plenary he gave at the 3rd annual conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) in Washington, DC. A lively speaker, John used plain language while at the same time showing compelling research evidence motivating us to be more effective teachers by “watching how learning happens wherever it happens.”

James Rhem, Editor and Publisher of the National Teaching and Learning Forum, wrote a comprehensive overview of that plenary. Speaking of the National Forum, if you have never checked out their website, I encourage you to, especially their comprehensive set of book reviews. And speaking of James Rhem, he and I once danced in the icebreaker of a conference session. And that was quite a fun way to watch how learning happened.

Shortly after the 2006 ISSoTL conference, my friend, mentor and former boss Gary Poole gave me his extra copy of How People Learn. I used it regularly, to plan or update some workshops for members of the University of British Columbia teaching community, in working one-on-one with senior faculty members who sought guidance and assistance, and to organize sections of a week-long program that Gary and I designed and led for faculty members visiting from a university in Saudi Arabia.

So, though I came late in my explorations of Bransford’s and colleagues’ work, I think it will prove to be one of the classics for teachers of any level, discipline or context. New Horizons for Learning, recently adopted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, includes this book in its recommended readings and “predicts that How People Learn will become one of the most influential books ever published on teaching and learning."

And you can find a complete version of it, free, online: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6160

The key ideas presented in the book sound quite straightforward:

1. Learning is facilitated by connections between the new and the familiar, with students coming in with preconceptions or prior knowledge about how the world works.

2. To develop competence, students need foundational knowledge, built on conceptual frameworks and organized in ways that help them apply it.

3. Metacognition or ‘thinking about thinking’ builds students’ confidence in their own learning and helps them self-monitor progress.

But if you ask any teacher, regardless of their experience, I suspect they would be somewhat or very challenged to tell you exactly how and what they do, through assignments and in-class activities, to address these points and assess the process. Turn to this book to see how theories and insights have been translated into actions and practice. Quarter-page ‘boxes’ present case studies to illustrate ideas put forth in the chapters, making them very real and adaptable to your context. Moreover, they cite sources in the literature for further exploration. A minor annoyance: the references section (63 pages worth) is organized by book chapter, making it tricky if you want to look up a source and see how Bransford et al. describe or use it in the book. The online search tool helps a bit in this regard.

Two related books are available, with some overlapping material but also targeted examples. The shorter How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (1999) and How Students Learn: History, Mathematics and Science in the Classroom (2005) are both described as being geared to K-12 teachers, but I think both are very relevant to higher education as well. The latter volume is reviewed by the National Teaching and Learning Forum.

You can find links to these two volumes, as well as a review of the expanded book described here, at http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/neu_review_bransford.htm.

So, a long-time professor seeks my help to become re-energized in his work. “I want to motivate my students and the things I have done in the past don’t seem to be working. What do you suggest?” We look at How People Learn together, starting in the index, at Motivation to learn. We find 17 different pages to explore in turn, each one of them with enough references to make this a week of study for my colleague, which is what he was looking for as a long-term project, but also uncover a few ideas to try right away, such as adjusting an assignment, lecture or discussion around “authentic problems and projects that are frequently encountered in non-school settings”, page 77. Pages 207-213 cite the Jasper series, created at Vanderbilt University, connecting problem-solving ability with attitudes through the use of technology. That last example might not be quite a ‘right away’ solution, but it sure is compelling and provides food for thought!

I could go on, but the other reviews already written (and cited above) do a very good job of telling you more about what is in the book.

I will leave you with an authentic hands-on challenge. Think of one topic in teaching and learning that you want to know more about and perhaps connect to theoretical or empirical evidence. It could be for your own teaching, or to help members of your teaching community through one-on-one work or a seminar. Pick up How People Learn or browse through it online. I guarantee you will find something you did not know before, or know as fully, something you can use right away, and something that may also lead you down a whole new path of exploration in the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning.

As Bransford et al. say in their first chapter, “Fundamental understanding of subjects, including how to frame and ask meaningful questions about various subject areas, contributes to individuals’ more basic understanding of principles of learning that can assist them in becoming self-sustaining, lifelong learners.” (page 5). True for our learners, true for us.

Review: Inspired College Teaching: A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth

2011-02-03T09:00:00.002-08:00

Weimer, Maryellen (2010). Inspired College Teaching: A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reviewed by: Melanie Santarossa, University of Windsor

Instructional vitality is the central message of Maryellen Weimer’s Inspired College Teaching: A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth. For Weimer, teachers must maintain instructional wellness, just as they would their own human health. Throughout the book, Weimer explains the ideas, activities, incidences, and experiences that can sustain and improve the instructional vitality of one’s classroom.

According to Weimer, sustaining and improving instructional vitality requires us to focus more on learning and less on teaching. How do we make this statement reality? The examples abound. Weimer refers to the power that formative feedback has in changing negative conceptions of one’s self as a teacher and one’s students, ultimately creating a more positive instructional setting for both. She remarks on the criticality of reflection as a means to abandon the ways of one’s teaching mentor in order to find one’s own instructional identity. She also discusses the important role that each student plays as a collaborator in the design of one’s teaching environments and learning experiences.

Simple suggestions with profound consequences, Weimer’s insights offer assurance that once one overcomes instances of weakness and vulnerability, the result is a strengthened and renewed teaching professional.

Review: Exploring Signature Pedagogies

2011-02-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Gurung, R.A.R, Chick, N.L., & Haynie, A. (Eds.) (2009). Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind. Virginia: Stylus.

Reviewed by: Nadine LeGros, University of Western Ontario

Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind is an excellent resource that would be valuable to faculty at all stages of their career and to educational developers for their work with faculty and with graduate students.

Exploring Signature Pedagogies (ESP) provides an excellent introduction to what signature pedagogies are, what the state of SoTL is in various disciplines, and how to incorporate signature pedagogies into our praxis. Signature pedagogies are the types of teaching specific to each discipline that take students from being novices to being experts in their fields. The authors focus on how to move from a transmission of facts and from ‘covering’ the material that is going to be on the exam to teaching students the disciplinary habits of mind that will transform biology students into biologists and history students into historians.

ESP is divided into units on the humanities, fine arts, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, for a total of 14 chapters. Each chapter includes examinations of the traditional pedagogies and conflicts in different disciplines. The authors discuss traditional or generic ways of teaching and examine traditions within academe such as PhD students learning to teach by osmosis. The authors challenge teaching methods of expedience such as cookbook labs in the sciences or “pseudo-Socratic discussions” in literary studies in which professors elicit their own interpretations from their students. In addition, the authors’ examinations of the traditional pedagogies question whether what undergraduates learn in their classes bears any resemblance at all to what is expected of them in the larger fields.

While each chapter contains discussion of where future work is needed in SoTL, this is not a how-to book. The chapters do contain nuggets of gold that would guide instructors to seek the hidden assumptions behind their teaching and that would inspire future direction. Moreover, the book is a call for instructors to document and share their strategies. I also recommend reading about other disciplines for hidden threads that can be woven our own teaching.

Exploring Signature Pedagogies will be an excellent read for all involved in teaching in higher education. Experienced faculty will benefit if they are looking to re-energize their teaching by helping them reflect upon their own praxis. The book will also be of enormous benefit to anybody wishing to engage in SoTL research. Educational developers who need to work in disciplines different from their own will benefit from the overview of disciplinary pedagogies.

Review: Designing Courses for Significant Learning: Voices of Experience

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Fink, L. Dee & Fink, Arletta Knight (Eds.) (2009). Designing Courses for Significant Learning: Voices of Experience. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Number 119.

