I am participating in an online course at P2PU, on "How to teach webcraft and programming to free-range students", mentored by Greg Wilson. I figured it would be a good opportunity to learn a bit on how to teach programming outside a normal classroom, specially since I am interested in teaching computing at the NGO in which I volunteer. Also, I think it will be interesting to compare perspectives from different cultures.
The first task we must address is to compare the recommendations given by the Institution of Educational Sciences (IES) report on "Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning" with our own experience on teaching or being taught. Since I don't have much experience on teaching, I will discuss my experience as a learner.
#1: Space learning over time. (Arrange to review key elements of course content after a delay of several weeks to several months after initial presentation.)
This is something that wasn't often done in the courses I've taken, besides reviewing all content prior to the exam. However, in various occasions I found myself returning to earlier material to reinforce my learning.
#2: Interleave worked example solutions with problem-solving exercises. (Have students alternate between reading already worked solutions and trying to solve problems on their own.)
In most of the programming classes I've taken, this practice was used. However, in some occasions we didn't had time to solve the problems during class. I believe I got the most out when we had classes with time to solve problems during the class. However, in the courses that my advisor teaches, where I had the experience to assist him, in more than one occasion students wouldn't attend the class dedicated to exercises and problem-solving.
#3: Combine graphics with verbal descriptions. (Combine graphical presentations (e.g., graphs, figures) that illustrate key processes and procedures with verbal descriptions.)
One of the recommendations for making presentations in the research group I am part of, is to balance graphics and texts for explaining concepts. I believe that this is a great practice, although my experience as a learner has quite a handful of bad examples: slides with a bunch of text being read in front of the class.
#4: Connect and integrate abstract and concrete representations of concepts. (Connect and integrate abstract representations of a concept with concrete representations of the same concept.)
Another recommendation from my research group that I find really useful and quite related to the above is this: Always put the concrete example before the abstract, as people tend to quickly understand concrete over abstract. Use concrete first, and if you have time/space, then define the general, abstract concept.
#5: Use quizzing to promote learning. (Use quizzing with active retrieval of information at all phases of the learning process to exploit the ability of retrieval directly to facilitate long-lasting memory traces.)
I haven't been exposed to this method, although I do believe that quick quizzes right after a class could be helpful, for example. I know of one professor at my university that does small exams periodically to evaluate the students. (I haven't taken his class)
#6: Help students allocate study time efficiently. (Assist students in identifying what material they know well, and what needs further study, by teaching children how to judge what they have learned.)
This is also something that wasn't explored by my teachers. I believe this happened mostly because it might take too much time and effort to assess students individually. However, I did had teachers help me individually when I looked for them. This reminds of what I discussed in #2, that sometimes the (university) student is not that interested in learning besides what he needs to not fail the course.
#7: Ask deep explanatory questions. (Use instructional prompts that encourage students to pose and answer “deep-level” questions on course material. These questions enable students to respond with explanations and supports deep understanding of taught material.)
I've took some courses under the problem-based learning approach, where we were asked to reflect on the big picture, going beyond the problem we were tackling. But as Greg points out in his blog, it is difficult to assess the understanding of the student in this case.
That's it for task #1.
