Over the past few years, a wide range of different teaching and learning methods have been introduced and tested, often with the aim of developing skills which more didactic methods are poorly adapted to do. There is a substantial literature on these methods and on how best to use them. It is not possible here to provide great detail on every possible teaching and learning method, so instead we have focused on some of the issues which could be considered by course teams when choosing the components of their course. A useful document to refer to is the Guidelines for Promoting Effective Learning, produced by the Centre for Research on Learning and Instruction and also available in the TLA Centre.
LECTURES
Fifty-minute lectures remain the core teaching method for most undergraduate courses. Their role is best suited to providing an overview ofthe subject matter and stimulating interest in it, rather than disseminating facts. Lecturing to large classes is a skill which not all staff haveacquired and some are not comfortable in this role, and so, where possible, a course organiser is advised to try to spread the lecturing load soas to favour those staff with best skill at it, although freedom of action in this respect is often limited! All students appreciate good quality lectures, and the key ingredients are:• clear objectives (these can be put in the course handbook, with the lecture summaries, to avoid provision of them being forgotten byindividual lecturers);• clear overhead acetates or slides;• a paced delivery (the larger the class and/or the more difficult the material the slower this should be);• appropriate handouts which provide students with complex diagrams or difficult or critical text. This should not be viewed as spoon feeding. It is part of the process of ensuring that students take away the important elements from a lecture, irrespective of how well the lecture was delivered on the day. Good handouts also help to avoid the communication difficulties which can arise in any lecture where large numbers of students are present. As class enrolments have risen and lecture theatres are used continuously, ease of access by students to the lecturer at the end of a lecture has been reduced. Providing agreed times and places, as soon as possible thereafter, when they can get questions answered is becoming an important issue. A more radical approach to the problems of the large ‘performance’ lecture is to consider the extent to which some lectures could be removed entirely and replaced by structured exercises (i.e. resource-based learning). To some degree, those students who do not attend lectures follow this path anyway!
TUTORIALS AND SEMINARS
After the lecture, this is probably the next most widely used teaching method. The distinction between what is a tutorial and what is a seminar is woolly - to some it depends upon size (i.e. ‘a 20 person group cannot be a tutorial as it is too big and is therefore a seminar’) whereas to others the seminar has a different structure (speaker + audience) and different objectives. This last point - objectives - is certainly the most important issue, and it is probably here thatChapter 8 Methods of Teaching and Learning A Manual for Course Organizers 698.
METHODS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
The variety of teaching and learning methods which is used within a course is an important ingredient in creating a course with interest to students. A course with a large proportion of its teaching taking place in lectures will need to have a high level of intrinsic interest to students to keep them engaged. Over the past few years, a wide range of different teaching and learning methods have been introduced and tested, often with the aim of developing skills which more didactic methods are poorly adapted to do. There is a substantial literature on these methods and on how best to use them. It is not possible here to provide great detail on every possible teaching and learning method, so instead we have focused on some of the issues which could be considered by course teams when choosing the components of their course. A useful document to refer to is the Guidelines for Promoting Effective Learning, produced by the Centre for research on Learning and Instruction and also available in the TLA Centre.
1. LECTURES
Fifty-minute lectures remain the core teaching method for most undergraduate courses. Their role is best suited to providing an overview of the subject matter and stimulating interest in it, rather than disseminating facts. Lecturing to large classes is a skill which not all staff have acquired and some are not comfortable in this role, and so, where possible, a course organiser is advised to try to spread the lecturing load so as to favour those staff with best skill at it, although freedom of action in this respect is often limited! All students appreciate good quality lectures, and the key ingredients are:• clear objectives (these can be put in the course handbook, with the lecture summaries, to avoid provision of them being forgotten by individual lecturers);• clear overhead acetates or slides;• a paced delivery (the larger the class and/or the more difficult the material the slower this should be);• appropriate handouts which provide students with complex diagrams or difficult or critical text. This should not be viewed as spoon feeding. It is part of the process of ensuring that students take away the important elements from a lecture, irrespective of how well the lecture was delivered on the day. Good handouts also help to avoid the communication difficulties which can arise in any lecture where large numbers of students are present. As class enrolments have risen and lecture theatres are used continuously, ease of access by students to the lecturer at the end of a lecture has been reduced. Providing agreed times and places, as soon as possible thereafter, when they can get questions answered is becoming an important issue. A more radical approach to the problems of the large ‘performance’ lecture is to consider the extent to which some lectures could be removed entirely and replaced by structured exercises (i.e. resource-based learning). To some degree, those students who do not attend lectures follow this path anyway!
