GNE 330/530: Lifelong Learning
Fall 2016
This was the first semester that I ever taught GNE 330/530. It was my third semester as a Joachim Fellow. During my first year, I was told that I would be responsible to teach this course someday as the other Joachim Fellows had in the past.
As a student who took the course as an undergrad, I was familiar with what previous Joachim Fellows had done with the course. Their lessons promoted a lot of bonding and interaction. However, sometimes the content did not feel to be at the same level. They took a somewhat lighter and simpler approach to teaching the course than I had in some of the semesters that followed.
Being on both sides of the course and getting valuable (and sometimes harsh) feedback from the students that I taught certainly helped me grow as an instructor. There were times that I assigned way too much work for the 0.5 credit course load for the class. Over time and with many iterations, I was able to find balance in my assignments and in-class expectations.
Much of this occurred in the early semesters of teaching the course, primarily in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, and Fall 2019. With Fall 2016 being my first semester, I didn't want to approach it too heavily as I was just getting my feet wet.
However, to prepare myself for this opportunity, I enrolled in a teaching course at Syracuse University during the Spring 2016 semester. This was called "Teaching Fundamentals for Non-Majors" and it was the flagstone class that sparked my interest in teaching college students and collegiate STEM.
The topic of this semester's GNE 330/530 is my favorite topic to teach: Lifelong Learning. My first approach to this course was spurred from the perceived monotony of an engineering student's life: write this paper, do this lab, complete this report, fill out this spreadsheet, present in front of the class, type type type, rinse rinse and repeat. It felt as though that opportunity and space for creativity afforded in K-12 education vanished when the students stepped into the collegiate STEM classroom. With the demands of the engineering curriculum, homework assignments, examinations, and the like, there was little opportunity for the undergraduate engineering student to be creative, pursue hobbies, and explore passions.
This was the inspiration for the course project for this section of GNE 330/530, and it has been the course project for Lifelong Learning iterations ever since.
The project is simple. I still remember the first lesson I held for this particular class where I asked students over and over one question:
After posing this question, I mention to students that the base of their class project for Lifelong Learning is to "Now do it".
Essentially, students got to pick a hobby or skill or something else that they had always wanted to learn about and each week, they would work on learning the hobby or skill. Throughout the process, they would reflect on what they had learned as well as reflect on themselves as learners while incorporating class material. These reflections were generally recorded in Journal Entries (called a Learning to Learn Journal) on the Learning Management System (in this case, Blackboard).
This iteration of the course focused on three different facets of Lifelong Learning: Lifelong Learning on a personal level, a professional level, and a community level.
Repeating slide in Introductory Lesson for GNE 330/530 Fall 2016. The slide poses a single question to students: "What is one thing you have always wanted to learn to do that you've never gotten a chance to?"
Facets of Lifelong Learning
Personal
This facet discussed the importance of personal lifelong learning and granted students the opportunity to put it into practice. The introductory lesson discussed different means through which people could learn, whether it was with formal education at an institution, learning "organically" from another in an informal setting, or even self-learning. Tools and goal setting was covered as well to prepare students for their personal lifelong learning exploration.
Students started by initially examining what they knew about themselves as a learner and how they learned best. They then picked a hobby or skill that they would like to learn throughout the semester. They set goals and developed a strategy for themselves to achieve each week and reflected on their progress, their goals, and their learning in a weekly journal entry.
At the end of the semester, students shared their Learning to Learn project either through a presentation, video, demonstration, or end product (like a knit scarf). This allowed other students to view the journey of their peers throughout the lifelong learning process.
Professional
This facet discussed professional lifelong learning and how students can pursue development in their careers after graduation. The importance of lifelong learning to the engineering profession, in particular, was emphasized as well. It also covered resume and interviewing skills as this tends to be a staple topic in the Fall semesters to prepare for company visits.
There was one specific assignment related to professional lifelong learning concerning professional pen pals. At this time, we were preparing for students from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) in China to enroll in the collaborative program between BUCT and SUNY-ESF. As such, this assignment was to help students practice networking skills and foster new relationships with the incoming students by emailing each other every week about life and what they were learning. However, this was eventually scrapped during the semester due to low response rates from the students abroad.
An in-class activity involving the creation of aircraft promoted the importance of lifelong learning on an engineering level. Initial teams created paper airplanes to travel a certain distance with certain weight. If their airplanes failed, their test pilot perished. After each round, groups that succeeded combined and had to pool their knowledge to meet new constraints. This continued for three rounds in total. Students then reflected on how lifelong learning was important to this activity.
Additional materials and work discussed opportunities to pursue professional development like seminars, conferences, trainings, and additional company-sponsored degrees. It also covered resume and interviewing skills and required students to review and update their resumes in a way that incorporated their experiences with lifelong learning.
Community
This facet discussed how it is important to participate and give back to our communities for personal and professional lifelong learning and growth.
A community involvement assignment was given in which students participated in a volunteer event in the area and reflected on the importance of the event to the community. They also reflected on how the event promoted personal and professional growth and what they learned from participating in the event that could benefit their development.
