
Teaching Tuesdays@CSU
NEW articles, links, tips and how-tos in higher education
Issue #9 - Student Diversity
In behaving Inclusively we work collaboratively to develop and deliver solutions – we value new perspectives.
Often when we read the latest teaching advice we recognise things that we already do. Putting a name to them can encourage more deliberate incorporation into our teaching contexts. What strategies do you already use to accommodate student diversity? Can you use some more brief interventions to promote student learning?
This week’s bulletin is the next in our series examining teaching strategies that support the nine Dimensions of Teaching (Crisp et al., 2009 – see below).
Dimension 3: Teaching caters for student diversity.
James Lang discusses five fundamental principles of human learning and how to incorporate these principles to develop lower order and higher order thinking skills.
Using Brief Interventions to Maximize Student Learning
Source:https://www.magnapubs.com/magna-commons/?video=11966
(See Magna Commons instructions below for free CSU subscription instructions to this source)
QUOTE: ... faculty members aren't often able to take a new approach that they read about and immediately test it out in their classroom or to sort of revamp their teaching from the ground up every time they hear about an interesting new experiment, however effective it might seem to be.
One strategy in teaching to cater for student diversity is to exercise balance between challenging and supporting students. In this 50-minute webinar, Dr Lang outlines concepts drawn from learning sciences that can apply in almost any type of teaching environment and that can be employed as brief interventions that foster learning in classes with diverse learning needs.
In last week's bulletin, we looked at the importance of developing connections between learning materials and individual student experience. These five interventions build on the same theme:
- Predicting – subject content before exposure to it. This strategy helps subsequent memory and activates connected knowledge in the brain. It works well at the beginning and at the end of class.
The more connections that we have between a new piece of information and other things that we already know, the more likely we are to understand it and remember it. - Retrieving – reproducing from memory. For best effect, students need to have practice in doing this relatively quickly after receiving information.
Interleaved retrieval is more effective for long-term memory and has implications for summative assessment. - Generating – own responses to learning materials. Students generate ideas and examples based their own diverse experiences.
QUOTE: Whatever you think about, that's what you remember. Memory is the residue of thought. - Self-Explaining – what students think and say about what they are learning.
Students create new knowledge by thinking about new information, relating it to existing knowledge, making inferences and making connections among given information. Lang provides key questions to promote student self-explaining. - Connecting – building a framework of knowledge. The Minute Thesis – a classroom activity in which the students have to quickly make a series of connections between a variety of data or ideas from the subject or between-subject material even, and novel contexts.
The publications referenced in this seminar are available from the CSU Library, including:
Ambrose, S. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Available as online book through CSU Library.
Brown, P., Roediger, H., & McDaniel, M. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wprs3
Available through CSU Library as an unlimited access online item.
Presentation handouts, full transcripts and supplementary resources are available for download from the Magna Commons website if you don't have time to listen to the seminar.
Improving the quality of student learning: the influence of learning context and student approaches to learning on learning outcomes
The studies reported in this paper focus on the relationship between qualitative differences in learning outcomes, perceptions/evaluations of the learning environment and approaches to study. The results support previous research in identifying relationships between perceptions/evaluations of the learning environment and approach to study and between approach to study and the quality of the learning outcomes. The second of the two studies reported also identifies a relationship between perceptions, approaches and the quality of the outcomes. The results suggest that perceived environments which encourage deep approaches are more likely to facilitate higher quality learning than environments designed to discourage surface approaches. [Abstract]
For further reading consult the works of Biggs, Marton & Saljo, Ramsden, and other articles by Prosser and Trigwell referred to in this article.
Trigwell, K. & Prosser M. (1991). Improving the quality of student learning: the influence of learning context and student approaches to learning on learning outcomes. High Educ 22:251-266. doi:10.1007/BF00132290. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00132290
Dimensions of Teaching
Dimension 3: Teaching caters for student diversity
- demonstrating an appreciation of the different levels of knowledge and understanding in a group
- addressing, as appropriate, different learning needs and styles within the group
- focusing on building confidence, enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation
- fostering students' responsibility for their own learning, encouraging them towards being self-directed learners, (as distinct from teacher-directed learners)
- using appropriate strategies for different needs, balancing discursive interactive strategies with those that are more didactic (where simple transmission of knowledge is needed)
- recognising, at times, the need for teacher-directed strategies such as explaining, and being able to implement these effectively
- exercising balance between challenging and supporting students
- designing activities/tasks that allow students of differing abilities to participate/engage and demonstrate/enhance their learning
providing examples or opportunities for discussion that cater for cultural diversity
Adapted from: Crisp, G. et al (2009) Peer Review of Teaching for Promotion Purposes: a project to develop and implement a pilot program of external Peer Review of Teaching at four Australian universities, University of Adelaide, an ALTC-funded project, 2007-8. Final Project Report June 2009. Thanks to RMIT and UNSW.
