Notes from the Back of the Room
These are a series of teaching tips based on observations of
teaching as well as the literature on teaching.
3 Person Teach
The “3-Person Teach” is a technique designed to promote interaction,
reveal misunderstandings and promote reflection. The technique is
conducted as follows. The teacher (person 1) explains a principle or
concept (e.g. the mechanism of action of drug x) and then asks
students to pair up (persons 2 and 3). Each student in the pair then
takes a turn at explaining the principle or concept to each other.
This should take no more than 3-4 minutes. The teacher can walk
around among the students during this exercise and listen for
misunderstandings or confusion. Students often find they don’t
understand something as well as they thought by doing this exercise.
The teacher then provides the opportunity for students to ask
him/her questions.
Teaching to the Whole Class
With the technology console located to one side of the room it is
easy for us to fall into the trap of focusing our attention only on
the students on that same side. Sometimes this happens because we
are using PowerPoint slides and it is just easier to stay at the
console to change them. One way to deal with this is to use the
remote mouse provided with each console. This allows you to
periodically move to the other side of the room. Using the remote
mouse also allows you to move out among the students and to the back
of the room. Moving around the room can increase interaction with
the students, especially if you are asking questions. The remote
mouse is easy to use with a little practice. If you are unfamiliar
with the remote mouse, the key is to practice prior to your teaching
session. Dennis Baker (644-2564) or Andy Zimmerman (644-4543) in the
Office of Medical Education will be happy to help you at any time.
Another tool that can help you move around the classroom is the
lapel microphone. A hard wired microphone is located on the console
and a wireless lapel microphone is there which can be placed on your
belt or in your pocket to permit you to move around. It is very
important to do a sound check when using the lapel microphone. Be
sure it is turned on and then ask your audience if sound is coming
through the speakers in the ceiling. Also ask if the sound is clear
without static. If the sound is of poor quality or if there is
static coming through the speakers, the batteries for the microphone
may be low.
Hint: It may be advisable not to wear the wireless microphone
outside the classroom as you may forget to turn it off and what you
say or "do" may be made public. Theoretically you could be outside
the room talking with students or faculty between classes with your
microphone "on" and everyone in the classroom could hear you loud
and clear. I am not sure if the range extends to the restrooms but
it probably is best if we don't find out.
Using "Wait-Time" To Make Questions More Effective
The use of questions is a primary way we interact with learners in
both large and small groups. The skillful use of questions not only
increases the number of students who participate but also increases
their level of thinking. Frequently, teachers ask questions but give
learners very little time to think and construct answers. This
results in teachers either repeating the question or answering their
own questions. A questioning strategy called "wait-time" has been
shown to give some amazing results. "Wait-time" is a 3 to 5 second
period of silence (silence by the teacher) after he/she asks a
question. Educational research has shown that allowing this 3 to 5
second period of silence can give the following results.
- The number of student responses increases.
- Students who respond infrequently, respond more frequently.
- The length of student responses increases.
- The depth of student responses increases.
- Students respond with more confidence
- Student-to-student interactions increase.
Well, you may be asking, "If this is so simple and the results so
good, why don't more teachers do it?" Answer: Some don't know about
it and for those who do, they find it isn't so easy. Teachers seem
to have this tendency to fill any silent space in the classroom with
some sort of verbalization or with non-verbal cues that communicate
that an answer is expected almost immediately. Using wait-time takes
a practiced and concentrated effort. One strategy is to ask a
question and then not make eye contact with the class such as
looking down or making momentary eye contact with a teaching visual
(PowerPoint slide) while at the same time saying silently to
yourself, "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi."
This strategy for being silent may sound a little silly but I know
one person for whom this worked well.
Mary Budd Rowe, Ph.D., was a well known science educator who
conceptualized and conducted the original research on wait-time. Dr.
Rowe taught science education at several well known universities
including Stanford University, Columbia, and the University of
Florida. She passed away in 1997. To read more about wait-time go to
http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/1884.shtml.
The title of one of Dr. Rowe's articles was, "Wait Time: Slowing
Down May Be a Way of Speeding Up." This title speaks to the power of
the strategy.
I didn't hear that.
It is sometimes difficult to hear the questions
and comments made by students during our classes because of air
conditioning noise, room layout, etc. Instructors can help with
this by using the wireless microphone and repeating students'
comments and questions. This low tech solution is easy to do but it
is hard to remember and probably feels a little uncomfortable until
it has become a habit. This is something you might also want to
remind guest speakers to do.
Getting off to a Good Start
Sometimes we feel there is so much information
to teach that we need to just get into the delivery of the content
as soon as a class session starts. However, some learners benefit
from being given a context for how the class will go and what they
are responsible for learning. One method for doing this is to take
about 3-4 minutes at the beginning to give an overview of the
session and to state the learning objectives (a.k.a. behavioral
objectives, aims, outcomes, etc.) students will accomplish as a
result of participating in the session. If you are going to teach
via a PowerPoint presentation, the overview and the objectives can
be your first couple of slides. The overview can be a bulleted list
of the topics for the session and the learning objectives shown on
the next slide might look like these.
1. Define and compare the terms, inferential
statistics and descriptive statistics.
2. Given examples of inferential statistics and
descriptive statistics in a medical journal article, correctly
identify them.
At the end of the class you could show the
objectives again to serve two purposes:
1. Summarize what was to be learned and
2. Give students opportunity to self-assess relative to the learning
objectives.
Using the Remote Mouse
There are two keys to successfully using the
remote mouse in our classrooms. Key 1 is to become familiar
with what each part of the mouse does. For example there is a left
click, right click, etc. Key 2 is to practice with the mouse
before giving a live presentation. If you used the
remote mouse as it lays on the desk beside the monitor it will work
just like the regular mouse. But the trouble can start when
you pick it up!!! When you pick it up your index finger will
naturally rest on a "trigger" on the front underneath side of the
mouse. Squeezing this "trigger" will usually cause a message box to
appear on the screen when you are using PowerPoint and then the
trouble starts for you. Don't squeeze the "trigger"!!
Change the slides in PowerPoint by rolling the wheel on top of the
mouse forward. Most importantly, practice with the remote
mouse.
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