Adjunct of the Year

I was nominated for Adjunct of the Year at SCC. Here is a copy of my nomination:

Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award

Nomination Form

Fall 2009 – spring 2010

Nominee: Mitch Harden

Division: Social Sciences; Psychology

Has this person taught a minimum of four semesters at SCC? Yes, Mitch began teaching in the fall08’. _______________________________________________

Why is this person deserving of this award?  (Reasons for nomination could include, but are not limited to, quality of instruction, innovative teaching, concern for learning and for students, and accessibility to students. This material will be includedon the ballot.

Mitch Harden has been with SCC since the fall of 2008. He taught as a temporary full-time faculty member in the spring 09’. He has taught 19 sections of PSY-101 over the last five semesters. The need we have at SCC is primarily for adjuncts to teach the General Intro to Psychology course. Mitch has met and far exceeded the work of an adjunct instructor. He teaches his classes with hands on views of psychology and makes the class the most interesting and enjoyable experience he can for his students each and every class. He utilizes humor and YouTube clips into just about every concept he depicts. He is research oriented and well versed in his field of neuropsychology. Mitch developed a new Special Topics course last summer, The Mind, Brain, and Behavior. He made a very difficult course understandable and interesting to the novice learner. He also is developing another Special Topics course this summer, Psychology of Film and the Media. This course will likely be a big hit with summer students looking for an interesting psychology elective. They do not yet know they are in for an amazing ride. Mitch also offers to do seminars on campus. He presented at the Scary Movie Marathon and had over 250 students on an evening for a Psychology of Fear talk. The feedback from students was commendable. Mitch has taken on the role of mentor to other adjunct faculty that he has helped to recruit and train from UMSL graduate school programs. He takes the role very seriously, observing their classes, offering feedback, giving suggestions for improvement and sharing with the Program Coordinator. I can’t say enough about what a worthy adjunct faculty member Mitch Harden is and how is so deserving of this honor as Adjunct Faculty member of the Year for Business and Social Sciences.

Name: Beth Finders, Psychology Program Coordinator

           

Course Evaluations Fall 2009: Mind, Brain and Behavior

Psychology 290-40: Mind, Brain, and Behavior	Average Score (out of 5)
Demonstrates knowledge and skills in the subject area	4.90
Makes classroom presentations that are understandable and clear	4.65
Is enthusiastic about the subject matter	4.85
Treats all students in class with respect	4.95
Deals fairly with students in this class	4.90
Makes presentations that enhance learning	4.75
Is prepared for each class session	4.65
Is concerned that students learn something meaningful in this class	4.75
Encourages student participation and questions	4.80
Returns tests and/or assignments quickly enough to help me in the rest of the course	4.65
Uses appropriate teaching tools effectively	4.85
Coves the topics that are listed in the syllabus	4.75
Gives tests that correspond to lectures, discussions, assigned readings, and other course activities	4.80
Uses allotted class time effectively	4.85
Is available for help during his scheduled office hours	4.81
Starts and ends class on time	4.95
The student has acquired knowledge, skills and/or abilities in this course	100%
I would recommend this course to others	100%
I would recommend this instructor to others	100%
I actively sought assistance from this instructor outside of scheduled class times	35%
This Course is a requirement for my degree or certificate	70%
My Grades reflect the effort I put into class	84%
My level of effort in this class was	3.65
Absences	2.06
Expected Grade	2.71
Actual Class Average	2.78

Open ended Student Comments:

1. Please write any comments you have about the instructor, the course, or the text to explain or expand upon your ratings:

• "Very Interesting class. I learned a lot. It was my favorite class"
• "Best teacher I have had. Funny."
• "I enjoyed the instructors method of teaching. The course was very fun but I must say I did not even use the book, I didn't need to, the instructor was very thorough."
• "Funny instructor, boring course material, and decent text book. Without the comedic interjections and anicdotes [sic] from the instructor, the class would have been unbearable. Good job linking the extremely dry and boring material to real life scenarios and interesting stories."
• "The instructor is knowledgeable in subject he is teaching which helps in learning the material."
• "Your tidbites [sic] of extra info are very helpful."
• "Instructor was very educated in the subject and was very easy to understand and could relate the subject well to students."
• "Instructor is well informed, good sense of humor."
• "Mitch you are the best instructor. You crack me up."
• "More time for papers."
• "Teacher is very passionate about his field and is an awesome teacher."
• "Great with talking to younger people."
• "Fun instructor."
• "The instructor made this class fun which helps keep you interested in learning the material."
• "Good teacher, humorous. Course was tough, but good. Text: Ok."

2. What elements of this course were most effective for you as a learner?

• "The slides/notes being online + videos."
• "Having the slides on WebCT did help."
• "The stuff about mental Disorders."
• "The relation between class material and the real world."
• "Teacher was informative and entertaining"
• "Presentations as a visual aide helps to communicate the material effectively."
• "Lectures are awesome power points could use some work."
• "The science reviews, although difficult to reada t first, were very interesting."
• "power points"
• "ALL"
• "The lectures"
• "I liked having notes available online, then I could take them to class + add to them"
• "The way Mr. Harden tought [sic] each day."
• "Text book"
• "The environment and personality of the instructor =)"
• "Quizzes ppt his personal experience + lectures"

3. Please provide any suggestions you have to improve this course.

• "go a little slower"
• "When it comes to the brain we know alot about it, but there are more components in the brain than we know. So please take it slow."
• "less hard words + tests."
• "Loose the requirement of the book."
• "Give a more narrow test matter. Star powerpoints so we know what's more important."
• "Just have one written assignment."
• "If possible, grade tests/assignments quicker and keep WebCT grades up to date."
• "handouts - return info on papers"
• "Not a fan of short answer questions."
• "maybe have study guides each test."
• "All good!"
• "Have slides available on WebCT before lectures so we can take notes on them."
• " =) "
• "Online quizzes were helpful. You should do those for all chapters b/c it forces us tor ead for content for specific topics. Better choices in the science reviews please. Interesting none the less. Some were hard to interpret but they are necessary for any psychologist's / scientist's future. Work longer on first chapter. Stress all the structures and have more reinforcement for that chapter. (e.g. more wks in class focus)"

4. Other comments?

• "great class!"
• "Loved the class even though I might not have done so well?"
• "nope"
• "More assignments, b/c I suck at taking tests with my whole test anxiety issue"
• "Maybe more review for tests? =) "
• "Keep it up. Best teacher I've had. By far the funniest and most exciting."
• "You rock, can't wait for the summer."
• "Awesome."
• "Make review sheets! This is a hard course. But good. Review sheets will definitely help."

SoTL Teaching Log #4

This week I got to put on my mentor cap again. This time I observed another friend of mine who I will refer to as Virginia.

This is Ginny's first teaching experience (maybe she TA'd before) and so I was prepared for the usual batch of rookie mistakes. But she did really well. Her voice was shaky which she later explained was because of me. She apparently was really nervous about being observed. I had tried to prepare her by talking about how I'm not judging her, and that the goal is only to help her improve. None of my observations are for punitive purposes. I try hard not to be intimidating but I guess it makes anyone nervous to be evaluated.

One error that Ginny made several times is walking to the opposite corner of the classroom to turn off lights when the light switch is also right behind her on the wall. Ooops! Minor to be sure, but I think it also highlights a lack of exploration in the classroom. For college professors we often don't get to use the same classroom every semester, so I think it is important to familiarize yourself with the technology in your room(s) at the start of each of semester.

Ginny did very good at engaging her students; she use analogies and metaphors well and gave plenty of practical implications for information presented. This sort of connection is essential to pull students into the class and make them care about the content. Psychology should be exciting for all students (not just psych majors) and Ginny certainly did a good job of that. I did notice that she taught some material entirely differently than the way I teach it. Although I really like the way I do it, I think that Ginny's approach was perfect for her style. It can sometimes be difficult to discount my personal bias for the way to deliver certain material, but objectively speaking her way was effective and engaging so I can't honestly find any fault with it.

