Section 1
A. The thing that I will take away from these chapters is
the importance of the syllabus. Not just
to connect accreditation standards and as, sure that they are being addressed,
but also as a way to communicated warmth, provide a space for learning and
invite students into the learning experience.
The idea of writing a letter that communicates teaching philosophy while
also inviting the students into the learning experience is a positive one, and
something I would like to incorporate into the more standard syllabus.
B. What is the best way to establish a balance of authority
and collaboration? The idea of giving
the students a certain amount of choice in assignments and due dates seems like
a good first step, but it seems like there would be more ways to continue the
process through the semester.
Section 2
A. This section was
every relevant to me right now, so it was difficult to choose one take
away. The primary take away was looking
at why students do not participate in class discussions and the multiple
reasons to consider. My assumption at
first was that the passive learning style deeply integrated. But reading
additional reasons made me stop and consider trying some new techniques to
engage students. The other but related
take away was on making lectures more interactive, considering the multiple
levels of learning. I liked the idea of
adding learning goals to each lecture and integrating an activity to assess
what was learned.
B. Homework tends to fall into a few narrow categories
(tests, papers, reading) – what are more creative options for homework
assignments for counseling students?
Section 3
A. The student- professor relationship had been a mystery to
me. The counselor- client relationship
is pretty clear cut but the student-professor relationship seemed more
ambiguous. In the reading the examples
(social media) and case study made the boundaries more clear. The issue of assumptions of relationship,
rupture and repair helped clarify boundaries.
B. What is the best
way to begin discussing the topic of race, ethnicity and culture in the
classroom and what is the preferred timing to start this conversation?
Section 4
A. The six questions a teacher should ask themselves in
regards to ethics and evaluating ones actions was thought provoking. I think these sic questions could be helpful
to ask in many situations when working with students and clients.
B. What is the best way to communicate the importance of
leadership and service to the counseling professions to students who are very
busy and have full lives?
Section 5
A. The topic of giving written feedback was very
helpful. Especially the three points to:
expressed in learner actions, contingent on and responsive to student needs and
perceived as non-judgmental. I especially
liked the idea of using the frame work of Solution focused Therapy for student
evaluation: complimenting, exceptions, scaling, coping questions and feedback.
B. How do teachers handle situation where possible cheating
has been brought to their attention – the scenario is likely but not for
certain?
Svinicki, M. D. & McKeachie, W. J. (Eds.). (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies,
research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
West, J. D., Bubenzer, D. L., Cox, J. A. & McGlothlin,
J. M. (Eds.). (2013). Teaching in counselor education: Engaging
students in learning. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTrish, according to Holland (2015) the topic elicits adverse student response when the faculty teaches the subject from their respective racial and ethnic perspective without consideration of how students from other groups feel about the matter. Liu and Lau (2013) explained that as parents have attempted to protect their children from the deleterious effects of racism that it resulted in either a pessimistic or an optimist view about racial/ethnic relations that give rise to social and cultural tensions (see Holland, 2015). Therefore there is no one best time to begin to discuss the topic in counselor education but it normally starts with the student’s first course in multicultural counseling, their exposure to a racially/ethnically diverse faculty, and finally by giving them assignments within other courses that will cause them to engage in reflective learning by interacting socially and academically with racially/ethnically diverse individuals--make the class peer centered rather than hierarchical (Holland, 2016; Liu & Lau, 2013; & Phan, Vugia, Wright, Woods, Chu, & Jones, 2009).
ReplyDeleteReferences
Holland, A. E. (2015). The lived experienced of teaching about race in cultural nursing education. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(1), 92-100. doi: 10.1177/1043659614523995
Liu. L. L. & Lau, A. S. (2013). Teaching about race/ethnicity and racism matters: An examination of how perceived ethnic racial socialization processes are associated with depression symptoms. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 19(4), 383-394. Doi: 10.1037/a0033447
Phan, P. Vugia, H., Wright, P., Woods, D. R., Chu, M., & Jones, T. (2009). Teaching note: A social work program’s experience in teaching about race in the curriculum. Journal of Social Work Education 45(2), 325-333.
