Pedagogy for the One-Shot: Extend, Simplify, Connect

Editor's Notes

1. Invited to talk to you this morning on topic of pedagogy for the one-shot. So will focus today on pedagogy behind/strategies for 3 main things: Extend instructional scenario beyond confines of one-shot, whether 50/75 min Simplify learning process so they have greater mental capacity for learning outcomes Connect what students already know to what you’re teaching to improve long-term retention
2. 1st of these is Extend, or how we can maximize time we have to extend instruction before class begins and beyond its end
3. Making the most of our time before class While class period is 50 minutes, you often have the ~10 minutes before it starts when students are trickling in Underutilized time Sneakily get students’ brains ready to incorporate new knowledge once class starts by activating prior knowledge What does this mean? Ken Bain:  “We use our existing mental models to shape the sensory inputs we receive. That means that when we talk to students, our thoughts do not travel seamlessly from our brains to theirs. […] Even if they know nothing about our subjects, they still use an existing mental model of something to build their knowledge of what we tell them, often leading to an understanding that is quite different from what we intend to convey” Example:  Scholarship as a Conversation: Talking/conversation happen in real time, and are multidirectional Musicians inspired by/borrow from each other Meghan Trainor Dear Future Husband/Dion Runaround Sue Goal: explicitness in connecting students’ prior knowledge to what you’ll be talking about, like in cover letter Examples: Looping slide deck:  5–10 slides featuring content related to the course material for the day and info about library. Can take the form of multiple-choice questions about that day’s topic or facts about library. My supervisor requires these for all librarians in my department when teaching FYE courses. Ordering exercise. Post a list of steps on whiteboard/slide and make sure the list is out of order. As students come in, ask them to start putting the list in the correct sequence based on established criteria. Could use with steps of research process, source types of varying trustworthiness, etc.
4. Save time as discussion prompt Instructions on board/slide to answer question Short, unreliable article (e.g., Weekly World News or Onion) and ask students to write down reasons they know it’s untrustworthy Write options such as library/friends/Google/other on board, and ask students to place sticky note/hash mark under the option where they look for information, as starter for discussion on differences between them Gets students thinking about what they already know on topic Can also build rapport Hard in one-shot! But it makes students more likely to reach out for help later Create name card Builds rapport Classroom management technique: if two students are off-task, or if a couple students are dominating class discussion Avoid throwing question into the void and waiting Also prepare students for interactivity (dangers of lecturing for first part of class)
5. Speaking of time… ending strong Have kept students engaged for 45 minutes but now fidgety In one-shot, only get students for one class period, but they check out before 50 minutes are up Even most engaged class will lose attentiveness towards end of period: lunch, test, crossing campus Encourage you to view as opportunity, not calamity Corral attention and boost learning New, short task which must be completed = highly motivating Exit ticket = something students must complete to leave room Ask students to reflect on what they learned Examples: 1-minute paper, muddiest point In your opinion, what was the most useful idea discussed in today’s class? During today’s class, what idea(s) struck you as things you could or should put into practice? What was most surprising? Why? Final opportunity for metacognition Follow up on findings Common “muddiest point” can demonstrate to professor that additional time might be useful in future Opportunity to point out pre-existing learning objects that might be helpful
6. After class ends Limited opportunities for communication: be strategic about info you send students out the door with Most of us hand out business cards or share email address, but can be opportunity to help students with things you didn’t get to Alternative to business card, which students often don’t know what to do with Subversive handout Iris Jastram, who blogs at Pegasus Librarian Subversive because it makes students aware of services and assistance she could provide but didn’t have time to mention in class
7. Format: “Here’s what we learned today… Here’s what you can ask me about any time… Here’s how you can get help…” handy reminder of the topics covered in class that day list of the other usual suspects a librarian can help with: things they didn’t know were possible, skills they didn’t know they needed 2013 PIL finding: freshmen believe they only need to search the one database the lib specifically mentioned 3D printers, consultations via Google Hangouts Trigger appointment requests from students Professor would see that “everything they need to know” = more than the library catalog and finding journal articles
8. Iris uses an actual handout, but VCU has modified this concept (discuss examples) These are a few of the ways you can extend the one-shot beyond your allotted 50 min.
