Mrs. McVey's class

I got a very encouraging email today from Mrs. April McVey telling me that she has been using some environmental references from my website at Warner Pacific College. This is one of the wonders of the internet that you design your writings and postings targeting a narrow audience and you never know who else will be part of it. I want to openly thank Mrs. McVey for taking the time to let me know about this and also for letting me know of a broken link that I had there. It is through this kind of ineraction that we can improve continously our endevour in teaching and learning. Thanks so much Mrs. McVey!   

Video lecture

It is becoming indispensable in teaching science the use of video clips to make a point. More time should be used in class to solve problems and more time outside class should be used to read about the theories behind the concepts and to watch videos to enhance the interest of the student. The following video
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=EEu42L0ufBY
is a great example of what people can do.

Discovery and innovation have many avenues

This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTpnCwN8cc&feature=player_embedded#! shows how a middle school science student playing with molecular models creates one that later on is subject to research. One never knows how a new idea is going to be developed, when is going to happen, or who is going to do it. Either by him/herself of as a group. But there are some critical keys for this to happen and they are around the fact that community support, and mentorship is always involved.

Teaching Metaphors

It is well known that metaphors are very useful when teaching, specially when teaching scientific concepts. One tries to simplify concepts by relating them to more familiar situations building bridges will be a good metaphor for these kind of explanations. Even to describe what teachers do has relied on metaphors, such a hicking/travel guide, sport coach in a reference to learning as a journey or a game. But this one is new for me: Professional Cook! This article by Natalie Houston in The Chronicle of Higher Education's blog "ProfHacker" http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/streamlining-teaching-prep/38237 really makes a point about this metaphor. Hope you enjoy reading it.

It Is About Relationships

Learning is not an isolated endeavor, nor is an individual event. Learning and thus teaching is a relational activity that has to be developed over time. How long it takes? is hard to answer and will be dependent on what the learner and teacher bring to the relationship. As with any relationship there are bidding actions as described by Gottman and DeClaire that produce counter-bidding. And the way we respond with the counter-bidding will determine the outcome of the relationship. There are -in general- three was we can reply: positively or turning toward, when with the reply there is an engaging counter-bidding; turning away, when the response denotes ignoring the effort done by the one engaging; and turning against, when the response implies some kind of offensive, dismissive, or in any way negative and in some cases contrarian to the interest of the relationship. Gottman and DeClaire argue that most of the way in which one responds to these bids comes from the ways we learned early in childhood and is difficult to change as they are so imbedded in the sub-conscience. 
In the classroom one can find these three was if turning to a lecture or learning activity. The student brings his/her preconceived idea of what s/he needs and how s/he is going to get it. But is science there is one advantage over other topics that do not have a hands-on laboratory experience. In these activities teachers can remove to a certain degree the student from his/her familiar attitudes as there activities do not replicate the realities of growing up. It seems that "lecturing" follows a parallel more attune to the traditional up-bringing that one is exposed.
More laboratory, and hands on experiences have to be included when teaching as the old idea of learning through doing appears to be well proven. 
Bibliography
John M. Gottman and Joan DeClaire. 2001. The Relationship Cure. Three Rivers Press, NY ISBN: 0-609-80953-9

Some Questions about Student's Course Evaluation

There are many myths and truths about the value of student's evaluation of a course and of a teacher. There has been a long discussion on what can be done with the information given by these evaluations, from the complete dismissal to the partial adherence to the suggestions and criticism given. An excellent article is that of Ken Bain http://www.montclair.edu/academy/services/white.html which is summarized in his book "What the Best College Teachers Do." Bain's assertion that comments and ratings by students are useful providing valid and reliable information is based on an extensive literature. But the question has to be re-address to how these end of course evaluations are structured and to the care on design and intentionality that the questions in the questionnaire are addressing. The most important thing according to James Lang (On Course p 277) is to ask the student questions that will help understand their learning advances not about any personal characteristics of the individuals involved, being the student or the teacher.
In this respect it looks like the end of course evaluation forms have to be adapted for individual courses and have to be reviewed periodically to accommodate to new forms of instruction and instruction technologies.

How long does it take?

4 years! This is how long does it take to go through college to get a Bachelor's degree. It doesn't matter if the degree is in the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, or hard sciences and mathematics. The time it takes is independent of the subject of study, the time is (was) established based on the need for the individual to mature from the late teens to the early twenties. It was designed as a post-secondary step in order to get a level of understanding and maturity that allowed the graduate to participate in society as a creative member based on his "liberal arts education." It was about liberating the individual to perform outside of the "being employed" scheme and allowed the individual to pursue a "professional" career through the skill s/he had developed during those four years. That could be "arithmetic" to do accounting, or writing in the varied disciplines of our society. As the amount of knowledge started to accumulate many colleges and universities started to use those four years in a different way. Giving more time to the area of specialization the so called "major" and less time was devoted to the general education core studies, all because there was a time restrain of four years to obtain the degree.
Time has come to re-examine this practice and time has come to re-evaluate the purpose of a baccalaureate degree.
As far as one can define the general purpose of education one should say that the purpose is to prepare citizens that are active constituents and builders of our society. Participants in the self preservation of the human species and means through which our society improves. Of course one is taking for granted that if the individual is performing task necessary for humanity the utilitarian nature of these services will guarantee that his/her own personal survival will be protected and in some cases rewarded with a very comfortable standard of living. This utilitarian nature has made some "majors" more attractive than others and in some cases will determine the starting salary or income as the new graduate joins the career market.
The idea that education will improve the way in which one is useful to society and therefore will be more employable is what is driving many adults to go back to school and this new market is feeding the desire for many institutions and business to get in the adult education endeavor, be it for profit or not.
So as these new programs are being established for these new kind of students the "4 year paradigm" is not longer valid or useful and shorter models have been developed. The question one has to address here is if this new model with less time of study will be good enough for all the disciplines currently being addressed in colleges and universities.
The other question one might address is if these new programs that are working for adults returning to classrooms after some years out of high school is adaptable to students  with much less experience who have just finished secondary education. Could it be that with new technologies and strategies one could have some students getting a bachelor's degree in three or less years for some disciplines while for some others will take more than the standard four years?