When showing video clips Ginny did a good job of setting up the clip and then discussing the clip afterward. Her clips were relevant and tied to lecture and so students stayed engaged through the clip and were interested in participating int he discussion.

In fact, Ginny's students were very comfortable with discussion throughout the class. They interjected, and worked together to formulate better questions; in general a good group of students. I don't credit the students entirely with the quality of the class, to some extent the way Ginny handles student questions fosters the environment in which they are comfortable engaging in such discussions. It can be very difficult to draw students in an d get them talking but Ginny has done a great job of responding and encouraging student questions.

Ginny did run into some problems with her powerpoint slide. She was using the default slide show that came from the publisher and it was easy to see that it was holding her back. The slides drew her back, disrupted her pacing, and ultimately impaired her lecture. After interviewing Ginny about this she is well aware of the limitations of her slide show but doesn't really know where to begin making changes. I suggested to her that she start by cutting out bad slides and content, and trust herself to use the whiteboard and lecture to fill in any gaps this might create. I also suggested that she take printouts of her slides with her to class so she can makes notes about what works and what doesn't and be able to make changes before next semester.

In any event, Ginny did a great job and I'm sure she is going to impress our boss when she is observed later in the semester.

SoTL Teaching Log #3

This week was my students first test. It is pretty lightweight, and I spend a lot of time talking about how to study for the test as well as what to study. For many students this is their first college assessment so I want to be sure they understand how to prepare.

My test is structured as a multiple choice section, a matching section, and 2 short essay questions. I try not to be "tricky" in the multiple choice, and I think the matching is relatively obvious. But writing is difficult for many of my students. They struggle with spelling, grammar, and penmanship. So in the interest in getting better papers I let my students take home this part of the test. I gave them a choice to work on any 2 out of 8 questions for two days before the test. This semester their answers seemed better, and the overall test score was up 4 points over last semester. I think I'll continue to allow take-home essays as long as they continue to show quality work given the extra time and resources.

Test scores still fit into a bi-modal distribution. This means there was a cluster of scores int he B range, and a cluster of scores in the D range. Compared to a normal distribution with scores clustered around a C. My sense of it is that only some students actually prepare for the test (the B students) while others figure they'll do fine without studying (the D students). The 2nd test has always shown a normal distribution (mean = 78.2) which tells me that after getting burned on first test some students changed their behavior.

What I would like to find is a way to convince these under-prepared students to put an effort into studying BEFORE they bomb the first test. This semester I tried having a tougher chapter 1 quiz before the test, but that didn't work. My plan for next time is to give the test over two days, so they will do one essay question and 25 multiple choice one class session, and the next class I'll return those with feedback, and the session after that will be the remainder of the test. I'm hoping that this assessment structure will help them realize the need for test-prep without penalizing them as much as they get right now. On the other hand, the lack of penalty might lower the test scores on future tests, so... I guess I'll find out when I try it.

I generally don't go over the test in class either. Mainly it is because I don't have time to waste. This is why I often don't even hand back test papers (since it doesn't matter) but this has led to another problem. I don't know the names of any of my students. It's 4 weeks into the semester and I can name less than 10% of my students. It is my plan to hand back test #2 in an effort to link names to faces. I'm not good with names but I really think it helps my students if I can call on them by name so we'll see what I can do.

Instead of going over the test, I make out a key and leave it up at the front so that after students turn in the test they can see what they missed. Lots of students do take advantage of this as they are dying to know the answers to one or two questions on the test. Others want to calculate their score and this lets them do that. I do kinda wish there was an engaging, time-efficient way to let students get corrections on their tests without relying on the students' own conscientiousness, but... I haven't thought of anything yet.

