Day 2: Approaches to learning, levels of thinking about teaching
All the course material used during the second day is found here: the slides and the assignments along with the instructions. The submission boxes for your second assignment (reading, teaching observation, group work and reflection) are here as well.
The posters you made in your groups follow after the assignment.
For those who did not attend, the makeup assignment to compensate for the missed class is at the bottom of the page.
- FileSlides for Day 2 FilePDF document
The slides for day two sum up and extend your first reading assignment. The themes are approaches to learning and levels of thinking about teaching.
- FileSlides for Day 2: Administrative duties FilePDF document
These slides inform you about your administrative duties as a teaching assistant.
Assignments for the next session
- Reading assignment
- Teaching observation and reflection
- Group reflection
- Reading assignment
Instructions:
Read chapter 5, "How do I teach?", pp. 39–49 from Hemminki, M. Leppänen, M. & Valovirta T. 2013. Get inspired! A guide for successful teaching.
Read the text so that you can discuss it with your peers both in your small group as well as in class. The title of the box and the title of the book are both links to the e-book. You can download a pdf file of the pages you want.
- Make a submission
Instructions:
- Visit an exercise class where you act as an observer. If possible, visit a class of your group members or your course mates.
- Focus on interaction and students. Especially observe students and note down at least the following: What do the students do? How does the teacher motivate them through different kind of interaction? Add reflections and insights of your own. You may give feedback to the teacher. If you do, be specific, be positive, and give constructive feedback.
- Use the feedback form for this; it appears below this text after clicking on the title of this box. The form has generic instructions on points to pay attention to when observing a teaching session. You may follow these instructions to expand your observation, but remember that your task this time is to focus on student activity and how the teacher motivates the students. If you give feedback to your peer/the teacher, ask them first if they want the feedback; you may also elaborate on your feedback verbally with them. Submit your feedback to this submission box with the name of the observed peer/teacher removed. This feedback is visible only to the course teachers.
Instructions:
- Arrange a meeting with your small group
- In the meeting, discuss the article and plan your teaching observation or discuss your observed session, as the case may be.
- Submit your notes and reflections (one per group) to this submission forum: Group work (discussion area): What did you discuss? What did you observe? What did you think about the article? etc.
- Remember to write your names on your group post.
- Your posts to this discussion area are visible to the teachers and the course participants.
- Arrange a meeting with your small group
For those who could not join the contact session 2:
Read the slides for day 2 and write your thoughts on the two following topics:
- The duties and responsibilities of a teaching assistant. (Write ½–1 page on this topic).
- With reference to the three levels of thinking about teaching, how can different teachers affect how students learn (surface or deep approach to learning)? Do you see any problems if a student uses only the surface approach or only the deep aproach to study in all of their courses? How can students cope with learning subjects in the given amount of time? Address all of the questions in this topic. (Write 1–2 pages on this topic)
The topics are discussed in the first reading assignment as well. Your text should not exceed three pages in all.