The seminar began with a welcome from Professor Himonas. He indicated that while our ability to prove theorems is important to the department, our ability teach is important as well. He recommended that we read the two handouts that were distributed - McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, Chapter 15 (Active Learning: Cooperative, Collaborative, and Peer Learning and Teaching and Learning Groups: Dissolutions or the Atlas Complex. Similar handouts will be distributed throughout the semester and should serve as ammunition for our discussions. Please see Dan Bates if you need a copy of either handout.
Dan Bates then took over and reminded everybody to show up for the next seminar meeting on Tuesday, April 5 at 4:45 in room HH127, at which Chris Porter and Matt Rissler will speak. He also displayed the URL for the website (which you obviously know!) and said that anybody interested in writing a summary for future meetings should email him. Similarly, if anybody has anything to add to the discussion but isn't able to before time runs out, please email him!
Matt Rissler was the first of the four panelists to speak. There are two kinds of tutorials - the traditional homework style and the new group assignment style. Matt focused on the first type. He suggested that TAs in the standard tutorial format should study up on the homework before going into the room, especially the hard problems. He also described the technique of having students email the TA before the tutorial session with the problems with which they are having trouble. In that way, the TA knows just what needs to be covered.
Matt reminded us that nobody is perfect - we will all make mistakes at the board, and we should all feel free to use solution manuals as needed. He also suggested that for some tutorial sessions, TAs serves more as teachers than just as resources for homework solutions. Depending upon the instructor for whom you are TAing, you might need to or be asked to do a little lecturing in the TA session, although there are some faculty members who are completely against that. In any case, TAs should always think of themselves as teachers - if you can help the students learn, do so.
Matt recommends being as interactive as possible: learn the students' names, make jokes (even self-deprecating ones if you think that will work), and talk to the students informally outside of the actual class period to build rapport. To learn the names of the students before the semester, find your way to the pictures and names of your students via insideND and/or Irishlink (ask an older grad student!).
Matt suggested that tutorials are free-flowing - one should always be flexible and willing to go off on tangents if doing so is beneficial for the students. Be dynamic! Finally, you will likely be needed to administer quizzes and/or activities. There is not much to worry about with the quizzes, but make sure you now how to work through the activities before you get to the tutorial.
Chris Porter went next. He focused on the new "group activities" sort of tutorial. Most, if not all, Calculus I and II classes will have this format next fall. There are a variety of reasons why this shift is being made, but it follows a general movement among education specialists towards collaborative learning. The idea is that the class is split into groups of three or four. They are given an activity to attack together and should work together on coming to a solution.
Chris said that it is important (although perhaps difficult) to give the "right" activity. You need to give activities that are not mundane, like the typical homework problems - that will be boring and not intriguing for the students. However, one should not give activities that are so difficult (albeit interesting) that they are demoralizing for the students! A good activity must fall somewhere between these two extremes.
Here's one example of a successful activity: Given the students a graph of the derivative of a function. Ask them to draw the function and the second derivative. This causes them to think about what the derivative means - not just how to do them mechanically. Not every activity will work - one class was once given the cross-sectional areas of a cyst and asked to approximate the volume. That activity confused the students (who were learning about the shell and disk methods of integration) and was considered kind of morbid.
Chris suggests taking a look at the activities binder than comes with the textbook for the class (if there is one). Often there will be at least some useful activities at the appropriate level. Finally, Chris discussed the difficulty level of the activities. One should be very careful - many ND students have had a year of calculus before, so you can ask them fairly tough questions. Calculus II students, on the other hand, are largely seeing the material for the first time, so you need to give them more fundamental activities.
Abigail Mitchell spoke next about the management of the class, groups in particular. She recommends that the TA choose the groups rather than the students. Students will often want to get together with their friends, resulting in very strong, very focused groups that work quickly and groups that completely ignore the assignment. It is far better to spread the strongest (and weakest) students around. She also suggested that four seems to be a good group size (two does not leave room for much of a dynamic, and six is too many to manage).
Abigail changes groups throughout the semester. Each time she changes, the groups generally become more functional and successful. As you get to know the students and their personalities, you will be able to choose more appropriate groups. It is important to circulate around the room throughout the period, according to Abigail. It is rare that nobody's hand is raised (raised hands are good - they are thinking and learning!). When nobody has questions for you, ask them questions - make them explain why they have done something, in order to start a dialogue. Try to challenge them both when they are right and when they are wrong.
Some groups will simply fail to communicate, for example if the students in one group are all weak, slow, or timid - that happens. It is important to spread the best students around (although this can be very hard before you know them). If students seem to be getting off track, ask them questions about the material to get the back on target. The biggest dysfunction that Abigail sees is the use of the divide and conquer tactic. If there are 4 questions and 4 students in the group, they will each take one - avoid that! You want them working together, so make that known up front (and frequently). Also avoid problems that are too long or disconnected from one another.
Finally, in terms of grading, Abigail recommends grading for understanding, not completeness. It is her belief that it is far more important that the students get it than that they hurry through everything and just jot things down, right or wrong. She also includes a "quality of teamwork" component in the grade to encourage the groups to work well together (just a few points out of ten).
Mark Taber was the last panelist to speak. He suggested that there are quite a few differences between TAing and teaching and that getting to understand those differences will aid you with both tasks. When you TA, the students have heard the material before, so you can assume certain things. When teaching, your lecture may be the first time the students have seen the material.
One sink that Mark has noticed is that, under the usual form of tutorial, the TA will just answer the homework questions in full. Some will leave nothing for the students to do and will not actually teach anything. He also recommends handing back homework while the students are working (on group projects) - that way you get to see each group about the same number of times (and you get to know the students a bit). He believes that it is actually easier to get to know the students in the group activity style of tutorial.
Mark recommends being engaging. This is not always easy - it is important to be excited and get the students involved, but you never want to go overboard and make the students feel stupid. Also, if every group is having trouble with the same problem, do that one on the board. Beware - if there are more than 40 or 50 students, it will be hard to get to every group a sufficient number of times - such larger classes may be better served by the standard format.
After the panelists were done, Dan Bates threw out a few ideas. For one, know the number for Health Services (1-7497)! Dan told the story of a first year student in his tutorial being stung by a wasp on the first day of class - he was not prepared. (She's OK). Also, decide on a cell phone policy up front, and make sure you stick to it. Dress however you are comfotable, although it might be good to dress up a bit more than usual early in the semester to give the air of authority. Finally, he described his secret trick - feedback! Get feedback from students early and often, in every format you can (surveys, informal chatting, etc.) and act on it. That way, you will communicate better with the students, they will be happier (because they have a hand in the structure of the class), and the class will generally be more successful.
Finally, there was a brief discussion. One audience member shared that her tutorial had been very stiff and focused early in the semester - this can happen! Try to be relaxed and get the students talking before or after class. Notre Dame students are generally very strong and very driven, and you might find that your class is pretty intense. In terms of feedback from the students in the new type of class, the jury is still out. Some students love the new format, and some students hate it. For now, the breakdown is about 50/50, although that may change as the style becomes more finely tuned and as the students that expect to have an easy, homework-answering tutorial begin to graduate. It will be a few years before we can decide whether this practice is actually preferred or beneficial. One participant asked if the student reactions to the old style (in the form of TCEs or surveys) had been compared to those of the new style. Nobody in the room knew, but such data would be very interesting....
(reported by Dan Bates)