Author: Yosefa Ehrlich

Each semester, I open my class by explaining to my students that, as a graduate student adjunct lecturer, I’m in the unique position of simultaneously being a student and a teacher. I understand, I assure them, the fatigue of sitting through a 3-hour lecture class. While that acknowledgement builds a sense of shared experience, it also holds me accountable be more creative in my teaching approach.

 

But why is it so easy to feel bored in the classroom, and what can we do about it? In the age Vimeo, Vine, Snapchat, and Instagram, educators need to adjust to accommodate increasingly shorter attention spans. Neuroscience research has demonstrated that students can sustain their attention for only ~15-20 minutes before drifting. Students are also increasingly dependent on multimodal presentations of information (Metros, 2008), for example through visual graphics in articles, accompanying pictures in textbooks, and readily available video streams to supplement written material. According to the cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (CATLM; Moreno 2005a), humans have separate neural channels for perceiving information, and we have limited capacity to receive information through the same sensory modality (visual v. auditory v. tactile etc.). Information enters into long-term memory as a joint function of the number of streams in which information enters, along with motivational factors, and emotional salience (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). Taken together, this research tells us that, as educators, we should be incorporating more breaks into our classes, presenting information in multiple ways, and creating a meaningful connection to the material.

 

In keeping with this research, trends in education have shifted towards active learning. This refers to instructional methods that engage students in the learning process through meaningful activities (Prince, 2004). These methods stand in contrast to the passive learning that occurs when students receive information in a single representation (verbal v. non-verbal material) and single sensory modality (auditory v. visual input) (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). Along the same vein, educators are focusing on collaborative learning, which describes group work where students interact to pursue a common goal. In addition to encouraging more active learning, these strategies incentivize cooperation and more closely mirror the collaborative demands of many work environments. There has also been a push towards problem-based learning in which instructors introduce a real-world problem and provide context and motivation. These strategies often result in self-directed learning as the students seek novel resources and learn to navigate complex problems in a context that feels relevant to career aims.  All of these strategies share a common goal of allowing students to interact more deeply with the material and one another in order to improve educational outcomes.

 

Over the past several years, the WAC fellows and coordinators have compiled a wonderful collection of active learning strategies that can be applied across disciplines (for some discipline-specific ideas, see: Emerson & Taylor, 2004; Gee, 2003, Knight & Wood, 2005; Metros, 2008). Keep in mind that these activities will likely require some tweaking to fit the needs of your course. In general, it is important to be specific in your assignment, transparent about the activity’s function, and clear about where students can turn for help. When having students engage in group work, be sure to clarify whether they will be graded individually or as a group. Always be mindful of your role as an instructor in each activity. Decide whether you will you serve as facilitator, participant, supervisor etc.

 

Here is a selection of activities/strategies:

 

• Graffiti: Pose a question, quote, or bit of text. Ask students to spend several minutes responding in the form of a free-write. Have students select specific words or phrases from their notes and ask them each to come up and write them on the board. After all the students have written their responses, engage in a class discussion about the range of responses. You can help identify trends across reactions.
• Chalkboard annotation: WAC fellow Hilarie Ashton uses a similar strategy to graffiti in her classes. She writes a question, quote, or bit of text on top of a large sheet of oak tag or the board. She asks her students to come to the front of the room at the same time and write their responses directly on the sheet. In addition to having her students think more deeply about the material, this encourages them to converse with each other and share ideas in more intimate conversations.
• Concept maps: Help students engage with a question or topic by depicting the relationships among related concepts pictorially. Students should aim to form connections among arguments, evidence, and themes in order to deepen familiarity with the concept. More information can be found here: (http://sites.nd.edu/kaneb/2016/02/15/using-small-group-concept-mapping-for-active-learning/).
• Debate: Pose a controversial or complex argument and split the class into two teams to debate its merits/drawbacks. Debates can be quite formal by requiring preparation and setting high stakes (e.g., extra credit on a quiz or one homework pass), or they can be held informally to encourage extemporaneous reasoning.
• Role-playing: George Guida, one of the WAC faculty coordinators, recently shared this example from his writing course. In order to help his students learn character composition, he has students come to class “in character”. Classmates will interview the character about his/her life experiences, beliefs, relationships etc. This allows students to deeply consider character traits, brainstorm new directions for their writing, and provide one another with feedback.
• Instant feedback: Hand each student three post-it notes: red, yellow, and green. After explaining a complex or new concept, gauge student understanding by asking them to stick one of the post-its to their desk: red shows they don’t understand, yellow signifies tentative understanding, and green means they’re good to move ahead.
• Think-pair-share: Ask students to consider a concept, quote, text etc. and free-write for several minutes. Have them pair up with a partner to share their reflections. Come back together as a group to discuss.
• Snowball: Open the class by asking students to write questions about course material or homework readings on a piece of paper. Have them crumple their papers and toss them into the center of the room. Towards the end of the class, have each student select a “snowball” and try to respond to their classmate’s question. Randomly select several to review as a class.

