1. Improving student success and engaging learners
Pamela Eddy
College of William and Mary

2. Agenda Teaching Perspectives
Learning Styles—traditional age and adult learners
Engaging Students

3. Critical incident
Take a few minutes to fill out the Critical incident sheet
--Think/Pair/Share

4. Passive learning
Seem familiar?

5. Paradigm shift Barr & Tagg (1995)
Instruction Paradigm
Learning Paradigm
Knowledge exists out there
Knowledge exists in each person’s mind and is shaped by individual experience
Knowledge comes in “chunks” and “bits” delivered by instructors
Knowledge is constructed, created, and “gotten”
Learning is cumulative and linear
Learning is a nesting and interacting of frameworks.
Fits the storehouse of knowledge metaphor
Fits learning how to ride a bicycle metaphor
Learning is teacher centered and controlled
Learning is student centered and controlled.
“Live” teacher, “live” students required
“Active” learner required, but not “live” teacher
The classroom and learning are competitive and individualistic
Learning environments and learning are cooperative, collaborative, and supportive
Talent and ability are rare
Talent and ability are abundant (p. 17)
At issue—if we’ve known this, why isn’t it pervasive?

6. Pratt (1998) http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/
Fill out form—
A-Transmission
B-Apprentice
C-Nurturing
D-Developmental
E-Social Reform

7. Critically Reflective Teaching
Our autobiographies as learners
SELF
Our students’ eyes
STUDENTS
Our colleagues’ experiences
PEERS
Theoretical Literature
SCHOLARSHIP
Aligns with SoTL
Give some examples—Mendeley; Polleverywhere--TBL

8. Thinking about learning
Rank order your top 10
Share with table mate your top 3—same different for group?

9. Creating Significant Learning Opportunities
Consider the integration of learning—across courses, across program, across academics-co-curricular
Orthogonality—cutting across domains
(Fink, 2013)

10. Preferred ways of knowing (Herrmann, 1989)
Thinker A
Left Brain Cerebral
D Innovator
Right Brained Cerebral
Feeler C
Right Brained Limbic
Doer B
Left Brained Limbic
Now—how do you prefer to learn?
What motivates students?
Go to your teaching perspective sheet
What would you create to meet all learning preferences?

11. Adult learners (Knowles, 1970, 1980)
Adult learners need to know why they are learning something
Adult learners are motivated and self-directed
Adult leaners tie their life experience and knowledge to new learning
Adult learners are relevance oriented-ties to their current work/life
Adult learners are practical—problem centered versus content centered
Adult learners are internally motivated
Why do they need to learn it?

12. The Learning Environment
Threats to learning
Implicit bias vs validation
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Chilly classroom
Student Engagement
High Impact Educational Experiences
Faculty Interactions
Class isn’t equal for all---even when we think it is.
International students—respect for faculty; language issues—NPR gifted story

13. High impact educational experiences—classroom based
Learning communities—asking the big questions
Writing intensive courses
Collaborative assignments/projects
Diversity/global learning
Service learning
(AAC&U--
Keeping students engaged—what can you do in your classrooms?

14. Active learning Strategies
Think-pair-share
Comparative/Connective/Critical Questions
Debate
Students as panel of experts
Simulations
Team Based Learning
Problem Based Learning/ Case studies
Some strategies

15. Active Learning Strategies
Gallery Walk
Flip charts in hallway
Active Learning Strategies
Your examples/
Ideas to try

16. What do you think will work?
Strategy 1
What did you like best in the examples?
Strategy 2
What was new to you that you want to try?

17. What the best college teachers do (Bain, 2004)
Know their subject material well
Prepare for their teaching sessions as serious intellectual endeavors, as important as research and scholarship
Expect more from students
Create a natural critical learning environment
Treat students fairly
Check progress and evaluate efforts
Think back to the faculty you remembered—did they do this?
What happens when you face challenges?

18. Points to ponder (Bain, 2004)
Sometimes the best of teachers fail
They don’t blame students for difficulties faced
They have a strong sense of commitment to the academic community

19. Identify 1-2 changes you will try in your teaching
Now what?
Identify 1-2 changes you will try in your teaching
What do you need to be successful?
What assumptions have you made?
What does this mean for your students?

20. College Teaching Certificate ctc.wm.edu