Reflections on the Semester:
Things I Learned in My Pursuit of
Teaching Lifelong Learning
A Lesson About Hot Topics
This first semester of teaching GNE 330/530 had it's ups and downs as any semester of teaching would, but it also taught me some important lessons. The lesson that sticks out the most was a particular class session in which we discussed why lifelong learning was important to engineers. However, this lesson occurred in November of 2016, and if anyone reading this in the United States remembers, this was the month that a controversial Presidential Election occurred in the country.
Aiming to incorporate real-world events into the lessons my students were engaging in, I decided to discuss the election with the class. First, we covered various reasons why engineers needed to pursue continual lifelong learning practices, such as keeping up with new technology, new processes, and to advance into other positions. Then, we discussed impact, and how an individual has the ability to make a big impact on society. This portion of the lesson centered around the Election and the power of voting. On the surface level, this seems like a relevant pathway to connect class material with real-world events that my students could relate to, and how lifelong learning to keep yourself updated on the community is important.
However...
I was not in a proper emotional state to teach this lesson. As a graduate student and as a course facilitator, it is my responsibility to ensure I keep professionalism with my students in the classroom and with the professional relationships that I form with my students. Teaching this lesson was a good idea that was implemented at a bad time. Due to my emotional state from the election results as a marginalized citizen and a comment received from a student in class referencing "MAGA" or "Make America Great Again", my lesson quickly eroded in my frustrations. I remember losing my professionalism that day, which concluded in a red-faced Autumn openly cursing and flailing widely in front of her students.
It isn't something I'm proud of.
But I learned valuable lessons from that day that have prevented me from repeating this experience in future iterations of my course. The first lesson was to ensure that I was in a proper mental and emotional state to teach. It is my responsibility to help my students learn, and if I don't feel fit to do so, then I need to be transparent about that with my students and myself. In hindsight, I should not have held class that day. I should have postponed the lesson to give both myself and other students time to process this election. Instead, I tried to build it into a lesson before anyone was ready to hear it.
The second lesson was one of patience, inclusivity, and judgement. This took additional semesters of teaching this course, exposing myself to different societal climates and experiences, and learning about pedagogy to improve. When including real-world events - especially those directly impacting the social climate of your student body and those that are considered "hot" topics - you have to be prepared to have difficult, uncomfortable conversations. One must set ground rules within the area prior to engaging in these discussions. One must ensure there is space for learning from each other without putting anyone down. At the same time, it is vital to ensure that proper intervention occurs to promote discussion, understanding, and progress towards inclusive teaching and learning opportunities.
Through my training in workshops at Syracuse University involving the Transformation of Hot Moments into Learning Opportunities in the Fall of 2021, I learned about skills on an intrapersonal, interpersonal, and group level that can be utilized in the classroom to better handle and shift these hot moments towards learning. All are important for maintaining and promoting an inclusive learning environment.
Intrapersonal skills center on the experience of the individual student or person. One example of this is drawing out in which the leadership in the classroom encourages students to disrupt silence and support speaking about their thoughts and feelings concerning the situation. Sentence stems such as "I'd like each of you to share one word about xxx", "I'm interested in what others who have not yet spoken think about xxx", and "It sounds like you're trying to tell us something important. Can you help us hear that better?" can be used to draw students out of intellectual distancing to speak about and engage in the situation or discussion at hand.
Interpersonal skills focus on the interactions between two or more people. One example of this is modeling in which the leadership demonstrates behaviors that they want others to manifest by acting as the vehicle for learning or change themselves. Sentence stems such as "Let me show you one possibility and see what you think", "If this were me, I might address this by saying xxx", or "I get what you're saying, but I wonder what would happen if you said something like this..." can be utilized to exhibit how students can address a situation or consider a different perspective about a situation that is occurring in the classroom discussion.
Group skills are utilized to establish and reinforce group norms and expectations. One example of this is processing. This is a technique that is designed to elicit, examine, and reconstruct thinking, feeling, and experiences in relation to the process. Sentence stems such as "Let's start with your initial reaction and examine how that might have changed," "When xxx happened, I am interested in what was going on inside of each of you and what you are sensing about this experience right now", and "How might what just happened be connected to other things that we have discussed?" can be used to examine how students are thinking about a discussion or scenario and relate it to the experiences of those in the room and the content studied in the class.
If I were to revisit this scenario that occurred in my classroom, I would first ensure ground rules were set before this topic was even brought up to the students. I would also prepare students ahead of time by informing them that this was a subject we would be discussing in class today. When the comment occurred, I would most likely employ the processing skill or the draw out skill. When the student brought up the "MAGA" comment, I would have taken that comment and asked students "When your peer yelled out 'MAGA', what was going on inside each of you?" or asked students to "share one word about the 'MAGA' comment that was just made" to help promote discussion about the topic instead of an emotional reaction from my own self. In this way, students would have the opportunity to share their own experiences with each other and learn from each other.
Introductory slide utilized for the discussion on Individual Impact and its relationship to society and lifelong learning.
Review of Course Materials and Course Design
This section provides sample materials used in the GNE 330 course for Fall 2016. This section also includes comments from my review and reflection on the course materials and the course overall.
