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Hi, I'm Pam Jeffries, Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing,
and I am bringing you module two on Evidence-Based Teaching.
I know you just got through module one on the science of teaching and learning.
So let's get into the evidence and why evidence based teaching.
Let me define evidence-based teaching for you.
First, it's using the best evidence to select, develop, and implement
educational strategies and conduct research
to further define our educational practices.
To develop the body of scientific knowledge related to
educational practices, it's done by looking at the findings.
We need to conduct research in the educational arena, looking at
the pedagogy, the way we teach, the strategies, and what works best.
And reason this evidence based teaching is so important
because we want to look at consistent learning outcomes.
As educators, we base our teaching strategies upon this
evidence to really produce better learning outcomes for our students.
So why is it important?
If I can base my teaching on evidence based practice, and I can write about it,
publish, disseminate, then other educators can also work
around and use these evidence based teaching practices.
And then if I can write about it, they can
replicated, and other educators can use the same knowledge base.
Also when we write and we study,
look at these educational strategies, best practices emerge.
When we find something that works over,
and over, and it's creating wonderful learning outcomes
then, those are known as best practices and
they can be replicated, disseminated across the academy.
Also, best practices help to guide we as
educators in selecting what, teaching strategies, what, and what.
How to set up our student's learning environments
best to meet student learning needs and better outcomes.
So, let me ask you this; what are the
barriers and challenges for educators to use evidence based teaching.
Particularly at a university setting.
Hm.
Well, first of all, educator preparation.
And that's why you're here about.
You're learning about university teaching 101.
There are many people that come into the academy to, to teach
at university level or at any level, and sometimes the preparation's not there.
I'll speak for professional school of nursing.
We have wonderful clinicians and professions, but
many times th, they lack the educator preparation.
And there is an art to teaching, so there needs to be some development.
Also another barrier is just support for faculty.
If I want to change my teaching practices, sometimes I might not get the support.
Maybe I need a new technology to provide an
innovative teaching strategy or to alter it in some way.
So, I need support for that.
But sometimes it's easier not to change and just
keep doing something I've done for, you know, eight years.
Also another big barrier I must say
with educators is just giving up personal beliefs.
We call them sacred cows sometimes.
We have traditions.
We have opinions, what works over and over.
We get very comfortable with that.
But so we just have to give that up and try new ways.
And personally I've always liked the innovation
in trying new ways, because it's always
about quality, it's improving, it's, it's creating
that quality of excellence in our educational sector.
And then also another barrier, to try new teaching strategies and
you know, conduct the research and all that, it's just resources.
And w, which include both time and financial.
It takes funding sometimes to conduct a research study.
It takes time to change your course, change
your teaching ways so, both can be barriers.
Also another challenge is just integrating a new
body of knowledge to design new effective interventions.
I know in our introduction with David Andrews we talked about the technologies.
The emerging technologies that are being integrated in
the classrooms and in the clinical and the laboratory.
But we need knowledge to use those technologies.
And many times you know, what are the, what's not
only the body of knowledge, but what's the best practice?
What's working?
So that's a barrier if you don't know that,
how to use it, and not in developed in that.
[COUGH] Another barriers and challenges
obtaining professional development as I said
to learn the competencies of different innovation such as problem based learning.
What would that look like?
And how can I do problem based learning if I've never been taught how to do that?
And lastly another barrier challenge is, is having internal champions.
I know I've worked with faculty before and
when I find a champion I want to boost them.
I want to empower them.
because they can help change the culture.
They can help push innovation all
that, and let's recognize those internal champions.
Other barriers; workload release time.
Many times as faculty we try to do something new, but that's on our own time.
It's not like I'm going to get workload release
or a certain percentage off to work on this.
It's just because I value the innovation, I value the,
the doing something new and creative, and engaging to my students.
Also unfortunately in a university setting, there's
sometimes less value placed on new pedagogy.
And, and then also in with educational research in a university setting.
I know there are a lot of times where is health behavior science clinical
science all that, and the educational the
science of learning sometimes comes second hand.
And I'm not advocating for that, but once you get
in the university setting, sometimes there's a competition with that.
There's pillars.
There's a dynamic going.
So hopefully in the institution that you work there's great value
for education, educational research as well as quality and teaching excellence.
Also, another barrier is just need for
experts to guide this evidence based teaching.
There, hopefully you have experts in your area and if not you can seek it out at
conferences, have consultations, but the experts will help
talk to you about designing new, meaningful learning experiences.
So this time I'd like to go into some evidence based practices in teaching.
And these are known as seven principles of best practices in education.
And they come from way back from Chickering and Gamson's work.
If you get into the literature you'll find these all over, and there's seven of them.
In this short video I'm just going to introduce you to the seven principles
of best practices, and then shortly after
we'll talk about strategies associated with each.
Let me outline the seven principles.
One is active learning.
Two, prompt feedback.
Three, high expectations.
Four, collaboration, collaborative learning Five, time on task.
Six, diverse ways of learning, diverse styles of learning.