The nine Dimensions of Teaching are the key focus areas that underpin the main elements in the Peer Review of Teaching Practice templates used at CSU for both formative teaching development or to evidence your teaching in, for example, your promotion application.
(See Peer Review of Educational Practice at CSU).
Catering for Student Diversity support resources at CSU
You have access to a range of quality CSU resources to help ensure that students are actively engaged in learning. Check out the following:
Resources for Learning and Teaching Academic and Professional Staff - searchable CSU database
CSU Learning Exchange: Technologies in Context - a searchable database to promote online learning and teaching strategies
The CSU wiki - a faculty-based source of learning and teaching information and strategies
Designing for a Diverse Student Cohort - the Assessment, Moderation and Benchmarking resource site
Regular seminars on teaching-related topics are listed on the
CSU Professional Learning Calendar - accessed directly here
or from the Division of Learning and Teaching front page - accessed here
CSU Professional Learning Calendar: Writing criteria and standards.
Free Webinar this week
Transforming Assessment Webinar Update (An ASCILITE SIG), Next session:
Risk aware: enhancing students' clinical competence in risky environments through blended simulation-based learning
2 May 2018.
Presenter: Dr Jade Sheen (Deakin University, Australia)
Students across the healthcare field engage in clinical placement as a component of their education. Unfortunately, there are a number of physical, psychological and environmental risks associated with clinical placement. Risk Aware is a simulation-based education program designed to address the risk associated with clinical placement, thereby enhancing students’ clinical awareness and competence. This presentation will discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of the Risk Aware program.
Further information and registration (free): http://ta.vu/2may2018
Bonus CSU resource - Lynda.com for Diversity
A search for 'diversity' with a filter for Higher Education returned 67 results ranging from general teaching tips, to keynote lectures, to the specifics of various tools and applications for building on prior learning.
Magna Commons
All staff with a CSU email address have free access to our new
CSU subscription to the Magna Commons series of online seminars.
A Magna Commons search for the keywords 'diverse' produced a list of 13 seminars relevant to this theme, including:
- Helping Introverts Thrive in an Active Learning Classroom (60 minutes)
- Seven Ways to Increase Student Attention and Learning (90 minutes)
- Tools and Techniques for Improving Course Accessibility (75 minutes)
Presentation handouts, full transcripts and supplementary resources are available for download if you don't have time to listen to the seminar.
How to subscribe
Staff with a CSU email address can obtain the Magna Commons CSU subscription code from Ellen McIntyre elmcintyre@csu.edu.au
Magna Commons suggests these seminars to watch in the coming month:
Whether creating a single lecture, a course (= CSU subject), a program (= CSU course), or a curriculum, this month’s focus is designing effective and meaningful educational experiences. Below are some seminars related to design:
- Course Design Strategies to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills
- Designing and Teaching a High-Impact Capstone Course
- Refresh Your Course with Straightforward Design Changes
- Service-Learning Course Design: What Faculty Need to Know
- Beyond Course Design: Planning for Successful Facilitation
Links to previous bulletins
Folder with all previous issues.
Issue#1 Group Work: Seven Strategies to Enhance Learning through Group Work
Issue#3 Engagement: Motivate, Engage, and Inspire: Tips for Teaching Modern Learners
Issue#4 Academic Integrity: Why Students Cheat and What We Can Do About It
Issue#5 Feedback: Efficient and Effective Feedback in the Online Classroom
Issue#6 Feedback: Leveraging Technology to Support Effective Assessment Feedback Practices
Issue#7 Active Engagement: Three Strategies for Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences
Issue#8 Building on Prior Learning: How the Brain Learns: Implications for Teaching & Learning
FoBJBS Newsletter: BOLD Issue#15
FoA&E Newsletter: NeXus Issue#2
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Follow Ellen McIntyre
Learning Academy, Division of Learning & Teaching, Charles Sturt University
Email: elmcintyre@csu.edu.au
Website: https://www.csu.edu.au/division/learning-and-teaching/about-us/learning-academy
Phone: +61 2 6933 4726