 

For more information about these techniques, be sure to join us for our WAC faculty workshop, Creative Classrooms, on Thursday, March 22 from 1:00-2:15 PM in N601A.

 

 

References:

Emerson, T. L. N., & Taylor, B. A. (2004). Comparing student achievement across experimental and lecture-oriented sections of a principles of microeconomics course. Southern Economic Journal, 70(3), 672-93.

 

Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.

 

Knight, J. K., & Wood, W. B. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell Biology Education, 4, 298-310.

 

Metros, S. E. (2008). The educator’s role in preparing visually literate learners. Theory into Practice, 47(2), 102-9.

 

Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments. Educ Psychol Rev, 19, 309-26.

 

Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-31.

 

 

 

 

Everyone has experienced the visceral sensations of heart racing and stomach churning that accompany receiving a returned paper covered in red markings. It is perhaps no surprise that red, the color that instructors have historically selected to critique writing, has been shown to raise blood pressure. For many of us, receiving feedback can be difficult under most circumstances. Yet there is something uniquely personal about having our writing critiqued. As writing reflects our best effort to communicate our inner thoughts, criticism of writing can quickly escalate from consideration of skills to a judgment about the soundness of our thoughts and ideas. This can feel threatening. Considering the power differential that inherently exists between professors and students, heavy critiques can leave students feeling insulted and dehumanized. In this post, I will argue that certain kinds of feedback to written assignments can interfere with course aims and offer suggestions for providing positive and constructive written feedback to student work.

 

Grading papers is time-consuming and can test the nerves. Because of the need to grade many papers quickly, feedback is often cryptic or incomplete. Within the context of a time-crunch, encountering similar or repeated mistakes can be doubly frustrating and cloud the instructor’s judgment, resulting in sarcastic or harsh comments. It should be no surprise that students are often quite perceptive of these shortcomings. In an effort to characterize this, Spandel and Stiggins (1990) interviewed students about their reactions to common instructor comments, such as “needs to be more concise,” “be more specific,” “you haven’t really thought this through,” and “try harder”. Students reacted with a range of responses, such as “I thought you wanted details and support,” “I tried and it didn’t pay off,” ”I guess I blew it,” and “maybe I am trying as hard as I can”. The authors concluded that negative comments often left students “bewildered, hurt, or angry.”

 

It is important to recognize the ways in which students’ negative feelings may interfere with course goals. The cognitive science literature shows that the experience of negative emotions is associated with activation of the physiological fear/stress system. Once activated, the amygdala, or primitive “emotional brain”, has the effect of momentarily dampening activity in the hippocampus, another primitive structure highly implicated in learning and memory. Accordingly, meaningful learning is blocked when students feel emotionally aroused.

 

There are multiple tools instructors can use to avoid this outcome. As a starting point, it is helpful to recall the purpose of commenting on written assignments: to facilitate improvement. This is most applicable when an assignment is scaffolded through multiple drafts. Comments on a draft have the ability to provide targeted instruction, helpful advice, and honest encouragement that motivate the student to continue. Having students refine and reconceptualize thoughts through the process of writing multiple drafts can be highly didactic. To that end, instructor comments can be instrumental in guiding the student towards higher learning.

 

When commenting on a student draft, a series of hierarchical questions can help maintain focus. The highest order questions surround whether the overarching goals of the assignment are being met. If the paper is so far off target, other comments are irrelevant. After establishing that the paper is on track, the instructor should focus on whether there is a clear thesis, how effectively the evidence supports an argument, and whether the overall organization is coherent. From there, it is helpful to focus on how clearly the writing is conveying and relating arguments. Specifically, Bean (2011) explains that writing ought be organized so that new thoughts/ideas build on previously state information with which the reader has already been familiarized. Finally, questions of grammar, punctuation, and spelling should be addressed. In order to maximizing the likelihood that students receive this feedback well, it is helpful to balance positive and negative elements. Returning to Spandel and Stiggins (1990) study, they found that positive and highly specific comments contributed to increased confidence and motivation to continue working on the paper.