Thank you for your comment Nils. Interestingly, having to consider this question for this course has lead me to discuss the question with faculty at Liberty. According to Dr. Pride, who will be speaking in a few weeks on racial reconciliation, the primary lens to view this conversation through is "How do I love others as Christ loved them?" and then initiate the conversation, even though it can be very uncomfortable. After contemplating this question and the response by Dr. Pride, I used the concept of the "racial crossover effect" to open the conversation in my HSCO Developmental course last week. It was very interesting to see how the students differed in their responses to the topic of how discrimination affects development and giving the students a chance to respond to the concept with their own experiences. I myself was a bit uncomfortable when I started the topic, but it ended up being a great discussion and hopefully an opening for further consideration and connection.
ReplyDeleteTrish,
DeleteThank you for initiating the beautiful conversation that we had with Dr. Pride about race reconciliation. Today a classmate asked me if it was painful to hear about slavery, segregation and other social injustices endured by African Americans. I really liked her question because it offered opportunity to process what the gathering with Dr. Pride meant to me. My response was that instead of experiencing pain for exploring my distress as a minority, I felt a sense of comfort for sharing the sorrow. I also heard people expressing conflict, confusion,compassion,and curiosity. It was beautiful to be part of a non-judgmental and vulnerable conversation. I think it was a good beginning. The experience showed me that with intentionality we can explore our bias and perceptions about multicultural issues in a safe and nonjudgmental environment.
Trish, you raise an important question (Section 2B) that begs for more creative homework options to assist counseling students outside the classroom. Reinforcing the concept stated by Svinicki and McKeachie (2014, p. 5) that “most student learning occurs outside the classroom.”
ReplyDeleteRecently, counselor education researchers (Moran & Milsom, 2015, p. 40) indicated, “that counseling students might learn better when they have direct opportunities to hear experts (e.g., instructors, guest speakers) discuss topics and when they have interactive and collaborative opportunities to make sense of information.” According to Moran and Milson (2015) guest speakers can be incorporated into homework assignments and discussion board activities where students either observe counselors at work and/or listen to them share their experiences. Although the assessment of the student comes from writing reflections, it provides a more experiential learning environment for students to interact with each other via group discussion boards, investigate what they are learning, and incorporate new knowledge into their professional counselor identity formation.
References
Moran, K., & Milsom, A. (2015). The flipped classroom in counselor education. Counselor Education and Supervision, 54(1), 32-43. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2015.00068.x
Svinicki, M. D. & McKeachie, W. J. (Eds.). (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed., pp. 3-5). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Hi Trish,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and your take-away points. In response to your question for section 2, I have thought about that a lot too. It does seem like most of (or certainly many of) our assignments in classes are tests, papers, reading, and presentations. I really liked reading all of the suggestions from our textbooks and it gave me some ideas about other ways to engage counseling students in learning through assignments. Some of the more memorable ones that come to mind are use of online discussions, the two-column method of considering alternatives, case studies, minute papers, quizzes, and group work.
I thought the section of the Svinicki and McKeachie (2014) book that discussed experiential learning had some neat ideas. Case studies seem really effective in teaching counseling and psychology. Svinicki and McKeachie (2014) seemed to recommend using teams to discuss case studies in class, although I think they could be individual activities too or done by a team outside of class. I think role-plays lend themselves to counseling classes nicely. Whether it is a basic skills class, assessment, or really any other kind of counseling class, role-plays can be useful. These could be video taped (McGlothlin, Vanwinkle, & George, 2013), which would give the professor something to assess. The more time we are having students do simulated counseling activities, I think the better prepared they will be when they begin a practicum. After doing an experiential learning activity, I think a writing assignment could be having students write or journal about what they learned, what they left out, how the experience went (Scinicki & McKeachie, 2014), the student’s previous assumptions, how these were challenged, any theories they considered, and their thoughts and feelings (Young & Hundley, 2013). This seems important because it would allow them to reflect on the experience and then give the professor something to assess.