Reviewed by: Rosemary Polegato, Mount Allison University

This book is a collection of exemplary teaching and learning experiences based on the application of Fink’s (2003) vision for significant learning experiences through Integrated Course Design (ICD). The 12 well-written chapters in fewer than 115 pages make the book comprehensive for its size. The ten specific teaching and learning experiences (one per each of the first ten chapters) span the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional programs. Most are in undergraduate settings, but community college, hybrid and graduate courses are included, as well as a curriculum project.

Each chapter addresses with enough detail the (re)design of the course for the desired change in learning, an assessment of the changes, and the overall lessons learned in the application. In most instances, assessment is based on more than one iteration of the course or project. Chapter 11 is about three new ideas based on Fink’s experience with his model. More importantly, the last chapter is a comprehensive evaluation of the collection of experiences in the previous chapters framed by three questions: (1) Can it be done? (2) What does it take to make it happen? (3) Will it benefit us, the teachers, as well as our students? There is also an index, which would be most useful to those who have read at least two chapters in this book and to those who are already familiar with the ICD model.

Reading Fink’s (2003) work is not a prerequisite to reading this book because his key ideas are covered in the preface, as well as reiterated succinctly in each chapter. The chapters can be read in order one sitting at a time, selectively (after reading the preface), or in a couple of sittings. I recommend the first option to allow time to reflect on each experience. Truth be known, I found myself making two sets of notes: one for this review and one to flag examples and ideas that could be applied in my courses. (Notably, none of the experiences are in my discipline, an indication of the broad applicability of each experience.) Further, there are many very good approaches to assessment of the merits and shortcomings of each experience; although the authors are enthusiastic about applying Fink’s model, they are not pollyannish. Beyond the plethora of good ideas one can glean from this book, this balanced approach is another reason why discerning educational developers and faculty members should read it and share it with their colleagues.

Proponents of Fink’s ICD model are certain to advocate that educational developers and faculty members use this book to apply the ICD model in its entirety to create and redesign courses and curricula. Clearly, the book contains carefully selected examples of teachers who were inspired to apply the ICD model in its entirety, had the resources to do so, and were successful. While most of the reported experiences were not resource guzzlers (even the resource of faculty time ranged from low to moderate), course and faculty circumstances (in other words, the academic context) can delay or impede total immersion in the ICD model. Nevertheless, both new and seasoned teachers may be surprised to learn how easy it can be to adopt the ICD model in a modest way with impressive results for learners and teachers. If you are so inclined, Fink’s Self-Directed Guide for Designing Courses for Significant Learning can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet.

Still wondering if this book is worth reading? If you want students to share your enthusiasm for your discipline; loathe the thought of students cramming for exams and retaining little; wince at ineffective group work; respect students’ diverse learning styles; want students to learn more than foundational material; want to increase student engagement; wish that students would see the connections among courses; and/or are simply searching for a fresh approach to your own and students’ learning, you will be inspired and energized by the experiences reported in this book.

Fall 2010 EDC Resource Review

2010-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Review: Open Learning Initiative

2010-11-30T09:00:00.006-08:00

Open Learning Initiative

http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Reviewed by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a carefully selected collection of free and publicly available online courses and course materials developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The courses, all at the introductory or intermediate undergraduate level, span a wide range of academic subjects: biology, chemistry, physics, engineering statics, computational discrete mathematics, causal and statistical reasoning, statistics, empirical research methods (e.g., multiple regression), logic and proofs (modern symbolic logic), economics, French (two course levels), and visual communication design. These courses are designed for the independent learner--none is instructor-led--and have been tested and revised multiple times by an open learning community. They feature high-quality graphics, videos, interactive animations, interactive games, exercises, test questions and problems, case studies, data sets, experiments, and even automatically graded workbooks. Most of these teaching tools qualify as learning objects, which students can play and replay until they understand the material.

Educational developers can refer faculty to the OLI for several purposes. It offers well-designed teaching tools that faculty can freely integrate into their own classroom-based courses for demonstrations, in-class activities (with computers), and homework. As the comprehension checks and other exercises are self-grading, students receive immediate feedback and, in addition to saving grading time, instructors can instantly access the results. Instructors can even play back student laboratories to monitor participation and decision-making. Of course, these tools can also be used in online courses. To prepare faculty for online teaching, educational developers may want their faculty to take one of these courses, instead of enrolling in a standard online course, in order to experience being an online learner. Moreover, both new and experienced online instructors can accelerate the often long process of online course design and development by drawing resources and activities from these course packages.

Keywords: online courses, introductory courses, learning objects, interactive

Review: Advice for New Faculty Members

2010-11-30T09:00:00.005-08:00

Boice. R. (2000). Advice for new faculty members: Nihil nimus. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Revised version; first published in the University of Ottawa’s Centre for University Teaching newsletter, Teaching Options pédagogiques, Vol. 9 No. 1, June 2004.

Reviewed by: Eric Kristensen, Director, Teaching and Learning Centre, Capilano University

Remember what it was like taking your first teaching job right out of graduate school? Perhaps it was decades ago, perhaps just a few years ago, or perhaps you are making that transition right now. Robert Boice has made a life’s work of studying the experiences of new faculty members, and of academic culture in general. The summary of his findings, experiences, and advice can be found in this book, expressed in a thoughtful and conversational style. Boice notes that the magnitude of the transition from graduate student to professor is “far larger than most new faculty anticipate. Indeed, it may surpass the transition from living with your family and near life-long friends to independent life at college.” (p. 225). He goes on to point out that this phenomenon is not limited to young new faculty members: professionals arriving on campus after a successful career outside academia face an even more daunting transition.

What exacerbates the difficulty of making this change? Often, the warmth that potential new professors feel during the recruitment stage is replaced, once they arrive on campus, with a culture of busyness and isolation. “Almost all the failures and miseries of … new hires owed to misunderstandings about effective ways of working and socializing…. What marked [their] career beginnings … [was] the immoderation and excessiveness with which they worked – with far more misdirection, busyness and disruptive distress than for their successful peers who simplified their work and their lives.” (pp. 1-2)

How then does one survive? Boice’s mantra is nihil nimus – nothing in excess. According to his research of exemplary new faculty, moderate and consistent work will surpass constant busyness and late night work binges every time. He offers invaluable, research-based advice for planning and organizing the early years of your career, and then provides exercises to guide your planning for the three major tasks of your academic career: teaching, writing and social integration into the department and university.

For teaching, Boice found that one of the most reliable predictors of faculty success or failure over the long term was what he calls classroom incivilities. These include students talking so loudly that other students cannot hear what is going on in class, students who interrupt a lecture with sarcastic comments or disapproving groans, or a classroom provocateur whose “unpredictable and highly emotional outbursts…make the entire class tense.” (pp. 85-86) In his study of new faculty at colleges and universities, “classroom incivilities dominated many classrooms, and its presence or absence in first classes proved a strong predictor of how teaching careers would proceed, even of how likely new faculty would thrive in the reappointment process.” (p. 82) The trigger points for many of these scenarios turn out to be the first days of class, before and after the first and second exams, and near the deadlines for major projects. Boice gives new faculty members sound advice on how to understand and mitigate these events, which can be so corrosive of students’ and teachers’ experience of a course.

Turning his attention to writing and research, Boice again advises that daily, short sessions dedicated to writing result in far greater productivity than setting aside large chunks of time. Work moderately, but consistently, and one’s success as a writer will increase. Again, he offers advice based on his research as well as exercises and guidelines designed to stimulate a frame of mind for writing. His list of exemplary writing habits includes:

Awareness of the need for preliminaries before rushing to prose
Patience for timely stopping (and, in turn, for timely starting)
Seeing what needs doing and doing it with constancy / moderation
Calm emotions and low levels of suffering
More compassion for self and critics
Self-discipline focused on pleasant efficiencies. (p. 112)

This may come off as a bit of Zen for profs, but he backs up his claims with solid research and practical advice on how to realize the benefits of this approach.