2. TUTORIALS AND SEMINARS
After the lecture, this is probably the next most widely used teaching method. The distinction between what is a tutorial and what is a seminar is woolly - to some it depends upon size (i.e. ‘a 20 person group cannot be a tutorial as it is too big and is therefore a seminar’) whereas to others the seminar has a different structure (speaker + audience) and different objectives. This last point - objectives - is certainly the most important issue, and it is probably here that Teaching and Learning Methods and Resources Part III 70 A Manual for Course Organisers most confusion exists in students’ minds (‘what are tutorials for?’), and sometimes in tutors’ minds too. Clarity of objectives is more important for tutorials than for lectures, in that there is general agreement and expectations for lectures whereas there is certainly greater divergence for tutorials. Much tutorial work is carried out by part-time staff, especially for courses in the first two years, and they too need to be clear about what they are trying to achieve with their students (see section 4.4). When asking students about tutorials, the paradoxical finding that they complain about them but ask for more/more frequent tutorials is perhaps closely related to their perception of their need for small group support but lack of clarity about what they should be getting out of what is provided. Making explicit what students should get out of tutorials can be quite a taxing exercise for the course organiser. A new addition to the tutorial format (at least for most students and staff) is that of electronic tutorials via email, sometimes managed in a WWW forum such as HyperNews. Although rather few courses outside those which are mtraditionally computer-oriented have mexperimented with these methods, they hold out mpromise for those courses where students are difficult to bring together or to enable exchanges between face-to-face sessions. The active nature of the tutorial/seminar makes it the main source for students to acquire some of the ‘personal transferable skills’, e.g. in presentation and group work.
3. LABORATORY AND PRACTICAL CLASSES
For science subjects, laboratory (lab) work is an essential ingredient of the course and some component of this is generally preserved, even though the amount may fall. In addition to the experience of lab work, students often derive a lot of their contact with staff in the lab setting,and compensation for this may be needed if lab time is significantly reduced. High quality lab work is expensive to provide, and it is important that we are sure that students do indeed gain all that they might from it, especially as the number of students present may have increased, more part-time demonstrators are used, and the frills have been trimmed to cut costs. The balance between fewer but better labs and more but simpler is not always easy to find, but is an important consideration.
4. OTHER TEACHING METHODS
Other methods that may be considered are numerous, including:• workbooks, diaries, and lab notebooks;• computer-based methods (see below);• fieldwork;• learning in hospital wards and clinics (medical and veterinary);• independent learning tasks;• essays, dissertations and projects;• library searches;• portfolios;• posters;• videos.Judicious use of them gives students the chance to use a variety of learning techniques so that each gets one or more which suits them best. If you find a possible method but are unsure how best to introduce it to your course, search out someone who has used it and pick their brains. You will probably find that TLA Centre can point you to such people, even if they may not be in the University of Edinburgh
5. STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
The University has growing numbers of students with disabilities (e.g. dyslexia) who may present particular challenges to courses with large numbers of students. For example, a profoundly deaf student may be able to follow a lecture with the help of a sign language interpreter, but will not be able to take notes at the same time. A blind student may need specialhelp with practical sessions. It is not possible to give detailed general advice on making the variety of teaching and learning methods described in this manual accessible to disabled students. However, the kind of support which they are likely to find helpful - e.g. provision of good handouts - often benefit all students. Students with disabilities are students first and foremost, and in many cases Chapter 8 Methods of Teaching and Learning A Manual for Course Organisers 71 a little thought and ingenuity on the part of lecturing staff is all that is required in order to allow them full benefit from their classes. The student will often be the best judge of what is needed; at other times the Disability Coordinator will be happy to liaise with staff (Pat Butson, Disability Co-ordinator: 650 6828; Pat.Butson@ed)
6. COMPUTER SUPPORTED LEARNING
Just as it will be the course organiser’s responsibility, in consultation with colleagues contributing to the course, to co-ordinate the availability of resources in the Library (books and reprints in the short-term loan collection, for example), all other aspects of resource-based learning will require forward planning with which the course organiser will have to be involved. Various learning technologies (such as computer and multi-media resources) are increasingly being used in support of the learning process, presenting new challenges and opportunities for staff and students. A major resource being used more frequently is the World Wide Web (WWW). An example of its use in presenting information about course content is given in Case Study 1 at the end of this chapter. Wholesale importation of computer-based learning (CBL) activities across the curriculum is unlikely to be a wise or desirable move for any course. CBL enthusiasts have been predicting significant gains in quality and nefficiency of the teaching and learning process for many years, but the realities have, as yet, been less clear cut. On the other hand, computer-based approaches in education have been subjected to more demanding criteria of evaluation than the more traditional approaches have ever had to face. One of the real benefits of the recent interest in new learning technologies has been the reassessment of our more familiar approaches, which has in itself been useful. There are undoubtedly areas of the curriculum, however, in which the appropriate and targeted use of learning technologies will be of considerable importance, affording students the opportunity to engage with materials andresources which would otherwise be impossible. In particular, the confluence of computer and communication technologies suggest exciting possibilities for the use of computer-mediatedcommunication (CMC), in the form of electronic mail or computer conferencing systems, in support of tutorial and group work. While students are facing increasing financial pressures, with the implication that many are functionally in part-time education, the asynchronous communications with teachers and peers which CMC potentially offers can ease conflict between employment and study. Many subjects, from Fine Art to Neuroanatomy, will benefit from the possibility of networked access to high quality images which may be in short supply, if not completely inaccessible, in the printed form. Computer simulations of practical exercises can allow us to address some of the problems inherent in teaching large classes, provide access to experimental domains which would not otherwise be possible for reasons of cost or personal safety, and circumvent many of the ethical difficulties associated with some areas of research. Many organisations and agencies exist which can provide help to the teacher or course organiser wishing to become involved with the use of IT in the curriculum.
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