http://blog.peerinstruction.net/2012/09/04/how-one-professor-motivated-students-to-read-before-a-flipped-class-and-measured-their-effort/
Monday, March 10, 2014
How Can I Get them to Read Before Class???
http://blog.peerinstruction.net/2012/09/04/how-one-professor-motivated-students-to-read-before-a-flipped-class-and-measured-their-effort/
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I just want to comment on this very interesting issue of the flipped classroom. It seems to me that the matter rests with the way the incentives to prepare before coming to the classroom are structured and ordered within the module, unit or theme to be elaborated on. I have found that it is a good practice to encourage student to teach/lead and in a sense lecture to the class. They then perceive themselves and their role, and how they might be viewed by the lecturer and the class, in a different manner, It is also a good idea to have students present the tutorial on a topic or two that are yet to be the subject of a lecture. Careful planning is necessary. Student often want to expound on a topic, and they should be given the opportunity to do so.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the JIT method and yes Michael, I think that having students lead the discussion in groups may be a good idea to get them motivated to do the pre-class readings. Also, I noticed that the blog indicated that students were only asked to read four sections in the book. So perhaps a more targeted approach to assigning the pre-class reading would be more helpful especially since the lecture does not cover every topic in the chapter or assigned readings.
ReplyDeleteDaren
As I read the article in this blog I started to think how I could possibly implement this in classroom. Like many, I found this technique interesting and though tied to some incentive in the form of assessment, it really did seem to get the job done. I wonder about the time commitment on my end to continuously assess each student, however. Though MCQs are used, there are some open-ended questions to mill through. I also found the comment about Harvard interesting... it's ok to expect Harvard students to prepare for class and actually come prepared, but outside of this Ivy League arena it seems unlikely. It's amazing that our students tend to expect so much from us yet they never see themselves through this particular lens...why shouldn't we expect great things from them and get it?!
ReplyDeleteI'll echo Daren's and Mike's responses, the key seems to be narrowing down the reading material for the students as opposed to telling them to read an entire chunk of material. Guiding them through what is required takes time on our end but if we get a greater level of participation then it is truly worth it.
René
René I understand exactly what you are saying but I think if we continue to try with our students and set the standards they eventually rise. One of your peers I think it was Regan in a post somewhere noted that he has continued trying and one of the strategies he uses is to link the pre-class work to some assessment they have. That way the students see the work as a means to an end and not just 'busy work".
ReplyDeleteThe question posed as the title of this blog entry is a question I have struggled with and continue to wrestle. When I ask my students if they read before coming to class, while there are a few who do prepare, the majority readily admit that they have not read the relevant chapter nor any other available online course material.
ReplyDeleteI do like the ideas proposed by Professor Araujo; and I like that he is collecting statistics on his students.
In my classroom, I am attempting to do something quite similar. To try to encourage more of the students to read, this semester, I included four in-class simulation exercises that will contribute 20% towards the final grade. Prior to the first exercise, I encouraged the students to read the relevant chapter. On the day in question, I handed out a pre-designed questionnaire that aimed to evaluate how much students learn from the simulation, where one of the questions related to the students reading the chapter in the text before class. Of the 28 completed questionnaires, 16 students responded in the affirmative and the remaining 12 students responded that they had not read the chapter. I plan on administering the questionnaire for the other three exercises as a way of tracking the students’ preparation.
Perhaps, at the end of the semester, I would have some interesting findings to share.
Shellyanne W.
I found the concept of the flipped class interesting but it would require more time for preparation for already busy teachers. I feel that students should pre-read and assigning a score might be a reasonable incentive for them to do so. For the learners who are not on the abstract range of Dale's cone, it may be more challenging to read before class. I guess video links and interactive websites may be more of an option for these learners.
ReplyDeleteSome students may be willing to sacrifice the marks for pre-reading. I think the task will be to show the students that learning should be aimed at life lessons rather than passing an examination.-Ravindra M
After reading this, I feel that I am on the right track. After many semesters of trying the get my students to read before class, I decided to give marks for being prepared. Before each class a student has to present a case study. As a result, everyone has to read and summarize the case study, which has to sent to me before class. Points are given for the summary and participating in the Q&A session after the case study. There have been improvements in participation, which is work in a progress. However, my workload has increased. Sherlan C.
