Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Teaching Workshops

I am required to attend a teaching workshop from time to time to demonstrate my "commitment to improving my teaching qualifications." There was a workshop offered on facilitating class discussions, and since I'm a strong believer in interactive, collaborative learning, I decided to attend.

The workshop, however, was somewhat of a disappointment. A significant part of it was dedicated to "clickers" (little remote controls that students can use to select the "right" answer from a multiple choice assignment). The use of clickers is pretty much the most passive form of student response that I can possibly imagine, so it seemed strange to spend so much time on them during a workshop that was supposed to be about facilitating class discussions.

What seemed very interesting, though, is that the person giving the workshop kept referring to our university students as "kids" and even "children". Consequently, most activities suggested were somewhat childish in nature. Round robin, numbered heads - even the names of the activities didn't sound very serious. As I wrote yesterday, the last thing our students need is to be further infantilized by their professors.

The workshop began with a demonstration of ice-breaker activities, where we had to approach people we don't know and ask them about cartoons they watched and their hand sizes. It is needless to say that such an activity will be very intimidating for our autistic participants, which the workshop organizer, a specialist in communication disorders, should have known. Breaking the ice in a classroom is crucial, especially when a lot of group work will be required in the course. Lazy teachers place the burden of ice-breaking on the students. Of course, you can force them to get up and approach strangers with freaky questions with complete disregard for how uncomfortable it will make them feel. An alternative approach - which is the one I use - is to take the duty of breaking the ice upon myself. With each new group of students, it takes a while to figure out who will be made uncomfortable by certain types of activities. However, as hard and time-consuming as that is, a responsible educator cannot shirk such a responsibility.

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10 comments:

sarcozona said...

I've often been made MORE uncomfortable by the kinds of icebreaker activities teachers usually do - like the ones your workshop organizer was promoting.

I've been in classes where clickers were used. They're incredibly expensive. You pay an outrageous price for the device and then you have to pay to "register" them in every class that uses them.

They're also a complete waste of class time - profs are usually too technologically incompetent to do activities with them quickly, even after several semesters teaching with them. They never even try to think of fun or creative ways to use them. My profs used them to cut down on grading by giving time-consuming and stressful clicker "quizzes" or to take attendance.

I like the idea of having a twitter "backchannel" in the class much better. Especially in big lecture classes, we're all already texting or tweeting about the class anyway...

Clarissa said...

"I've often been made MORE uncomfortable by the kinds of icebreaker activities teachers usually do - like the ones your workshop organizer was promoting."

-Exactly. I actually refused to participate in the activity. I slumped in my chair, whipped out my cell phone, and announced loudly that today I will be playing the role of a recalcitrant student. :-)

"I like the idea of having a twitter "backchannel" in the class much better. Especially in big lecture classes, we're all already texting or tweeting about the class anyway..."

-This sounds very interesting. I should try something like this in my big lecture class next fall.

Anonymous said...

"As I wrote yesterday, the last thing our students need is to be further infantilized by their professors."

Young adults are being increasingly infantilized. I don't have a ready explanation for it.

My guess is that within 20-30 years the legal age of majority will be set at 23 or so. That's the way this society is moving, anyway.

-Mike

Pagan Topologist said...

I am lucky that we have never been required to attend such workshops. We are merely invited. It sounds like the one you attended was sponsored by the maker of the clickers as a marketing ploy, much as drug companies sponsor "educational" dinner presentations for medical professionals to market their dangerous drugs which often do as much harm as good.

Maybe you could design a better workshop yourself? (I predict that you could, if you were willing to devote the time to do it. I would not be willing to devote the time, myself.)

Anita said...

Things have reallly changed since my college days back in the late 70s.

You've described something that I think I'd be bored with, although I'm speaking from a 52 year old mind. Maybe it would have worked with me when I was 18. Hmmm...

My first daughter will be entering college in 2014. I'm sure I'll be confused even more about the "new" methods.

Perhaps you'll still be blogging to help me with better insight. :)

Snarky Writer said...

In my TA program, we are not ALLOWED to refer to the students as "kids." I've been verbally smacked down for slipping and saying "my kids" rather than "my students."

Vinod said...

What?!! clickers in class? Like they use on those talk shows? OMG!! And here I was thinking that power point was evil. I really am living in the stone age.

Clarissa said...

Exactly like they use on talk shows. We call the profs who agree to use them the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" profs. :-)

And it isn't you who's living in the stone age. It's the university who wasted a butt-load of money on the silly clickers and now is trying to force us to use them by any means possible.

Patrick said...

When I attended university as a student, we never engaged in 'ice breakers'. We were lucky if the prof gave us his office number - we were expected to be able to find that on our own. If we couldn't figure out how, then perhaps we weren't ready for university study.

But, on the topic of 'ice breakers', I've experienced quite a few at subsequent conferences and professional courses, and I have come across one which I think could work well in almost any environment. A short description:

Everyone brings their chair to form a circle around one individual. That individual is standing in the centre without a chair. He then proceeds to ask, "who here has. . .?" Anyone who has engaged in the questioned activity must change seats - sort of a musical chairs type game. There will always be one person without a chair - who then proceeds to ask the next question.

The great thing about this game - it allows you to learn about others in your group in a non-threatening manner. If you are totally uncomfortable in that type of social situation, you can simply stay in your seat - most people will be too busy trying to get to their new seat to notice that you haven't moved. And at the end, you'll be amazed to learn the diverse interests and experiences that your classmates have engaged in. Opening avenues of conversation and understanding.

Spanish prof said...

One thing I absolutely hate from those teaching workshops, specially when they are aimed to foreign language professors, is the insistence to show how everything can be turn into a game, so the students can have fun. I like fun like anyone else, but not everything in college is a game to amuse the student.