The traditional tests, papers, and reading really do seem like the bread and butter of college and graduate assignments, but the readings gave us a few twists on these assignments. The learning cell idea (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2014) seemed like a really neat way to have students read the material, learn from each other, and teach one another. If the professor were walking around the classroom during this activity, the pairs of students could be assessed for comprehension too.
The ideas of high and low stakes writing (Elbow & Sorcinelli, 2014) seemed pretty useful too. In terms of high stakes writing, I would guess we cannot get around requiring these assignments, but I did like the idea of having students share their writing with peers. This lets other students learn the material too and changes the assignment somewhat. I think we are used to handing in high stakes assignments, but the lower stakes writing might be easier to grade (especially if you are giving only 100% or 0% as Elbow & Sorcinelli suggest) and could actually reflect students knowledge better since many of the uses seem more impromptu. I also like how these promote students’ enjoyment of writing. The example used throughout the Scinicki and McKeachie (2014) book of the “minute paper” seems like a neat exercise.
Quizzes were emphasized by Svinicki and McKeachie (2014). I liked their idea of having students do a quiz on their own at the beginning of class and then retake it in a small group. The discussion aspect of this seems like it would promote learning and require students to have read the material.
After reading these textbooks, I think the key in creating assignments is going to be using variety and creativity, as well as trying to relate the assignments to Bloom’s taxonomy. Also, it seems so crucial to make assignments relevant to students’ experiences outside of class as well as relevant to the work they will be doing later on as counselors-in-training and later licensed clinicians.
Looking forward to seeing you next week!
-Lucy
References
DeleteElbow, P., & Sorcinelli, M. D. (2014). In M. D. Svinicki & W. J. McKeachie (Eds.) McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed.) (pp. 213 to 231). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
McGlothlin, J., Vanwinkle, D. L., & George, K. (2013). Using out-of-class learning activities. In J. D. West, D. L. Bubenzer, J. A. Cox, & J. M. McGlothlin (Eds.) Teaching in counselor education: Engaging students in learning (pp. 67-79). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Svinicki, M. D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Young, M. E., & Hundley, G. (2013). Connecting experiential education and reflection in the counselor education classroom. In J. D. West, D. L. Bubenzer, J. A. Cox, & J. M. McGlothlin (Eds.) Teaching in counselor education: Engaging students in learning (pp. 51-66). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteI believe that balancing authority and collaboration would be a difficult endeavor in almost any relationship where there is a power differential. This could be especially true in the teacher student relationship. One of the factors that may contribute to this is that fact that Svinicki & McKeachie (2014) and West et al. (2013) both offer a variety of suggestions for learning that encourages the students to be proactive as a part of the classroom exchange (i.e. collaborative syllabus creation, flexible assignments and due dates, conducting the seminar classroom format). In addition, student feedback is often even a structured part of every class. However, this may present an issue when it is time to give out a grade that is not up for collaboration. Although both of these texts do offer suggestions for how to deal with a student who is unhappy with the grade they receive, I think that the relationship that is established long before the grades are administered is the most useful tool we have in establishing this balance. According to West et al., (2013), this should entail being appropriately welcoming, communicating care and concern, while maintaining appropriate boundaries. I believe when we are able to balance these aspects of the relationship from the beginning, we can have authority and still foster collaboration.
References
Svinicki, M. D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
West, J. D., Bubenzer, D. L., Cox, J. A. & McGlothlin, J. M. (Eds.). (2013). Teaching in counselor education: Engaging students in learning. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Hey Trish,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see us in class together again. I was considering your thoughts to section 1 regarding the syllabus. I never realized how similar the syllabus is to a treatment plan until reading the Svinicki and McKeachie (2014) text. Svinicki and McKeachie discuss how the syllabus contains a plan and a contract that both instructor and student will know their expectations (p.14). I see this as a great way that I really connected with the reading material and bridged some of the gap between counseling and teaching. I look forward to learning with you in class. God Bless.
Svinicki, M., McKeachie, W. (2014). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers.