L. Binderup, Teaching Portfolios

8/14/2019 L. Binderup, Teaching Portfolios

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Teaching portfolios

ReSET Summer School 2007

Ekaterinburg

Lars Binderup

University of Southern Denmark


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Plan

What is a teaching portfolio?

The uses of a teaching portfolio.

Suggestions for content of a teaching port-

folio.

Process of revision and review.


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What is a teaching portfolio?

Three main parts:

1. The participants teaching CV

Methods Content

The participants teaching philosophy

reflections on methods and aims.

New experiences, developments, changes(feedback on the impact of the ReSET

school) continually updated.


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What is a teaching portfolio useful for?

At least three purposes of a teaching portfolio:

1. Reflection

Formulating a teaching port folio can be a

part of and support a process of reflection on

ones own methods of teaching.

This can turn into revisions and changes in

procedure, improvements in techniques and

aims.


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2. Applications

Portfolios can be useful for participants in

future applications for teaching jobs.

Widely used as a requirement in application-

procedures in the West today.

1990: 10 American universities used it.

1997: 1.000 American universities used it

Mandatory in Canada for 20 years.


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3. Feedback and documentation

Portfolios can be useful for documenting the

impact of and giving feedback on our ReSETseminar.


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Preliminary remarks

The ideal teaching style and teaching philosophy varies (andshould vary) from

teacher to teacher.

There is no right answer when formulating a

teaching philosophy.

Teaching methods should fit the topic. Perhaps teaching in philosophy (especially normative

disciplines) should be different from teaching in other

subjects (history, sociology etc.)?


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Suggested content of teaching portfolio

*1. Teaching CV

Account of previous teaching experience

Affiliations as a teacher

Teaching (what classes, duration, content)

Supervision (amount, level)

Examination (amounts, forms, level)


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*2. Teaching methods used

What teaching methods have you used in

practice (lecturing, dialogue-based classes,

methods of activating of students, e-learningetc.)?

Experiences with and critical reflection over

methods used.


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3. Formal pedagogical training (if any)

Attended pedagogical courses

Pedagogical books read

Collegial supervision (mentor, rolemodel)


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1. Student-evaluations

Have you had your teaching evaluated by

students? (what forms of evaluation?)

What were the results?

Has the feed-back from students been useful?

Have you changed your methods/readings/curriculum as a result of student feed-back?

Are student evaluations a good means for

improving teaching?


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5. Experience with study planning and curriculumbuilding

Have you had any experience as a course-

organizer? (describe it)

What are your thoughts on good course-

planning? (aims, pitfalls?)


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6. Samples of teaching materials used

You can attach samples of teaching materials

that you have yourself composed.

E.g. books, readers, handouts, notes, trans-

lations.


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*7. Pedagogical or teaching philosophy

Explain your views on university pedagogics

and reflect critically on it.

What is your favourite method(s) of teaching?

Why are they good?

How do the methods contribute to achieving the

goals of teaching your topic?


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*7. Pedagogical or teaching philosophy (cont.)

Which methods are bad/counterproductive?

What are the challenges for your becoming abetter teacher at your home university? (e.g. lack

of time, lack of power to change curricula,

physical limitations).

In what direction do you aim to develop your

teaching skills in the future? How?


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*8. Feedback on our ReSET seminar

What have you learnt from the ReSET seminar

about teaching? What inspired you (and what

did not)?

Have you used methods or curricula from the

school in your own teaching? What were the

results (good and bad)? Other comments on the ReSET seminars and

suggestions for the improvement of future

seminars.


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Process of review and feedback

Participants will get feedback on the drafts of theirportfolios during future contact-sessions:

Feedback by resource faculty/program

directors.

Feedback by fellow participants in groups.


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Final comments on teaching portfolios

Construct your OWN portfolio according toyour own ideas and thoughts. (No requirement

to follow the outline above rigidly).

Language: English (perhaps Russian).

First draft should be written in the coming

intersession period (ready for the Springsession).

Length: Anything from 3 pages and up.


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ReSET seminars teaching philosophy

Two aims sum up OUR philosophy of teaching:

Encouraging critical thinking and debate in

class.

