{"id":13859,"date":"2013-03-29t08:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-29t13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=13859"},"modified":"2013-03-29t11:44:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29t16:44:06","slug":"teaching-demonstrations-advice-and-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2013\/03\/teaching-demonstrations-advice-and-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"teaching demonstrations: advice and strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by adam wilsman, graduate teaching fellow<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">if you\u2019re on the academic job market, you may be hearing back from more schools each week as many start to make decisions about their open faculty positions.\u00a0 if you\u2019re among the lucky ones, you may even receive a campus invite or two.\u00a0 while this is a major accomplishment in this difficult job market, this exciting development can also be a nerve-wracking one. \u00a0your credentials and references have gotten you far in the hiring process, and the campus invite is your best (and likely last) opportunity to make your case!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">each institution organizes the campus visit differently.\u00a0 most have interview components where you meet the relevant department heads, various administrators, and other interested parties on campus.\u00a0 many require a \u201cjob talk\u201d where you present your research.\u00a0 some even require a \u201cteaching demonstration.\u201d\u00a0 of these common aspects to the campus visit, the teaching demonstration can be particularly intimidating because while most graduate students and young faculty members have seen a job talk and know what a good one looks like, not all academic departments on vanderbilt\u2019s campus and elsewhere require a teaching demo from job candidates.\u00a0 thus, the teaching demo is more of a mystery to many of us.\u00a0 so what makes a good teaching demonstration anyway?\u00a0 and how can you best approach the teaching demonstration to put yourself in a position to receive a job offer?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-family: inherit;\">preparing for the teaching demonstration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">the first thing you\u2019re going to want to do is gauge the specifics of the teaching demonstration.\u00a0 sometimes, the job committee will tell you all about who, what, and where you will be teaching.\u00a0 other times job committees will give you minimal information, leaving you to guess things like who you\u2019ll be teaching and what classroom resources will be available.\u00a0 knowing the specifics of the teaching context is very important for your preparation: presumably, you would not teach the same to a lecture hall of 400 than you would to a seminar of 10.\u00a0 thus, it\u2019s important to ask questions early on to find out how to best prepare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">here are some potential questions to ask your contact(s) on the job committee:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>who will be in the audience?<\/strong> only faculty?\u00a0 only students?\u00a0 both?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>what is your audience\u2019s level of expertise?<\/strong> are you dealing with graduate students?\u00a0 majors?\u00a0 non-majors?\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>tip: <\/em><\/strong><em>remember, this isn\u2019t a job talk where you\u2019re trying to demonstrate your expertise on a given topic or extrapolate on your innovative research. the teaching demo is an opportunity to show the job committee that you can communicate with novices and engage them in your discipline.\u00a0 that said, faculty members in the room may ask questions during your lesson and those questions may be more advanced than what you hear from the average undergraduate.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>are you being assigned a topic or are you free to teach what you like?<\/strong> in either case, how does what you\u2019re teaching fit into the broader course?\u00a0 for this, you may want to ask to see a course syllabus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>have students been assigned reading or given an assignment for that particular class day?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>tip: <\/em><\/strong><em>if readings have been assigned for the course, do not assume that all students have read them. you can certainly touch on those readings and ask questions about them, but if you base your entire lesson plan on discussion of the readings, you could run into problems trying to coax participation out of students who haven\u2019t done the reading and aren\u2019t particularly invested in making you look good. one possible alternative is to give students a short piece of writing, a poem, a photograph, or demonstration to discuss in class.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>what resources are available in the classroom?<\/strong> a blackboard? a whiteboard? \u00a0a computer and projection screen?\u00a0 does the classroom have wireless internet?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>once you know the answers to these questions, you can start lesson planning.\u00a0 when you begin, you should keep in mind that all the things that you\u2019ve previously learned about good teaching still apply.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">some general teaching tips to keep in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>be straightforward about your learning goals.\u00a0 at the beginning of class, identify some of the key themes of the day\u2019s lesson, perhaps writing them on the board or including them on a presentation slide.\u00a0 return to those themes throughout the lesson, and at the end of class, review those themes.\u00a0\u00a0 consider including a brief end-of-class assessment to gauge the degree to which students understood those learning goals.\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>why this matters:<\/em><\/strong><em> this isn\u2019t just good teaching technique.\u00a0 it also demonstrates to the job committee that you are organized and thoughtful as a teacher.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>use a variety of teaching methods.\u00a0 if you lecture the entire class, you may put your students to sleep, which is never desirable.\u00a0 get students involved.\u00a0 ask students questions and be patient when attempting to evoke class participation.