9. 2nd of today’s themes is Simplify, or reduce # of new concepts/processes students interact with → more brain power devoted to learning outcomes
10. Negotiating with faculty Perhaps biggest one-shot issue: only 50 minutes, and they want their freshmen to learn PubMed, LexisNexis, difference between source types, and source evaluation Flattering but unreasonable; lecture = questionable results No magic fix--otherwise we’d all know it!--but a couple strategies can help
11. Create instruction menu identifying common instruction topics and a time range for each topic Screenshot from Radford Reduce # of requests for many topics If posted, can point to if topics are requested Quiz/poll that students take before library session to assess what they know Can be sneaky and suggest in guise of helping you plan approach to topics Fill in the blank questions, or show of hands: “who knows what a peer-reviewed article is?” If very unfamiliar with basic library searching, proximity searching is probably too advanced Prioritize one or two topics
12. Reduce # of things students need to think about In addition to reducing # of topics, important to simplify presentation of topics with goal of reducing cognitive load What is it? Essentially intellectual multitasking--grappling with multiple ideas or tasks simultaneously Multiple studies have investigated cognitive load and how it affects ability to learn Essentially: multitasking is not a thing. It’s a myth. UNLESS you are so proficient in a skill that you can do it automatically, which frees up cognitive space to focus on other things If a skilled knitter, talking/watching show at same time is fine Beginner knitter must focus on difference between knitting/purling, watching where needle goes Students will find it difficult to focus on more than one thing at a time, and ESPECIALLY to integrate multiple new skills Includes unfamiliar interfaces, not just concepts (e.g., spreadsheets + math) Problem: difficult for us (as experts with automated knowledge/skills) to recognize what could cause overload Strategy: scaffold (support students’ learning) by simplifying where you can: Advanced search strategies in PubMed:  flip classroom to introduce search strategies before students must apply those strategies in strange-looking database Evaluating relevance of peer-reviewed articles:  provide ‘worked example’ of already-evaluated trade article before students must evaluate relevance of difficult to read scholarly article Think like a sports coach: don’t practice entire play from beginning, but practice pieces first Let students practice one new skill at a time (search with Boolean, then searching with Boolean and truncation) Key is to simplify where possible, either in lesson structure or assigned tasks. Argument for negotiating down # of learning outcomes so there’s fewer tasks  :)
13. Advance organizers Sometimes you’re not able to negotiate, and need to fit a lot into your 50 minutes How to simplify then? Provide framework for students to incorporate new knowledge into Topic experts have complex network of knowledge about subject (“schemata”) Easy to fit new knowledge into this network without much mental effort Novices don’t have these networks, meaning they don’t have efficient way to organize info on topic New info is isolated facts Importance of these frameworks is that they drive our interpretation of information and what’s important
14. Demonstrated in 1977 study where researchers gave short passage to undergrads to read and identify what was important, based on directed perspective It’s short, and more effective than any description than I could give, so we’ll replicate experiment here [divide audience into prospective home buyers and burglars] [read story—The House, from Pichert and Anderson’s 1977 study] [ask burglars what was important] [ask home buyers what was important]
15. Moral of the story: students taking notes on lecture/reading may write down different things if framework isn’t made explicit So how do we make a helpful framework explicit? Advance organizers: “tell them what you’re going to tell them” Share partial notes before class w/blanks to fill in Share game plan Help students spot connections by using lots of examples Zappos/Amazon similar to database facets Movie recommendations from friend who hates horror movies So simplification can take form of reducing # of learning outcomes, reducing cognitive load, or giving students method of understanding what’s most important
16. My 3rd and final theme is Connect, or taking what students have learned in our one-shots and incorporating info effectively into long-term memory
17. Practice Goal of negotiating down learning outcomes, reducing cognitive load, extending class time is increasing time for practice Opportunity for students to apply what they’ve learned Not all practice created equal; practice involving simple recall (review games) not as effective Science: to shift learning from short-term to long-term memory for later retrieval, important to “proceduralize” knowledge: Difference between being able to recognize info and use info Attach informational knowledge to process students can practice Examples: authority comes partially from author expertise on subject→ Google authors of several articles to determine expertise limit search results by date → break class into groups and ask each to investigate different database While I’m on topic of practice… In one-shots, danger of accusations of busywork because practice for learning’s sake is uncompelling Especially without assignment Must have other reason for doing task than ‘practice’; because it’s demotivating if task purpose is imperceptible (= nonexistent) Hold students accountable:  all tasks include deliverable Tell students before task what they’re working towards Rather than researching random topic to practice search skills, only to immediately move on after, tell students BEFORE they’ll share an article and keywords used
18. Build metacognition into practice Metacognition = awareness/understanding of our own thought processes Many humans/college students unaware of their thinking processes, unable to assess what academic task (such as using 10 sources to write paper) requires, and don’t know how to learn effectively Example: student who tells you they searched for hours before making appt to see you Research is clear: students who monitor comprehension regularly during learning process learn more Help them be intentional What questions should they be asking themselves when searching databases? When evaluating sources? Give students questions/practices they can apply in future Research logs: Where did you get search terms? If you didn’t find relevant articles, what do you think was wrong with search? Questions during search (“How do you think you’ll use this source on your assignment?” “Will you modify research question because of this source?”)
19. Formative assessments address “unconscious incompetence” Metacognition important BUT Issue with asking students these questions about what is or isn’t working for them, is humanity’s inability to accurately assess skill while still in state of inexpertise Expert musicians will pick up on mistakes that nonmusical people will miss Example:  studies reporting most people rate themselves as above average on given task Very possible that students won’t see usefulness of library instruction May, in fact, feel that nothing you say will be useful They’ve had library instruction before They’re competent at Google/Scholar (they think) Barrier to metacognition/learning is gap between what students know and what they think they know Teachers/librarians contribute to this by teaching in way that “answers questions that haven’t been asked” Put question first: expose knowledge gap Reason students--and humans--not only don’t see gap but think it doesn’t exist is what How Learning Works calls “unconscious incompetence” Don’t know enough to know what they don’t know Example of knowledge gap, using previous I-don’t-need-library scenario: book review mistaken for scholarly article, or article irrelevant to research question Formative feedback--DURING rather than AFTER learning--useful here Good to correct misunderstandings but ALSO expose gaps Another reason for more, shorter tasks Assess understanding after each concept to give opportunity to wrestle with concepts discretely If waiting till end of lesson on search strategies/databases to see if students can find relevant article, may be difficult to pinpoint where issue is Break process up into stages to help you AND student identify that issue is with vague search terms Tech like PearDeck, PollEverywhere, and Kahoot incorporate assessment (and other interactivity!) conveniently and quickly Best feedback provides structured way to produce correct answer Sharing correct answer/re-presenting concept is less effective than students generating answer themselves
20. Truncation PollEverywhere: what additional words would you get if you didn’t truncate ‘dentistry’? Double benefit: YOU see what students understand STUDENTS realize they don’t know as much as they thought and should pay more attention These technologies = not much time Time spent clarifying misconceptions may eat into lesson plan, but is well spent Together, structured practice and formative assessment can increase receptiveness in the classroom & boost long-term retention of what students have learned
21. To conclude: Possible to extend one-shot in both directions to increase student interaction with new concepts Simplify how much & what gets taught to decrease cognitive strain Make students aware of knowledge gap and close gap to boost learning
22. If you’ve found this helpful, this is tip of iceberg (see slide) Also: K-12 educators years ahead of higher ed in many ways (e.g., our conception of flipped classroom started with a couple high school teachers in 2004)
23. Thanks for listening! Questions?