The Mundane Front
Today was something of a maintenance day. Trinity and I did some work on the Pod before I had to run off to an adjunct training session (more on that in a bit). After the adjunct thing we went up to my parents where I roto-tillered the garden and cleaned out the gutters while she helped my mom load stuff into the truck for Salvation Army. It was a clear blue spring day, unseasonably warm and full of promise. It was a good day to go for a walk and later, in my case, a 300 meter swim at the Northtown Community Center.
Sometimes you just enjoy the simple things.
The Teaching Front: Adjunctland
Today was the last of a series of training sessions designed to help adjunct instructors become better instructors. I sign up to attend these because there is always the possibility I might learn something and because we get paid to attend them.
Today's session pertained to creating active learners. For facebook followers, you've already seen my snark on this matter. First step in the presentation? Active PowerPoint. Murphy's Standard Response? Deactivate brain.
Which isn't quite what happens when I'm confronted with PowerPoint. What actually happens is I scan the slide, write down what seems important and then I tune the speaker out. That is what happens. When the speaker changes the slide, I'll dial back in and see if anything useful was said. Usually nothing useful was said so I'll stare at the walls and ponder the budget, my writing career, my lesson plans, how PowerPoint is a shitty way to teach people anything, etc, etc.
A lot of the presentation pertained to getting students engaged with the material. It isn't enough for them to show up, sit in the chair, take notes and turn the homework in. Not that I issue homework per se (truth to tell, the study guides are homework but I never call them that nor do I accept grades on them).
What you want is for the students to process the information, think about it and find a way to use it.
Depending on which of my four classes you talk about, I get this already. I have students who tie in my lectures about the Constitution to the current health care debate. I also have students who make ties between the Alien and Sedition Acts with the Patriot Act. The analogy doesn't quite work for me but at least the students are trying to relate to the information in order to process it.
Our goal though, according to this class, is to get all of the students to dial in.
The one thing that I thought was missing was a statement to the effect that at some point the student has to take responsibility for their own academic future. The tactics discussed for generating additional engagement smacked of my worst experiences from High School and Park University. Variations on group work were discussed along with finding a way to tie everything you discuss to their personal lives (something which is not always possible, even in history).
I am also troubled by an ongoing trend in education.
The notion is that we have students with varying styles of learning. We, the Instructors (or facilitators depending on how you see it) are supposed to adapt to these different styles of learning and provide the students with every opportunity to access the knowledge. In other words, cater to their strengths.
On the surface that sounds great. However the problem I have is based partly on my own personal experience.
I am, on the whole, a hands on and visual learner. I am not an auditory learner per se. In fact, PowerPoint should be my friend on many levels, yet it isn't. I am a professional in a field which prides itself on a very long tradition of oral/lecture based instruction, auditory learning. Somehow, I managed to adapt and overcome. I managed to adapt and create a new set of skills which enabled me to get through a program in a field where my learning style does not fit.
And isn't that part of what we are supposed to be teaching? Adaptability? The rest of the World isn't going to adapt to our students once they graduate. No, they are going to expect our students to adapt to them and if they don't then those students will find themselves out of a job.
In any case, as I sat through the presentation, dialing in to listen to my peers as they discussed what they do in their classes, I came to the conclusion that I work pretty hard to create active learners already. That said, at the end of the day, they have to take ownership of their own progress.
Moreover, it isn't my job to spoon feed everything to them. It is my job to challenge them, to push them beyond their limits, to make them write an essay response that is long enough and detailed enough to sufficiently answer the question. To force them to do more than just memorize data bits and vomit them back onto the scantron.
Other Fronts
At some point I need to sit down and get some more writing done. I have a peer's writing project that needs crits. The good news is that I have read the project and have some thoughts in my brainpan.
I've also been spending a lot of time reading history books, lately a lot of economic history.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
9 hours ago