Boice’s final subject is the socialization of new faculty members in their department and the university. This process can be tricky, and he takes pains to be frank about academic culture and to describe how successful new faculty members negotiate this potential minefield. Unstated expectations, diverse personalities, and stress over retention, promotion and tenure processes can take a toll. Boice again offers advice gleaned from observing exemplary faculty members, and provides useful exercises and tasks to help new faculty members learn about their department, build relationships with colleagues both within and without the department, and find effective mentors and nurture them. His research found that successful mentoring resulted in a new faculty member always coming close to department expectations for scholarly productivity, always exceeding departmental expectations for adequate teaching, and always rated by reappointment committees as adequately collegial and cooperative.

When someone on my professional listserv once asked for recommended books to give to new faculty, Judith Miller from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts replied that her center has offered this book to new faculty members for several years. Many of the WPI faculty members described Boice’s book as “transformative.” Perhaps you are one of the three to five percent of Boice’s new faculty members who are exemplary role models, and for you this book will simply confirm what you already suspect is true. But for most of you who are new faculty, and for those educational developers who work with new faculty colleagues, I predict that this book will prove to be full of useful and sage counsel.

Review: The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map

2010-11-30T09:00:00.004-08:00

Nilson, L. B. (2007). The graphic syllabus and the outcomes map: Communicating your course. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reviewed by: Alice Cassidy, In View Education and Professional Development

Try a fresh and creative approach + Really introduce your students to your course = Linda Nilson -> Graphic syllabus + Outcomes Map -> Maximize learning

I attended my first STLHE conference in 2001, hosted by Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and was lucky/smart enough to attend a pre-conference workshop on graphic syllabi, led by Linda Nilson. Throughout my academic training in the biological sciences, I always found that visual tools, such as maps, charts and diagrams worked better for me than prose, lists, or other large blocks of text. Taking part in Linda’s session and reading this book helped to inspire me to use these approaches in my own teaching and educational development work.

This slim volume (181 pages) is filled with practical information that you can use right away, whether you are designing a course for the first time, or looking for ways to freshen it up and help your students to be as enthusiastic about the course and their part in it as you are about teaching it.

The book reads the way Linda facilitates – clear, organized, concise, helpful and inspiring. It really is a step-by-step guide. You will be shown how and why graphics enhance learning, with reference to the published literature. She walks the talk, providing a graphic syllabus of the book.

Even for those who are familiar with tools such as concept maps, mind maps and graphic metaphors, the syllabus examples Linda includes, using them to show ways to think about the philosophy, structure, process and sequence of your course, are extremely helpful in taking what is in your head, or on a traditional-style syllabus, and turning it into something that, as Linda describes “students care about.”

You will also find a very clear overview of types of objectives, from ultimate to foundational, explaining several frameworks in the literature that you might use to organize your outcomes map.

Many examples of both graphic syllabi and outcomes maps, sometimes masterfully combined, and from a variety of disciplines, instructors and institutions complete a great book. I found myself flipping through looking at the examples first, then Linda’s notes about each one, then starting the book right from the start. What a great way to visually learn something new!

If you are interested in the use of visual tools for teaching, learning and in other useful contexts, you may also want to explore the work of some other fine colleagues, whose seminars I have really enjoyed over the years, people such as Greg Fleet, Alison Mostrom, Jim Hope and Donna Ellis.

I don’t know him personally, but the Thinking Maps work of David Hyerle is well-known.

I have also written a bit about the use of concept mapping, for use in learning portfolios, in Volume 3 of CELT and with two colleagues at UBC, based on some workshops we led there.

Review: Teaching Today's College Students

2010-11-30T09:00:00.003-08:00

McGlynn, A. P. (2007). Teaching today’s college students: Widening the circle of success. Madison (WI): Atwood.

Reviewed by: Melanie Santarossa, University of Windsor

Angela Provitera McGlynn’s Teaching Today’s College Students: Widening the Circle of Success provides an in-depth look at the complex make-up of today’s college students. Grounded in current research in education and coupled with relevant insight from her thirty-five year career, McGlynn concludes that for college students to be successful, instructors must reflect the cultural, racial, generational, and socio-economical background of their pupils in their classroom practices.

The central ideas of Teaching Today’s College Students: Widening the Circle of Success parallel Catherine Black’s treatment of today’s diverse student population in The Dynamic Classroom: Engaging Students in Higher Education. Both The Dynamic Classroom and Teaching Today’s College Students claim that since there is no single method to teach the varied demographics of the twenty-first-century classroom, instructors must be willing to try new strategies to captivate students. In comparison to The Dynamic Classroom, which contains a collection of essays aimed at engaging students with technologies or in large classes, Teaching Today’s College Students addresses how consideration of the diversity in one’s classroom changes the educational landscape for both teacher and student; rather than seeing one another as problematic, the diversity transforms each class into a teachable moment.

The student-centred approach that is the theme of Teaching Today’s College Students: Widening the Circle of Success positions itself alongside Marilla Svinicki and Wilbert McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers as a useful resource for both new and experienced teaching professionals. While the topics discussed in Teaching Tips and Teaching Today’s College Students are supported by relevant theory and research, Teaching Today’s College Students moves a step beyond by its incorporation of sample teaching materials to aid the development of one’s pedagogical practice.

In essence, Readers of Teaching College Students: Widening the Circle for Success will appreciate McGlynn’s dedication to improving the craft of teaching and in turn the education of college students everywhere.

Review: How Learning Works

2010-11-30T09:00:00.002-08:00

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C. & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reviewed by: Diana Morarescu, Faculty of Science, McMaster University

This book is an excellent resource for all instructors, but I would recommend it especially to those without a formal pedagogy background. It divides learning into seven principles based on a wealth of research in teaching, learning, psychology and cognition. The book addresses the impact on learning of many factors: prior knowledge, motivation, knowledge organization, mastery development, feedback and practice, student development (intellectual and social), course climate and self-directed learning. Each chapter provides case studies, an overview of the principle and suggested approaches based on research. The appendix section contains valuable resources and examples of tools recommended in these approaches. It is a great collection of information that feels well rounded and a good initial resource. It has an extensive reference list to support the arguments presented throughout.

Personally, I appreciated this book as it highlights issues that are easily overlooked by many instructors, even when we go in to teach with the best of intentions and put in effort to help students learn. The way that students organize knowledge, and the way experts address problems and come to solutions were an eye-opener for course organization/ planning and skill development goals. At times, all the course aspects that impact learning seemed overwhelming for this instructor. My personal learning style will determine me to create a checklist to make sure I address all these issues in my course designs.

Review: Pathways into the Profession of Educational Development

2010-11-30T09:00:00.001-08:00

McDonald, J., & Stockley, D. (Eds.) (2010). Pathways to the profession of educational development. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 122.

Reviewed by: Nicola Simmons, Research and Evaluation Consultant, Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo

I’ve just finished reading this wonderful resource for educational developers, and am so pleased to be writing a review so I can strongly encourage you, regardless of your ED career stage, to immediately take the time to read it. It is eminently readable, and the nine chapters offer a rich array of perspectives on ED history and current practice.

Situated in international ED history, Karron Lewis’ opening chapter provides an overview of the evolution of educational development centres, including the differences in growth in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. She notes the importance of links to the culture of the individual institutions and outlines different models of educational development that have me thinking about where my own centre and my efforts at SoTL advocacy would fit.

Mary Deane Sorcinelli and Ann Austin tease out differences amongst educational developers’ career pathways in their large US and Canadian study. They discuss influences on educational developers’ work, noting that Chairs and Deans have the least influence; faculty members and senior administrators the most. This highlights an ongoing challenge to ED work: Given that Chairs and Deans can be powerful allies when it comes to curriculum work, teaching criteria for promotion and tenure, and the overall valuing of teaching and its activities, how do we engage in conversations at this critical level?

Jeanette McDonald’s chapter on pathways into educational development is work with which many of us are familiar (it has been presented at several conferences and in fact, many ED people contributed to the data). Mapping out summary threads from 18 ‘case studies’, for me, this chapter opens a number of avenues for further inquiry into this recent area of interest: What draws people to become educational developers and with what do they identify?

“Conceptualizing evolving models of educational development,” by Kym Fraser, David Gosling, and Mary Deane Sorcinelli, outlines three models: ED focused on the individual teaching staff member, ED focused on the institution, and ED focused on the sector (p. 50). Under each of these, they map international examples – I admit I wanted a cheat sheet graphic by the time I’d finished reading, so comprehensive is their summary of models!

Lynn Taylor’s chapter brings the educational development focus back to its links within the disciplines. She offers a framework (in use by a number of other authors) for examining ED work in which attention is paid to “substance”, ”language and symbols”, “modes of inquiry”, “organization”, and “values” (pp. 60-61) as a way of understanding disciplinary distinctions. Her recommendations for the ways in which disciplinary processes can influence ED work serve as a good reminder as we work with departments.

The chapter by Debra Dawson, Joy Mighty, and Judy Britnell conceptualizes educational developers as institutional change agents, promoting the need to move from a consideration of individual needs to multi-dimensional needs. They assert that prior lists of competencies for educational developers have ignored the importance of educational developers gaining skills in leading change. They offer Kotter’s (1996) model of leading change as a framework for ED work – and discuss the importance of step one: framing the urgent issue that would necessitate change. Herein are excellent recommendations for leading any kind of institutional change.

Carolyn Hoessler, Judy Britnell, and Denise Stockley write about something that is becoming a central theme of both ED and SoTL conferences: How do we assess the impact of our work? They begin with some reflections on scholarly teaching versus scholarship of teaching and learning (I think this will be an ongoing debate in the discipline, especially with founders in SoTL such as Keith Trigwell asserting that SoTL is not about focusing on peer-reviewed publication, but is about impact on student learning (personal communication, October, 2010), but I digress). The list of components (teaching excellence, consideration of existing educational research, reflection on own teaching and own research about teaching, and research on teaching and learning (p. 87) is accompanied by evidence to match each area – this mapping for alignment helps focus a spotlight on particular areas of professional activity.

What values draw people into educational development? That’s the question posed by David Gosling in his chapter that explores the notion of values – and what happens when our personal values are at odds with those of the institutional contexts in which we work. He offers SEDA’s and POD’s value statements as points for consideration: I wonder how each of our centres would map against these value statements? Is it something we articulate in our work? What is our role as public intellectuals in [politely] challenging the institutional values when they seem to be at odds with our work?

Joy Mighty, Mathew Ouellett, and Christine Stanley’s chapter closes the book – and yet, leaves us with challenging concerns as they tackle the question of whose voices are absent from the educational development landscape. Written from their perspectives as past presidents of STLHE and POD, they ask us to ponder how to redress imbalances in diversity in our discipline, and to challenge our own implicit assumptions regarding our status and associated power. We could extend their questions not only to our discipline but also to our work: How do we reach those who don’t come forward of their own accord, and in what way are we framing our work such that some feel excluded?

My overall sense after reading the book is that it provides a wonderful snapshot of where we are. In some cases questions for where we might go next are stated; in some they are left for the reader to explore. One of the rich offerings of this volume, however, is the lists of references at the end of each chapter. For anyone thinking of conducting research into educational development, the references comprise a cornucopia of necessary sources. It will be exciting to have the topic re-visited in 5 years or 10 years time – and examine what progress we have made.

I just want to close with thanking Marla Arbach for soliciting reviewers and sending me this book: I find these opportunities (and my corresponding commitment!) are what’s needed for me to take time to read current literature – something I see as fundamental to doing good work, as it provides me the opportunity to think, to reflect, and to pose questions about where I might next take my work.

Review: Getting Culture

2010-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Gurung, R.A.R. & Prieto, L.R. (Eds.) (2009). Getting culture: Incorporating diversity across the curriculum. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Reviewed by: Yael Harlap, Strategist: Equity, Diversity and Intercultural Understanding, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia

Getting Culture, an edited volume with 31 short, easy-to-read chapters, frames itself as providing ‘best practices’ in teaching about culture and infusing diversity into the higher education curriculum. The book is organized into six sections, including:

General issues in teaching about diversity, which includes several chapters on defining culture and diversity
A short section on Feminism and diversity education
The inclusive classroom
Diversity and online environments
Methods and techniques for faculty and diversity trainers, including a useful chapter on Coping methods for diversity scholars (Kelley D. Haynes)
Diversity across educational settings

This book gathers together a wide range of topics – exciting to an educational developer who might want to hand a chapter out here and there to faculty colleagues – but as in almost any edited volume, some chapters were stronger than others. For example, Sandra L. Neumann’s The “why’s” and “how’s” of being a social justice ally is a thorough exploration of social identity and the dynamics of being an ally in the classroom, including reflection tools for the educator. Soya, Dawson, Kanner, Wagoner & Soltano’s Assignments and course content in teaching diversity describes a variety of assignments grounded in theory and scholarship and describes their outcomes from a scholarly perspective.

However, some chapters are not sufficiently reflective about the nuances and even risks in teaching diversity and culture. Although they are written to be accessible and encouraging of any educators interested in teaching culture, they are best suited for educators who already have a fair amount of experience teaching about culture and diversity. Getting Culture does not adequately negotiate the dilemma of encouraging faculty to jump in and teach culture and diversity, on the one hand, and of warning – and helping – them to develop an analysis of the issues and a set of skills to facilitate sensitive discussions before experimenting in their classes.

This dilemma is a challenge for all of us who work in the area of culture and diversity in the curriculum, as one cannot continue developing capacities for handling difficult conversations without doing it, without an ongoing practice. Yet I would hesitate before giving Getting Culture to a faculty member unless I knew they already had some experience, a certain depth of analysis of issues of identity, and a deeply reflective approach to their teaching. On the other hand, for an educator – or educational developer – who has some grounding and experience teaching culture and diversity, this book can offer a wide variety of activity and assignment ideas in different contexts. Some chapters also offer useful theoretical grounding, particularly in social psychological findings about learning and prejudice.

The introductory chapters of the classic text, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (edited by Maurianne Adams, Lee Ann Bell and Pat Griffin), would make a stronger foundation for educators just starting out in teaching culture and diversity, as well as providing a coherent theoretical framework for more experienced educators. Worth noting is that both Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice and Getting Culture are strongly rooted in the U.S. context, but are still applicable for the Canadian higher education setting.

Winter 2010 EDC Resource Review

2010-01-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

In this issue:

Website Review:
Open Learning Initiative
http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a carefully selected collection of free and publicly available online courses and course materials developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The courses, all at the introductory or intermediate undergraduate level, span a wide range of academic subjects: biology, chemistry, physics, engineering statics, computational discrete mathematics, causal and statistical reasoning, statistics, eempirical research methods (e.g., multiple regression), logic and proofs (modern symbolic logic), economics, French (two course levels), and visual communication design. These courses are designed for the independent learner--none is instructor-led--and have been tested and revised multiple times by an open learning community. They feature high-quality graphics, videos, interactive animations, interactive games, exercises, test questions and problems, case studies, data sets, experiments, and even automatically graded workbooks. Most of these teaching tools qualify as learning objects, which students can play and replay until they understand the material.

Educational developers can refer faculty to the OLI for several purposes. It offers well-designed teaching tools that faculty can freely integrate into their own classroom-based courses for demonstrations, in-class activities (with computers), and homework. As the comprehension checks and other exercises are self-grading, students receive immediate feedback and, in addition to saving grading time, instructors can instantly access the results. Instructors can even play back student laboratories to monitor participation and decision-making. Of course, these tools can also be used in online courses. To prepare faculty for online teaching, educational developers may want their faculty to take one of these courses, instead of enrolling in a standard online course, in order to experience being an online learner. Moreover, both new and experienced online instructors can accelerate the often long process of online course design and development by drawing resources and activities from these course packages.

Keywords: online courses, introductory courses, learning objects, interactive

Personal Research:
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: a new program at UBC, with resources and workshops; your input and assistance is invited

Submitted by: Alice Cassidy Associate Director, TAG; Leader, Network and Teaching Scholars Program, Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL), University of British Columbia

I am very excited to share some details with you about a new program I am leading: the Teaching Scholars Program. You can read all the details at http://tag.ubc.ca/isotl/teaching-scholars-program/

I provide a few highlights of the program (excerpts from the full overview that you can see at the above URL), at the bottom, and seek your input, ideas, and contributions on the Steps in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

These Steps, noted below, will be an essential part of 3 full days of workshops to kick off the Program (a cohort of 10) and build on some work I have been doing very sporadically over the past couple of years, have presented at ICED and ISSOTL conferences, and that I now will be spending much more time on as I develop the Teaching Scholars Program. These Steps are further described in a chapter Gary Poole and I recently wrote; see the attached PDF.

The Steps will soon be posted to our ISoTL webpages, each one with links to examples, articles, other websites, etc. And of course there is a lot of existing information out there, some written or done by you. I want to make sure to have a Canadian focus, at the same time showing what and how SoTL is done in other parts of the world.

I seek your help with the Steps and related links. Do you suggest other numbered steps? For any of the steps below, or others you suggest, do you have existing material, that you wrote, or know of, that you are willing to share? It would be linked through our web pages, and available to all who want to use it. I will include a list to acknowledge contributions. I look forward to hearing from you, or seeing related material contributed via the EDC Resource Review.

Steps in SoTL: Three Days of Learning to Get You Started
1. What are the many forms of SoTL and how are they related to effective and scholarly teaching?
2. What methods exist for studying learning?
3. What steps can I follow to conduct effective SoTL research?
4. What ethical considerations and processes relate to the use of student data?
5. Where can I share the results of my work?

A few highlights of the Teaching Scholars Program (excerpts from the full overview on the web at the URL noted at the top):

Overview

The Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, in partnership with the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth and the UBC-Community Learning Initiative, is pleased to announce an exciting new program designed to support the development of your scholarly work in teaching and learning. The Teaching Scholars Program will provide financial, educational, and research support for a cohort of individuals interested in developing their research skills in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The Opportunity

• Develop research skills in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)
• Learn with a cohort
• Be supported by experienced SoTL researchers while seeing a SoTL project to fruition
• Work in partnership with a student of your choosing, graduate or undergraduate. Student pay (to a maximum of $3500) to be covered by the Teaching Scholars Program
• Disseminate your work by attending the 8th annual conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL), or the 11th conference of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSCLE) or a comparable SoTL conference that is authorized by the Teaching Scholars Program. Registration, airfare and accommodation to be paid by the Teaching Scholars Program (to a maximum of $2000)

Who is Eligible? Members of the UBC teaching community in charge of a credit course in the Fall term of 2010, Summer term of 2010 or Winter term of 2011.

A Special Opportunity for those studying Community Service-Learning

As a result of the generous financial support provided to the Teaching Scholars Program by the UBC-Community Learning Initiative, approximately 40% of the spaces in the program will be allocated to instructors studying community-based experiential learning. All applications focused on Community Service-Learning (CSL) and/or Community-Based Research (CBR) will be considered. However, of particular note will be those focused on assessing outcomes for students and community involved in either CSL and/or CBR, or the impact of reflection on student learning outcomes. A clear indication that community service-learning and/or community-based experiential learning is the focus of your proposal should be noted with the contact information in your application.

The Commitment

• Attend all 3 days of Steps in SoTL in April, 2010
• Attend at least 2 of 3 Summer Cohort Half-Day events May-July, 2010
• Attend at least 80% of events from September 2010 to November 2011
• Submit a proposal to ISSOTL 2011; IARSCLE 2011 or a comparable conference in a similar timeframe agreed to by the Teaching Scholars Program
• Be able to attend the SoTL-related conference to which you have submitted a proposal

Fall 2009 EDC Resource Review

2009-10-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

In this issue:

Journal Reviews:

1. Dee, K. C. (2007). Student perceptions of high course workloads are not associated with poor student evaluations of instructor performance. Journal of Engineering Education, 96(1), 69-78.

Submitted by: Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), University of Waterloo

In this study of engineering students’ course evaluations at two institutions, Dee found no correlation between student perceptions of high course workload and low overall instructor performance ratings. This is contrary to what Dee reports as a common belief (one held by 54% of faculty) that “to get favourable evaluations, professors demand less from students” (p. 69). On the other hand, many items were strongly correlated with overall instructor performance ratings, including “the professor used teaching methods that helped me learn”, “the professor met the course objectives”, and “the professor was generally well-prepared for class”.

Recommendation: The article is heavy on statistics, but the results are interesting and compelling - and could provide an excellent starting point for conversations with faculty, particularly those in engineering, math, and science disciplines.

Keywords: course evaluations, student workload, engineering

2. Gale, R., & Golde, C. M. (2004). Doctoral education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) PeerReview, Spring, pp. 8-12.

Submitted by Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), University of Waterloo

Gale and Golde present clear argument for introducing doctoral students not only to teaching, but also to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), and offer several tips as well as suggested resources on how this can be accomplished. The article’s perspective is American, with strong ties to the Carnegie Foundation’s work, but the resources are accessible to all, and the issues addressed are pervasive.

Recommendations: A very clear read for those beginning to think about SoTL, particularly when considering programs for graduate students. Some nice quotable sections for substantiating the need for such programs.

Keywords: doctoral student preparation, SoTL

Website Review:
1. ProfHacker Blog
http://www.profhacker.com/

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

This blog addresses much more than technology and software, which is why it gets 10,000 page views a week. It posts academically-relevant information and advice on how technology can enhance faculty productivity, time management, mentoring, collaboration, research, and many aspects of teaching, including course planning and management, learning goals, syllabus design, mindful learning, group work, grade records, and assessment. In addition, it features ways to make the most of Internet tools such as blogs, wikis, Twitter, Google, Zotero (for group work), and Doodle as well as free software such as WordPress and CommentPress. Two tech-savvy American professors, Jason B. Jones from Central Connecticut State University and George H. Williams from the University of South Carolina Upstate, run the site, and they have ten regular contributors. Jones and Williams claim that they learn the best practices they promote from solving their own problems on the job. Ultimately, they aim to make the faculty member's life easier. Wednesday's "Open Thread" offers readers the chance to ask for help, advice, and feedback and to share advice, feedback, and ideas about topics that ProHacker should cover in the future.

Educational developers can use this blog to help them stay on top of the latest technology relevant to the faculty, and they can refer faculty to it for the same purpose. They or their faculty may also want to post questions, responses, or examples of their applications to the Open Thread. In addition, faculty who have developed their own software or have used software in unusual ways can share their innovations with colleagues on this blog.