The Syllabus
In this stage of my instructional career, I had learned a bit about writing objectives and lesson plans, but not much about Instructional Design or congruence quite yet. My Syllabus for the course was heavily influenced by the Syllabi my Advisor and Mentor uses for his classes. A sample of the Syllabus can be found above. Throughout my tenure of teaching this course, I have maintained a similar Syllabus format. However, just upon reviewing this Syllabus and the information it contains, I have noticed many details about the course, how the course (and my approach) has changed since then, and what I would do to improve the course/Syllabus. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Syllabus. ~~Initial Observations~~ There are things that I notice right away with this Syllabus that could use improvement. 1) Office Hours for the Instructors should have been included, even if it is "By Appointment". This is a change I made in future Syllabi for the course. 2) There are also some issues with the formatting and finer details of the Syllabus. Overall, there are a few things to clean up with this Syllabus, such as the "[Type here]" left behind in the footer and some typos in other sections. I would also change the Bolded sections to Headers to make it more Screen-Reader Accessible (something I picked up on after a seminar in Accessibility from the Teaching and Learning Center in the Open Academy at SUNY-ESF). This is something I started to incorporate in my Syllabi in newer iterations of the course (see Spring 2022, for example). ~~Course Description~~ The Course Description is inviting. Including more information about the overall goal of the course or alluding to the project (as the course project is a staple of this topic) could be one way to strengthen this section. ~~ABET Outcomes~~ The Syllabus directly states how this course is related to one of the ABET Accreditation Outcomes mandated for the Paper and Bioprocess Engineering Curricula. This is important because it shows how the course contributes to the program and why it is necessary. ~~Student Learning Outcomes~~ The Student Learning Outcomes are constructed with action words that demonstrate at least some degree of measurability. However, my issue with these objectives is that they were written after the content and lessons were made. I have learned since then in recent semesters (Fall 2020 and onward) that using a Backwards Design Approach would call for the creation of learning objectives prior to content to ensure content is aligned to what it is students are expected to do to showcase their learning. This is an important detail because it brings me to one of the later sections of the Syllabus: the Assessments. While these learning objectives are related to content and measurable, not all of them were assessed for student learning. After reviewing the assignments given for the course, only two or three of the six total objectives were directly assessed. In hindsight, I could have included smaller means of assessment to measure student learning, such as Exit Tickets for in-class activities or by incorporating course material into their Journal Entries. I do feel that having Journal entries every week, while it encourages students to stay on task, may have been a bit too much or may have deterred the use of additional assessments to measure these objectives. This was one of my greatest struggles with this course: balancing the workload and class meetings. During the Spring 2022 semester, I finally found the perfect balance for content, class meetings, and workload. But as you will see in my reflections on other semesters of GNE 330, this balance was terribly skewed until I seriously incorporated student feedback, began using the 1:4 rule when making assessments, and changing the layout of the course to balance my own personal workload. ~~Course Assignments~~ I like that I included information about the assessments on the Syllabus. I think I should have used subheaders to better organize this information for the students, and it is something to consider if I use this route in the future. One of the reasons that I like this approach is because it requires me to be prepared with the assessments at the start of the semester. One of my weaknesses as my semesters of GNE 330 commenced was my physical preparedness; I would have the objectives, assessments, and materials sound in my mind, but there were times that these items were not physically prepared and ready for the students in a timely, scheduled fashion. This resulted in negative student feedback in later semesters of the course. It is something that I aim to improve with each iteration of the course and into my future career. This style of including detail about the assessments in the Syllabus itself is one measure that could be utilized to ensure materials are ready on time. However, I also feel that including this much detail about the assignments in the Syllabus makes the document long and difficult to sort through. This approach is more viable for a course of this credit size and workload (0.5 credits per semester). With larger courses that I aim to teach in the future (1-3 credit courses), this level of detail in the assessment descriptions would result in an overwhelmingly long Syllabus. In other semesters of this course, I have provided this information on a separate Project Sheet or in the posting of the assessment on the Learning Management System (Blackboard, in this case) instead. I believe that this style of presenting information – while including a list of assignments for the students on the syllabus either in its own section or in a schedule – is a better approach regarding organization of information. Overall, I think the assignments are well described in this section of the Syllabus. They give a good overview of what the assignment entails and either provides the questions to be answered or references additional materials for the students to reference. One change I would make to this section would be the listing of the due dates to show sensitivity to others’ ways of knowing. In many places, the day and then month is listed instead of the month and then day as is common in the United States. I would write these dates out with the month (September, October, etc.) to clear any confusion. I would also review my language used in the Community Involvement assignment to ensure it was socially and culturally correct (such as changing the use of terms like “homeless” and “less fortunate”). ~~Grading~~ This grading section highlights the benefit of including assignments in the Syllabus: the contribution of each assessment or participatory requirement can easily be laid out for students to understand. In later semesters, this section turned into a “split” in which certain tasks were included in Attendance and Participation and certain tasks were included in Individual Assessment, but the assessments themselves were not itemized with a point scale. Having this approach directly shows students from the beginning how their grade is calculated. However, this also limits the amount of flexibility available for assessments and grading. If students attend an extra credit seminar or another assessment is added, the entire grading pool needs adjustment on the Syllabus. Both methods have their merits and flaws, but overall a more prepared itemization of the grading is best for all. One item that is vague in this Syllabus but has been updated in future Syllabi is the final letter grade. There