Improving Learning: Best Practices for Teaching in the Library

1. Improving Learning:  Best Practices for Teaching in the Library CARLI I-Share Instruction Forum Heartland Community College November 7, 2007 Beth S. Woodard

2. Definition of “Good Teaching” “Good teaching is the creating of those circumstances that lead to significant learning in others.” --Finkel, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut

3. Significant Learning • Thinking back over your whole life, what were the two or three most significant learning experiences you ever had? That is, list the moments (or events) in which you discovered something of lasting significance in your life

4. Questions to ask yourself: • Did it take place in a classroom? • Did it take place in a school? • Was a professional teacher instrumental in making the learning experience happen? • Was a teacher-like figure (e.g., coach, minister, school counselor, theater director) instrumental in making the learning experience happen? • If the answer to 3 or 4 is “yes,” then what did the teacher (or other person) actually do to help you learn? • In general, what factors were instrumental in bringing about the learning?

5. Creating Conducive Environments • Motivation or personal importance • Development of self-efficacy of the learner • How student feels about the learning • Brain-friendly environment • Sense of belonging • Support for achievement • Sense of empowerment • Tileston 10 Best Teaching Practices.

6. Natural Critical Learning Environment • 5 common elements: • Intriguing question or problem • Guidance in helping the students understand the significance of the question • Engages students in some higher-order intellectual activity: encouraging them to compare, apply, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize, but, never only to listen and remember. Often that means asking student to make and defend judgments and then providing them with some basis for making the decision. • Environment also helps students answer the question. • Leaves students with a question: “What’s the next question?” • Ken Bain

7. Address Different Learning Styles • Auditory • Visual • Kinesthetic

8. Auditory Preferences • Like to talk and enjoy activities in which they can talk to their peers or give their opinion • Encourage people to laugh • Are good storytellers • Usually like listening activities • Can memorize easily

9. Teaching to Auditory Learners • Use direct instruction, with guiding learning through application and practice • Employ peer tutoring, in which students help each other practice the learning • Use group discussions, brainstorming, & Socratic seminars. • Verbalize while learning, and encourage students to verbalize as well • Use cooperative learning activities that provide for student interaction.

10. Visual preferences • Watch speakers’ faces • Like to work puzzles • Notice small details • Like for the teacher to use visuals when talking • Like to use nonlinguistic organizers (frames, concept maps, mind maps, venn diagrams, fishbone)

11. Teaching to Visual Learners • Use visuals when teaching • Use visual organizers • Show students the patterns in learning • Use metaphors

12. Example of a Frame

13. Example of a Spider Map • Types of Contemporary Materials

14. Kinesthetic Learners • Need the opportunity to be mobile • Want to feel, smell, and taste everything • May want to touch their neighbor as well • Like to take things apart to see how they work

15. Teaching Kinesthetic Learners • Use a hands-on approach to learning • Provide opportunities to move • Use simulations when appropriate • Bring in music, art, and manipulatives • Break up lecture so that it is in manageable chunks • Use discovery learning when appropriate • Use discussion groups or cooperative learning so that student have an opportunity to move about and to talk with their peers.

16. Help Students Make Connections • “Teachers should not assume that transfer will automatically occur after students acquire a sufficient base of information. Significant and efficient transfer occurs only if we teach to achieve it.” • David Sousa. How the Brain Learns (1995)

17. Strategies for Connections • Association • Refer to previous lessons • Ask about personal experiences • Ask students to predict behaviors or events • Similarity • Critical attributes • Context and degree of original learning

18. Teaching for Long-Term Memory • Types of Memory • Semantic • Episodic • Procedural • Automatic • Emotional

19. Teaching for Long-Term Memory • Put information into manageable “chunks” 7 +/- 2 • Use questioning strategies • Use peer teaching • Use graphic and linguistic organizers • Use mnemonics, stories, and metaphors • Use visuals • Use motion, such as role plays, drama, choral readings, debates • Provide practice • Engage positive emotions

20. Using Higher-Level Thinking Processes • Help them create personal goals for learning. • Critical Thinking • Creative Thinking • Problem solving

21. Bloom’s Taxonomy • Knowledge • Comprehension • Application • Synthesis • Analysis • Evaluation

22. Tools that help students • Comparison • Classification • Induction • Deduction • Error analysis • Construction support • Abstracting or pattern building • Analyzing perspectives • Marzano 1992., R.J. A Different Kind of Classroom

23. Collaborative learning • Good teacher to student communication • Student to student communication

24. Bridging Gaps between Learners • Build self-efficacy • Eliminate bias • Linguistic • Stereotyping • Exclusion • Isolation • Selectivity

25. Using Authentic Assessments • What is it that we want students to know and to be able to do as a result of learning? • Examinations and assignments become a way to help students understand their progress in learning, and they also help evaluate teaching. • Evaluation and assessment stress learning rather than performance

26. Real-World Practice • Starter Knowledge • Relational Knowledge • Globalized Knowledge • Expert Knowledge

27. Selected Resources: • Association of College and Research Libraries. 2003. Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guidelinehttp://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/characteristics.htm • Bain, Ken. 2004. What Makes Great Teachers Great? The Chronicle Review, vol. 50, issue 31, p. B7. http://chronicle.com • Bain, Ken. 2004. What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. • Chickering, Arthur W. & Gamson, Zeld F.1987. Seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39, 3-7. • Donald, Janet. 1997. Improving the Environment for Learning: Academic Leaders Talk about What Works. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Finkel, Donald L. 1999. Teaching with Your Mouth Shut. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. • Livesey, Rachel C. in collaboration with Parker Palmer. The Courage to Teach: A Guide for Reflection and Renewal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Palmer, Parker. 1998. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Tileston, Donna Walker. 2005. 10 Best Teaching Practices Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.