Keywords: technology, productivity, pedagogy, research, Internet

Summer 2009 EDC Resource Review

2009-08-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

In this issue:
Website Reviews:

Brock University Learning Technology Development Learning Object Showcase
http://www.brocku.ca/learningobjects/flash_content/

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

A learning object is a digital resource that offers reusable instructional lessons, the best of which feature animation and interactivity. Instructors can use them for in-class demonstrations, make them in-class activities if students have access to computers, or assign them as homework. Merlot.org contains thousands of them, but only a subset is animated and interactive. All of those in Brock University's select collection, however, have these superior traits, and they are among the best available on the Web. Designed by instructional technologists under faculty guidance, the twenty learning objects on the site offer animated tutorials, tools, exercises, games, and simulations in basic concepts and principles in communication studies, English, earth science, environmental science, finance, German language, mathematics, psychology, time management, and writing.

Educational developers will find that faculty who are not already familiar with learning objects--and most are not--will be excited to get acquainted with such student-friendly and free resources. Visual and kinesthetic learners, often those that faculty have trouble reaching, should especially value these digital lessons for their affective appeal and instructional effectiveness.

Keywords: learning object, animation, interactivity, instructional technology
_________________________________________________________________
CUES: Connecting Undergraduates to the Enterprise of Science, University of Missouri
cues.missouri.edu

Submitted by Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

The science departments at the University of Missouri have integrated inquiry-based learning into their curricula. The laboratory exercises they assign to students are mini-journal articles that follow the format of a scientific journal article. The faculty have replaced the traditional "cookbook" laboratories with an inquiry-based format that encourages scientific practice. These laboratories build in the activities that scientists actually engage in while conducting research: reviewing the relevant literature, generating new hypotheses, designing and conducting appropriate experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up the results in a journal article format. This Web site supplies instructors with detailed guidelines for constructing their own inquiry-based labs for undergraduate science courses and offers field-tested labs and assessments for biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. This project is an extension of the UM's proof-of-concept project (NSF 0230779, Converting Cookbook Laboratories into Inquiry). It encourages transforming more cookbook laboratories into the CUES mini-journal format, provides educational development to current and future science faculty, and fosters research on the effectiveness the CUES approach. Its objective is to enhance students' learning of science by improving the introductory science experience.

Educational developers can use this site to encourage and help their science faculty to revamp their cookbook laboratories into dynamic, inquiry-based activities. Faculty who are reluctant to transform their labs due to lack of time will find this site most help, as it will save them the effort of reinventing the wheel.

Keywords: science education, inquiry-based, inquiry-guided, laboratories

Spring 2009 EDC Resource Review

2009-06-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

In this issue:

Website Review:
World Digital Library
http://www.wdl.org/en/

Journal Article Review:
Austin Z. Development and validation of the Pharmacists’ Inventory of Learning Styles (PILS). American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2004:68(2):Article 37.
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Website Review:
World Digital Library
http://www.wdl.org/en/

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, USA

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization designed this Web site especially for the culturally- and historically-minded scholar and student. As of its inauguration in spring 2009, it features almost 1200 scanned cultural artifacts from all over the world dating back to 8000 BCE: paintings (including rock paintings), sketches, photographs, portraits, maps, manuscripts, books, and documents, all annotated in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese). The primary materials assembled thus far come from 27 libraries in 19 countries (all UNESCO member nations), and all countries are invited to contribute, so the collection will no doubt grow. Browsers will appreciate the search engine's ability to locate artifacts by any combination of global region, time period, type of item, topic, and location of the original. Hosted by the U.S. Library of Congress, this site aims to enhance the digital cultural content, increase global understanding, narrow the digital divide worldwide, and serve broad educational and research purposes.

Educational developers can showcase this Web site to faculty who teach anthropology or any epoch of history as a valuable digital resource for in-class presentations and student (or faculty) research. In addition, the site can supply worthwhile cultural lessons and readings in intermediate and advanced language courses (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese). Finally, developers can refer to this site as a source of visual materials for teaching the historical aspects of a wide range of subjects.

Keywords: world culture, world history, world civilization, cultural artifacts, languages

Journal Article Review:
Austin Z. Development and validation of the Pharmacists’ Inventory of Learning Styles (PILS). American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2004:68(2):Article 37.

Submitted by: Zubin Austin, Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto

The Pharmacists’ Inventory of Learning Styles (PILS) is a validated instrument designed to assist educators in applying learning styles theory to education of health professional students. The Inventory provides an opportunity for self-reflection and self-assessment of preferences utilizing the learning styles theory. Instructors may use this instrument to promote dialogue regarding learning and learning environments amongst teachers, students, teaching assistants, and clinical preceptors. A key aspect of the PILS is the opportunity for individuals to share their own experiences as learners, reflecting upon strategies and approaches that may have been more or less successful/effective in a particular context. Since its publication, the PILS has been used extensively within pharmacy education across North America, and has been used in faculty development initiatives in other health professions across Canada.

Keywords: Learning styles, learning preferences

EDC January/ February 2008 Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus

January/February 2008

In this issue:
Website review:
Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment
www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm

Book Review:
Delaney, J. Kirk. (2005). Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher. Des Moines, Iowa and Seattle Washington: Tiberius Publications.

Journal Article:
Chandler, D. E., & Kram, K. E. (2005). Applying an adult development perspective to development networks. Career Development International 10(67), 548-566.

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Website review:
Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment
www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University, U.S.A.

Housed and maintained by North Carolina State University, this site contains many hundreds of Web and Internet links to assessment-related resources as well as general assessment guidelines and principles. Access is available to general resources (discussion groups, journals and newsletters, archives of articles, consultants, rubrics, ethical standards, glossaries, and data-organizing tools); dozens of assessment handbooks/manuals; tools and tests for assessing specific skills and knowledge (e.g., for most academic disciplines as well as information literacy and critical thinking); institutional assessment strategies; and dozens of forms for and articles about student evaluations/ratings/assessment of courses and instructors.

If you are not already an assessment expert and you are called upon to become one quickly, this site is an excellent place to begin expanding your knowledge. It should prove especially valuable if faculty or administrators come to you seeking alternative ways to evaluate teaching effectiveness or to
measure student learning, whether of cognitive skills or of disciplinary knowledge and competencies.

Keywords: assessment, evaluation, tests, learning

Book Review:

Delaney, J. Kirk. (2005). Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher. Des Moines, Iowa and Seattle Washington: Tiberius Publications.

Submitted by: Cathy Baillie, Program Assistant, Office of Teaching Advancement, University of Toronto

An overall worthy addition to your book shelf, this work acts as part reference tool, part guide for those who have questions about classroom management and syllabus design. Delaney’s book is easy to read but filled with thoughtful and helpful recommendations that are easy to apply; both the seasoned academic and new faculty members alike will learn some new tips for their classrooms. I especially like the question and answer format as well as the faculty and student suggestions.

For all of the reasons above and more. You will find yourself returning to this book to address your own questions as well as those from faculty.

Keywords: classroom management, difficult students, syllabus design

Journal Article:

Chandler, D. E., & Kram, K. E. (2005). Applying an adult development perspective to development networks. Career Development International 10(67), 548-566.

Submitted by: Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

The authors assert that mentoring is a “developmental network comprised of a number of relationships” (p. 548) rather than a traditional hierarchical structure. They apply Kegan’s (1982, 1994) developmental stage theory to the idea that an individual’s developmental stage affects the structure of his or her developmental network, along with how much support will be gained from it. Kegan’s latter three stages, interpersonal, institutional, and interindividual, are ones in which individuals can create and experience positive mentoring relationships.

The authors argue that developers offer the greatest support when they are at or above the faculty individual’s developmental stage.

An interesting article to support developers in considering the interpersonal relationship nature of the role.

Keywords: Developmental stages, faculty development, mentoring networks, Kegan’s adult development.