is a delineation in the college grading system between As, Bs, Cs, and Ds as well as their “steps”. This information should be presented in detail to students so they understand where they fall in the letter grade spectrum as this contributes to the calculation of their GPA. ~~General Class Policies~~ Many of these policy subheaders were directly adopted from the Syllabi my Advisor/Mentor uses in their courses, with minor modifications. Some of these present rather strict or inflexible precedents for the course, though they are designed to act as safeguards for the Instructor and warnings for the Student. One item I highlight for students each semester when we review the Syllabus are the Academic Integrity policies as students have cheated and plagiarized in the course before. These highlights become more apparent in later semesters as the problem became more commonplace. Overall this is simply a generic section of my Syllabus to provide information and resources for the student. Information pertaining to the resources is updated as needed for each iteration of the course. ~~Course Schedule~~ Initially, this class was designed for the Fall semesters to feature a large number of companies from the paper industry present to the class as sophomores, juniors, and seniors were in attendance. However, rarely were the companies presenting on course-related content. They would provide food for the students but would focus on their companies and the open positions they were interviewing for the next day. While this was a great opportunity to network, it was not relevant to the class. Given that half of the class were not interested in the paper industry, this became a waste of time to them. This also caused many class meetings to be consumed by company presentations, which was a deterrent for me to hold additional content-related sessions. While I feel that this allowed me to have a bit more balance in my content for the first semester of GNE 330 - especially compared to consecutive semesters in GNE 330 - I found myself actively campaigning to remove these sessions from the class due to their lack of relevance for many students. Recently, I have found a balance between these two sides of the course that have resulted in positive student feedback. In this newer structure, it allows companies to present about themselves and their positions but it also requires companies to answer questions that are directly related to the content and objectives of the class. This has allowed students to not only learn about the content (with supporting materials for information like definitions and concepts) but to see a direct connection between the content and the industry they will be pursuing upon graduation. More information about this can be found in the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 GNE 330 reflections. Other notes about this schedule section echo what was previously noted. One updated would be the modification in how the dates are presented. I would also add a column with the assignment due dates, which can be seen in future iterations of this course Syllabus. I would also make room changes more apparent here. There is one class that takes place in a different location, but the style of the presentation of class topics is not consistent to make this obvious. Given that current iterations of the course can also have online/webinar-style classes, having a format or theme that highlights the location of the class would be an improvement for this section of the Syllabus.
Sample Lesson Plan
This Lesson Plan was created for one of the last lessons in the course that semester. This Lesson Plan accompanies the Worksheet and Class Presentation samples provided as well. The style of this Lesson Plan was adopted from a course I took the semester prior: Teaching Fundamentals for Non-Majors at Syracuse University. This Lesson Plan format requires the instructor to think of many details, from the learning obejctives and a script of the lesson to the number of students and the classroom arrangement. Reflecting upon this Lesson Plan, I can see areas of strength and areas of improvement if I were to recreate this lesson with what I have learned about instruction. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Lesson Plan. It had been a while since I had used this style of Lesson Plan form, and there are aspects of it that I should adopt in my future work in teaching and instructional design. This type of Lesson Plan in which scripts are often provided are great tools when instruction is being designed by one person but implemented by someone else - especially if that person does not know the material very well. However, I have found in the past that including too much script into the Lesson Plan pressures me to stick to the script and falter if I do not follow it word-by-word. That leads me to start scanning the page I was on in the middle of a lesson trying to find my place in the script. In this version of the Lesson Plan, I do like how certain areas provide the information on the slides as the script instead of written dialogue as that feels more freely flowing than word-by-word quotes. If I were to write Lesson Plans in this format for myself in the future, I would adopt this style of direction that relies less on script and more on beats and flow of the presentation. If I were to make this for someone else, however, I might add in more script or detail for the person implementing the lesson to fall back on as reference. Another aspects of this Lesson Plan that I like is the organization of the lesson objectives. I think it was clever to organize the procedures and slides into how they are utilized to address the lesson objective. It makes it easier for the instructor to reference different slides and lesson objectives when helping students or evaluating materials at the end of the year. It also helps the instructor keep the lesson on track, and it is a useful way to observe which lesson objectives were covered in a class if the lesson is split between several class meetings. The procedure for this lesson - essentially the flow of the presentation with cues to ask students questions and write answers on the board - works well in tandem with the worksheet students are provided. It is clear the intent was to have students complete the worksheet as the lecture occurred, and submit the worksheet to be graded. This worksheet could be seen as a style of Advanced Organizer that helps students keep track of information during the lecture. It is interesting that I created this type of worksheet before I knew about Advanced Organizers as a tool and an Instructional Design Theory inspired by Cognitvism. It also seems as though this was designed to give students in-class time to think about the answers to some of these questions (or it should provide students with in-class time to work on if it did not already). I think one improvement of this Lesson Plan would be indicating the planned alloted time or time range for each lesson objective. This would help the instructor get a better feel for how long each section of the lesson and each activity should take. This would also ensure the instructor provides adequate time for the students to work on some of these more personal questions. The inclusion of the Evaluation of Students section in this Lesson Plan is very helpful. It gives the instructor an idea of what types of answers are expected from students to address each of the lesson objectives. This section also allows