SoTL Teaching Log #2

This week I had the opportunity to observe a colleague at SCC. In addition to teaching three sections of Intro Psych this semester, I am also the faculty mentor for two new adjunct professors (both of which were hired after I recommended them). So today I sat in on Grant's (names have been changed) class to give him feedback before the division chair comes for his first review. This is not the first time I've observed other teachers so I felt prepared enough to gather some notes and provide useful feedback. Not only that, Grant was lecturing on my specialty: Biological Psychology.

Watching Grant was like looking back in time to my first semester. Grant is a very good public speaker and seemed comfortable in front of the class. His growth area is student engagement. He made all the same mistakes I made my first semester. He taught psychology the same way that psychology had been taught to him; I talk- you write. I teach – you learn. A very teacher-centered approach.

Examples, diagrams, and clarifications were all lacking during his lecture. Students often have problems engaging in the biology of the brain, it is thick material that they often haven't been exposed to in any detail. Putting info on a slide and saying it is generally not engaging enough for students to “get it.” If Grant would repeat himself, draw diagrams on the whiteboard, make real-world connections with the material, or otherwise clarify the content present in the slides his students could greatly benefit. I made the same mistake my first semester when I was focused on “covering content” instead of on “facilitating learning.”

As class progressed I could see Grant losing his students; by the midpoint one-third of his class had sent at least one text-message. The two brief video clips that he showed, while illustrative, seemed only to cue students to check their phones. Few students wrote notes (although several had brought print-outs of the slide-show which was presumably provided to them before class) and fewer still asked questions. These symptoms were all too familiar to me, as I dealt with the same problems when I was just covering content.

The first change I made to my class was to strip out content from the slide-show. This way my students wouldn't transcribe the slides, and I told them that printing the slides isn't enough information to even pass a test. I try never to lecture for more than 20 minutes in a block without switching to a different activity (I often use the think – pair – share style activity). With each concept I try to draw a picture, and connect to a real-world application. I often use multi-media tools (videos and audio clips), but I spend a few minutes explaining what they will learn in the video, and I insist on some discussion after the clip (I also put questions about videos on tests and quizzes).

For example, Grant described the sympathetic nervous system thusly: “This system prepares your body for action. It's the fight-or-flight response. That speeds up your heart-rate and breathing and also dilates your pupils. You may have had the experience of lying in bed and you hear a noise and your heart-rate speeds up and you are suddenly awake. That is the sympathetic nervous system.” An accurate summary, but even this example fails to make the connection between WHAT it does and what FUNCTION it has. Students may have enough information (if they were listening) to answer a question on a test but unless they are psych majors it is unlikely to be valuable to them beyond that.

When I describe the same system I list all the physiological changes (heart-rate etc.) and then also explain why those changes help you in a fight-or-flight scenario (dilated pupils let you take in more light so you can see better). I explain that this is system's role is to help you survive a stressful situation. Then I link that to scary movies and how the good ones trigger the sympathetic nervous system. I ask my students if they've ever been to a haunted house, I pick one to tell about their experience, and as a class we talk about sympathetic activation in the story. Ultimately I've described fight-or-flight three times using lecture, example, and student connection. No one leaves class without a better understanding of their body and how it functions under stress; useful information for every student regardless of major.

The other interesting thing I did this week was to take a class to see Jane Elliot speak at our college. If you didn't know she is the teacher that gave third graders the Brown-eye/Blue-eye experience in the 60's and 70's. Her presentation was tremendous! She was full of energy and quite feisty. She talked about how if she had recognized the repercussions of her classroom exercise that she may not have done it. She engaged the audience in several critical thinking exercises examining some of the more subtle forms of prejudice, and she even had students share their thoughts on the unfair distribution of power. There were some problems though. A student rudely interrupted her at some point and she reacted harshly. To be sure the student deserved reprimand for his behavior, but her anger seemed a bit out of control and made the audience uncomfortable. She also singled-out a student that self-disclosed her support of Sarah Palin. While I certainly understand the need to educate Palin supporters, I don't think that it is okay to ostracize a student for their political views. Speaking of which her talk did get a bit preachy about issues towards the end, but none-the-less was a valuable experience for myself and my students. If you ever get the chance to see her talk I would highly recommend it.

