Teacher Training for Professional Competence

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Teacher Training for Professional Competence

• Medellin, Colombia, November 2005

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LearningLab DTU

• Major tasks
• Teacher-training courses
• Support teaching-development projects
• Staff
• 8 persons permanent
• 5 projects

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Teacher training in Denmark

• 1994 Requirement for training of university
  teachers
• 1999 Mandatory training for new teachers at DTU
• 2005 First full professors appointed at DTU on
  basis of teaching

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Structure of presentation

1. Teaching for competences
2. Teacher training for Teaching
   for competences

content
form
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1. Teaching for competences

• There is no best way to teach
• This does not mean that all teaching is good
• This means that you have to find your own way of
  teaching in a given situation
• The question is how?

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Teaching analysis
How to teach
What to learn
How to learn
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Teaching analysis
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What to learn
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What to learn
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What to learn
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General competences

• learning
• teamwork
• communication
• etc.

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Engineering competences

• analyse complex problems
• reduce to solvable problem
• estimate outcome
• handle high uncertainty
• design creative solution
• evaluate solutions
• meet expectations
• respect professional ethics

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Engineering competences

• analyse complex problems
• reduce to solvable problem
• estimate outcome
• handle high uncertainty
• design creative solution
• evaluate solutions
• meet expectations
• respect professional ethics

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How to learn
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How to learn
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How to learn
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How to learn
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Learning approaches

• Surface learning
• Seeks to meet the assessment demands by
  reproduction and rote memorising
• Deep learning
• Tries to understand ideas and seek meaning
• ?Conceptual understanding

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Learning basics

• Learning is an active psychological process that
  takes place in the layer between known and
  unknown
• You have to work
• You cannot transfer understanding
• You have to be motivated
• You need a starting point

based on empirical research
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Learning process model

• Activity 1 Data collection
• Empirical process ? tacit contextual knowledge

Double-loop feedback
Activity 2 Reorganisation Rational process ?
explicit general understanding
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How to teach
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Implications to teaching

1. from learning approaches
2. from learning basics
3. from learning process model
4. form general competences
5. from engineering competences

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Implications to teaching

1. from learning approaches
2. from learning basics
3. from learning process model
4. form general competences
5. from engineering competences

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Implications to teaching

1. from learning approaches
2. from learning basics
3. from learning process model
4. form general competences
5. from engineering competences

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a. from learning approaches

• Deep learning approach
• assessment ? learning focus
• time to absorption
• curriculum overloading ? core elements

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b. from learning basics

• You have to work
• auditorium ? laboratory
• You cannot transfer understanding
• deductive ? inductive teaching
• You have to be motivated
• teacher control ? student influence
• You need a starting point
• abstract ? contextual teaching

de-learning
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c. from learning process model

• Double-loop feedback
• Feedback is important
• Make sure to get through both loops
• Loop 1
• Student controlled physical activity
• Loop 2
• Teacher facilitated mental activity

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e. from generic competences

• Learning skills
• independent work
• Teamwork skills
• group work
• Communication skills
• doing presentations

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f. from eng. competences

• Analyse, reduce, solve complex problems
• Use ill-defined open problems
• Estimate, handle uncertainty, evaluate
• Practice a lot to train technical skills
• Meet expectations and respect ethics
• Train attitude with real-world problems
• Be creative
• Do not at all use simple textbook drills

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What a teacher does

• A teacher
• facilitate student learning (Teaching)
• evaluate student learning (Assessing)
• and to do this a teacher
• structure student learning (Planning)
• Grading

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What a teacher does
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How to plan

• The MIdwiFE model
• Motivate learning
• Initiate learning
• Relate to student knowledge
• work
• Facilitate learning
• Evaluate learning

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How to plan
loop 1
loop 2
work
work
Spiral learning
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How to facilitate

• Test
• Focus on core elements
• Student influence
• Varied activities
• Open ill-defined authentic problems
• Group work
• Peer teaching
• Test
• no grading

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How to assess

• Assessment objectives
• competences
• Requirements to assessment
• educational
• practical
• formal

Support learning Use few resources External
requirements
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2. Teacher training

• DTU strategy
• Focus on student learning
• Conceptual change
• Professionalize
• Private ? Team
• Action research

• Self reflection on teaching
• - In contrast to
• Behavioural change
• Formal teaching abilities
• Focus on teacher performance

You can argue why you do as you do
Get a language
Doing experiments in your own course
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DTU organisation
supervisor
pedagogical consultants
Learning communities
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Structure
Pedagogical consultants
Assistant Prof. supervisors
PhD supervisors
Assistant Professors
PhD students
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Rules for Assistant Professors

• Supervision
• Educational 3-year plan
• Relevant teaching duties
• UDTU
• Teaching portfolio
• Statement about teaching abilities

250 hours total work
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Competence learning objectives

• After UDTU you will be able to
• set up learning objectives identify core
  elements
• test students pre-knowledge learning outcome
• plan a teaching sequence with suitable teaching
  assessment activities
• use feedback as a learning and teaching tool

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UDTU activities

• Assignments
• Preparations for activities at the seminars
• Seminars
• Short theoretical introductions
• Good-practice examples
• Activity and group work
• Project
• Based on the participants own teaching

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Module 1 Learning Teaching

• Pre-assignment 1
• Preparation for teaching exercises
• 3-day seminar
• Learning basics
• Giving a lesson
• Teaching exercises

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Module 2 Planning Assess

• Pre-assignment 2
• Learning objects and core elements for a course
• 2½-day seminar
• Learning objectives Core elements
• Micro macro planning
• Assessment
• Work on their course in groups

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Module 3 Feedback Doc

• Pre-assignment 3
• Reflective essay on learning teaching
• Foundation for peer-coaching exercises
• 2½-day seminar
• Test of student
• Peer coaching
• Evaluation by student
• Teaching portfolio
• Group work Tutoring

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Module 4 Project

• Action research
• Plan and implement teaching with focus on student
  learning incl. feedback via
• tests
• peer coaching
• student evaluation

Methods tools from Modules 2 3
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Test of the students

1. Before teaching to test background and
   pre-knowledge
2. After teaching to test learning outcome
   (conceptual understanding)

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Peer coaching

• In groups of 4
• Includes
• Structured discussion with colleague before
  lesson
• Colleague attending lesson
• Structured discussion with colleague after lesson
• Each group is assigned a pedagogical consultant

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Evaluation by the students

• The participant describe intentions
• The students fill in a special questionnaire (the
  MEQ)
• The teacher reflects on the correlation between
• intentions
• student evaluation
• own experiences

Only reflections are important
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Answers to Project assignment

• 1/3 into the course
• Pre-test
• Describe course plan
• Argue for chosen methods
• After the course
• Evaluation by the students
• Post-test
• Reflections

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And in the end.
Happy young teachers with teacher-training
diplomas
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Teacher-training homepages

• LearningLab DTU
• www.llab.dtu.dk
• Danish Engineering Education network
• www.ipn.dk
• Active Learning in Engineering Education
• www.ale-net.org