And lastly the student faculty interaction.
So, active learning, let's define this, it's learning in
an environment where your learners are engaged, they're active.
When I sit in class and a teacher is teaching.
I sit and I'm taking notes, I'm just sitting in my desk, my chair, whatever.
It's very, very passive.
A good educator wants to promote active learning,
since that is a principle of best practice.
We'll talk about strategies next.
But you want to engage the learning, you want to break it up.
You don't want the learner to sit
for three hours just listening to the instructor.
So we'll talk about those strategies shortly.
Prompt Feedback.
This is giving information to the learner about their response, about the process.
Are, are they thinking in the right direction.
Using the learning strategy that I've used,
I need to respond back to the learner.
For example, when we give exams is a, a very basic one.
We like to give exams and, and give back and, and go over review.
This providing feedback to the learner, either they got things right or wrong.
But what's that feedback.
Online learning environment when students turn in
an assignment or they're posting a discussion forum.
I give them feedback, are they on the right track, are they not?
But they need feedback, students don't know what
they don't know until you give them feedback.
Third principle of best practice is just high expectations.
Good outcomes are anticipated.
I don't know how many times I start my class.
I remember teaching a very basic research course
to sophmore level students at the university level.
And I must tell you, it was a new course, new design.
And I though it was very high expectations for a sophmore level course.
Anyway, I start my course saying that
expectations are very, very high in this course.
We've gotta do X, Y, Z, And I just told them I had
very high expectations at the outcomes, and this is what they would be doing.
And guess what?
They met those high expectations.
In fact the students exceeded the expectations that I had for the course.
But I verbalized to the learner, we went along the trajectory together and they
met those expectations The fourth principle of
best practices is collaboration or collaborative learning.
This is learning with others.
There's evidence after evidence where learners do learn from each other.
Look at this MOOC.
You're going to be, getting into learning committees.
You're going to be learning with your peers.
In fact we'll have some assignments that are peer reviewed.
So we learn from each other.
It's not one single teacher that has all the knowledge that can be disseminated.
But learning with others is, is wonderful.
And it is a best practice.
Principal five, time on task, and this is using
the time wisely to learning content and basic skills.
So we as educators when we give activities to students, making assignments
some type of project, we want to make sure the students use their time wisely.
As an educator, I never want to just give busy work,
and I want them to do something just to keep busy.
The task needs to be meaningful.
And also, helping the students to manage that task, manage time.
Maybe it is a large project that's due at the end of the semester.
Maybe I help the student manage that time wisely.
I, I talk about how you gotta write the
problem first, how you gotta do the needs assessment.
You know, that its an iterative process, maybe
their step by step to get to the outcome.
As an educator, I can outline that and make
sure the students are focused in tying on the tap.
Task.
So we'll go over more strategies shortly.
Principal six: diverse ways of learning.
This is offering different methods, techniques,
and options to meet diverse student needs.
We all do not learn the same.
If we all did our learning style inventory.
You may be a visual learner.
You may be an auditory learner.
We all may be eclectic and kinesthetic, hands on.
When I get hands on I can learn better.
So as an educator, we have to realize
out there our learners have very diverse needs.
So I don't want to just do one
technique, that's where best practices you're diversifying that.
Maybe I do have some readings, maybe I have small group
work, maybe I am lecturing a little bit for a short time.
Maybe I'm getting them in group problem solving.
Anyway, It's just very diverse, and there's different ways to learn.
And lastly, principle seven is just learner faculty student interaction.
It's the contact with the faculty and the learner during the learning process.
I want to interact with my students.
As an educator, if I don't interact with my students, I
don't, I don't know what they understand or what questions they have.
So I love that interaction.
Even in an online environment, I have to ask the questions.
I can see the postings.
I can, I can ask open ended questions to see
what level and where they are and what needs they have.
So the interaction is good we'll talk about more strategies, but the
instructor does need to be available to, to have that learner faculty interaction.
For instance you can come to class early, stay late so
that you're available for the students to ask questions, to interact.
I can set up study groups.
I can have review sessions.
Those are some strategies, and I'll get into more later.
So when do we use these principles of best practices?
Well, quite truthfully, I use them all the time.
Whether I teach in a classroom, a clinical
setting, in a laboratory, in a simulation lab.
They're just prevalent.
It, it's a huge umbrella, and knowing these best practices.
And truthfully, in my lifetime, and I've been an educator
forever, over 30 years, as you said, learned in the intro.
These principles of best practices I have used to
guide when I have to write my philosophy of teaching,
when I've gone up for teaching awards, when I've had
Write some philosophy for an essay or for an award.
I always go back to these principles of best practice.
They're tried and true and they're evidence based.
Anyway, good practices hold as much meaning for
the professional programs as, as the liberal arts.
So, whether you're in a professional program such
as medicine, nursing, dentistry or whatever, to liberal arts.
You're teaching English.
You're, you're in the humanities.
They apply all over.
They work, these principles also work for many different kinds of diverse students.