one to review and evaluate where strengths and weaknesses in the lesson objectives may be present. When looking at this section, I asked myself "How would an instructor know whether or not these methods are the best for the student or if they just selected these at random? How would they know the goals selected were genuine?". I feel that the addition of a reflective piece to these questions, such as "Why do you feel these methods would work for you?" or "Why are you setting this goal?" would provide a better reflection and more genuine response from students to enhance the depth of this activity. However... I took this idea to an extreme level in the following semester of teaching GNE 330 in which worksheets became very long written assignments that were no where near the expected level of course work/workload hours for a half credit course. This led to a lot of friction between students and myself in that semester. I can see why I initially made such a change though, as I aspired to have students reflect deeply instead of picking options seemingly at random. This is something that is important to consider in assessment design, which is something I learned about in my studies on instructional design. It is important to ensure the assessment and the tasks students are to complete align with the learning objective at hand, and that the work needed to complete these tasks is reasonable within the expectations of the class. Finding a balance between challenging students and not overworking them is difficult, and it took me many semesters before I managed to find that balance. I think if I were to resturcture this lesson, I would have the worksheet act more as a means of organization of information instead of an assignment to submit at the end of class. I would separate questions of knowledge acquistion (such as definitions and listing methods of pursuing lifelong learning) to place on the worksheet as a means to help students organize information. I would then have students focus more on the aspects of setting goals and objectives on the worksheet. The accompanying assessment, which students could have time to complete at the end of class or after class, would have students reference their worksheets for information about the methods of pursuing lifelong learning and goal/objective settting. Their assessment would be to select two methods in which they would want to pursue perofessional and personal devlepment and explain why they chose those methods. Or, to reduce load, they could select one method from each category as explaining would add to the learning labor. The second question would have students create a goal with objectives and targets, but would allow students to choose either a personal or a professional goal instead of both, and it would ask students why they picked this goal for the following semester. I feel this would allow students to reflect on the material and showcase their understanding (through listing accurate methods of pursuing lifelong learning that were covered in class and their understanding of the differences between goals, objectives, and targets by how they respond to the goal setting question. In this way, students can keep the worksheet that helped them organize the material while still having an opportunity to reflect on the material. I also like the inclusion of a Teacher Evaluation section in the Lesson Plan. The idea is to complete this reflection right after the lesson or within a day of the lesson occurring while everything is fresh in the instructor's mind. This helps the instructor evaluate their students' performance (with evidence showing that they learned), as well as on the instructor and the lesson itself. This is crucial for not only improving this lesson for the next time it is implemented, but it can also help the instructor adjust the next lesson in the sequence if needed. The instructor must show evidence of students learning, and if they cannot, then it could indicate that either an aspect of the lesson materials and delivery is inadequate, the design of the assessment and assessment questions is not well understood by the student (leading to confusing and odd responses from students to the questions on the assessment), or even the alignment of the assessment question to the lesson objective is poor. This is important information during the evaluation stage of the instructional design process that is needed to ensure lessons are improved upon each iteration to best meet the needs of the students participating in the activity. Overall, I would (and probably should) utilize this style of Lesson Plan form more often in my instructional design work, especially when the lesson is for others. Other tools, such as storyboarding, were recommended as techniques to help instructors implement lessons. While I believe they are useful for giving the instructor an idea of how the lesson flows as an individual and in a squence within a unit or activity, a Lesson Plan form such as this one might be more beneficial in actually delivering the lesson to the target audience.
Sample Worksheet
This sample Worksheet was created to accompany the Class Presentation sample about personal and professional lifelong learning. This was created long before I learned about Cognitivism and Advanced Organizers. It was inspired by one of the courses I took at Syracuse University in Applied Environmental Microbiology in which our Professor provided fillable note sheets for each lecture. However, this worksheet was also designed to be collected at the end of the lesson as a form of attendance, which I feel did not support this activity and lesson as well as it could have. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Worksheet. I like the organization of this worksheet. The questions are direct and easy to understand, and they flow well in order with the accompanying presentation. It could be used as a great way to help students organize the information they are learning in class and to pay attention to the material during the lecture. However, I feel that this would be better as an optional tool as opposed to a required sheet for students to submit for attendance. Sometimes, these types of worksheets lead to students simply listening for keywords and only "writing in the answers" to submit for a grade before drifting off to other thoughts or items in front of them. I know I have done that in the past for these types of worksheets. It also limits the ways in which students can take notes. When learning about VARK information preferences, I learned that notemaking (converting the notes taken in class to more appealing forms) varies between learners with different VARK preferences. Restricting students to a worksheet that they have to fill out during class prevents students from taking notes and/or converting notes in a form that they prefer and that benefits the knowledge transfer needed for their personal learning. Having this worksheet due at the end of class also prevents students from having a copy of the notes available to them right away to work with and review, especially considering this class met once every week or every other week. In hindsight, I think this would serve better as a tool for organization or as an assessment after class (with some tweaking of the questions) than something mandated to complete in class. Any individual question about goal setting might be something that could be used as a "check out" type of assessment for attendance as opposed to the whole worksheet.
Sample Class Presentation
This sample Class Presentation accompanies the Lesson Plan and Worksheet samples provided as well. This was one of the last lessons in the course this semester, and it discussed the difference between personal and professional lifelong learning, as well as setting goals and objectives for the future. Upon reflection, there are aspects of this presentation that I like and would like to (should have) used more often in my future presentations, and aspects that I think could use improvement. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Presentation. Initially, I liked the color scheme of the presentation. This selection of dark backgrounds with vibrant colored text instead of white backgrounds came from a video I had watched about making presentations more interesting for the audience. The speaker noted that white backgrounds tend to bore or drain audience members more than dark backgrounds, and thus I started using darker backgrounds in my presentations more often where I could/remembered to. However, I think using the background with the bubbles as shown in the presentation was a bit distracting. It is ideal to not have too much going on in the slides, and I don't believe the bubbles served any special purpose or had some sort of link to the material. One thing I would change would be to take those bubbles out. One thing I would not change, though, was the use of color in this presentation. Particularly, I like the use of color to show the definitions of the different concepts of lifelong learning (personal vs. professional), and how lifelong learning always had it's own color thorughout the presentation. Highlighting these key words and ideas in different colors can help direct student attention to these phrases and can also help when students reference the material in their studies as it is easier to find the definitions and phrases when in the same color. I think this is also something I should have done more in my presentations not just in class but in other areas of my life as well. However, that can be difficult when working with advisors, groups, or in professional settings that don't quite agree with the use of color distinction in a presentation or those that might find it unecessary or unprofessional. However, while reflecting on this presentation for the portfolio, I feel this is something I would like to utilize more moving forward when I am an instructor someday. If I pursue this, however, it would be beneficial to me to ensure the colors stand out enough, especially for students who may be colorblind. That is one area of improvement for this type of presentation.
Sample Grading Rubric
This sample Grading Rubric accompanies the sample of Student Work for a different, unrelated activity than the Lesson Plan, Presentation, and Worksheet. The assessment pertaining to this rurbirc was called "Myself as a Learner", which was a paper in which students reflected about themselves as a learner. Upon reflection, this is a good "starter" rubric for someone who was still inexperienced in teaching as I was at the time. However, there are some things I would keep and some things I would change if I were to rewrite this rubric in the future. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Rubric. The assignment attached to this rubric asked students to reflect upon what they knew about themselves as a learner, how they learned best, and which methods of learning didn't work for them. Additionally, students reflected on positive and negative learning experiences they had in the past and what made them positive or negative. Upon reflection, this would have been a great activity to incorporate into every semester of GNE 330/530 that I taught the Lifelong Learning topic. With the shift I took towards learning in general after courses for my Master of Science in Teaching and Curriculum about Learning Theory, I focused more on how learning occurs and teaching students about learning, as well as having them practice acquiring and applying knowledge. This would have been a great activity to have students participate in prior to learning about Learning Theory and Instructional Design Theory so they could connect their positive and negative learning experiences and their methods of learning that helped and did not help them with these reflections. There are essences of these reflections in the journal assignments in future semesters that ask students about which Learning Theory and Instructional Design Theory (referred to as Learning Strategies in the course) stood out to them and why, and how they would apply them to their learning for their course project and life in the future. However, perhaps an introductory activity like this would be better for activating prior knowledge. Regarding the rubric itself, I've noticed a major shift in the way I grade assessments now than I did in the past. This rubric shows a rather high regrad towards submitting the paper on time, the formatting of the paper, and the spelling and grammar of the paper. I feel, as well, that I took more time grading students on those aspects (especially spelling and grammar) than I should have allocated. This is especially important to me now as I've worked with students who do not speak English as a first language. I was ignorant earlier in my teaching career in my assumption that just because someone was here at an English speaking university or college that they fully understood all aspects of spelling and grammar of the English language. This is not always true, and grading students harshly on that aspect can deter them from participating in activities in class, writing genuinely about their thoughts and ideas, and can even urge students to copy and paste answers in "proper English" to avoid penatly. I have since removed spelling and grammar from the things I grade (though this might have taken some time based upon other rubrics in this reflection of my work in GNE 330/530). I do ask that students write in complete sentences, and I will offer to review spelling and grammar if the student would like, but I no longer penalize students if their English is not as strong as others. I also do not deduct as many points for late assignments or include that in rubrics that I have made as of late. I am an instructor that holds the persepctive of "I'd rather students turn in something late and really have a chance to interact with the material than rush to get it in on time and not remember anything because they crammed or rushed". I did have to work on setting boundaries for this, however, as some students would take this to mean anything turned in the last week of the semester would still be valid. This took some time for me to get to regarding adjusting my assignment submission requirements. With my training in instructional design that came several semesters afterwards, as well as my concept of assessments as measurements of performance towards learning objectives and how objectives can feed into each other thorughout a course, I started setting a limit of the assignment being due no later than the start of the next activity or unit. I would still keep normal deadlines for students who needed them in their schedule to keep them on track, however I would not penalize students on most assignments if they were a day or two late. Life happens, and I'd rather be flexible and work with the student than be harsh and give them negative learning experiences. Of course, this took time to learn, so other sections of my reflections on GNE 330/530 might not express that lesson and change right away. However, I think this is a very important aspect of helping support student learning. I still grade students on formatting. The guidelines are a bit more upfront instead of "well if the font was 10-12 and not 12, you get this". I simply state my requirements (usually word limits for reflection pieces, and formatting for final projects) and students generally follow the guidelines. I will deduct points if assignments don't hit the word limit, though. The limit is there to encourage students to reflect and engage in the material, and I try to make the word limit suit the assessment at hand. It did take some reflection and adjustment on how to judge what the "acceptable" length was. I am now at a place where I review the assessment and how I would answer the questions on a basic level (as I tend to overwrite), and use this basic level as a guideline. Organization is something I've stepped away from a bit as a rubric-worthy item, though it isn't absurd to have it in rubrics. Perhaps I should have it in future rubrics, especially those related to papers. However, because my rubrics have shifted more towards assessing the student's performance on the question or task at hand and the completeness of that performance, organziation has not become as vital as students tend to directly answer the questions asked of them. When there is some muddiness in the writing (which I understand, I am that way as well), I try to see which portions would apply to which task, and I'll give the student advice on how to improve their response for future assignments (usually "answer the question more directly, such as "____"). I feel this rubric and other assessments I have done in the past lack a "sample response" for the measurement of quality and "correctness" for the student's submission. This is something I emphasized in the Design Document I created for one of the semesters that I taught GNE 330/530, as well as in other assignments I have given students. However, it is also something I have fallen off from in recent years and something I should pick up on once more. Overall, this is a good starting rubric. I also like how things are spaced so that it is easy for me to circle which portions of the rubric students' work fell into. Utilizing the built in rubric feature on Blackboard moved me away from printable rubrics such as these and required that I type in my responses and measurements of grades in each section. However, this also saved me time in that I didn't have to save a rubric for every single student and attach it or send it to them for them to receive feedback. This would be the type of rubric I would include if someone else was implementing the course, though with better measures of student performance that more directly tied with the tasks asked of them.
Sample of Student Work
This sample of Student Work accompanies the Grading Rubric sample for the "Myself as a Learner" assignment. This response is an example of a submission in which the student received an "A" based upon the rubric and the information provided by the student. I also selected this sample as it was one of my favorite responses received from the students based upon the anologies and the reflections provided. Upon reflection of the student response, what was asked of them, and how it was graded, I feel there is room for improvement if I were to implement this assignment in the course once more. Click "Read More" for more information about my review and reflection informed by this Student Work. The assignment attached to this sample of Student Work asked students to reflect upon what they knew about themselves as a learner, how they learned best, and which methods of learning didn't work for them. Additionally, students reflected on positive and negative learning experiences they had in the past and what made them positive or negative. In this example of student work, the student addressed each of the questions. There is evidence that the student reflected upon what they knew about themselves as a learner (referring to themself as a chef and that they retain knowledge the best when they incorporate multiple senses). There is also evidence of the student reflecting upon what works for them with their learning (repetition, incorporating senses with reading, watching, then doing, and the slow bleed of reliance on their notes to practice the material) and what did not work for them (mistly, not being able to perform the sequence of tasks they needed regarding reading, watching, and doing) and the student related these concepts to real-life examples to show positive and negative learning experiences (such as the adjustments needed for their physical chemistry class). I do feel that if the rubric had assigned points more directly towards the responses to the questions, that this student would have answered the prompts more directly and less "skimming" would have been required. Here, you can also see my early habits of grading for spelling and grammar as well, which I am glad I have moved away from as in some cases, I changed the wording of the student's response which takes away their agency and voice in their writing. I enjoy providing feedback to the student (as seen in the side notes), though I do feel I should have explained the underlining or had some sort of reason for it. Upon reflection, I mostly underlined things that stood out to me instead of it correlating to anything in particular on the rubric, and I had students at one point ask me about the underlining because they thought something was wrong. I haven't done that as much anymore, and if I do in the future, I will try to connect it to a reason - whether it's feedback or something else - and ensure the student knows why it is there.
Student Feedback and Reviews
This was a semester of mixed responses regarding my teaching. It was my first semester of teaching, so it is understandable upon reflection. However, I was still new to teaching, and I had not yet developed the ability to separate myself from the criticism that I received for the course. It was difficult not to take negative feedback personally, and it wasn't until after my second semester of teaching GNE 330/530 that I realized how important it was to truly reflect on the feedback students provided. It was into my third semester and onward of GNE 330/530 that I started to separate myself from the feedback I received, and instead of taking criticism as a personal attack, I took it as an opportunity to improve the course for the students. This approach - over several semesters - shifted the tone of student feedback from hurtful and attacking to constructive and reflective. This made it easier and easier to make adjustments for the course and truly learn how to have a good balance for the students. This particular semester was a bit rough as I still had the remnants of what occurred during the lecture involving the election (as discussed above) in my mind, and it appeared in the student feedback to me as well. Some students felt I was unprofessional and did not take me seriously in the course. Now that I am further removed from this first semester of teaching, I would have to say that I agree. I did not handle that situation well, and it would take time and many iterations of the course to learn how to be both professional with my students but still be myself with them. They enjoy my personality, and it is difficult to remove that part of myself from teaching without resulting in someone that is bland and boring at the front of the room. This was a difficult but needed first step to learn how to regulate emotion and better handle tough situations in the classroom.
