Course Planning (Part 3)

Course Planning  (Part 3)

*Plan and Teach to Foster success in your students

As you plan your courses and teach them, remember three 3 important goals to foster success in your students:

acquisition of knowledge that can be used and applied

development of self confidence

learning to take responsibility for their own learning and professional development

Thanks to Lois Peck and Diane Morel for making these student success goals so clear.

Plan what kind of time schedule make the most sense for your courses now

We will be doing zero-based scheduling next year. This means that the registrar will be planning all of the courses from scratch and not using this year's schedule to plan next year's schedule. Thus, we are in a window of opportunity to really think about what makes sense for our courses in terms of scheduling. For example, would larger blocks of time (but meeting less frequently) meet your needs better than 50 minute classes. Literature from both adult education and secondary education indicates that longer blocks of time promote more interactive learning activities and seem to support increased learning. However, you need to really re-think or perhaps learn about how to use all time effectively. Once you make these decisions, please convey your rationale to the person in your department who is responsible for making the scheduling request for next year.

Helping students to succeed with changes you are making to your courses

Are you planning to change the way you run your courses next semester? Perhaps you want to incorporate more learning-centered teaching, a different evaluation scheme, or requiring students to hand in drafts or parts of a project before the final copy is due, but are afraid that the student will not accept the changes or will not be able to do well with them. For any of these changes, you need to build in enough structure and guidelines to help the students overcome their resistance or learn how to succeed. You might want to write a rationale in your syllabi and go over the rationale repeatedly in class. You need to spend time convincing the students why they need to move from their current, perhaps overly dependent state, to becoming autonomous learners.

*Helping students to understand your syllabi or how you are teaching

If you are innovating how your course is being run, using a different assessment process than usually done by others or if you have a complicated series of events for the students, make sure all of this is spelled out in the syllabus. To get the students to read and understand these directions, assessments, events, etc. tell the students they will be responsible for the material on the syllabi for the second class. Then in that class play a short quiz game on the way your course will be run to insure student understanding.

Planning for the functions of content coverage in your courses

Currently many faculty see the function of content is to build strong knowledge foundations. While we all agree this is important, the more comprehensive functions of content should be to develop learning skills and learner self-awareness as well as to build knowledge. As you are planning your specific teaching and learning transactions for next semester (this is not just what you will cover, but how you will get the students to learn the content) think of approaches that do not separate learning strategies from content. The implication of this is that teachers cover less, but students learn more.

Setting the right tone for your class, getting to know your students

Early on in the semester, have a discussion with the students (can be in small groups, with summaries reported back to you) about what they expect in a class. What have they liked or disliked about classes in the past? Ask whose responsibilities is it to establish or maintain such a climate or a policy? This short discussion can give you insights into how to improve your class and promotes learning centered teaching.

*Still time to revise your syllabi

As the first week of the semester draws to a close, it is a good time to make a few changes in your syllabi. Before doing so gather some data from your students. Perhaps they would like to see the test dates or due dates for assignments modified a little bit to ease their overly heavy days. Do the students understand what is expected of them? Perhaps you need to elaborate on what you want them to do. After seeing who is registered for the class, do you need to modify the schedule a little? Perhaps you need to spend more or less time on the introductory material at the beginning of the semester. Did enough copies of the textbook arrive at the book store or do you need to modify some early assignments? These are the types of minor modifications that you can make now and will go a long way to improving student learning and satisfaction in your course.

Thinking about trying some thing different next semester

Are you thinking of trying something different in your courses next semester? Perhaps you are thinking of trying a different way to assess students, a new policy, or trying a different teaching and learning transaction. If you are ready, pilot test this new strategy in one of your courses this semester for the next few weeks. Then gather feedback from the students as to how you can improve it and did it lead to greater learning, student satisfaction, engagement with the subject matter, etc.

Looking at your policies

As you preplan your courses, or educational programs, please take a close look at all of your policies. As you review each policy ask yourself, "How does this policy help students to take responsibility for their own learning?" Alternatively ask yourself, "how much does this policy encourage students' dependence on us for their learning and their decision making?"

Source :
http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/planning.shtml © 2011 University of the Sciences in Philadelphia • 60

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