An integral part of any teacher professional growth process is in participating in teaching triangles or teaching squares. These professional triangles are squares formed with your colleagues are used as a foundation to do some collective reflection and facilitate the visiting of each other's classes, either online or in person. This kind of collaboration allows for informal exploration of teaching practices and provides a non-threatening way of securing feedback so we can improve our practices. If you have never participated in this kind of process before, here is how it is explained at Washington University in St. Louis:
Teaching Triangles is a semester-long, reciprocal classroom observation and reflection program geared towards helping faculty think through their teaching practices in a supportive, structured environment. In Teaching Triangles, faculty observe and are observed by two colleagues. Observations are meant to stimulate personal self-reflection on teaching practice (not meant to provide direct commentary on colleagues’ performances). Participants engage in non-judgmental, formative feedback and discussion throughout the semester with other members of their Triangle following the observations. The CTL forms triangles and provides a structure for observation and reflection. Each Teaching Triangle consists of three faculty members committed to working together on their teaching for the semester. Triangle participants will agree to visit each other’s courses at least once during the semester to observe their colleagues teach. This observation will not be evaluative; direct commentary on colleagues’ performance is not part of this process. Instead, colleagues will write down their observations of the class session, and, following the class, reflect on their own practice having experienced what it’s like to be in another faculty member’s classroom. Following the observation and the initial reflections, triangle colleagues will convene to discuss their teaching, using some guiding questions provided by the CTL. From: https://ctl.wustl.edu/programs/teaching-triangles/#:~:text=In%20Teaching%20Triangles%2C%20faculty%20observe,commentary%20on%20colleagues'%20performances). Bowdoin College also uses teaching triangles and suggests these questions as a conversation/reflection guide: What happens in a teaching triangle? Each teaching triangle consists of three faculty members. After an initial meeting early in the semester to discuss logistics and establish expectations, each triangle member commits to visiting the other members’ classes at least once. Following all the class visits, the triangle reconvenes to reflect on teaching utilizing some of the questions below.
From: https://www.bowdoin.edu/baldwin-center/pdf/teaching-triangles-overview.pdf As you can see, the emphasis is on reflection and exploration not evaluation or judgment. In our NorQuest professional growth process resources there are several documents that might help you to facilitate such discussions and help you gather your thoughts. If you are from a small department or would rather get feedback from someone other than your close colleagues, the Educational Developers are always available to come, visit and chat! Several years ago, we published a blog on how this is done at NorQuest. Here is the link: Arranging a visit with an Educational Developer.
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Polling Polling can be a valuable tool for instructors to engage with their students, assess student understanding, and tailor their teaching approach accordingly. It can be used both in online and in-person settings to gauge student interest, evaluate the effectiveness of lessons, prepare students for upcoming topics, and encourage active participation. Let's explore how a college instructor teaching an environmental studies course could utilize polling for these purposes:
Online Polls In an online setting, instructors can utilize polling features within video conferencing platforms or employ dedicated polling tools (like Mentimeter, Quizlet, Polly or Poll Everywhere). They can pose questions related to the course material and ask students to respond in real-time. The results can be shared with the class, enabling students to compare their answers and discuss the reasoning behind their choices in a chat or discussion forum. Snowball Polls
In a classroom setting, students can be polled by a simple raising of hands or thumbs up/thumbs down activity. However, if you need to preserve anonymity, you might think of using a snowball war poll. A snowball war poll activity is an interactive and engaging polling exercise that involves students or participants in a playful manner. It is typically used to gather opinions, preferences, or votes on a specific topic or set of options. The activity gets its name from the concept of a snowball fight, where participants throw snowballs at each other. In a snowball war poll activity, the process involves several steps:
The snowball war poll activity encourages active participation, stimulates discussion, and provides a sense of anonymity, allowing participants to express their opinions freely. It adds an element of surprise and unpredictability, as participants are not aware of whose response they have picked up until they share it. This activity can be particularly useful when exploring subjective topics, gathering diverse opinions, or encouraging collaborative learning and critical thinking. By incorporating polling into their teaching strategies, college instructors can gain valuable insights into student interests, comprehension levels, and opinions. This information allows them to adjust their teaching methods, create engaging lessons, and foster active participation among students, ultimately enhancing the learning experience in an environmental studies course. Exit slips ask the students to reflect upon what they have learned that day. At the end of the period, with perhaps five or so minutes to go before the bell, the instructor will hand out a slip of paper with just one or two simple questions on it. A typical exit slip looks like this: Some instructors use a 3-2-1 format, “Tell me 3 things you learned, 2 questions you still have and one suggestion for next steps…” Other instructors have used “entry slips” to gauge readiness.
The slips are meant to be a very informal and anonymous assessment of the lesson and can give valuable information on whether the students have caught what is being taught – or not! They provide an avenue for students who may be too shy to partake in classroom discussions to have some input into the way the course is delivered. Instructors who effectively use exit slips use them periodically (every day is too often) to inform and refine their practice. Typically, the instructor would review the slips before the next class, note some of the dominant sentiments and questions and then start the next lesson by first addressing what was raised on the exit slips from the day before. This process helps prevent the teacher from pushing on into difficult concepts that some students might not be ready for, or from plodding on with material that the students find to be too little of a challenge. Online the “slips” can be collected through private chats to the instructor, using the feedback option in Moodle or through applications like Mentimeter or other polling apps. Feedback
I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing long weekend. I spent mine doing a lot of yard work. It was great to get outside and away from this computer! The first thing we did was tear down our old garage. We had already made a new larger garage on the same property, so the old beast had to go! Saturday morning at 8, my nephew and his friend showed up with a very large trailer and, with the help of my son and son-in-law, they attacked the old structure. Within two hours, the old garage was gone. Four guys, a couple of power tools, several crowbars and sledge hammers and a structure that had lasted almost sixty years was reduced to a heap of rubble and on its way to the dump. The boys had a bit of motivation; they wanted to go dirt biking. The old garage was not going to interfere with that! The demolition made me think of one of the recent sessions I had given on feedback and on how easy and quick it is to tear something (or someone) down. I know the previous owner had spent quite some time building that old garage, and I know how long it took to build our new garage, but all it takes is a few motivated young men and some sledge hammers. It made me think of the many times that I had used my words like a sledgehammer when I was providing feedback to my students on their work. I could reduce their essays and their confidence to rubble with a few well-placed slams. It’s not something I’m proud of. When providing feedback to your students there’s a few things we should keep in mind:
As Dylan Wiliam and Paul Black proved over 20 years ago, timely and meaningful feedback is critical in raising student achievement. But there is a difference between feedback that encourages and feeds forward and feedback that can only tear down. (Black, P & Wiliam, D, 1998, Inside the Black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, School of Education, King's College, London, United Kingdom.) |
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
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