Khanh on Teaching Observation

A few days before the observation – What to observe (preparation for my own peace of mind)
I wrote to two of the three professors recommended by the GMU Center of Teaching Excellence (CTE) asking if I could attend one of their classes. The CTE noted that they are known to be good teachers and one recently received an excellent teaching award. One Professor who responded to my request is teaching a computer science (CS) course, in the synthesis of ethics and law for computing professionals. She welcomed me and gave a”heads-up” that this is not a technical course, which I anticipated based on the course title and that the professor is a lawyer. What I did not know was she earned an undergraduate degree in CS, so the course she designed and taught for the last several years bring both worlds to her students.

What to observe? I reviewed Peter Filenes’ book, Joy of Teaching, Chapter 1 – Understanding Yourself as a Teacher. Filene lists five characteristics that a good teacher may display: they are enthusiastic, clear, organized, stimulating, and they care about their students. I downloaded a CTE classroom observation form to guide my observation that has five parts: content and organization, communication and rapport, critical thinking skills, and rapport with students. Comparing and correlating the two, I decided that I will observe the class along the following five dimensions:

– Enthusiasm – ability to engage students’ interest on a topic under discussion
– Clarity – ability to convey ideas (with or without technology aids) with clarity
– Organization – ability to structure the delivery modes (teaching methods) so that main concepts, key points, relevant examples are conveyed in an appropriate level of detail and useful sequence
– Stimulating – ability to motivate students’ critical thinking or problem solving skills
– Care about students – ability to build rapport with students, identify and reengage stragglers, suggest resources to use out of class for students having difficulty, or those looking to excel and learn a bit more

At the event – What did I observe? (Prof. Smith – analysis of what you learn)
The class was held in a small auditorium type classroom, tables in rows and raised in steps comfortably accommodating approximately 25 students in attendance. Only 10% are female (3 young ladies). The teacher arrived and proceeded to stand behind her desk next to the lectern, scanning and making direct eye contact with the students. She noted a few are missing and remarked that they may still be on spring break. The topic of the day was privacy and security and the lecture mode applied throughout.

For the first segment of her lecture, she posed a big question “what is privacy?” and “why do we care?”The later I decoded it as the “so what?” or “significance” part used to engage the students in teaching/learning dialogue as suggested by Bain and Filene. But her assertion “we do have privacy rights”, juxtaposed with the stated fact that “the word privacy is not in the constitution” directly intrigued me. She led the students’ thinking through the first amendment, second, and so forth to show how each support the idea of privacy. She sat on her desk as she spoke and used her hand gestures masterfully to keep the audience’s attention as she discussed one amendment at a time. Filene suggestion to “Move to different sides of the stages and walk up the aisles” (p. 52) was not applied here, and did not seem to matter either. She projected her eyes toward the end of the auditorium, far enough that I thought she looked up the ceiling at times. She modulated her voice, varied her tone, and used her hands as a means to give at least fleeting physicality to the abstract concepts in play and help students keep track of the flow of the argument. Students moved along with her, short questions cracked, brief answers opened, between teacher and students, back and forth. Now I ponder during that immersive learning moment, did they recognize that their critical thinking skills intentionally being stimulated and trained or were they like a tennis student who was so busy returning balls that they were unaware of their coaches teaching plan and execution?

It appeared she organized the lecture in an outline as she glanced at it when switching themes (e.g. what is privacy, types of privacy, issues relating to privacy, tension between privacy and security). She signaled a new theme with a question, an example, a vignette (e.g., about key stroke monitoring), or story (e.g., related to students’ real life). Her style is oriented toward hearing and speaking and critical thinking; she delighted her students solely via audio faculty and dramatization accompanied by her expressive gestures. Her ability to explain complex concepts in plain English is admirable, however, being a strong visual learner, I don’t know if I could “get” it quickly if the concepts, which were familiar to me because of my years of security experience, had been presented to me then for the first time. For example, when describing how public and private keys are used to prove non-repudiation, I had to have a diagram or sketch accompanying my words as that is how I learned the concepts. I sat in a graduate level course at GMU a few years ago, and the Professor with charts and projector labored a good half hour walking though the concepts.

Days after the event – What did I learn? (Prof. Smith – how you might integrate what you have learned into your own practice)
I learned that situating students in a familiar learning context, at the beginning of the class prior to launching into a new class lecture, is highly desirable. She asked the students about their recent experience in a mock trial and interviewing witnesses. She clarified the choices students had regarding posting essays on the Blackboard and provided guidance as how to comment their peers’ essays. She motivated and challenged students in the improvement of their revisions stating: “my philosophy is no matter how good your draft is you can do better”. A result of her setting the written communication bar high is her students not only recognize the importance of making improvements, but know why they need to and by comparing their evolving drafts can measure how much change has taken place and better their learning. She “put her money where her words are” by telling the students that their summary of change, along with their revisions, will be personally graded by her and not by the TA. Even students at this level have an understanding that time is a precious resource and her commitment of time. Only when no more questions of past assignments were raised did the professor began to discuss an agenda for the day and look out a few weeks ahead.

I learned about the delicate balance of “telling” and “volunteering” what to learn to the undergraduates. For example, she thoroughly guided the students as how to read and interpret questions and cases in their text, but polled them for which questions or cases they are interested in taking on. The detailed instructions regarding how to learn as well as the particulars of her expectations in the students’ learning described in the previous paragraph were new to me. Being in the work place for more than three decades, I observed that “telling” colleagues or subordinates how to carry out the tasks should be kept to the minimum. But as I reflect this, I think even adults and professionals can benefit from learning how to approach a task, otherwise the syndromes of “bring me another rock” keep recurring.

I agreed with Bain and Filene that “outstanding teachers, both lecturers and non-lecturers employed the same set of techniques in their classes” and the professor I observed exhibited those five keys to success. Although I happened to attend the class on the lecture day, there are other modes of learning shown in her schedule. A draft of my teaching philosophy stated, “as a new comer to the education enterprise, I will experiment with various types of learning environment, ranging from simulation exercises to role playing to debate…” and in this class there will be mock trials conducted. I have already been given permission to attend one of these which I believe will be very enlightening.