In a related issue I've described elsewhere an exercise I do with my class about operational definitions in which students define what might make a city 'unhappy.' This week a student offended several members of the class and I intervened. I'll end with a transcript of our conversation.

Student: Appearance of the city?
Me: Oh you mean like if there are lots of run-down vacant buildings the city won't look as good?
Student: No I mean the people.
Me: So it makes them unhappy to see the ugly buildings?
Student: No! Like if there are a lot of fat people!
Me: …
Student: No fatties please.
Class: [Hackles raising among some] what's your problem... who are you... ha ha ha... fat people are sad... etc.
Me: Firstly we [fatties] are jolly. Secondly it is not ok to judge people based on physical characteristics. Even if YOUR aesthetic sensibilities are offended that doesn't give you permission to generalize your opinion to everyone. This is an issue very near and dear to my cholesterol clogged heart. A person's outward appearance is not indicative of their inner character. No matter if a person is fat, fit, tan, or smoking a cigarette it tells you nothing about their intelligence, willpower, or personality. The connection you are describing is prejudice just like racism.
Student: Sorry.
Me: It's all right, now you know. So can we agree not to voice comments like that?
Student: Yeah.
Me: Everyone?
Class: [mutters approval]

SoTL Teaching Log #1

This semester I'm taking another class for UMSL's Certificate in Undergraduate Teaching (CUT) program. The class requires weekly log postings and I will cross-post those to this blog. Enjoy!

This week was the first week back for the Spring semester at SCC. This is my fifth semester teaching Introduction to Psychology and I'm teaching three sections Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I begin with my office hour from 0800 until class begins at 0900, then it is two sections back to back in SSB1404, then an hour break, and one more section from 1200 until 1350 in SSB1403. The first day of class can be a conundrum; students know nothing and are often unprepared to learn, and yet I don't want to waste class time and dismiss early. Several of my colleagues hand out a syllabus take role and dismiss class in all of fifteen minutes. I thought this was lame when I was a student (and skipped the first class as a result), and I would feel lame if I did that as a teacher. So instead I try to come up with some exercises to set the pace for the course; what we do on the first day echoes through the semester.

First I don't print out a syllabus to hand to my students. This might be a mistake but it feels so wasteful to print so much paper that many students will never look at after the first day. Instead I put the syllabus on-line, and use the projector to go over it in class. There is very little value in reading the syllabus to my students and I only read-aloud the sections required by the college. The sections I feel are most important are “Attendance” and “Assignments, Quizzes, and Exams.” In each of these sections I have the opportunity to clearly state my expectations and how my students can meet those expectations. As teachers we sometimes forget how unprepared for personal responsibility our freshman are when they first arrive on campus. While I want to give my students the freedom to fail, I also want them to clearly understand the target behavior and the consequences for missing that target.

I mentioned the freedom to fail and I should probably explain what I mean there. Up until the first day of my class many of my students have been pushed forward one way or another. Either they haven't made choices or their choices didn't matter much as they follow scripts issued by parents or high school. It is often the case that the only reason they are sitting in my class is because someone told them they had to go to college and someone at the college told them they had to take PSY-101. On day one I'm going to tell them that not only do they not have to come to my class, but also that they don't have to go to college. I want to impress upon them that it is their choice to go to college, and if they don't want to be here then they should quit and do something else. But if they do choose to continue, then that choice means coming to class everyday, not because I'm going to count off points if they miss, but because it is what college students do to learn the material. So for good or ill, my students are empowered to make their own decisions about attendance and thus the consequence of their choices is their own.

