Reciprocal teaching is a collaborative learning strategy that involves students taking turns as the teacher and leading discussions about the text or subject matter. This strategy can be used in various disciplines such as nursing, business, social work, and other fields where critical thinking and analysis are necessary. In a reciprocal teaching session, the instructor would typically divide students into small groups and provide them with a passage or article to read or a short video to watch. The group members take turns leading the discussion, taking on one of the four roles: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. (If predicting is a challenge, students might be assigned to illustrate the process or define significant terms.) In a nursing classroom, for example, students could read a case study or patient scenario, and each group member could take on a role in analyzing the information, such as summarizing the patient's condition, questioning the diagnosis, clarifying the treatment plan, and predicting the outcome. In a business classroom, students could read a case study about a company's financial performance and take on the roles of summarizing the company's financial statements, questioning the reasons for the company's success or failure, clarifying the economic factors that may have impacted the company, and predicting the company's future performance.
The instructor should consider several factors when using reciprocal teaching. Firstly, the instructor should ensure that the text or subject matter is appropriate for the students' level of understanding and knowledge. The instructor should also set clear expectations for each role and provide examples of how each role could be performed. Instructors should also encourage collaboration and active participation among group members. The instructor should monitor the group discussions to ensure that each student has a chance to participate and provide feedback to students on their performance. Overall, reciprocal teaching is an effective strategy for promoting collaboration, critical thinking, and analysis among students in a college classroom. By taking turns as the teacher, students can develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and improve their communication skills. For more information: https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/teachtechnique/reciprocalteaching/index.php
0 Comments
Philosophical chairs is a teaching strategy that is designed to encourage students to engage in critical thinking, discussion, and debate. It involves arranging chairs in a circle or semicircle, with one side representing a particular viewpoint or perspective, and the other side representing an opposing viewpoint. The students take turns sitting in the chairs and presenting their arguments, with the goal of persuading others to adopt their viewpoint.
To adapt Philosophical Chairs for an online class, the first step is to establish ground rules for respectful dialogue and debate. Next, choose a topic, divide the class into two groups and assign each group to a particular side of the issue. Provide preparation time for students to gather evidence and prepare arguments. You might let each group prepare for the discussion by putting them in break out rooms. During the discussion, have students take turns presenting their arguments and responding to each other, using breakout rooms for smaller group discussions. Finally, pull all the groups together, summarize the discussion and ask students to reflect on the activity and provide feedback for future discussions. The key is to provide a structured, safe, and respectful online space for dialogue and debate. The philosophical chairs strategy can be applied in various fields, including social work. For example, in a social work class, students could discuss the pros and cons of different social policies, such as those related to poverty reduction, mental health treatment, or child welfare. They could sit on one side of the chairs and present arguments in favor of a particular policy, while students on the other side of the chairs would present arguments against it. The teacher could facilitate the discussion and encourage students to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and engage in respectful debate. By using the philosophical chairs strategy, social work students can develop their critical thinking, communication, and advocacy skills. They can also gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of social issues and the various perspectives that shape social policy. Overall, this teaching strategy can help students become more effective advocates for social justice and positive change in their communities. NB: this post was done with the help of ChatGPT! Vocabulary is Important! At NorQuest College, we have a number of courses that require a great deal of vocabulary acquisition and understanding. Knowing certain terms and their nuances is especially important for new Canadians trying to adjust to cultural norms, for budding scientists who need to clarify and identify exactly what they see, and for health care providers who must have a common lexicon for anatomy and physiology. Many of our students have coped with difficult terms by memorizing exact textbook definitions anticipating that exact definitions will be required on unit tests and quizzes. However, while this strategy may help the students to achieve slightly better marks in the short term, it actually harms the student because their knowledge of many key concepts is superficial at best. Students need to be able to do more than just define a term; they need to know why the term is significant, how it connects to other concepts and what makes it different from other terms. When assessments ask students to use terms in the right contexts, to make comparisons and analysis, and to unpack understandings, students with only a rote knowledge of key terms struggle. One of the many vocabulary strategies I like to use, to help students better understand important terminology, is a graphic organizer known as the Frayer Model. What is a Frayer Model? The Frayer Model (Frayer, Frederick, and Klausmeier, 1969) is a vocabulary strategy that actually helps learners deepen their understanding of key concepts by asking them to consider a number of facets to the terms used. This “deep understanding” comes about when students are pushed to consider a word’s essential and non-essential attributes and to refine their understanding by choosing examples and non-examples of the concept. In order to understand completely what a concept is - one must also know what it is not. How to use it: The Frayer model can be used before teaching a unit as a diagnostic tool to assess prior knowledge, during the unit to consolidate understanding as a form of note taking and after the unit as an assessment of learning.
When using such a strategy with their students, teachers need to make sure that they start with only a few key terms or concepts. Instructors also have to resist filling out the organizers for the students and simply giving the completed charts to the students as study guides. This defeat the individualized experience and accountability of working through the terms. Over the years, practicing teachers have come up with many different variations on the Frayer Model. However, the original Frayer Model focused on helping students to narrow down the meaning for each term by seeing what it is and what it is not. I’ve included a couple of modified Frayer Models I have use to help clarify the difference between more traditional and more constructivist models for teaching. |
AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|