Encouraging student activity in the teaching

process.


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Activating students

A student can be active in a purely internalsense (by thinking and concentrating).

But, the relevant sense of activation here is

that of external, observable activity by the

student.

Thus, a student is active in the relevant senseby speaking or writing.


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Techniques for activating students

Activating in the classroom:

Discussion of cases, examples in the lecture

Group assignments during the class

Students make small presentations withopposition

Asking direct questions to the class (whileavoiding intimidation, perhaps by mentioningthat there is no final answer to the question)


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Activating in the classroom:

Structured debate (where students are

encouraged to defend their opinions).

Short discussions two-and-two (of clearly

specified questions) during class.

Playing games in class (assigning different

roles to students).

Tests in class.


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Activating outside the classroom:

Long-term group-assignments.

Field-studies.

Written assignments.

Experiments/lab-work

Working questions for the readings.

Electronic discussion-groups.


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Non-activating teaching methods:

Classical lecturing (without discussion andquestions).

Student presentations.

Guest-lectures.

Using audio/video in class.

Reading at home (without working-questionsor assignments).


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Adopting a problem-oriented approach to thetopics taught can help to activate thestudents.

Instead of focusing on theoreticians (whatthis or that authority said) and the theories,focus on a problem.

Then introduce the theories as theirdistinctions and arguments become relevantfor solving the problem.

Problem-orientation encourages the students

to think actively and participate in the debate.


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Arguments for activating students

Discussion point:

Do YOU use activating teaching in any of

these ways?

Why?/Why not?

By why is it important to activate student inteaching?


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Students remember what they do, not whatthey hear or see. More precisely, we

remember:

..5 % of what we see

.10 % of what we hear

.90 % of what we do

William James: Learning by doing


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In participating, students acquire importantskills:

an ability to formulate views and to discuss

in public (social debating skills).

general abilities to cooperate (via more

interaction between students).

these skills are important in any modern

work-environment.


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1) Activating the student in teaching tends toencourage the student to.

reflect on and be critical of what is beingtaught (to think for him- or herself).

see him or herself as a future researcher.

climb higher on Blooms ladder of learning

(see next slide).


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Blooms taxonomy of learning

1. Factual knowledge (by heart, superficial).

2. Understanding (basic understanding of the theory).

Transferring/extrapolation (ability to use thetheory in new contexts).

Analysis (ability to analyze the theory andarguments).

Synthesis (ability to synthesize into largerwholes).

Evaluation (ability to criticize, suggest courses ofaction).


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1) Activating the student in teaching promotes

a deep approach to teaching

as opposed to

superficial approach to teaching

(Entwistle, 1992)


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Deep teaching-approach causes students to:

Focus on understanding

Actively engage the subject-matter

Attempt to relate new ideas to existing

knowledge


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Deep teaching-approach causes students to:

Relate concepts to experience

Critically evaluate conclusions relative to the

premises

Evaluate the logic of arguments critically


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Superficial teaching-approach causes students to:

Focus exclusively on exam-requirements

Experience tasks as external demands

Fail to focus on overall purpose of teaching


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Superficial teaching-approach causes students to:

Focus on elements without integrating them

Not to attempt to go from specific examples

to general principles

Memorize for exams rather than understand


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Using activating techniques can help to varyteaching to fight boredom among students.

By using different techniques, one canengage different types of students (since

students learn in different ways).


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7) One can typically get more students involvedin the teaching (as opposed to the 5 most

active students that are always involved

anyway).


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Limitations and problems of activation

1) Whether activating teaching works, or isfeasible, at all depends heavily on size ofclass.

and on the character of the material.

Requires hard work from the teacher (more

thinking on the spot and more preparation).

Affects the teacher-student relationshiptowards a more symmetrical relation.


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Limitations and problems of activation

Students may come to lack the leadership and paradigm or role-model that a teacher

provides in classical class teaching.

The best students may not need activation

they typically do it on their own.

The students may not be mature enough foractive participation.

Documents

L. Binderup, Teaching Portfolios