EPFR 515- Summer 2007

EPFR 515 Summer 2007 is...HOT...or heated ? :-)

I had this summer two sections one with two meetings/week for 6 weeks, and a second section with four days/week for 4 weeks.

In the beginning I was concerned for the 4 weeks section, that they will have trouble completing all assignments in such a short time, but it was exactly the reverse!

I told students in each section that if this is their first graduate class, if they are not used to work hard, or if they expect an easy class then 515 is NOT what they want to take this summer. As a consequence 9 students decided to drop the first section and one student from the second section (they did the right choice for them at this point). In the regular semester time they will have 15 weeks to complete the same course.

Many of them came to class with a set schema about WHAT college teaching should be like, and how much work should be done in a summer class. It seems to me that many did not believe when I told them that they will have the exact same course as in a regular semester time, just that they will do it twice as fast (not one meeting/week but two meetings). Many fell victim of planning fallacy, and ended up being extremely frustrated that they had to complete a comprehensive exam with literature review in... half of time (?). They of course knew about the assignment from first day of class. I had all necessary documents on Blackboard, and they had two computer literacy training sessions where they learned about how to create and use a blog, and how to search literature using the Lovejoy Library web. Last semester (regular semester) my former students did not have any of these training sessions, they had to just follow my handouts.

Interestingly, students in the section with more time struggled more than the students in the shortest section. Those who complete in four weeks are working very hard, they are extremely focused on what they do, it is an amazing group! The 4-weeks group has three nurses, and they spice up the classroom discussion with many questions related to neuroscience and diseases related to human cognition. I shared with them information I learned as a Psychology major, and information I learned because I was interested in (just like them now). This group is very dynamic, inquisitive, hard working. It is a pleasure to go to classes :-)

I know I break many schema (stereotypes) about college teaching. I have all lectures as power point on Blackboard, and I teach using power point, but I also teach mostly by individualized teaching in their small group discussions, and by responding their questions, and explaining concepts at the blackboard in class, when they need more understanding. I know there are some among them who think "She is not teaching!" But what is really teaching? Just information delivery through a teacher's lecture?

I really hope not! I really hope they change their perspective about TEACHING. Since all I do is teaching with a purpose, to bring in many different ways of teaching and to show them that they will learn from ALL: lecture, small group discussions, Blackboard discussions, reading and reflecting on research articles, thinking about how a topic would have teaching application, developing a literature review, and reflecting on larger topics, and last but not the least, to learn how to use technology in teaching and learning new skills (yes, this is the blog).
Some think it is too much, since they hold a set schema about college teaching, some don't realize that ALL I do in class IS teaching, and they ARE learning.

Each semester I have some students who just love this style and e-mail me that I have changed their life; and I have some who will hate me till they can remember (using episodic memory) that this was the most difficult class they took in college. But I am glad if they will even remember, is better to be remembered as "the most difficult course" than to be ignored and forgotten. As for the course... I will not dumb down my requirements just because a couple of students find it too hard and a "very difficult" class.

At least they won't forget it (ignore it), and if they will also remember Allan Baddeley's model, that is SUPER! :-)

Semester end....

End of semester is here sooner than expected.... and I completely neglected this blog, being concentrated on Blackboard and in reading my students' assignments on their blogs.
This semester I have spend many hours on reading Blackboard postings, responding e-mails, posting comments, giving feedback.

Each group is unique, even if I teach using the same text book as last year, there are many new assignments, new style, new ways of making the content more appealing.

I will teach summer classes and then I will have a well deserved vacation in July (did not have one since 2003!).

I am very excited to teach EPFR 515 Online in this coming Fall 2007.

My handout explaining all class assignments for EPFR 515 reached now 13 pages, and has an Appendix with rubrics, along with a 6 page Syllabus (see a general draft of what I use for this course on my web at SIUE- look under Current Courses).
I think I am ready for Online courses.

I think I get better at teaching since more and more of my students have higher performance in my class (or might be I am lucky to get better students :-)).

Spring 2007

Fall 2006 Congratulations!