March/ April 2008 EDC Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus

March/ April 2008

In this issue:

Book Reviews:
Ross, C. , Dunphy, J and Associates (2007). Strategies for Teaching Assistant and International Teaching Assistant Development. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

Savory, P., Burnett, A. N., & Goodburn, A. (2007). Inquiry into the college classroom : a journey toward scholarly teaching. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.

Friesen, E., Kristjanson, C. (Ed) (2007). Teaching at the University of Manitoba. A Handbook. Winnipeg, MB: Art Bookbindery.

Journal Review:
Rindermann, H., Kohler, J., & Meisenberg, G. (2007). Quality of instruction improved by evaluation and consultation and instructors. International Journal for Academic Development. 12(2),73-85

Reflections:
From: Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), University of Waterloo, My 2008 EDC Conference Highlights

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Book Review
Ross, C. , Dunphy, J and Associates (2007). Strategies for Teaching Assistant and International Teaching Assistant Development. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.
Submitted by: Dave Berry, Learning & Teaching Centre, University of Victoria.

This book is an excellent collection of teaching strategies, mini lessons and workshops intended for use in professional developmental programs. There are six sections: getting started, advanced skills, professional development, culture, pedagogy and language. The format of each submission (by a host of practitioners) lists goals, preparation time, execution time, resources, introduction, procedure, variations and references. Even if you don’t like the idea exactly as described, you will undoubtedly have created your own new version by the time you get to the bottom of the page. This is a great source of ideas that will deserve a revisit on a regular basis
Keywords: Teaching Assistants

Book Review
Savory, P., Burnett, A. N., & Goodburn, A. (2007). Inquiry into the college classroom : a journey toward scholarly teaching. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.
Submitted by: Penny Heaslip BScN, MEd, Coordinator, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Thompson Rivers University.

Classroom inquiry is a challenging idea for faculty to grasp if they have not had the opportunity to take a scholarly, disciplined approach to their teaching. Savory, Burnett and Goodburn (2007) address this challenge in their book by taking a pragmatic approach to inquiry into classroom teaching. They compare classroom inquiry to the tradition model of disciplinary-based scholarly research articulating the commonality of both investigative approaches. The authors lead the reader through the sequential steps of conducting classroom inquiry. Of particular value are the checks lists, and exhibits that illustrate each step in the process. Savory et al (2007) bring the process to life with examples of faculty inquiry into the problematic areas of teaching and learning in their classrooms. Through these examples the issues related to classroom inquiry are addressed. For example lack of sufficient data, or the interpretation, articulation and dissemination of the findings in a meaningful way.
For the faculty developer who wishes to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning Savory et al (2007) have created a useful, clearly articulated approach for faculty development . A faculty development program with peer support could be built on this on this coherently written text on scholarly teaching.
Keywords: Classroom Inquiry, faculty development

Book Review
Friesen, E., Kristjanson, C. (Ed) (2007). Teaching at the University of Manitoba. A Handbook. Winnipeg, MB: Art Bookbindery A full PDF version of the book is available at http://umanitoba.ca/uts/ A print copy can be purchased at the University of Manitoba Bookstore (1-204-8321) at a cost of $24.95.
Submitted by: Eunice Friesen, Associate Director,University Teaching Services, University of Manitoba

This is a collection of articles on teaching and learning. They are concise and succinct, based on a sound theoretical framework. The information is practical with many real life examples. The book is an excellent resource for new and experienced teachers alike. It is organized intuitively, with as little terminology as possible, making it user friendly for the professor with minimal knowledge of the educational terminology.
This is an excellent resource for one’s own practice of ED as it contains a collection of basic information on teaching and learning in one resource. It is a great tool to refer to instructors and professors prior to a consultation or as a follow-up to a consultation or workshop. It is convenient, portable and easy to use.
Keywords: Teaching, Learning, Student, Evaluation, Classroom management, Reflection and Assessment

Journal Review
Rindermann, H., Kohler, J., & Meisenberg, G. (2007). Quality of instruction improved by evaluation and consultation and instructors. International Journal for Academic Development. 12(2),73-85.
Submitted by: Erika Kustra, Centre for Leadership in Learning, McMaster University

Is teaching quality improved by student evaluation of instruction? Previous studies have shown that receiving the evaluations alone did not improve teaching quality. In this European study, evaluations were given mid-way through a course. The instructors met for a one hour consultation with the school manager who did not have pedagogical training, but who was a qualified Psychological counselor. The counselor provided both positive and negative feedback from the evaluations, asked for the lecturer's self-assessment, interaction patterns and discussed concrete ways to improve. The main focus was to suggest changes to preparation and teaching itself, and to provide support. The results were compared to evaluations collected the next year in the same course, but with new students. A significant improvement was found in teaching quality. Teachers with the poorest ratings, showed the most improvement, although rank orders did not change. Student reports of teaching competence, in particular, improved.
All instructors took part in this institutional initiative, and they have also noticed changes in student behaviours, including less absences, less disruption and greater reported commitment to learning.
This confirms that best practice with student evaluations of courses should include a meeting, although it does not necessarily need to be someone trained in pedagogy. It also suggests that when an entire institution takes part, they would likely see a change in student behaviour and commitment to learning.
Keywords: Student Evaluations, Quality, Research, Student engagement

Reflections
From: Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), University of Waterloo, My 2008 EDC Conference Highlights

Preconference by Alice Cassidy and Ruth Rodgers - what a great chance to spend 'time on task' with a research question, be able to get feedback from colleagues, connect with like-minded others, and leave with a workable plan - fantastic!
Dieter's "Oh the Places You Will Go" provided a great opportunity for tangible data analysis (on ED career stages) activity in a short workshop. Dieter did a fabulous job of presenting his work, and equally, inviting participants to interact with it.
Russ Day's roundtable: "What's in a Name? The STLHE (Scholarly Teaching has Little Effect?) Dilemma" was a very interesting open discussion about how our titles include/exclude others. While based on whether colleges feel welcome at STLHE events, the discussion was relevant to how we name our workshops, our centres, etc.
Poster Sessions - I loved the interactive poster framework - congratulations to University of Windsor people for showcasing this! Loved adding to Beverley's poster. The UBC poster data re: comparing signed up and attended at workshops made me think about what data we're collecting, and how we're using it. If you missed seeing Jill's wonderful photos and hearing her story about Namibia, you missed something great.
Gary's closing plenary "Patience versus Urgency in Educational Development" focused on how to decide what to do now, what to do later, and how we each choose to use our personal resources while accomplishing what matters. I loved the presentation of the opposing perspectives - really highlighted the tensions we face. I'm still thinking about how to be as patient as a tree (or as unmoving as a rock?)
Overall, a fantastic conference! Looking forward to the presentations being up at the conference.

EDC May/June 2008 Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus
May/June 2008

In this issue:
*Book Review:*
Svinicki, M. D. (2004).

Learning and motivation in the postsecondary classroom. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

*Website Review: *
Discovering Psychology
http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/index.html

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Book Review
Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Learning and motivation in the postsecondary classroom. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

Nicola Simmons, Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo

Svinicki's book is a lovely overview of cognition theory as it applies to student learning. Although many of the ideas seem simple (the best ideas always are!), the well-researched theories prevent it from being just a `how to' book. Svinicki includes sections that go into greater depth ("For those who want to go beyond the basics"), as well as a section at the end that gives the "theories in a nutshell". While rich with theory, the book is equally rich with strategies for theory implementation: a fine example of praxis in action. Svinicki even walks the talk on motivation, beginning with a chapter aimed at motivating the reader to learn about the theories. Specific highlights include her use of numerous examples and analogies (e.g., how learning about learning theory is like maximizing your car's fuel efficiency), and her suggestions for application of the theory to classroom practice. She elaborates on the difference between novices and experts in a discipline (experts have a more structured understanding of discipline concepts and more quickly see what's missing). She discusses retention and transfer of learning, recommending linking new knowledge to existing structures and using examples to facilitate recall. A variety of strategies are given for developing structures for the discipline, such as concepts maps, comparative organizers, and sequencing examples.