 

If written feedback during the drafting stage is designed to help shape and motivate, comments on a final paper serve the goal of judging. Presumably, the guidance provided on earlier drafts facilitated student learning while improving the final outcome. To that end, comments on a final paper should be focused on larger themes and higher-order skills. A final paper often includes an end comment that both justifies the grade and helps the writer understand exactly how the paper could have been stronger. Drawing on the research discussed above, a helpful format is to couch the feedback between a discussion of strengths and recommendations for revisions. The feedback itself should be comprised of a brief summary of a few issues. A laundry list of problems at this stage suggests that there was a lapse somewhere along the writing process.

 

In summary, instructors should provide careful and thoughtful feedback designed to encourage learning and maximize student motivation. Negative comments on written work can have unintended consequences and interfere with pedagogical goals. During initial drafts, feedback should be presented hierarchically to encourage further development of ideas. Comments on a final paper should be more concise and targeted toward encouraging better work going forward.

I would like to propose a harmless exercise in fear-induction.

Approach 5 people at random and ask them their feelings about or experiences with statistics. Observe the signs of visceral reaction. Note the rapid change of facial expression: the anxious wrinkling of the forehead, the fearful widening of the eyes, and the distasteful downturn of the mouth. Behold the shoulder tensing, heavy sighing, and gut clenching. Steady yourself for the diatribes about how many majors were avoided or doctoral degrees went unearned because of the insurmountable obstacle of statistics.

As a statistics instructor for the past 3 years, I have been met with the entire spectrum of reactions, from disbelief to outright hostility to subdued dejection. In fact, I open my class each semester by recounting one such conversation to my students. Without belaboring the details, it involved an uncle at a family gathering, a long-winded account of his “college days” and an overturned bowl of soup.

Needless to say, the challenge of teaching statistics extends beyond the mere instruction of complex and abstract concepts. All statistics instructors must function as dual teachers and psychotherapists. Creating a safe environment, scaffolding implementation of new techniques, and working collaboratively to achieve goals are all essential to ensuring student buy-in and improving academic outcomes. In line with the Writing Across the Curriculum tradition and Karen Y. Holmes’ 2011 article, I argue that incorporating both formal and informal writing into statistics courses can serve three simultaneous functions that facilitate student learning and (dare I say) improve the blighted public image of statistics! I will argue that use of writing assignments can: 1) deepen understanding of course material, 2) improve statistical reasoning skills, and 3) reduce anxiety surrounding the material.

Low-stakes assignments to deepen conceptual understanding
There is perhaps no gentler tune to the ear of an anxious statistics student than the phrase “this will not be graded.” Incorporating low-stakes, informal writing assignments into your statistics course will increase students’ familiarity with course material, consolidate complex concepts, and reinforce the importance of clear and concise writing. By promising students that these assignments will not be graded for content, but rather for completion and/or effort, you can also help allay their anxieties while improving class participation and attendance. Here are several ideas for such assignments:

Entrance and Exit Slips (Stromberg & Ramanathan, 1996)
Pose short questions to students at either the beginning or ending of class to complete on index cards. Questions can cover course material, such as “Provide an example where the median would be a more appropriate measure of central tendency than the mean.” They can also probe for student understanding. For example, asking “What was one concept from today’s lecture you don’t understand” will help the instructor gauge students’ progress and allot class time to relevant topics. By writing in the small space allotted in an index cards, students will also become more adept at conveying ideas with brevity. Answers will be graded 0 (absent, completely off-topic) or 1 (attempts to answer topic, provides reasonable response). This practice has been shown to substantially increase class attendance and was positively received by 90% of students sampled in one class (Stromberg & Ramanathan, 1996).

Compare and Contrast Assignments (Holmes, 2011)
One of the common points of confusion in my statistics classes surrounds terminology. What’s the difference between Type I and Type II error? How does the alpha level relate to the critical regions? How do I differentiate between the independent and dependent variable? Writing is a wonderful tool for detangling complex relationships between concepts. Pose short writing assignments in class asking students to spend 5 minutes identifying the similarities and differences between related concepts. Have students swap assignments and peer review. Then review the correct answers together to ensure accurate comprehension and consider using visual aids, such as flow charts. To make the material stick, consider dividing the class into two groups; assign each group one concept (e.g., the independent variable group v. the dependent variable group). Ask them to list factors that identify their unique group and have the students engage in a mini debate about their relative value.

