First Tutorial
Introduction to Pedagogy Module DIT
13/10/2015
Gibb’s Reflective Cycle(Gibbs, 1988)
Description:
The tutorial took place in room KE1054 on the first floor in DIT Kevin Street on Wednesday afternoon. It was a tutorial with the 4th year students for their final year projects. I had been asked about a week before if I would like to demonstrate at the tutorial. The topic to be discussed had been previously requested by the students; Experimental Plans. Not that I am any kind of an expert on experimental plans but it is so easy to forget how green undergraduate students can be at times. There were approximately 20 students, they had been split up into their final year project groups, and my PhD supervisor A* was present also.
A* and I had discussed the “lesson plan” before the tutorial to determine the content of the tutorial. This is one of the first concepts of lab based learning (Ward et al., 1997).The plan was as follows; I would give a brief talk about experimental plans – what they are, why we need them, how to write one, what should be included etc… I discussed how to collect and record data so that data analysis can be quick and pain free. Finally I spoke briefly about the importance of informed consent forms and what should be included on them for the students that needed to give these to their study participants. After this I showed the students some fun interactive ways of using YouTube to learn about certain topics that are difficult to understand, for e.g. stats. YouTube has some great fun videos that really simplify the stats down for the student. We also looked at using Office Timeline to create an eye catching, easy to follow timeline for their supervisors to add to their experimental plans. To finish the class we spent approximately 20 minutes with each of the students in their groups constructing an excel worksheet for their data collection and analysis. While the students worked on this I employed some of my lab based learning skills discussed in the previous lecture – being approachable without encroaching.
Feelings:
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was looking forward to giving this tutorial. Normally I would be shaking in my boots, thinking… WHY did I sign up for this! WHY do I do it to myself! Not this time. I was nervous of course, but good nervous, like you’ve seen in to the future and you already know it’s going to go well. Don’t ask me why or how I managed to feel like that…. must have gotten a good night’s sleep previous?
I arrived early and ended up chatting with some of the fourth years who I had not met before. I think this helped to relax me. Optometry is quite small, so usually everybody know everybody else but as I have only returned to Kevin Street and I’m usually tucked away at my desk or in my room seeing patients I don’t get too much time to mingle. So the opportunity was nice.
I feel that the tutorial went quite well. I spoke clearly and confidently. I got the impression that it was engaging for the students; they appeared interested, alert, jotted down notes. As it was my first tutorial I have not mastered the whole “being approachable” thing. Where I am supposed to ‘hang by the water cooler’ and meander throughout the lab. I felt as I am new to this that I was depending on them being approachable. So I would ask “are you ok with everything, do you need any help?” To be fair they were all filled with questions and I was only delighted to be of some assistance.
Evaluation:
It was a very positive experience for me. As an introduction to demonstrating it was smooth and encouraging for me. I’m glad that the students’ were engaged and friendly, and took as much from the session as I did. It is another step towards conquering my public speaking “fear” is a strong word to describe it, more of a “discomfort” now.
Having been to the pedagogy lectures definitely gave me a better insight into how to plan and run a tutorial. I am confident that had it not been for the module, and for learning about more fun and interesting ways of learning and teaching, getting interactive(Carlile and Jordan, 2005) with the students I would have ended up giving a bland presentation similar to the ones I use to receive myself as a student.
I like Barry’s use of opening thought’s to stimulate thinking and I included one in my own presentation.
“If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else” - Yogi Berra.
I thought this was a nice touch and quite applicable to the topic as well.
Looking back and evaluating the whole experience I suppose the part that did not go as well was probably that I didn’t stimulate any thinking among the students by asking them questions. I didn’t ask questions on any of Bloom’s levels (Bloom, 1956). This is certainly somewhere that I now know I need to improve on.
Analysis:
For me I had a lot to gain from having the opportunity to give this tutorial. I had to put a presentation together where the purpose was to ‘teach’ and not to ‘show what I have learned’ or ‘show what I have done so far’ as I would have done in undergraduate or even now as a post-graduate at annual evaluations. I had to make it engaging for students, in a language they can speak and understand – not too much gobbledygook with technical terms. I had to set and meet learning objectives;
What is an experimental plan?
How do I write an experimental plan?
How do I collect and record my results?
What is a consent form?
Why do I need a consent form?
It gave me the chance to experience what it’s like to teach. It also gave me the experience of standing and speaking in front of people.
Upon reflection there are certainly parts that could have gone better. I didn’t ask the student’s any questions – not even at remembering level. Not even rhetorical questions. I know the onus for this is on me. The opportunity was there and I missed it. I guess the reason I didn’t was because I knew I was only filling in as a favour from my supervisors to me, they’re not MY students. I was unsure how much interaction was going to be appropriate. This is an area I should have questioned while preparing for the tutorial but as it was my first time doing something like this I didn’t know how to broach the subject.
Conclusion:
The whole Department of Optometry have been a massive help in making these tutorials possible for me, from the Head down to my supervisors themselves. Having their support has made it a very enjoyable process also. I hope that I continue to receive the opportunities to take tutorials with the students, even if it is for things like experimental plans or literature reviews. They are not my ‘area’ of expertise but all opportunities are greatly appreciated. By having to do a bit of research and background reading on the topics it helps me as well to learn something or top-up on things I may have forgotten.
Should the opportunity arise again I will be more pro-active in my preparation. While I did liaise with my supervisor and found out what the content would be I didn’t have a clear understanding of what exactly what my role was. I would ensure that I understand what she expects and would like me to do, how involved and interactive I should make a presentation if that is applicable etc…
I will make a conscious effort to stimulate more thinking by asking questions, both rhetorical and non-rhetorical. Perhaps even get little group activities going like we do in pedagogy. I would start at the bottom of Blooms level (Bloom, 1956) – remembrance or as Costa puts it in his three story house version (Costa, 1991) - level one/basement – which is your knowledge and comprehension level, the equivalent of Bloom’s ‘remembering’ and ‘understanding’. Level two/ground floor – this is where we practice the knowledge we have learned. This level meets Bloom’s ‘application’ and ‘analysis’. Finally level three/penthouse – this is where the aim is to get the student to demonstrate the mastery of what they have learned, or where they ‘synthesize’ and ‘evaluate’. It is an art to be able to ask questions and to be able to answer them all the way to the top-levels so I know that this is something I need to work on and aim towards.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” – Lao Tzu
BLOOM, B. S. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives : the classification of educational goals. Handbook 1 Cognitive domain, London, Longman Group Ltd.
CARLILE, O. & JORDAN, A. 2005. It works in practice but will it work in theory? The theoretical underpinnings of pedagogy. In: O' NEILL, G., MOORE, S. & MCMULLIN, B. E. (eds.) Emerging Issues in the Practice of University Learning and Teaching. Dublin: All Ireland Society for Higher Education (AISHE).
COSTA, A. L., ED. 1991. Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking.
GIBBS, G. 1988. Learning by doing : a guide to teaching and learning methods, London, FEU.
WARD, A., BAUME, D., BAUME, C. & OXFORD CENTRE FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT. 1997. Learning to teach : assisting with laboratory work and field trips : training materials for research students, Oxford, Oxford Centre for Staff Development.