Fall Semester 2006 is over.
I learned new ideas to improve my EPFR 515 course.

I will keep the blog, there were just a couple who had a hard time, but in the end everyone managed. All three sections gave me positive feedback on the benefit of knowing how to develop and post on a blog. The new generation of students that my students will teach have knowledge about blog, MySpace, text messaging, blackberry, etc. Even if they spend some time figuring it out it is really worth it to know. And I have step-by-step instructions on how to set up and post on blog.

I will add one more assignment and make a Midterm. Too many left the work to the end and then complained that it was too little time. Even if everyone knew about their topic from first week of school, procrastinators will end up by having work done in the last minute. Midterm will prevent procrastinators.

I will do some shift and change and will improve the course.
It will be fun to see them learn!

Schema and Script

Schema is a generalized knowledge about a situation or event. We form a schema about almost everything that has a certain pattern, or can be thought of as an abstraction with defined characteristics. In a schema we use mostly top-down processing. We use schemas to predict what will happen in a new situation. Every Fall you wonder which one of your students is the best. You have a previously formed schema about how a "best student" should be, should behave, should look like. We use these general patterns of knowledge, or heuristics, to relate to our environment and share our knowledge with others. We remember the new information based on our previous schema. The more consistent is the new information with the preexisting schema the better is remembered. When the material to be remembered is schema inconsistent, in order to be better remembered that new information has to develop a vivid memory that interrupts the existent schema (e.g., your best student one year had pink died hair, tatoos, and piercings. It is likely that you will remember very vivid that one.).

When we process new perceptual information (which happens to be a partial image of an object) and are asked to make a sketch of what we have seen we use top-down processing (which implies seeing the complete). For that reason our sketch will represent the entire information, that is because we expand the boundary in our perceptual processing. Now remember the falshbulb memory? We did a similar thing when instead of keeping a perfect memory in time, when we retrieve that "flashbulb" we add some new information to the existent one. In boundary extension we use the perception of our existent schema, and that is why we add information to the original one, by using Gestalt principles. We reconstruct the schema in the process of recall.

You have a personal schema that might be modified function of the environment you must perform. You behave in one way when at your work place, different when you are in the role of student, and different in your family, or with your friends. There is a cultural schema as well, and that depends on the information that is consistent with that culture. I might have told the story that I found it difficult to play the greeting game when I first came to the United States. "Hi, how are you doing?" "Good thanks, and how are you?" "Fine thanks..." means nothing more than "hello" and then the real conversation can start. In Romania if someone asks me "how are you?" the preson expects that I say something deeper than just a word game, then I will tell in a sentence about how I feel or what I do, or what I am up to, and the person will listen. So, my schema had to be accomodated to the new cultural meaning of greeting.

A script is a schema that has repetitive information, that usually repeats in time, as you would repeate more or less a recipe when you make a favorite dish. We have a script for most of our daily rutines.

Since we are born we develop scripts: about waking up and going to bed, eating at home or at a restaurant, dressing, playing, going to school, going to work, interacting with strangers and friends, etc. Scripts are one more easy and efficient way our brain adapts to this life.

One of my students posted this very nice description of how she teaches little ones about "coming in the morning to school," since this is such a wonderful description of a script I will post it here unmodified:


"For the first two weeks of school I had morning bus duty. I greeted the students as they got off the bus and directed them to where they needed to go. I can laugh now but at the time this was very frustrating. Everyday certain kindergarten students would ask, "Where do I go?", "Where is my class?". The script was simple-you come in and either follow the yellow line to breakfast or go down the steps and sit with your class on the gym floor (which is in the same place everyday)!You're teacher meets you in the gym and you follow her to class, where you unpack your backpack and hang it in your locker. Day after day this became routine for most, but for others it was new every morning. After the first week and a half, I finally noticed my stragglers pausing in the lobby trying to decide whether they were to walk down the steps or the hallway. At times I said nothing, just simply watched, other times I intervened with a question. By the end of the full two weeks, the script for school arrival was learned by everyone."