Whether student's well-prepared or those ill-prepared.
It's going to help all the learners.
The other guiding principle is the content and the pedagogy.
They interact in, complex ways.
I can be a content specialist, but if I cant get the content across
in a pedagological, interactive way to meet
the student's learning needs and that's a problem.
So, that, that needs, there needs to be synergy with that.
Also speaking of synergy there is healthy synergy within and among disciplines.
Right now, we have a lot of focus on interdisciplinary education and practice.
And, so we're teaching in teams, we're teaching with different disciplines.
We have to work together, we have to have that synergy.
And using these principles of best practices with the active learning, the
faculty/student feedback, those were all prevalent
in a professional education as well.
And lastly, another guiding principle is, is what is
taught is at least as important as how it's taught.
So, I may be, the wonderful world, have all this content
and expertise, and a certain knowledge, or health disruption or whatever.
But how I teach it according to research is
just as important as what my knowledge and expertise is.
So, I have to convey the message.
So, using these principles of best practices will help convey that message.
Assumptions of learning.
When we're teaching many principles of adult learning
apply also to children as well as adolescents.
There's different adult learning theories that we wanted to
be treated like an adult, with respect, and all that.
I won't get into learning theories at this point in time, but there's
many principal that go across the
continuum from children to adolescent, to adult.
Also another assumption is learners
tend to desire participatory learning experience.
That's when we go back to that active learning.
If I can participate and be involved in my
learning, I'm more apt to remember and retain that knowledge.
And the other assumption is one learns faster
when new concepts are useful in their present lives.
So, whatever's real world application to what I'm
doing now, that's going to, I'm going to learn faster, cause
I can quickly apply it in my job, in my, in my school, in my own world.
So that's another assumption.
Another assumption is educators should assess
the learner's interest, current skills, and aims.
When you're in a classroom with different learners,
they come from all different walks of life.
They bring in different experiences,
different educational experiences from your secondary
or a high school, or maybe it's from their community college.
So, as an educator, we need to assess these learners.
And, they won't all, most likely won't be at the same level.
Many times we have courses that ask for the prerequisite, so we know
before someone goes into biostatistics level two,
they have to take biostatistics level one.
So, there's some core competencies they have to have before they take that.
So, that's leveling a little bit.
However, you've still got different learners
coming with different skills and different interests.
Also another assumption is that this assessment that
helps guide the structuring of the learning atmosphere.
If I know my learners, I can adjust my teaching methods, and
be more effective in setting up the learning environment for the learners.
I won't get on to the assessment right now, because you actually
have a whole module on assessing the learner, getting to know your audience.
Also another going along with diverse ways of learning, students need an opportunity
to show their talents and learn in different ways that work for them.
If I gave just in my classroom the, just multiple choice test
all the time and that was the only gauge or metric I
used to evaluate my students, maybe that's not the best way that
the students can demonstrate their knowledge that they have or their talent.
So I'd like to diversify that a little bit because as well
as in the, in the teaching part because they learn in different ways.
Also students if you push to one level you,
I always try to push to a little higher levels.
I think in the professional programs we, we teach them the basic foundations
of securing for patients, whether it's in the world of medicine of whatever.
But we're also teaching them a higher order of learning.
We want our professionals to critically
think, have clinical decision making skills.
So, you're always pushing them to another
level to think, well, what about, anticipation.
And then, anyway, evidence based teaching such
as these principles of best practices in education.
They're just very, very important as you will find out in
your course invest, in the course development as well as the
implementation of the interventions and
the class strategies, teaching strategies that
we're going to do, whether it's in the classroom, laboratory or what.
So this is just setting a foundation for you, there's much more to come.
So, my question now is I started, I defined evidence based teaching
and talked about why it's important in addition to the barriers and challenges.
But it, how would you apply evidence based teaching in
your classroom if you're just starting or or you've been
teaching an now you want to start collecting some of the
evidence, and, and really what's working and what's not working.
because why would we continue to do something that's not working.
So just very quickly to apply evidence based teaching
in your classroom, identify an issue that's related to teaching.
Maybe you know, students are bored.
They're not engaged.
What can you do differently.
Pose a question related to the issue.
Third review the literature what's there in the evidence can we pull
from some of the literature it will all help guide our a strategies.
Four analyze, synthesize, the findings from the literature.
Design a teaching strategy based on the research findings, implement
it and then develop the evaluations strategies to measure your success.
The challenge now is how can
we incorporate more evidenced-based teaching strategies?
So, I challenge you to go out, look at
ways that you can obtain evidence to support your
teach, current teaching, if you are currently teaching and
look at the outcomes that are being achieved or not.
And also, if you're just starting, think about when
you're developing your course plan and your strategies to look
at the evidence, and what should be done and
look, look at, let that guide you if you can.
Anyway, I leave with references, with
the Chickering and Gamson references, and another
reference just to summarizing how the, The
application of seven principles of good practice.
Anyway good luck to you.
And there will be more to come.
Thank you.