Key Factors in Successful Teaching and Educational Technology Impact
Explore the key factors contributing to successful teaching, focusing on caring for student success and the impact of educational technology, such as Coursera. Understand the importance of engaging students, clear communication, and creating a conducive learning environment. Learn from inspirational stories highlighting the transformative power of educators who genuinely care about their students.
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Presentation Transcript
Improving University Teaching John Hopcroft Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 SJTU June 2018
The most important factor in the success of a teacher Not educational level. Not lecturing ability. Not how excited about teaching. Caring about the success of students? SJTU June 2018
Chicken Soup for a Childs Soul A college professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums to get case histories of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each boy's future. In every case the students wrote, "He hasn't got a chance." Twenty- five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to these boys. With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen. SJTU June 2018
The professor was astounded and decided to pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all the men were in the area and he was able to ask each one, "How do you account for your success?" In each case the reply came with feeling, 'There was a teacher." The teacher was still alive, so he sought her out and asked the old but still alert lady what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful achievement. The teacher's eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. "It's really very simple," she said. "I loved those boys." SJTU June 2018
Care about the success of your students. This is what is most important. SJTU June 2018
Will Coursera change education? Technology for teaching over last 1,000 years Printing press Black board TV Coursera and on line learning SJTU June 2018
Structure of my talk Teaching itself Engaging the students Communicating clearly Environment for good teaching Evaluating teaching Strong technical education need for a good job plus a broad education to handle problems the world is facing. SJTU June 2018
Engage the students Don t sit at desk and present power point slides. Stand in front of class and lecture with the tone of your voice, the movement of your hands and eyes. See if the students understand and are engaged from their facial expressions. SJTU June 2018
Focus on intellectual concepts What are the essential ideas that you want students to remember? Are the details important? Know what you are trying to achieve in your lecture. SJTU June 2018
Mathematical proofs Instead of a precise mathematical statement, state what the theorem says intuitively. Instead of a detailed precise proof, explain the intellectual steps in sufficient details so student can prove the theorem and can supply the details if he or she wants to write out the proof. SJTU June 2018
Go over your lecture Don t use power point lecture that was created five years ago. Each time you give a course, recreate the lectures and improve them. Remember where student had trouble the previous year and work on finding a better way to explain that material. SJTU June 2018
Enthusiasm for material Don t just follow someone s class outline Select material you find interesting and cover that. The actual material covered is not that important. The student learns something more than the material you cover. SJTU June 2018
Homework Homework geared to important ideas in lecture. Good examples to illustrate important points. Simple exercises that will get ideas across. Encourage students to help one another. SJTU June 2018
When I was dean of Engineering at Cornell University, the CEO s of ten of the Fortune 500 companies had graduated from Cornell Engineering. I visited each of them and asked what had they learned at Cornell that helped them be so successful? No one mentioned anything from a class they took. An education is more than what is taught in classes. SJTU June 2018
Communicate clearly Speak slowly and emphasize the first syllable of any word that is important. ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STU VWX YZ Write what is important on the board. Think about what ideas you want to get across. Respond to student s questions There is no stupid question that is an excellent question and rephrase it to convey what student need to know. SJTU June 2018
Why interested in faculty doing research? A teaching career is 40 years. Do not want faculty teaching 40 years old material . Engaging in basic research will keep faculty member teaching an up to date course. It helps faculty focus on intellectual ideas. SJTU June 2018
Ethics Any decision you make must be in the best interest of the student. I invited a student to do an internship with me at Cornell but after he accepted Microsoft made him an offer. PhD s should work with junior faculty not senior. If you care about the success of your students they will succeed. SJTU June 2018
Evaluating a teacher Enthusiasm for material Engages students Communicates clearly Responds to students questions Effective use of blackboard or power point SJTU June 2018
For those of you helping faculty to improve teaching You can improve a faculty s teaching style but not actually improve the teaching. Speaking clearly Engaging the students Writing clearly You need to also improve the content. The individual may be teaching facts not intellectual ideas. Sit in on a lecture where the faculty member is teaching. What fraction of the students are actually engaged? SJTU June 2018
Evaluation of teaching Message that teaching is important. If university presidents, deans, and department chairs know that their reputation will depend on the quality of teaching, teaching will be valued and become outstanding. Unless you improve the environment and reward structure for teaching you will not improve teaching. SJTU June 2018
University education in China is changing Improving university education important for China s stability. Premier Li Keqiang priority: improve education in China. Less emphasis on research money and number of papers. More on quality teaching and professional reputation as viewed by international experts. University presidents are getting the message. SJTU June 2018
What changes are necessary? Must improve the environment for the development of junior faculty. Do what excites them rather than work for a senior faculty member. Reduce their teaching load to one course each term. Assign them a PhD slot. Set their promotion on quality of teaching and professional reputation. Teaching will not improve until the environment is fixed. SJTU June 2018
Chinese environment Chinese environment is different for the US. You need to find strategy to improve education that is consistent with the environment. The university may have two missions: Producing the next generation of talent. Helping China with applied research. Make sure the applied research mission does not interfere with environment for teaching. SJTU June 2018
Environment for teaching Reward structure for good teaching. Remove pressure for research funding and number of papers. Develop a climate for curriculum development. Free up time of faculty member developing a course. SJTU June 2018
In addition to evaluating teaching put in place activities to improve teaching Invite a group of a few faculty to hold a session where each gives an eight minute lecture on a topic for freshman. Have others in the group evaluate the teaching style. Evaluate course material by having each faculty member in five sentence describe the content of his/her course. SJTU June 2018
Update material Bring US faculty member over. Create up to date course material. Work with several institutions in Shanghai for each visitor. SJTU June 2018
Mission of university Educate the next generation of talent and broaden their lives. The world is changing and issues arising. Technical education is important but broader skills are needed. SJTU June 2018
Broad education to handle important issues A hundred years ago the US switched from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy. Possibly it is now going from a manufacturing economy to an information economy. Automation has reduced the percentage of the people necessary to produce all the goods and services we need. Either need to reduce the size of the work force or restructure society. SJTU June 2018
Students get one life to live Help student get into a career they will enjoy. Much of education is outside the classroom. A students job will be a big piece of their life. Help your students understand how the world is changing. SJTU June 2018
Conclusion Don t just lecture to your students but engage them. We should do that now. Rather than my continuing lecturing I would like to engage you in a discussion. SJTU June 2018
Thank you SJTU June 2018
