More fantastic history by Weller (2020)! He does such a great job of communicating how the technology fits into a specific time but doesn’t stop there. His ability to show both the positive and negatives of the technology and ideas provides so much to chew on. There are so many pieces that I found fascinating, but I’m only allowed to talk about two. Let’s see how I do.
A Meaningful Lesson
As I read Chapter 12 on video streaming, I found myself drawn to a section on page 89 regarding the flipped classroom. When I started teaching a few years ago, this was a frequently mentioned phrase that, at times, felt like it could have been reworded as “let the student do the work.” The idea presented to me was that lecturing was outdated and that class time should be where students are able to practice what they’ve learned while studying at home. Perhaps they have reading or a basic activity to do at home then, when they’re in class, they can discuss or practice what they’ve learned to help solidify things. It made so much sense! Why would a student want to sit through a lecture when they could do that part whenever they’d like at home? But then, after a term or two of teaching, I realized that students don’t always want to do that work at home. Sometimes what they really want is to have an instructor talk to them about the curriculum. It felt as though there were a few different perspectives at work. For some it may have been a “I’m paying for you to teach me, not watch me practice.” For others it seemed like it was “If I have to come to class, I don’t want to just sit and do things I could do at home.” But the biggest issue for me was that students would rarely do what was necessary before class, resulting in class time that was spent trying to correct that problem, and no time to do that work we were going to do that would help solidifying the ideas/concepts/skills.
It just wasn’t sustainable. When I read Weller’s (2020) thoughts about how “following a prescriptive approach or failing to accommodate for the increased load on students and educators can be a result of pursuing an educational trend” (p. 89), it struck me that this was exactly how I had felt, but didn’t know how to articulate it. The idea of the flipped classroom felt so sensible, but maybe the balance hadn’t been considered. I felt (and still do) that students need to take responsibility for their education but requiring them to do most of the work at home can be unfair to them. When I started to consider how students must balance school, work, family, etc., the idea of pushing a large portion of their education into that other space felt almost distasteful me. Why couldn’t I work to help them create a better balance within their education time? Could I trim away activities or pieces of a course that were not completely necessary in order to allow the student to use their time in a more targeted way? Could I provide them with a few articles and videos they could read on their own time, paired with brief teaching time in-class that is followed by in-class practice? Weller’s piece on the flipped classroom helped remind me that academic trends will always be around, and they may be a brilliant idea, but they must be balanced against the needs of the student; needs which go far beyond the educational space.
A Conflicting Lesson
Our school is working hard to integrate micro-credentials into courses. How this will look in each program is still up in the air, but I struggle to see its place within education and the workplace. I refer to both education and the workplace because education is not a vacuum, and what is done within an educational space should also meet the needs of prospective employers. Does a single micro-credential show an employer that an applicant has enough breadth of knowledge to do a job? What about a whole series of micro-credentials? And how does a bunch of micro-credentials differ from what we’re doing right now? As Weller (2020) discussed the benefits and challenges of micro-credentials, I found myself challenged to open myself up to this idea and to try to shift my understanding of how education could function. Perhaps it serves a strong purpose within the educational sphere, allowing students to transfer learning across program or institution. But is that enough? I keep coming back to all the questions in my mind about how interconnected education can be and whether it is truly in the students’ or employers’ best interest to have education boiled down to that level. I’m not sure I fully agree with micro-credentialing, but I appreciate the challenge and perspective Weller (2020) brought to this topic.
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I personally really like the flipped-classroom approach, but perhaps like you and I don’t like going to the extreme. I will give students some assigned reading and quizzes to do on their own, but I will also provide some instruction in class. I do feel that class time should be primarily focused on helping students with the most difficult portions of the course and helping correct bad habits before they start. Some content is best learned on the student’s own; other content is best learned when the instructor can supervise and provide feedback.
I guess balance is good and not going to the extremes.
Also important is knowing pros and cons of the techniques and technologies and using each for what it is best for (and avoid the areas where they are weakest).
I really like that perspective, Patrick. Focusing class time on the “most difficult portions” and “correcting bad habits before they start.” Those can look different based on the topic you’re teaching. Have you noticed some of your subjects fit better with students doing the bulk of their learning at home vs. in the classroom?
Yes. I think it will vary by topic. There are even some tough topics where I will do both – I will provide a video or reading AND provide in class review and discussion to reinforce the critical topics and to assess the students’ understanding of the material.
Hi David,
Thanks for your profound reflection on the effects of video in modern education, which is also the point I choose to write. Your viewpoint is holistic and therefore helps me understand the point in a more comprehensive way. What concerns me most is your question about the how educators can do more apart from leaving students watching class recordings at home; this the actually the same problem I feel confused.
You mentioned the possibility to trim away some unnecessary contents so students can study in a more targeted way. Do you have any criterion on how to differentiate parts that are more relevant to a course? I always apprehend that any omission might fail to meet the discrete needs of individual students or undermine the efficacy of learning.
Eric
I have a really difficult time assessing what can be trimmed and what remains. I start with the breakdown of course outcomes because they are non-negotiable. Whatever we cover MUST meet those outcomes. If I am teaching something that doesn’t help meet those outcomes, that content is now optional. Then I write outcomes for each module, week, and sometimes class, that explain how they will feed into the overall course outcomes. Again, if I’m trying to teach something that doesn’t fit those larger outcomes it is considered optional and may be cut. One thing I was told early in my teaching was that we aren’t training people who have done the job for 5+ years. I’m not making them experts. They are coming into the program with no understanding of what they’re learning and I need to teach them enough to get to the next level, not to an expert level. That helped me to accept that those things that I think are important to me, being 10+ years in an industry, are not going to be what is important for someone just starting. This helped reduce the amount of content I considered necessary and helps focus what I’m teaching. Hope that helps a bit. It’s quite a learning process and I’m still not great at it.