While for some this book may be a reminder of what is already known, it would be an excellent entry point for faculty members interested in exploring an overview of some of the theory behind student learning and motivation.

Keywords: /cognition and learning, motivation, developing expertise, scaffolding/

*Website Review*
Discovering Psychology
http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/index.html
Reviewed by Linda B. Nilson, Clemson University "The Discovering Psychology" telecourse and educational video series premiered in 1990 as a visual resource for teaching introductory psychology. The 26 video programs review the history of the field, from early to contemporary researchers and research studies, showing classic experiments and modern studies. Of interest to educational developers are the topics related to learning and cognition: conditioning, retention and retrieval, motivation and emotion, testing and intelligence, constructivism, and visual perception. If we lack a strong background in the field of learning and cognition, the videos can teach us a lot very quickly. They can also make entertaining additions to workshops and online resource collections on how students learn.

Keywords:/ cognitive processes, cognitive psychology, intelligence, learning, memory, motivation, testing /

EDC Summer 2008 Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus

*Summer 2008*

*In this issue:*

*Book Reviews:*

Wilcox, S. (1997). /Learning from our past: The history of educational development in Canadian universities/. Occasional Papers in Higher Education, 8. Centre for Higher Education Research and Development, The University of Manitoba and The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

*Website Review:*

Successful Strategies for Teams: Team Member Handbook http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/documents/TeamworkHandbook.pdf or http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/resources/index.html

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*Book Review
*Wilcox, S. (1997). /Learning from our past: The history of educational development in Canadian universities/. Occasional Papers in Higher Education, 8. Centre for Higher Education Research and Development, The University of Manitoba and The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Isabeau Iqbal, Educational Developer, Centre for Teaching & Academic Growth. University of British Columbia

Wilcox's work is an account of the evolution of educational development in Canada during the time period spanning the 1960-1990s. Beautifully written, Wilcox uses personal interviews with educational developers to recount the origins and expansion of educational work. This paper, however, is more than a historical account: the author describes issues (ie. Conceptions of educational development, legitimacy of the field, roles educational developers play) that shape and influence educational development work and have direct relevance today.

I highly recommend this paper to educational developers who wish to gain a greater appreciation of the people, events, and issues that have shaped the growth of our field.

Keywords: educational development; history; Canada

*Website Review*

Successful Strategies for Teams: Team Member Handbook http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/documents/TeamworkHandbook.pdf

or click on the title link at
http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/resources/index.html

Submitted by Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University

These days we commonly have students work in teams, but we do little or nothing to teach them HOW to cooperate smoothly with each other to complete a project. Targeted to undergraduate students, this new e-book teaches collaborative skills and provides tools that help teams work productively. It was written by Frances A. Kennedy, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Accountancy and Legal Studies, with Linda B.
Nilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, both at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA. Among the many team skills addressed are organizing information, generating solid contributions from team members, managing time and schedules, organizing member roles and responsibilities, planning for and running efficient meetings, solving problems with qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques, and using appropriate organizational and analysis tools.
Templates are furnished for these organizational and analytic tools, including gap analysis, the affinity diagram, project planning, the milestone chart, and the diagraph.

Educational developers can use this handbook in a least two ways: as a resource/reference for faculty to help their students work more effectively and professionally in teams and as a source of material for workshops on how to maximize student learning in team projects.

Keywords: teams, small groups, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, student projects

EDC Fall 2008 Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:28:00.001-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus
Fall 2008

In this issue:

Website Review:
Learning Styles, Hawai'i Pacific University
http://faq.hpu.edu/tlc/faq-pro/index_hpu.php?action=article&cat_id=002&id=80

STLHE Conference Reflection:
Learning From Students
http://www.tag.ubc.ca/resources/tapestry/08/learningFromStudentsTapestry53.pdf

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Website Review
Learning Styles, Hawai'i Pacific University
http://faq.hpu.edu/tlc/faq-pro/index_hpu.php?action=article&cat_id=002&id=80
Submitted by Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation,
Clemson University

This site was designed with two user groups in mind: instructors and students. It explains to students what a learning style (or learning strength) is and how knowing about theirs can help them learn more efficiently, especially if they integrate the results of at least three instruments. The site also advises instructors to encourage students to complete some learning-style instruments, as well as to identify their own teaching strengths and vary their teaching methods to appeal to the different kinds of learners. Access is available to a several free instruments on the Web, each based on a different learning style schema with a simple instrument that identifies a person's learning-style profile within minutes. Among those linked are Richard Felder's 44-item questionnaire, the 16-item VARK instrument, two longer questionnaires associated with modified versions of the VARK framework, a seven-style assessment instrument, and other sites with still more free instruments and pedagogical resources.

Educational developers will find this site helpful in researching and developing a learning-style workshops for faculty, one that brings in a variety of schema. This site is also a good general reference resource for faculty.

Keywords: learning styles, learning strengths

STLHE Conference Reflection

Learning From Students
http://www.tag.ubc.ca/resources/tapestry/08/learningFromStudentsTapestry53.pdf
Or http://www.tag.ubc.ca/resources/tapestry/
Under “about or by students”, click on Learning from Students
Alice Cassidy, Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG), University of British Columbia

EDC Winter 2009 Resource Review

2009-04-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Resource Reviews from the Educational Developers Caucus

Winter 2009

In this issue:

Website Review:
The Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/professional/snas

Journal Article Review:
Kamler, B. (2008). Rethinking doctoral publication practices: writing from and beyond the thesis. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 283-294

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Website Review

The Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/professional/snas

Submitted by: Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D., Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation,
Clemson University

Check out the teaching resources across the pond. The Higher Education Academy in the UK developed this site with the mission of helping "institutions, discipline groups and all staff to provide the best possible learning experience for their students." At the site, you can search by discipline or by topic to find links to journals, research articles, book chapters, tutorials, simulations, professional association Web sites, and other resources that can enhance an instructor's professional development and/or courses. Among the topics you can search by are field work, group work, learning support, learning theory, problem-based learning, problem solving, student feedback, and evaluation. The thousands of resources accessible from this site are primarily British.

Value to Instructors and Educational Developers: Instructors who are accustomed to finding teaching and learning resources online will enjoy "shopping" for them in a probably unexplored sector of the Web. They can also send their students to some of these resources to learn, reinforce, or review classroom or online-course lessons.

Educational developers will see this site as a fruitful place to refer instructors or to search with them for fresh teaching material and aids.

Journal Article Review:
Kamler, B. (2008). Rethinking doctoral publication practices: writing from and beyond the thesis. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 283-294

Submitted by: Isabeau Iqbal, Educational Developer, UBC Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth, Doctoral Student, UBC Department of Educational Studies

This article highlights the need to give more pedagogical importance to writing for publication during doctoral education. Kamler argues that co-authorship with supervisors is a significant pedagogical practice that contributes to identity formation among graduate students and affects how they perceive their place in the academic community. The author presents data from a case study of graduates in science and education and demonstrates how different pedagogical and disciplinary practices in each community impacts on student publication and the way in which graduate student perceive the overall value of their work.

This article is of relevance to educational developers who support faculty members in the area of graduate supervision in that it provides evidence of the benefits of co-authorship as a pedagogical practice. "Senior" educational developers, keen to mentor graduate students at their centres into the educational development profession, may also wish to consider how they can make use of the practice.

keywords: doctoral studies, academic writing, co-publishing, supervision