This was a semester that I, unfortunately, did not provide specific feedback forms or surveys for the students to complete as I do now. Much of the reviews from the students are those that I received through verbal discussions with the students as well as my Advisor and Faculty Mentor, Dr. Scott. However, the project for this iteration of GNE 330/530 (Learning to Learn) is one of my favorites and I incorporate it into the course every single time I have covered this topic. Not only does it give students the opportunity to reflect upon their learning and pursue areas of interest outside of engineering, but it has significantly altered the lives of many of my students. These are actual quotes from students during their final journal entries for the course project:
"I enjoyed another great week meditating longer sessions and had the opportunity to train my mind on specific things. One of the things i focused on this week is getting a better understanding of how my mood is and how my body parts felt for any sore muscles or strained muscles and how that affected my mood, I started scanning my body for the purpose of feeling the mood it generated and that helped me first understand how my mood actually is (if i am happier than i expected, or not feeling great which makes me do something about it), so i gained a better understanding on how my life is going. Another thing i focused on was being able to observe thoughts come and go without trying to block them, and that helped me point out what thoughts are stressing me out the most, and what is making me worry, i started listening to my thoughts to understand what things are making me unhappy or stressed out so i can address them. Now i think i gained a reward i didnt expect to get from meditating, i now have an effective gauge on how happy I am and better awareness of what is affecting my life the most and that gave me more control over my quality of life!"
~Student pursuing meditation as their Lifelong Learning Project~
"Today I went into the gym with the intention of completing my goal, and I did. After warming up with some stretches and handstands, I headed straight for the mats and did a few straight jumps. I mentally prepared myself for the back flip, remembering the feedback I received last week. After two or three attempts, I started to land on my feet. Still tucked at first, but on the fourth or fifth try I had it down to the point where following attempts seemed effortless (and I have the videos to prove it). It was really strange how I all of a sudden knew how to do it. I cannot believe how far I've come over the past few weeks, especially since I have no prior experience in gymnastics. Choosing to do a back flip as my Learning To Learn Project was ambitious of me, but I am happy I did, and I plan on continuing the sport."
~Student pursuing gymnastics/performing a backflip as their Lifelong Learning Project~
"Thanks to this learning procedure I have learned a new skill and learned something new about myself. I realized learning takes patience and must be done on a regular bases. I tend to forget things easily but I also learn things easily. My favorite part of this lifelong learning activity was being able to show others my new skill. Thanks to this activity I can now juggle and hopefully be able to juggle for the rest of my life. In the future I plan to throw another ball in the mix and juggle four balls. Until then I just have to keep practicing. Overall, I loved this activity and I would recommend it to future classes without a doubt."
~Student pursuing juggling as their Lifelong Learning Project~
"This week was a time for me to look back at the past few months and think about how much I have changed. I never before considered myself much of a spiritual person. If someone told me in August about all of the things I would be doing, exploring Witchcraft and meditation, I don't think I would have been very receptive. When this started, I thought I would practice some meditation and yoga, I would learn a little bit, but it wouldn't impact my life very much. The adventure that this project has put me on has been at least, fascinating and at most, life changing. It is no exaggeration when I say that this is something I will bring with me for the rest of my life."
~Student pursuing meditation as their Lifelong Learning Project~
"I wanted to use this last journal entry as a way of reflecting over the past 11 weeks of learning how to ping the pong, or play ping pong I guess. At the beginning I was super eager to learn and get better at a game that I only ever played once in a blue moon for fun. I thought I could become some sort of god at this sort, but instead I just got marginally better, and there's nothing wrong with that! When I started to plateau in my learning and the fun I was having I had to evaluate how close I was to my end goal. The goal I ended up deciding on was to be able to play with anyone who isn't a pro, self-claimed or actually professional. I think I am there and I'm actually very satisfied with it. This shortened version of life-long learning has turned out to be a great experience as far as learning about myself as a learner."
~Student pursuing ping pong as their Lifelong Learning Project~
"Well I had a bit of progress this week. I was able to get myself to sit for a meditation session twice this week. One of the big things for me that I need to overcome is my preoccupation with what I need to do that day and how much time it is going to take. So it seems the days when I wake up earlier than normal I am able to convince myself it is ok to take 5-10 minutes to do meditation. Another big factor for the meditation to actually happen is pre setting everything so there is no hoops to jump through. Such as clearing off the chair I am going to use for meditation the night before, and also having the audio already pulled up on my phone ready to go with my earphones right there with my phone. These seem to be the main contributing factors. I have the desire, I know that, I have the capability and the means, but getting this old dog to do a new trick is the difficult part. So like you suggest maybe I need to double down the rewards and punishments I tie to the practice. Maybe if I say to myself, when you meditate you can watch an episode of a show, but only after you meditate. This will motivavte me to do it and also tie the meditation to the positive experience. There are many different ways this can be performed to make it more likely to occur. Overall, I have enjoyed being able to study my resistance to the creation of a new habit. WIth any luck I will be meditating by the time I graduate (in 2 years). Thank you for doing an excellent job leading this class. All the best."
~Student pursuing meditation as their Lifelong Learning Project~
Seeing this feedback from students and the impact this course project had on them, as well as some of their personal feedback for me, inspired me to continue working towards becoming a better instructor and improving my teaching skills. While the semester that followed this one was objectively my worst semester and my most combative semester with my students, it was returning to these responses later on in my GNE 330/530 journey that reminded me of my potential and of the joys of working with students and impacting their lives. Not every course or subject or assignment will be as impactful as the Learning to Learn Project, but that does not mean that the learning experiences I provide students and the ways in which I can support them can't be impactful. It took hardship, humbling, and reflection to reach this point, but I am glad that I did. This first semester of teaching GNE 330/530 and the responses from students about the project were encouraging, and ultimately set me on the path of collegiate instruction that I am on today.