\u00a0 this can be difficult when we\u2019re nervous, but after asking a question, silently count to five before jumping in and answering it yourself.\u00a0 some students simply need a moment to gather their thoughts.\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>why this matters:<\/em><\/strong> <em>job committees often want to see versatile teachers who can engage their students.\u00a0 if you notice your students\u2019 eyes are glazing over, there\u2019s a good chance the job committee will notice too.\u00a0 furthermore, sometimes job committees ask students to fill out evaluation forms, so the job committee members aren\u2019t the only people in the room that you need to impress.\u00a0 work hard to engage your students and underscore your dynamism as a teacher to faculty members and students alike!<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>allow time for student questions and\/or discussion during the teaching demonstration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>be mindful of your body language.\u00a0 make eye contact with students.\u00a0 be wary of any physical or oral tics that you might have when speaking in front of an audience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>while these general teaching tips certainly apply, there are also elements to the average teaching demonstration that might be quite distinct from your other teaching experiences.<\/p>\n<p>here are some common problems and how you might deal with them:<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.3;\">you have no rapport with the students and limited knowledge of their interests and backgrounds.<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\"> perhaps you will have a brief exchange with a student or students prior to the lesson, but in the vast majority of cases, you will not know anyone in the room except for a few faculty members and administrators.\u00a0 this rapport can be critical when trying to elicit class participation, so how do you deal with this issue? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">consider using name tags so that you can call on students by name.\u00a0 this can help facilitate a cooperative environment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">to mitigate the problem of not knowing what your students know about your teaching topic, consider including a brief assessment at the start of the lesson to gauge student knowledge.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong style=\"font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.3;\">there is no \u201cnext time!\u201d <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">we\u2019ve all seen it a million times: the absent-minded professor tries to fit too much material in too little time, scrambling to finish during the last moments of class.\u00a0 \u201cwe\u2019ll finish up next time!\u201d the professor often says.\u00a0 there is no next time for you, so plan accordingly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">have a backup plan!\u00a0 your computer isn\u2019t working with the classroom technology?\u00a0 be prepared to take the lesson to that old black board!\u00a0 your audience isn\u2019t participating?\u00a0 be prepared with an alternative activity or a different set of discussion questions!<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">if you\u2019re teaching a 60-minute class, be prepared to go 70 minutes.\u00a0 you almost certainly won\u2019t need that extra ten minutes of material, and don\u2019t make note of it to the class if you don\u2019t get to everything, but sometimes things go more quickly than we expect.\u00a0 you don\u2019t want to be caught at the front of the room with nothing left to say and ten minutes left on the clock.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong style=\"font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.3;\">you have sixty minutes and a repertoire of teaching techniques.\u00a0 how do you narrow down your choices for a lesson plan?! <\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">it can be hard to decide how to approach your lesson plan. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3;\">refer to your job letter!\u00a0 if the job committee operates like most search committees, you likely wrote and sent off your job letter months before your campus visit.\u00a0 now is the time to pull out that letter once again.\u00a0 what did you tell the job committee about your teaching?\u00a0 your teaching demo is your chance to show them what you could only describe in your job letter.\u00a0 if you described yourself as a strong discussion leader in your job letter, make sure that you dedicate much of your lesson plan to discussion.\u00a0 the contents of your job letter were impressive enough for the school to invite you to campus, so follow-through the best that you can.\u00a0 you do not want to leave campus and have the head of the job committee say, \u201cshe said she was a great discussion leader, but why didn\u2019t i see it?!\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">finally, <\/span><strong style=\"font-family: inherit;\">practice, practice, practice<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">.\u00a0 practice in front of your colleagues.\u00a0 practice in front of your friends.\u00a0 practice in front of your dog.\u00a0 by the time you arrive on campus, you should have a good sense of the flow of the lesson as well as how long it takes.\u00a0 it can be particularly valuable to practice in front of people who can mimic your audiences\u2019 level of expertise.\u00a0 if you\u2019re teaching to a group of freshmen, practice your lesson in front of a group of relative novices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>in the end, preparation is key for teaching in general, but teaching demos in particular.\u00a0 if you prepare well, mindful of this advice, you\u2019ll be putting yourself in an excellent position for a job offer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by adam wilsman, graduate teaching fellow if you\u2019re on the academic job market, you may be hearing back from more schools each week as many start to make decisions about their open faculty positions.\u00a0 if you\u2019re among the lucky ones, you may even receive a campus invite or two.\u00a0 while this is a major accomplishment&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":6280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[149,100],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wp0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2018\/07\/09154508\/13.32594.512.enghp1_.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13859"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}