Ask-Dr-Kirk

Research Shows Missing Class Leads To Poorer Performance

Many of us put attendance as a class requirement for our students. Here’s a research study by Professors Wiji Arulampalam, Robin A. Naylor, and Jeremy Smith (University of Warwick) that found that “there is a causal effect of absence on performance for students: missing class leads to poorer performance.”

Download Am I Missing Something.pdf

 

Bringing The Classroom Into The 21st Century

I’m reading this Time magazine article,  "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century," which uses an analogy of Rip Van Winkle awakening today and being astonished by all the changes in the workplace. However, when he walks into a classroom, he knows exactly what it is because as he says, it looks like it did back 100 years ago except for the color of the blackboards.

The article goes on to discuss how education hasn't kept pace with other areas of society as students tend to be taught pretty much as their great-grandparents were...sitting while the teacher lectures, taking notes by hand, and using textbooks that are mostly outdated.  Thus, there is a huge gap between what is going on in the classroom and what is going on in the world outside.

The authors espouse that education in the future needs to cross disciplines, include global thinking, and put an emphasis on creative and innovative skills.  In addition, emotional intelligence or people skills will be seen as important for success in the workplace as any other skill.  As noted, "We have to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures."

The article ends with:

"Teachers need not fear that they will be made obsolete.  They will, however, feel increasing pressure to bring their methods-along with the curriculum-into line with the way the modern world works.  That means putting a greater emphasis on teaching [students] to collaborate and solve problems in small groups and apply what they've learned in the real world."

And one more note: the authors mention skills that are missing in recent high school graduates entering the workforce such as showing "respect for others as well as [how] to be punctual, responsible and work well in teams." 

All good classroom management skills we can model and enforce.

Using Clickers In The Classroom

Professor William B. Wood (University of Colorado, Boulder) finds that clickers are a teaching gimmick that actually works in the classroom for improving attendance and participation. As he notes, some of the advantages for students are:

They are answering anonymously—no one has to worry about the possible humiliation of giving a “dumb” answer.

Those who did not “get it” realize they’re not the only ones. In a typical lecture situation, such students are often inhibited from asking a question by the belief that “everyone but me probably understood.”

The students are actively engaged with the topic at hand and, therefore, more likely to understand and retain it better than if they were only sitting passively and listening to the instructor.

As instructors, we can find out immediately if students are not getting a point we are discussing and then explain it in more detail instead of waiting to see this lack of understanding on the next exam.

Additional information on how professors are using clickers in the classroom can be found here:

I am thinking of using clickers in one of my undergrad classes this fall. Anyone have any suggestions or tips to share?

 

 

Humor For Teachers At PhdComics

Just came across this fun source of cartoons about teaching, grad students, and research. Warning: looking at the archives can eat up a LOT of time. Just saying...

 

Tips For Students: Establishing Your Personal Brand Online

I talk a lot to my students about determining your personal brand and the various components such as professionalism, emotional intelligence, integrity, etc that go into your brand. Angelita Williams shares five easy steps for students to use social networking sites to establish their personal brand.

 

Best Advice For Job Seekers

Last week I attended the Commencement Ceremony for graduates of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and talked with several of the students who are in the job market. Today I came across this list of useful tips for job seekers that I will be sharing with them.

Yes, I'm Writing A Novel.

I've been saying for several years that I'm going to write a novel. I've written/published over 50 articles in academic journals as well as a book on teaching but for some reason the idea of writing the novel is overwhelming. Thus, I found the following quote inspirational.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one...Mark Twain

Today I'm taking a five hour workshop on writing a novel! What have you been putting off?

 

Quote Of The Day

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know…Daniel J. Boorstin

 

Students: Tips To Getting What You Want From Your Professors

Professor Ellen Bremen (Highline Community College) offers advice to students in how to communicate with your professors. She states that using "you" language rather than "I" sets professors up to be defensive and less likely to help. For example, many times students will start an email or in-person conversation with the following "you's," thus indicating an external locus of control.

"You gave me a bad grade."

“You didn’t tell me I was missing an assignment.”

“Your lecture wasn’t very clear.” 

 

Professor Brennan advocates changing these statements to using "I" to illustrate taking responsibility for your own learning. Thus, instead of:

 “Your lecture wasn’t very clear.”

 Try: “I’m having trouble following the material. I’m scared that I’m falling behind and I don’t want that to happen. Is it all right if we take more time to ask questions either during your lecture or at the end of class?"

As she notes: "The good news is that your use of "I" will better equip your profs to identify your problem and help you out. Even better news is that your professors will likely have tremendous respect for you taking responsibility for your actions and owning your thoughts."

You can read her entire post here.

 

The Real World Won't Care About Your GPA

It’s the end of the semester and you know what that means…lots of emails from students wanting to know how they can get extra points to improve their grades. Thus, I read this article by Becky Johns titled “Your GPA Doesn’t (Really) Matter” with great interest. As she notes:

While many college students stress over grades, those of us beyond academia and into our professional careers have seen how little it matters in comparison to experience, networking skills and the desire to grow.

Children go through school being taught that a grade is the determining factor in performance. But in the professional world, that’s not how it works. Your bosses won’t tell you which questions will be on the test. You don’t study information to be tested on it once in your job. Your college GPA is a combination of several factors but isn’t really the best indicator of how you’ll perform in the working world. We all know that person with perfect grades who struggles socially or that person who couldn’t care less about school but seems to have no trouble making great things happen in their life. Book smarts and street smarts are very different things.

Take your classes seriously. Do the work. Show up and learn something. Meet your professors. But I’m here to tell you, the GPA you leave college with doesn’t matter.

Becky goes on to say that what will matter is learning how to learn; learning how to take theory and concepts and apply them to real-life situations; developing good time management, presentation, writing, and networking skills; and learning how to both accept and give constructive feedback.

I remember stressing myself out to get a 4.0 in my Ph.D. program and absolutely no one has ever asked me what my GPA was. You can read the entire article here. I'm thinking this might be appropriate to put in my syllabus!

 

Managing Student Questions

I often have students ask me questions during class that pertain to information I had planned to cover later that class period. I struggle with whether to stop and answer these or to tell the student I'll be getting to the topic in a few minutes and then trying to remember to come back to the question by the end of the class.  

 

Dr. George H. Williams (University of South Carolina Upstate) has a great solution to this. He asks the students to write down all the questions they have during his lecture as they come up. At the end of class, he usually finds that he has covered most of their questions and he can then answer those few remaining ones. You can read more about his technique here.