A Meaningful Paragraph (Jordan, 2008)
This short assignment can be posed two or three times during the semester. Created by the entomologist Elaine Backus, writing a meaningful paragraph involves crafting a paragraph that coherently incorporates several key terms. For example, ask students to write a paragraph using the following terms: population, sample, data and variable (Holmes, 2011). Ask them to couch the paragraph in a real context (e.g., in reporting on a recent study) that demonstrates they understand the relationship between these concepts. To grade, assign 1 point for each concept that was clearly explained.

Six O’clock Evening News Assignments (Beins, 1993)
How often have we heard students ask, “but how is this used in the real world?” Nip this line of questioning in the bud by providing students with a data set, asking them to perform the appropriate statistical analyses to answer the empirical question and then prepare a one-page press release that is entirely free of statistical terminology. Ask them how they would present this information on the six o’clock evening news. Setting the expectation that they are writing for the general public will help them minimize jargon and realize their role as daily consumers of statistical information.

Formal writing assignments to improve statistical reasoning skills
Many statistics courses include a formal paper assignment that involves conducting or proposing an experiment and writing an APA-style laboratory report. Stromberg and Ramanthan (1996) found that while poor grades in such assignments were at times related to students not understanding the material, more often, grades suffered because students did not read the instructions carefully, presented opinions rather than arguments, and failed to formulate facts into a coherent thesis. To address these issues, here are several tips:

1.  Improve students’ comprehension of empirical journal articles by providing a      worksheet that helps guide them through the process (Dunn, 1996). For example, enumerate several concepts they should identify throughout the paper: motivation/rationale, hypothesis statements, proposed methods to test aims, main statistical results, discussion of results couched in terms of significance etc. Provide a skeleton outline that they can complete with this information to help them become more familiar with the process of reading empirical articles.

2.  Scaffold the assignment through having students complete a skeleton outline of the paper. This will be worth 10 points of the final paper. Craft careful and thorough prompts to help them complete each section. Do not leave your students guessing about what kinds of answers you are seeking. Identify which sections should include numbers and which should be relatively free of statistical jargon. Provide feedback in the form of reflective prompts for incorrect answers (e.g., “What makes this the dependent variable? Is it being manipulated or measured?”).

3.  Spend one class session engaging in peer evaluation to review first drafts. Have students bring 2 copies of a draft to class. They submit one copy to the instructor for 1 point. The other copy is swapped with classmates. Provide students the same evaluation rubric you plan to use for grading and ask them to grade one another’s work. Award 1 point for completing a thoughtful evaluation of peers’ work. Peer evaluations have been shown to minimize the likelihood that students lose points for basic mistakes (e.g., not reading the instructions carefully) (Stromberg and Ramanathan, 1996). It also gives students a sense of their peers’ performance, which may be reinforcing for strong students or motivating for weaker students. Finally, it teaches students the process of writing more than one draft.

Self-Reflection to Alleviate Anxiety
Holmes (2011) proposes assigning a journal to students at the outset of a statistics class where they can engage in reflection on their progress in the course. By writing about their worries, particularly before exams, they are more likely to identify the areas where they are having the most difficulty and dedicate more time to studying those topics. They can also reflect back on their progress, noting whether their fears before exams and assignments were reasonable based on their performance or else catastrophized. Encouraging students to occasionally share their reflections will model that they are not alone in their anxiety and perhaps facilitate better class cohesion.

In summary, writing is a powerful tool for improving student outcomes, particularly in classes that have a negative stigma. Incorporating low-stakes informal assignments and scaffolded, clear and meaningful formal assignments will help foster greater depth of processing, organize related concepts into clear networks, and define how statistics can fit into a larger network of ideas reflected in the real world.

 

References:

Beins, B. C. (1993). Writing assignments in statistics classes encourage students to learn interpretation. Teaching of Psychology, 20(3), 161-4.

Dunn, D. S. (1996). Collaborative Writing in a Statistics and Research Methods Course. Teaching of Psychology, 23(1), 38-40.

Holmes, K. Y. (2011). Tips for incorporating writing into an introductory statistics course. Association for Psychological Science Observer, 25(1). https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/tips-for-incorporating-writing-into-an-introductory-statistics-course

Jordan, J. (2008). Writing assignments in an introductory statistics course. In CAUSE Teaching and Learning Webinar Series; May 13, 2008. https://www.causeweb.org/ webinar/teaching/2008-05/.

Stromberg, A. J. & Ramanathan, S. (1996). Easy Implementation of writing in introductory statistics courses. The American Statistician, 50(2), 159-63.