So after our little “dare to succeed” moment, I go on to introduce myself and tell students a bit about my career as a researcher and as an educator. I'm fortunate enough that my students are interested in my research and often ask some great questions even during my introductions. Of course those questions are set-up by the way in which I speak. For example when I say, “I depress some rats, then give them salvia and see if they cheer up” it begs the question, “How do you depress a rat?” That gives me the opportunity to say, “Oh what a great question, that is exactly the kind of question that a psychologist should ask!” Then I answer the question directly to the student as if we were at a cocktail party. This sort of effusive praise and conversational exchange is my attempt to encourage students to engage directly with lecture. Although I don't have data to support it, my sense of things is that by engaging students one-on-one they are more comfortable and thus more likely to ask questions and discuss topics.

Next up I talk about what they should do in class in order to pass. I express to my students the fantasy I have about how they will learn the material: They will not copy the text from the powerpoint outline (there isn't any real content their anyway), instead they will jot down what I say. After class they will re-read these notes and try to pull-out key terms that might cue them to remember the topics I discussed. Later when they read their text book they will look at these cues and know which parts of the text should be highlighted as relevant. Next they can re-write parts of their notes using the relevant material from the text to summarize key terms into statements. Okay. I know that my students aren't likely to use the Cornell note-taking system. But I do hope that students realize that should process what I say in class, they should use that as a guide on what to read, and then integrate the two sources before a test.

Anyway, that is what my first day of class is like. If I have time I do student introductions, or a tech walk-through of how to get to the on-line components of class, but I didn't have time this semester. I did get one interesting email from a student about purchasing the textbook and I'm including both that email and my response here:

From Student:
I have had several friends buy books for classes that they never even took out of the package, I was just curious if we will actually use the textbook or not in your class before i spend money on something that may only potentially gather dust. thank you

My reply:
Buy the book. You can sell it back at the end of the semester.

A note on etiquette: Teachers always expect you to get all of the materials for class (especially the ones we list as required on the syllabus). I do agree that there are many classes that you can pass without purchasing the text, but it generally isn't a good idea to broadcast that to your professors. Keep in mind that college isn't required. There are thousands of C-students that are so intelligent that they can pass classes without texts and a minimum of effort. The rare cases are the A-students that are so diligent that they never turn in an assignment late, or with anything less than their best effort. You can imagine which type employers prefer to hire, etc. Asking if you HAVE to buy the book implies you are the former, and you don't want to imply that.

Texting

Some students text in class. While this is rude and disrespectful towards me, it doesn't really disrupt class or the learning of students nearby so for the most part I let it slide. There have been two incidents this semester that have been to a higher degree of rudeness and I thought I'd share.

During a test I noticed a student texting. I tend not to assume my students are cheating, and simply told her that there is no texting during the test. Not only did she apologize and put her phone away, several other students put their phones away. I was shocked that several people had been texting; doesn't everyone recognize that communicating (whatever the medium) during a test is verboten? The real issue is that 15 minutes later I had to tell the first student a SECOND time to stop texting.

M: You understand why it is not ok to text during the test right?
C: But I wasn't texting about the test
M: That's even worse. If you were cheating at least I'd know you cared about the test!

The second incident involved a student who came to me outside the classroom just before a test. She explained to me that she wasn't going to be able to stay the whole time because she has a doctor's appointment scheduled opposite class and she wanted to know if she could take the test another time. I was about to tell her that she should've told me sometime sooner because she COULD have taken then test early, and that test or no it is a bad idea to schedule a doctor's visit during class. I was about to tell her that. But I didn't get the chance because as soon as I started answering her she whipped out her phone and began responding to a text message she had gotten. I stopped mid-sentence and went on in to class.

I think it is unreasonable for me to expect them to turn their phones off entirely or to ignore text messages they get in class. I mean this is the new thing, and phones (for good or ill) are integrated into their lives. Fortunately not all is lost, as MOST of my students are very responsible with their phones. Just... don't be rude.