ReplyDeleteLike most of my colleagues, I myself have difficulty when trying to motivate students to engage in preparatory readings. Students are more occupied and focused on what is coming in the exam. But, this semester I tried something different. Students were required to make a 10 min presentation on the topic at hand. Their presentation counted as part of the class participation grade. This method linked the students’ objectives (to get higher marks) with my objectives (pre-reading). I also hoped that the presentations would help activate prior knowledge and stimulate interest in the topic. So far, this strategy is working marvelously. Apart from getting students prepared for class, the presentations seemed to propel other students (those not presenting on the particular topic) to ask questions, challenge the academic content, and formulate more linkages with other topics. All in all, I think my class sessions are indeed more interactive and productive. Therefore, I agree with Professor’s Araujo. Students will engage in sustained pre-reading if they are motivated to do so.
ReplyDeleteMeena Rambocas
It is always difficult to get students to read before attending class. It is interesting what Professor Araujo discovered in flipping his class. having them prepare segments of readings that were tested on or had to prepare for the upcoming class. I believe what motivated the students to prepare was the fact that some of it went towards their grade and that was the main cause of the motivation. It not only was part of their final grade but they also retained a lot more information by preparing small amounts of information at a time which helped in their memory retention. It made a lot of sense by doing chunks as opposed to a whole semester's work in a couple nights. I like the idea of having students prepare work in advance and motivate them by rewarding with a grade. I believe this technique is quite motivating to both student and lecturer. I can see where I can use this method for my own teaching session.
ReplyDeleteSophia
It is not so difficult to motivate the students to read the materiel before the class but important thing is how much material we are giving them and what is link or relation with material with the coming class like if we are posting the material for per-reading with this information that to perform the calculation in the face to face class these formula based information is required so read it before joining the class. Another point is that during the lecturer if there is any brainstorming discussion activity as per the teaching plan and you are posting the material with this instruction that for good discussion read the material, i think most of the students will read the material before coming in the class. Another important thing if we are posting large amount material definitely students will try to avoid to read it or may be he will read partially so quantity of material is also important. In relation to motivate the students if pre-reading material is having some images,video link, graphs and table then students will read easily instead of large amount of text material.In all these the techniques i can not say that 100% students will not read all the material because class is always having different types of students.
ReplyDeleteMadan
I must first say that I do not agree with the first part of the quote above "Students will read if we give them books". First of all, what is meant by "give them books"? I can only assume it means to direct them to required reading from books which they will need to obtain on their own from the library, the bookshop or some other source. Probably I am taking it to literally but in terms of getting students to read in my class, it is "like pulling teeth". Usually when I assign reading, the first question I will get is " Sir, do we need to read this for exams". In other words if there was not a grade or marks attached, it was not considered important. I got this question via email from a student "Good afternoon Sir. For our exam are the readings compulsory to read and learn or its just additional information. Thanks. Have a great day." I haven't replied as yet! But this is one area of my teaching I am really struggling with and need help/guidance. Probably I am going about it wrong...say if I assign reading and no one reads it, what do I do? Let's say, by some miracle they read it and I assign questions but they do not do it, what should I do? Presently the course is not structured to allow for any quizzes or grading of reading assignments (I am not the course coordinator). I do get frustrated trying to get my students to read at all, that getting them too read before class seems like "wishful thinking". So by the end of this CUTL course I hope I will improve my approach to getting students to read because it is very challenging for me.
ReplyDeleteR. Ramnarine
Interesting article and method to get students to do pre-class reading. As is demonstrated that pre-class reading help student to develop deep learning I am thinking about implementing using this approach to get my students to get engaged with pre-reading. I currently give them lectures notes/presentations at least 3 days before session and they fail to even open it and flick through before coming to class. One of the main factors contributing to this is that they complain that they do not have the time because they have about 5 other courses doing which are very intense… they are overloaded. Hence, they will prioritize based on marks allocated. If I allocate a meaningful portion of marks then this will force them to be more engaged with pre-class reading.
ReplyDeleteOshaine Blake
Before CUTL, I was keen to give the students information to read before the lecture. However, most of the students did not read ahead and I found it frustrating.
ReplyDeleteNow with the information learnt from CUTL we have the resources in our teaching methods to make the students more engaged.
