Signature Pedagogies in the Disciplines*

J. Andy Goodman and R. Eric Landrum Center for Teaching and Learning Department of Psychology

Great Ideas for Teaching and Learning SymposiumTuesday, January 10, 2012Boise, ID

*Inspired and liberally adapted from R. A. R. Gurung’s work on Signature Pedagogies

Welcome / Introductions

• Name• Department• What you hope to gain from today’s workshop

(i.e., one good idea)

Observation

• You have 3 minutes to observe and take notes about your cinnamon stick

• Use any and all observation techniques known to you

What are Signature Pedagogies?

• “Types of teaching that organize the fundamental ways in which future practitioners are educated for their new professions” —Shulman (2005)

• “Ways of being taught that require [students] to do, think, and value what practitioners in the field are doing, thinking, and valuing” —Calder (2006)

• “Introducing students to the culture of thinking in a specific discipline ... level[s] the playing field for those students who don’t come to college ‘preeducated’” —Middendorf and Pace (2004)

Overview: Signature Pedagogies

• Context: Think about a departmental, disciplined-based perspective rather than course-centered approach.

• How do we teach students to think and act like an expert in their respective disciplines?– Are there specific pedagogical techniques that

instructors use to help students reach expert levels?

Overview: Signature Pedagogies

• How can we efficiently teach students those skills and abilities that they– Don’t like to acquire– Struggle with– Have difficulty gaining self-confidence in

Overview: Signature Pedagogies

• Experts vs. Novices (Coyle, 2009)– Deliberate practice with solvable obstacles is

desired– Many metacognitive skills are applicable here– “Every expert in every field is the result of around

ten thousand hours of committed practice” (p. 51).

Overview: Signature Pedagogies

• What's the simplest way to diminish the skills of a superstar talent (short of inflicting an injury)? The answer: don't practice for a month. That's why daily practice matters, particularly as we get older. As Vladimir Horowitz, the virtuoso pianist who kept performing into this eighties, put it, "If I skip practice for one day, I notice. If I skip practice for two days, my wife notices. If I skip for three days, the world notices“ (Coyle, 2009, p. 89).

A Course Reflection

• Pick one course you’re teaching. (If possible, pick a general education, introductory course.)

• What frustrates you most about your students’ learning in this course?

The Student Experience

• What were the course’s routines?• What did you have students doing in the

course? • What did you ask them to produce to

show their proficiency? • What were they practicing? • What habits were they cultivating?

Teaching Scenarios

• With respect to signature pedagogies and helping students develop disciplinary expertise and keeping in mind the questions from the previous slide …– What are the strengths in the following scenarios?– How might these ideas be incorporated into your

teaching?– What do you do to support learning beyond the

classroom?– How might your assignments measure ways of thinking

instead of content knowledge?

Teaching Scenarios

• For each of the following, think about how each scenario might qualify as an example of low/medium/high level of signature pedagogy:

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

Ultimate Goals

• What are the skills and abilities that you want your majors to ultimately acquire?

• Grades ≠ Skills• Where do your individual courses match up

with these ultimate goals? Where don’t they?• Does your departmental-wide curriculum help

students develop disciplinary expertise?– How do you know? How do you measure/assess?

Signature Pedagogy Talking Points

• Course-based silo approach vs. coordinated departmental effort

• Efficiencies and economies of scale• Meeting student and employer needs• Periodic meaningful assessment/accreditation

is facilitated• A discipline-based “degree audit”

Signature Pedagogies

• What would one of your discipline’s signature pedagogies look like?• What would it teach students about

your discipline’s ways of thinking, knowing, doing, and valuing?

Obstacles & Objections

• What are some obstacles or objections for teaching in this way, especially in introductory courses?• What are consequences of not

teaching introductory courses in this way?

Observation Redux

• Can you find your cinnamon stick? • Cinnamon sticks are like…