Teaching tips for training: Catch ‘em all!
by Nikki Rubinstein & Dr Christina Tuke Flanders
Foreword by Dr Christina Tuke Flanders:
Pedagogy is a word that is starting to be banded around much more in the Colab Space at Research Platforms. And this is music to my ears! Before we get ahead of ourselves, you may be asking yourself what is pedagogy? It is commonly defined as: “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.” And if you want to know how to say pedagogy click here!
In short pedagogy is concerned with what a teacher does to influence learning in others. Here at Research Platforms our team of ResComs work very hard behind the scenes to provide top notch training on a vast array of digital tools.
As Training Consultant for Research Platforms one of my roles is to support ResComs to develop thoughtful curriculums and think about the pedagogy behind the delivery of training. Therefore anyone who attends a training will experience a well paced curriculum, infused with a plethora of challenges that scaffolds learning in an engaging manner. Students leave a training session with a secure knowledge and understanding of a digital tool - and possibly shaving weeks if not months off their research data analysis. Now, that’s music to anyone’s ears.
So how do they achieve this? Let’s get back to the pedagogy - which is the bedrock for a successful training.
In this four part blog post series Nikki Rubinstein will take you on a journey through the key teaching tips she has integrated into her training. You will learn:
- The engaging tactics of Icebreakers and Big Picture
- The importance of Learning Objectives, Scaffolding and Sign Posting
- The power of Peer Learning and Problem Based Learning
- The value of Assessment and Reflection.
Like Pokemon Go, Nikki has been catching ‘Em all. Like any good Pokemon enthusiast you start by catching the basic pokemons like Pidgey and Rattata. They have not evolved to be strong but are essential to kick start the game. Similarly, Icebreakers and Big Picture techniques are essential to get your training off to a strong start.
Over to Nikki to to explain how…
Thanks Christina. When I took on the R Research Community Coordinator role with ResBaz earlier this year I asked myself many questions: What makes a good teacher? How do I know if my students have learnt anything in my training sessions?! Is being a good teacher a skill that you’re born with or is it something that can be learnt? Luckily, I was given the chance to work with educational psychologist, Dr Christina Tuke Flanders. It turns out that a lot of what makes a good teacher CAN be learnt - there is hope!
Ice breakers
The first thing to realise is that a noisy classroom is a productive classroom. If students are talking, then they are actively engaged (which is what we want!). We want students to discuss and exchange ideas. We want them to challenge their understanding of course content. We want students primed for both learning and networking. We want them to talk! So how do we get students talking?
Ice breakers are a great way to get the conversation started. An ice breaker is an activity or game used to make people who don’t know each other feel more relaxed together. It’s a way to get the conversation started. I like to start my classes by asking the students on each table to come up with a team name. This not only helps get them talking to each other but creates an immediate bond. Another fun ice breaker is to pose a question to the class, such as ‘when was the last time you wanted to throw your computer out the window?’ The room will be buzzing with conversation after posing that particular question!
Big picture view
After an ice breaker, your students are primed for learning. The next challenge is to narrow their focus down to your course content. However, if you jump straight into the details, you’re likely to lose the attention of many of your students. Picture a silent classroom; the sounds of crickets chirping. Not exactly the picture of a productive classroom that we were trying to build up with our ice breaker activity!
It’s important to start with a big picture view of what will be covered in your course. You should answer the questions:
- Why is this course useful for your students?
- Where does it fit into the larger perspective of their research?
In my case, my students are learning to use the programming language R. Learning R is useful for my students because it will allow them to analyse and visualise their data. The big picture view is that using R will allow them to create easily reproducible analyses and plots for their research.
Thanks Nikki. Stay tuned for next week’s blog post on: The importance of Learning Objectives, Scaffolding and Sign Posting.
