Teaching in Higher Ed

Dustin Bakkie shares how to integrate effective study methods, learning tools, and personal management techniques as a part of your curriculum. Guest: Dustin Bakkie Lecturer at California State University, Chico email: dbakkie @ csuchico dot edu website: EpicHigherEd.com (coming soon) twitter: @dustinbakkie Quotes The best time to learn something is right as you’re about to forget it. —Dustin Bakkie A lot of the time, students are just looking for someone who is on their side. —Dustin Bakkie Dustin’s effectiveness equations   Resources Book: Deep Work* by Cal Newport Coaching for Leaders podcast episode 233: Engage in Deep Work, with Cal Newport Thomas Frank’s Collegeinfogeek.com Leitner Review System App: Anki flashcards App: Attendance2* Are You Enjoying the Show? Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

On today’s episode, I have the honor of talking with Dr. Jeff Wiese about how he uses coaching skills in his teaching of residents. Guest: Dr. Jeff Wiese Jeffrey G. Wiese, MD, is a Professor of Medicine with Tenure, and the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Tulane University Health Sciences Center. He is also Associate-Chairman of Medicine, the Chief of the Charity Medical Service and the Director of the Tulane Internal Medicine Residency Program. He has also served as the course director for the Clinical Diagnosis, Biostatistics, Advanced Internal Medicine, and Medical Education courses. Quotes What somebody knows is not as important to me as what they can do. —Dr. Jeff Wiese Years ago, we were so focused on on knowledge. Now, getting the knowledge is pretty easy. The shift of becoming a great coach is moving towards … teaching people not what to think, but how to think. —Dr. Jeff Wiese The way you go from good to great is finding your weakest area and improving it. —Dr. Jeff Wiese Training is to prevent surprise. Education is to prepare for surprise. —James Carse Links: Teach Better podcast episode 27: Teaching Clinical Reasoning With Geoff Connors Dr. Wiese’s Four Developmental Phases of a Teacher Are You Enjoying the Show? Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

In this week’s episode, Mike Truong and I discuss teaching in the digital age. Quotes In our instant and very distracted culture … it’s critical to learn how to pay attention. —Mike Truong As faculty, we need to find ways that force us to slow down. —Mike Truong I try to prioritize in-person interactions over virtual ones whenever possible. —Mike Truong It is a real discipline to turn off our devices … the default is to be connected all the time. —Mike Truong Resources Tim Stringer’s blog: Technically Simple One Button Studio at Penn State Recommendations: Bonni Visit  APU’s Office of Innovative Teaching and Technology and check out the section on blended learning. Article: From Showroom to Classroom: Advancing Technology in Education Mike Book: Hamlet’s Blackberry* by William Powers Book: Now You See It* by Cathy Davidson (Cathy was featured on TIHE episode 28: How to see what we’ve been missing) Book: Alone Together* by Sherry Turkle Book: Reclaiming Conversation* by Sherry Turkle

On today’s episode, I get the pleasure of talking with Dr. Pooja Agarwal about retrieval practice. Guest: Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. Cognitive Scientist, Memory Expert, and Education Consultant, Founder of RetrievalPractice.org www.retrievalpractice www.poojaagarwal.com Twitter: @poojaagarwal Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. is committed to bridging the gaps between research, teaching, and policy. Passionate about evidence-based education, Pooja has conducted retrieval practice research in a variety of classroom settings for more than 10 years, in collaboration with distinguished memory scholar Henry L. Roediger, III. In addition to her career as a scientist, Pooja earned elementary teacher certification and has extensive teaching experience at K-12 and university levels. To advance the use of scientifically-based learning strategies, she contributes her expertise through collaborations with students, educators, scientists, and policymakers worldwide. Recommendations Bonni: Change the culture in your classroom by asking students (in reference to retrieval practice): “What is it we’re doing right now?” and “Why are we doing it?” Pooja: Check out www.retrievalpractice.org for helpful resources. Are You Enjoying the Show? Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

Natalie Houston talks about strength through habits. Quotes Habits save us tremendous time and energy, but they can also lead us to doing a lot of things mindlessly. —Natalie Houston Sometimes we have goals or intentions that are outdated, they’re from who we used to be. —Natalie Houston Habits often work really well when they’re connected to each other. —Natalie Houston If you successfully create one habit, it’ll be easier to create others. —Natalie Houston All of us have habits that we’re less than happy with and they’re there because they’re meeting some need. —Natalie Houston Resources TIHE episode 34: Practical Productivity in Academia (Natalie Houston) Natalie’s Blog: re:focus now Natalie’s articles at the Chronicle of Higher Education Book: The Power of Habit* by Charles Duhigg Three Steps to Creating a New Habit Identify why you want to create a new habit Get very clear and specific about how you’re going to measure that behavior Track your behavior Recommendations Bonni recommends: Lee Skallerup Bessette’s Bad Female Academic posts Natalie recommends: Music Service: Focus at Will