If we talk about Chapter 4 in class, asked the students to read Chapter 5 at home and then we start the class with Chapter 6, the students may feel they have wasted their time if we do not discuss Chapter 5.
Now, I tell the students what we will be discussing next week and tell them to review the information beforehand. Initially, only some of the students had read the information. However, when I started cold calling the students by name, the students realised, hang on, I better read this information before the class otherwise I am going to look foolish in front of everyone.
Also they have seen that now, I would not discuss the basics of the topic. I would have expected them to have read the handouts or viewed the video and I start the discussion delving more in detail in the topic. If the student has not read ahead then they can be quite confused almost from the start. Of course, I try to make sure everyone is keeping up to date. However, if the student knows that they are behind because they did not preread the information, they know they need to read it and discuss the topic with me at a later date if they are confused.
As Dr Edwards-Henry said, we shouldn't give marks just for the students turning up, I believe we shouldn't give marks just for the students reading the information before class. This is why I like what my colleagues have discussed above about giving the students case studies or exercises to make sure that they have used the information found in the pre-reading.
I am trying different techniques with different courses. Another course, I have split up into groups and given them a topic each to pre-read and present to their colleagues. The students then have to research the topics, This I found has also got them reading ahead.
There will always be one or two students who do not want to read ahead and we need to show them the reason or importance of reading ahead and not get left behind.
Niall
This is really something interesting and I find this method useful to engage students in doing pre-class reading. This is unique method of teaching that inverts traditional teaching methods delivering instructions outside the class and moving homework into the classroom with unique concept of fundamental discussion and promoting two way communication. Here, I also see a theoretical framework of educational technology and activity learning that forms the basis of teaching.
ReplyDeleteThis is something new that I learnt from CUTL program and in future I'll try to implement in my classrooms.
Sameer Dhingra
I was very intrigued by the “Just in Time Method” formulated by Porfessor Araujo. As a teacher of law I’m always on the lookout for ways to inspire my students to read before class. I think the trick that he utilized, which was to provide the incentive for deep reading with marks.
ReplyDeleteIn law especially students can't get the most out of lectures unless they read before class. Since it is essentially about the discussion of and consideration of cases and legislation, if they come to class without at least a prior knowledge of the facts of the cases and the reasoning of the judges, we are forced to spend the class just covering the basics without time for taking it further missing the opportunity to analyse the law together (the essence of the study of law).
Ravindra, I get your point on the generational issue. But I wonder if it's just that. In the US, law classes are conducted using a method called the "Socratic Method". In this method, the class consists of the lecturer asking questions and the students answering them. If the students don't volunteer, the lecture would just use her name list, or go in order and call on students. The questions are based on the readings that the students would have done before the class. If the students don't read before, they would not be able to answer the professor's questions and the embarrassment seems to be a great motivation (incentive again).
The demographic of the US law student is different from the UWI law student because the US students must have a first degree to study law. In UWI, the students can do it right out of A'levels. So first it's a more mature student. Also, in the US college education is extremely expensive so their college classes are an investment that the students are incentivised to get the most out of. The UWI law student (or general undergraduate student) doesn’t face a similar monetary burden.
Reasons for lack of interest in reading ahead aside, I think as lecturers we must take out students as we get them and motivate them, as they are, to do better. I think the incentive of marks is a useful resource to encourage deep reading before class.
Afiya France
This is a difficulty faced very often. But I must say that I empathise with my students, being a part-time student myself. Unfortunately, unless there is a reason to do the readings that is immediate, it becomes very easy to procrastinate or simply to fall back because time management forces focus elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of assigning marks to understanding and not answers as such. I also appreciate using the readings to clearly and directly assist class time learning. In some courses, readings are given to enhance but not necessary direct the student to the topic to be discussed. This approach helps the student in the long-term but does not help them grasp the early concepts and understanding. If material is given to be read in order for class participation and credits, then there is a direct reason for internalising the material.
It has been said that students only do work if it is graded. I tend to agree but not because I think students are lazy or unwilling but more so because I think they need to prioritise and if there is no real incentive then they fall behind. Assigning marks, grades or credits to understanding is a great way to cause them to read and achieve deeper understanding with the overall aim being better learning.
Siobhan.