More from best teachers

Caring is crucial – people learn best when they care about answering or adopt a goal that they want to reach, if they don’t care then they won’t bother to reconcile or integrate new knowledge with old
Motivation – difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation – theory that people lose motivation if perceived that they are manipulated by external rewards, performance drops when subjects believe that others are trying to control them
Making exams comprehensive and multiple chances to demonstrate their comprehension, being able to learn from mistakes, first day of class invite students, show them the promise
Different types of learners – deep learners (seek mastery), bulimic learners (strategic, competitive, grade oriented – help by stressing the beauty or intrigue of the topics), surface learners (performance avoiders, fear failure – help them build confidence and motivation while challenging)
Four broad developmental levels (1) received knowers (need the “right answers,” truth is external) (2) subjective knowers (the experts disagree, knowledge a matter of opinion) (3) procedural knowers (understand criteria and standards of academia) (4) commitment (know their thinking and learn to correct it – two types (a) separate knowers (objective, skeptical) (b) connected knowers (deliberately biased themselves in favor of what they are examining) We move back and forth between these levels, teach to the diversity but expect the highest level of development
--Preparing to teach – 4 main questions (1) What should my students be able to do intellectually, physically, or emotionally as a result of their learning (2) How can I best help and encourage then to develop these abilities and the habits of heart and mind to use them (3) How can my students and I best understand the nature, quality and progress of their learning? (4) And how can I evaluate my efforts to foster that learning?
--12 planning questions (1) Getting to the big questions – plan backwards, expect certain results that fulfill the excitement and intellectual promises (2) reasoning abilities to develop – more than rote memorization, reason toward answers (3) what mental models are students coming with – challenge assumptions (4) what information is needed – needed for learning (5) helping with difficulties of understanding – deep learning needs explanations, questions, stories, awareness of the emotional conflicts (6) confront with conflicting problems – conflicting claims of the truth, view past truths with new info, find shifts in history of discipline, ask students to develop hypothesis (7) difference in expectations (students vs. teacher) – survey student interests, take charge of own education while setting the agenda (8) learning to learn (9) how to see how students are learning before assessing them, opportunity to struggle with their thoughts and get feedback (10) communication with students to keep them thinking (11) spelling out standards, learn to self assess critical to the whole process (12) how to assess the quality of learning (13) safe learning environment
--central question (example) How does society influence individual human behavior and is that influence greater than the personal and biological forces within each person? – to think sociologically, tone of invitation and positive expectations (you will be….)
--keep people from thinking that someone else might be viewing them through the lens of negative stereotype, stereo vulnerability, expect more from students

Summary: understand the value of emotional engagement, how people learn different and think about learning differently, mental preparation for teaching-learning

what the best college teachers do

It has been hard to keep up with this blog but here a stab at it.
major conclusions of the book - 1) outstanding teachers know their subjects well - basically, they have something to teach and can articulate fundamental principles and have, at least, an intuitive understanding of human learning.
2) What do you ask yourself when you prepare to teach - more than the mundane (how many students, what to include, what kinds of tests) but questions about student outcomes rather than what the teacher will do
3) Expect more of their students - not piling on but kind of thinking and acting expected for life
4) varied methods - but it's all about a "natural critical learning environment" intriguing, beautiful, important problems, authentic tasks, a sense of control over their own education, belief that their work will be considered fairly and honestly, be able to receive feedback in advance and separate from any sumartive judgement of their efforts
5) a strong trust in students, believe that students want to learn, supply own intellectual journey and challenges and enthusiasm
6) teachers monitor their own efforts and use of assessment (trying to avoid arbitrary standards, but primary learning objectives)
3 points about these individuals - outstanding teachers still come up short (and they do struggle), don't blame students for their difficulties, generally have a strong commitment to academic community (see their efforts as part of larger educational enterprise)

Details - knowledge of discipline -helps to have a keen sense of history of discipline including controversies and how this challenges our comprehension today
basic understandings of how people learn - 1) knowledge is constructed, not received, changes how we think about memory, no longer separate learning the material from thinking about it, we use existing constructs to understand new input, need to stimulate construction not transmit knowledge, higher-order concepts of disciplines often run counter to models of reality that everyday experiences has encouraged us to construct, help build new mental models
2) Mental models change slowly - to go from surface to deep learning (a) face a situation where mental model doesn't work (b) care enough to stop and grapple with the issue at hand (c) be able to handle the emotional trauma that sometimes accompanies challenges to longstanding beliefs.
need to create expectation failure - model leads to faulty expectations, need safe space, need to understand present models and the emotional baggage that comes with them - do not separate learning the facts from thinking about them, must be done in concert

Summary: understanding and balancing product and process in teaching and learning, high standards, core goals and multiples paths to these goals

Oct.

I am really enjoying the book "What the Best College Teachers Do" and hope to post some notes about it to this space soon. For now let me add three things to my to-read list:
How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom
The Big Book of Leadership Games
The Dummies Book of Drawing

I'll explain the reasons for these as I get to them.