I agree. It definitely comes down the the course outcomes. Always keep that as your primary teaching goals. Like you say, everything else is optional.
Thank you for the post David. We’ve been hearing the term “flipped classroom” for a while and with each time I hear the term, I’ve always felt it comes with about 100 ways to describe and define it. Leaving the students to to their own devices the solve and piece together theory online to me felt like a scary concept. Could a webpage, LMS, replace the role of the educator/teacher? We have decided to do things differently with our course this Fall; offering Units with very little written content to review and have added a 15 minute introduction of the topic of the week that would cover key concepts. This would allow us in the synchronous portion of the lecture to briefly review material, give examples of practical uses and then for the most part, make ourselves available to answer questions about the content. We still get the question ” Is this lecture going to be online later” , which is no, we are just here to supplement the content you should have already digested. So far a week into the course, they students seem to be engaged and are bring good questions, but it could all change as the concepts and projects grow in complexity and size. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this David.
Thank you for adding your thoughts on this, Ash. Every perspective provides a new and fascinating angle on the topic. Your line there about how “we are just here to supplement the content you should have already digested” is great! If I can get my students to understand that concept — that the video class time is a supplement, not a lecture — I think it would help a lot. I have found that students often expect more lecture and are frustrated when they realize that they have to put in more effort outside of class. That has been the case whether in a face-to-face or online course. So far, I’ve found that the switch to online only has made me wonder if a similar course structure would work for face-to-face. I’ve found that the push to maximize the efficiency of the video class time has made things into far more of a flipped-style class and I’m thinking it could hold up similarly when we go back to face-to-face.
David,
Fantastic post. I particularly appreciate your perspectives in the section “a meaningful lesson”. I too battle with these same issues when it comes to finding a balanced approach to teaching that caters to all students. Unfortunately, our current landscape does not provide us with the means to satisfy all learners to the extent many of us wish to accomplish. There simply is not enough time to do so.
I do have a nice example of “practicing in class”. In my undergrad, I had a Biology teacher who essentially refused to lecture. He very much supported students learning through experience, going as far as to encourage us to research the net to find answers, rather then him give us the answers. The course was on biological evolution. Every class we worked on assignments and case studies, followed by take home exams at two separate occasions throughout the term. Everything was open book. Some students felt robbed of a formal education, while others loved his approach. I personally was skeptical, but didn’t want to cast judgement until after my final mark was out. After the term, I compared my learning outcomes to that of a traditional Bio class (which was another course I was taking that term). After the term, I concluded that I learnt an equal amount in both classes, but suffered far less stress and text anxiety in the open book/practice in class approach.
That sounds like a fantastic class, Jonathan! It is another interesting side of these teaching strategies that they don’t work for everyone. Some people, as you’ve said, feel robbed of the education they are expecting. One of my current students took some of the online readings and uses a screen reader to have them spoken to her because it makes it feel like there is a teacher there. Some people seem to feel safer with that approach, while others want to learn in their own way and at their own pace. How do we meet the needs of both so that they don’t have to pick between a class based on the amount of stress or anxiety they might feel? I mean, if the stress/anxiety is relating to tests… I agree with your teacher’s open-book approach. If we aren’t trying to keep only the very best of students, what is the point in not allowing them to use a reference in a test? I do that with some of my tests and students still manage to get a lot of questions wrong. It’s very strange.
Wow! I’m surprised that someone would feel ‘robed’ of a formal education. I’ve almost always prefer interactive classes to a lecture environment.
I totally agree! But if someone’s perspective of education is that of an expert imparting their wisdom, they might feel they aren’t getting that wisdom from more constructivist classes. I have to remind myself that my perspective on education is not universally accepted. Even that fact that some of our MALAT group opted for online vs. blended shows that students need different things from education. I don’t think it’s necessarily our job to be all things to all people, but at least to try our best to consider those needs as we teach. Or at least come up with a really good response for when people complain.
It looks like everyone learns their own way. The challenge is to incorporate various methods into your teaching. I don’t mind lectures, as a student, but I find that information doesn’t get stuck in my mind long term if there is no practice. In my undergraduate classes, I’ve never had a single professor try the approach that Jonathan mentioned. And I wish they did ! I’ve retained more knowledge of 2 years attending various seminars and conferences after graduation than of 4 years attending university classes.
I will give you an example. At a university level psychology, you get to learn about different personality theories, how behaviors are categorized and recognized. Let’s say how introversion is different from extravesion. Outside of an university, be it a seminar or a conference, it is usually presented in a 10-15 min exercise where people are asked to classify themselves in 3 groups, E, I or in-between. Then given a task. Followed by an in-group discussion, as well as whole class discussion and interpretation of an instructor. So that everyone learns a difference through experience. And it actually sticks. I remember some of these exercises years later. I usually don’t remember what the lecture was about a week after.
I wish, someone taught me how to set up different practical exercises so that students learn from wisdom gained during those practical exercises rather than me just talking about theory.
Oh man, I really wish someone had taught me too. It’s one thing to know something, but it can be difficult to impart that knowledge in a way that is applicable and stickable. Stickable isn’t a word, but I’m going to use it anyway. I found that having children helped me to get better at presenting information in a way that scaffolds and uses practice to make it understood and practical to someone else’s situation.