teaching Communication in

Communication in teaching

• Feedback skill

• Speaking in class

• Handling conflict

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”–It´s something with the moon, gravitation”.

”– If this plate is Earth and my coffee cup is the Moon, then…”

”–Isn´t there a 6hr cycle? Any ideas why?”

”–I think the Sun is involved too..”

”–I remember when I visited the coast of X, …”

”– Anders’ idea with centrifugal/centripetal slingshot forces, really?”

What is tide? Which mechanisms are

Involved?

Identifying and handling

conflicts

-“ Well, that comes with some extra work for me, and you will not provide feedback to your group peers; have you considered that? Next peer feedback occasion is in 9

months, so you will not be able to finish the course until then”.

-”I figure I´ll be absent this week, after all, the Lund

carneval is only once in 4yrs. I guess it´s OK to catch up next week?”

Parent Parent

Adult Adult

Child Child Teacher

Berne (1978), transaction analysis

Student

-”..Right, time to load the ipod for ..”

-”Be onboard the excursion buss tomorrow 8 sharp! Boots on! I´ll compare number of signed out geo-hammers with signed participants in the

quarry, so don´t try to cheat”.

Parent Parent

Adult Adult

Child Child

Lärare Student

Berne (1978), transaction analysis

Really nasty behaviour..

• Mobbing techniques

– To ignore – To ridicule

– To withhold info

– ”Damn you if you do – damn you if you don´t” – Insinuate guilt

From interview of Berit Ås

Speaking in front of class

Stress & anxiety

Performance

Stress level

Heavy swetting, High pulse,

Shallow breathing Escape behaviour, etc..

Listeners attention depends on

• Recognition

• Experienced relevance

• Consequence

Leverl of attention

20 minutes

The talk..

vs everything else..

(cf. Hemlin 1960, Bligh 2000)

Feedback–

all you need is to:

1. Create the opportunity (time/space)..

2. ..communicate feedback criteria early..

3. ..let feedback come from you & others..

4. .. in a astructured way..

5. ..express it so that it will not be rejected

1 Opportunity

• Schedule/negotiate time & space

• Make the students produce ”X”

– Dialogue, experiment, problem,, etc

?

? ? !

2 Criteria

• Make them explicit.

• ”A first class answer/lab report report/thesis/

includes.., a weak report is typically..”

3 Design feedback from..

• You, the teacher

– (but, risk of the socratic bottle-neck)

• Peer students

• The performing student him/her-self

• The lab gear, etc

Overall coherence and focus

Logical flow of information between and within section Matching tables and graphs with text Links between

paragraphs

Headings Links between Sentences

Jargon Abstract words Grammar

Spelling Capitalization Page layout Punctuation

Most complex tasks

Least complex tasks

Suggested feedback order

Från Handal & Lauvås (2008). Urspr. Brown (1994)

4 Structured feedback,

example

Scenario:You have just got an envelope back from the editor of the high impact journal, Journal of Your Own Research (JoYOR). Both reviewers value the ms similarly (accepted after moderate revision), but expresses their feedback quite differently. Here´s just a copied sentence from their letters trying to state similar judgment;

Reviewer 1: “This text section on ABC is sloppy - not good enough – change. Logic is unclear!”.

Reviewer 2: “Ideas A and B seem congruent to me, but I could not follow how arguments A and B could lead to conclusion C. Could you please clarify this?”

Case: reviewers feedback skills.

Find at least 4 principal differences

5 Feedback that triggers performance change, not

rejection by the receiver

Efficient feedback is thus..

• me-message, i.e., represents your reaction

• Balanced, negative & positive

• Concrete for both –”-, not general

• Helpful, not judgmental

• Immediate, not “ bottled up irritation ”

• Questions, rather than statements

• You did great advances this yr!

• I see you already got three ms in press this yr!

• You ran that research group meeting really poorly; I´m disappointed.

• I found the meeting problematic. You seemed to make Jan-Ingvar loose face deliberately. Not typical for your normal meeting style in my view.

• Those calibration mistakes 2yrs ago will certainly be costly at your dissertation day.

• When I checked your data calibration last week I found errors in the range of a

magnitude. If you don’t deal with this now I guess there will be difficulties at your

dissertation.

• You are not convincing when you present your research so hesitantly, with a weak voice and unstable body language.

• I´ve noticed you tend to speak quietly and move back to the wall. I suggest you move 3m closer to the audience and start from

there with your most compelling research issue, and why it intrigues you!

Learning in lab/field

• Student

– Encounters problem/difficulty – Gathers useful facts

– Estimates approximate direction of solution – Erects a hypothesis based on the facts

– Sketches personal theory on how aspects relate to eachother – Experiments to verifiery/deny hypotheses and theories

John Dewey (1859-1956)

Typical intentions of lab/field learning activities

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

(cf. Hult 1999)

” Observation X in the lab didn ´ t fit given theory Z from previous

lecture ”

• Guess and discuss possible student reactions and compare with your own conclusion

”_There´s nothing as practical as a good theory” (Lewin 1952)

Observation Theory

Observation

Theory

P-E Ellström Integrating Learning and Work: Problems and Prospects

Adaptive and developmental

learning

Questionaire: Is there a gap between lectures and labs?

Students:

”Yes, this is typical”

TAs:

”Yes, this is typical”

Lecturers:

”If students and TAs say it is, yes..”

Barri et al 2006: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice on an Example of Chemical Laboratory (LTH course report, 20pp)

Lab/Field Lect

Lect Lect

Lect

Lab/Field

Lab/Field

Lab/Field Lect

Lect Lect

Lect

Lab/Field

Lab/Field

Lecturers view

Students’ view

OK, but is this gap a significant problem?

Students:

”Yes, this is typical”

TAs:

”Yes, this is typical”

Lecturers:

”Yes, if students and TAs say

so..”

”No, it´s ok, it´s normal!”

”It is a

frustrating problem!”

”I don´t think this is a big problem”

Barri et al 2006: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice on an Example of Chemical Laboratory (LTH course report, 20pp)

Bridging the gap

lecture lab lecture

Barri et al 2006: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice on an Example of Chemical Laboratory (LTH course report, 20pp)