On this week’s episode, James Lang shares about his book: Small Teaching Quotes What I started to notice was that the coaches who paid attention to these little things, and focused on small fundamentals, tended to do a lot better than the teams that didn’t. —James Lang I’m a big believer in the opening and closing minutes of class … I think those are really ripe opportunities for small teaching. —James Lang I try to do framing activities to help the students realize the value of what we’re doing. —James Lang Resources Small Teaching: Small modifications in course design or communication with your students. These recommendations might not translate directly into 10-minute or one-time activities, but they also do not require a radical rethinking of your courses. They might inspire tweaks or small changes in the way you organize the daily schedule of your course, write your course description or assignment sheets, or respond to the writing of your students. Book: The Power of Habit* by Charles Duhigg Teaching in Higher Ed Episode 71 with Derek Bruff Video: How to be Alone Article: Boring but Important MERLOT Awards

Expert in engaged learning, Peter Felten from Elon University, discusses choose your own adventure assessments in higher education. The podcast explores the importance of student autonomy, innovative teaching approaches, and the challenges of grading. Emphasizes the significance of student choice in education.

Todd Zakrajsek, Conference Director at Lilly Conferences, discusses key take-aways like emphasizing effective teaching methods, debunking learning style myths, and promoting active learning strategies. They explore scent-based memory cues, inclusive conversations, and interactive audience tools. The podcast highlights the joy of learning, challenging binary teaching methods, and fostering a community of engaged educators.

On today’s show, Betsy Barre joins me to share about the research on course evaluations. Guest: Betsy Barre Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University After making the move to Rice in 2012, she was able to pursue her interest in undergraduate pedagogy by working with students and faculty in Rice’s newly developed Program in Writing and Communication. In this role, she taught a series of disciplinary-based first-year seminars and contributed to the PWC’s faculty development programming for those teaching first-year writing courses. And in July of 2014, she began her current position as Assistant Director of Rice’s newly established Center for Teaching Excellence. More Quotes One of the biggest complaints faculty have about student evaluations is that it’s not a reflection of teaching effectiveness. –Betsy Barre Just because a student likes a class doesn’t necessarily mean they’re learning. –Betsy Barre It turns out that the harder your course is, the higher evaluations you get. –Betsy Barre If students think the work is valuable and something that’s helping them learn, you can give up to twenty extra hours a week of work outside of class and students will still give you higher evaluations. –Betsy Barre When we want to know if students have learned, one of the best things to do is just ask them if they’ve learned. –Betsy Barre Part of the movement in student evaluations now is to ask questions about learning, rather than questions about what the faculty members are doing. –Betsy Barre Notes Article: Do Student Evaluations of Teaching Really Get an “F”? Screencast: Student Ratings of Instruction: A Literature Review RateMyProfessor Analysis: Gendered Language in Teaching Evaluations Betsy’s Six Most Surprising Insights about Course Evaluations Taken from her article “Do Student Evaluations of Teaching Really Get an “F”?” Yes, there are studies that have shown no correlation (or even inverse correlations) between the results of student evaluations and student learning. Yet, there are just as many, and in fact many more, that show just the opposite. As with all social science, this research question is incredibly complex. And insofar as the research literature reflects this complexity, there are few straightforward answers to any questions. If you read anything that suggests otherwise (in either direction), be suspicious. Despite this complexity, there is wide agreement that a number of independent factors, easily but rarely controlled for, will bias the numerical results of an evaluation. These include, but are not limited to, student motivation, student effort, class size, and discipline (note that gender, grades, and workload are NOT included in this list). Even when we control for these known biases, the relationship between scores and student learning is not 1 to 1. Most studies have found correlations of around .5. This is a relatively strong positive correlation in the social sciences, but it is important to understand that it means there are still many factors influencing the outcome that we don’t yet understand. Put differently, student evaluations of teaching effectiveness are a useful, but ultimately imperfect, measure of teaching effectiveness. Despite this recognition, we have not yet been able to find an alternative measure of teaching effectiveness that correlates as strongly with student learning. In other words, they may be imperfect measures, but they are also our best measures. Finally, if scholars of evaluations agree on anything, they agree that however useful student evaluations might be, they will be made more useful when used in conjunction with other measures of teaching effectiveness. Recommendations Bonni Think about how you administer the student evaluations. Check out her Betsy’s screencast (see above). Betsy Design your own evaluation instrument and distribute it yourself, especially at the mid-point of the source. Take advantage of the teaching center on your campus for student interviews and classroom observations. Are You Enjoying the Show? Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

On this week’s episode, Dave and I share our top five gadgets for teaching. Guest: Dave Stachowiak Bonni’s twitter: @bonni208 Dave’s twitter: @davestachowiak 1. Wireless presentation Remote Commonly referred to as a “wireless presenter”* Logitech remotes* are reliable and fairly inexpensive Video Downloader 2. iPad Pro iPad Pro specs iPad Pro on Amazon* iPad pro case from Sena 3. Apple Pencil Apple Pencil 4. Apple Watch use as a non-distracting notifier use as a timer can seamlessly record and Send reminders to OmniFocus TIHE article about using Due app 5. Web Cams with Zoom app Logitech web cam with 1080p * Sign up for Zoom* Recommendations Bonni: iPad app for pencasting: Doceri* Dave: Cloud database software: Airtable*