Professor Feedback #1 - General Physiology Phy 503: Review Session
Professor Feedback #1- Reflection
Reflection for 1st professor reviews
What did you feel went well in the class session?
Once the students understood what I meant for the concept map, I think they really liked it. I like to give them various forms of ways to study. So I think this was something new to some of them. And maybe if being able to see it in a big picture helps them, they can use this in the future. I do like going over the different channels step by step instead of seeing it all as one picture. This way I can explain how to read the pictures, and know that they have seen it go step by step, though it is more work for me.
What would you like to change about this class session if you had to teach it again?
I would give an example of what a concept map is and how we were going to draw it. That way they know exactly what is expected of them. I had assumed everyone had seen a concept map before. So next time I need to not assume they have seen a particular study option. I didn’t have time to do every line one by one when giving them the answer. But once I started going over the answer, it would have been nice to have.
In light of the observer’s comments, what aspects of your teaching approach will you look at changing in the future? How will you do this?
I have noticed before that when I get nervous I am more likely to go over the agenda to take up time and for me to have time to reflect on what we are doing. However, when I have it (powerpoint lecture) in front of me and don’t need to go over it to feel comfortable, I forget to. It is something I often forget about. So having a page on the front that shows the agenda will make me remember to go over it. Also, it was hard in this room, but even using dry erase markers to fill in drawn things that would be step by step so I don’t have to do it on powerpoint would be nice.
What have you found useful/not so useful about the observation process?
I like seeing things from a different point of view. Sometimes if someone asks me a question I don’t have the answer to I feel horrible about it the whole time, and I’ll feel like the session was a disaster. But the professor didn’t notice how flustered I felt. So it’s nice to know that people won’t discredit me if I don’t know everything. I agree in somethings, it is nice to pull in an overview of the complicated picture before I start breaking it down. However, sometimes showing a full picture with many details in it, can be intimidating. And I like breaking it down into tiny pieces and then pulling it all together. So I think that somewhat depends on the person’s learning style and what we’re going over.
Professor Feedback #2 - Cell Physiology PHY 595: Leading Class discussion using a case study
Professor Feedback #2 - Reflection
Reflection questions on Second Observation
1. What did you feel went well in this class session? This was the first time I tried using a numbering technique in class. In previous classes I have noticed a few people answer questions more than others, especially when the topic is Biochemistry and they know it better. So I wanted to make sure those people didn’t dominate this class as well. I told them ahead of time I felt like this made it seem less personal, because I’m using numbers not names, but that it was so I unbiasedly called upon students to answer or read. And this way they started off the class knowing at one point they will be reading and at one point they will answer an application question. I was lucky that the students had been split up into random groups for the whole semester, so by this time when we all gathered as one class they were quite comfortable with each other. That way when I called on a person and they didn’t know the answer, they could call on a friend and no one seemed uncomfortable about it. They had also talked to me a lot throughout the course working through questions, so they simply said they weren’t sure on the answer and waited to work through it. I also liked rewording the answer or drawing it out for people after someone answered. It is a small classroom, but giving people another chance to jot down the answer, or hear it in a new way could have helped. And sometimes in their groups I have to ask if everyone understood the answer to a question they were discussing and every now and then I catch that one or two group members will proceed without the others. Or other people will not speak up if they are the only ones not understanding it. So I wanted to double check that wasn’t happening.
2. What would you like to change about this class session if you had to teach it again? I had a couple people show up late and I did not do another recap of what we were doing. Since it was such a high portion of the small class, doing so would have helped those that came late. I also added the pictures later on in my planning, so I wasn’t as familiar with them as I wanted to be. Because I had them appear on the screen I wasn’t sure exactly what was coming next and it might have come off as I wasn’t prepared. Having it up on a different screen has helped me before, I just didn’t think I needed it with so few slides. And having hand written questions down would have helped. I asked a couple questions to gauge what they knew previously to the case study from other classes. But having it written down would have kept me from pausing to think of more questions. Even though all in all it didn’t take up much of the class time.
3. In the light of the observer’s comments, what aspects of your teaching approach will you look at changing in the future? How will you do this? I did like the comment on the type of questions to use to guide them to the correct answer. I do tend to pick easier concept questions and straight lead them hand by hand to the answer. I think I partly do this so I know it’s something they can grasp quickly and to boost confidence to keep going with the answers. But since this is a discussion based course they can ponder things awhile. I also tend to feel stuck when students are all confused and staring at me waiting for an explanation, like I want to give them something quickly. Instead of responding with another application question they again might be confused about.
4. What have you found useful/not so useful about the observation process? This was different than my review sessions I lead. In the review sessions the students can choose to come if they need to. I pick the topics I think they need help with and develop a lesson plan around that, including things from class or the book. Because this one was a case study with predetermined questions and answers it was a little more of me figuring out how to do this particular thing and not so much I pick whatever I want. So I had to figure out how to address the reading, the background information, how to get everyone involved, and how to make sure I kept everyone on task. Because the audience wasn’t just filled with people interested in this specific topic because they needed help. And it was just nice that everyone knew who I was and gave me control of the class without really asking about it, since we had not warned them ahead of time. A few times I had to turn to the professor for really specific questions about diabetes but other than that it was just me and them. So I liked leading a discussion class versus a review session. We had far less to go over and more just fun conversations. And having the whole class work together versus go around to three different groups was also a nice change compared to how we normally run class.