{"id":414,"date":"2010-04-23t06:30:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-23t06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vanderbilt.edu\/cft\/?p=414"},"modified":"2010-07-29t18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29t18:25:07","slug":"highlights-from-teaching-first-year-students-conversation-communicating-expectations-to-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2010\/04\/highlights-from-teaching-first-year-students-conversation-communicating-expectations-to-students\/","title":{"rendered":"highlights from \u201cteaching first-year students\u201d conversation \u2013 communicating expectations to students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" title=\"megaphone head man\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/99\/253074522_2dfcd2bf43_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"159\" \/>on april 1, the cft held a conversation on teaching titled  \u201c<strong>teaching  first-year students: cognitive challenges of the first year<\/strong>.\u201d \u00a0  about twenty-five faculty, staff, and graduate students participated in   the discussion.\u00a0 panelists at the session were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/provost\/areas\/christiansen.html\" target=\"_blank\">doug   christiansen<\/a> (dean of admissions), <a href=\"http:\/\/sitemason.vanderbilt.edu\/site\/fzni5y\" target=\"_blank\">susan kevra<\/a> (french, american studies), and adam list (chemistry).<\/p>\n<p>one of the questions posed during the discussion was the following: <strong>what are some ways to better communicate our expectations for learning to our students? <\/strong> below are answers suggested  by workshop panelists and  participants in  response to this question,  as summarized by  cft assistant director derek bruff.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>more than one participant highlighted the need  to <strong>address  the issue of expectations head-on with students<\/strong>.\u00a0 be very  clear what your expectations are for  their learning, acknowledge that  the students\u2019 expectations might be different  from your own, and  describe the ways your expectations might differ from  expectations for  learning in other courses taken by the students.\u00a0 this is an appropriate  conversation for the  first day of class, but it\u2019s one that might need  to be repeated throughout the  semester.<\/li>\n<li>during your class sessions, <strong>model for your  students  the kinds of thinking you expect them to demonstrate<\/strong> on exams  and  other assignments.\u00a0 make visible (or  audible, at least) to the  students your thought processes as you tackle  problems of the kind  they\u2019ll see on their exams.\u00a0 this can be challenging for experts in a   discipline, since some problem-solving steps become intuitive as one\u2019s   expertise increases.\u00a0 however, students  need to \u201csee\u201d the kinds of  thinking you expect of them if they are to know what  your goals are for  their learning.<\/li>\n<li><em>from  panelist adam list:<\/em> if your exams involve  challenging multiple-choice  questions, then <strong>ask students  similar questions during class using a classroom  response system  (\u201cclickers\u201d)<\/strong>.\u00a0 have the  students respond to the clicker  questions first on their own, then have them  discuss the questions in  pairs or small groups, then have them \u201cvote\u201d  again.\u00a0 students will get a  better idea  of the kinds of exam questions you\u2019ll be asking them,  while also learning  course material and providing you with feedback on  their level of  understanding.\u00a0 they receive feedback on  their own  learning, too, and are in a better position to answer the question  \u201chow  do i know what i don\u2019t know?\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>from  panelist adam list:<\/em> <strong>give students a  quiz during the first week of classes  titled \u201cthings you should know  from high school.\u201d<\/strong> students sometimes over-compartmentalize   their learning, and this kind of quiz serves as a pointed reminder that  they  are expected to retain and use knowledge gained in past courses.\u00a0  also, students doing very poorly on this quiz  are given an early  warning that they will likely encounter further difficulties  in the  course without some kind of remediation.<\/li>\n<li><em>from  panelist susan kevra:<\/em> <strong>have students  submit the notes they take during a  class session once<\/strong>,  perhaps soon after the first exam.\u00a0 evaluate the student notes and  return them to  the students in the next class session.\u00a0  have a  conversation about good note-taking featuring an example or two  of good  note-taking.\u00a0 this provides you  an opportunity to make more explicit  what kinds of things students should be  taking away from your lectures,  gives students models for note-taking processes  that will help them,  and provides you with some feedback on the clarity of your  lectures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>for more on teaching first-year students, see the cft&#8217;s <a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/teaching-guides\/interactions\/firstyears\/\">teaching guide on first-years<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>image: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/looking4poetry\/253074522\/\">megaphone head man<\/a>&#8221; by flickr user looking4poetry \/ creative commons licensed<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>on april 1, the cft held a conversation on teaching titled \u201cteaching first-year students: cognitive challenges of the first year.\u201d \u00a0 about twenty-five faculty, staff, and graduate students participated in the discussion.\u00a0 panelists at the session were doug christiansen (dean of admissions), susan kevra (french, american studies), and adam list (chemistry). one of the questions&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414"}],"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=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}