NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

The transition from dualistic thinking (NN v8 n2) to the early stage of multiplicity is vexing for students. This is captured by one student’s view of a general education science course

“.... It’s supposed to teach you to, ah, reason better. .... Actually, what you get ...is...an idea that science is a terrifically confused thing in which nobody knows what’s coming off anyway.”
Multiplicity involves broadening one’s view of learning from the receiving of factual information from authority, to recognizing the deeper learning that results only from labor intensive construction of the information by self and with others. It is a stage of growth that is trying for students and teachers. Sometimes frustration will be vented on the perceived perpetrators of discomfort—professors—and expressed in negative comments on student evaluations. (Yes, it’s that time of year.)

In Perry’s interviews, which formed the basis for his model, students’ reactions in the early stages of multiplicity  include anger, resentment, and defensiveness that veil a soon-to-arise suspicion that the confusion is within them rather than within the content or instructional methodology. As the suspicion arises that there is order in the confusion, an initial misperception arises: that authority already owns “the answer” and that it is being witheld for nebulous reasons. This tends to distract students away from conceiving of the process and choices of their own thinking, and into perceiving that their goal is to discover “what the professor wants.”  Given the challenges inherent to this transition, it’s easy to see why teaching is difficult,  and why communication is such an indispensable part of of our work!

Let’s see how this aspect of Perry’s work can help us in our practice of helping students to learn.

(1) When we intend to teach mainly disciplinary content, then disclosure of what we intend to cover at the beginning of class and a summary wrap-up at the end will be very helpful. But if we intend to teach “critical” (higher level) thinking, then disclosure of process, its effects, and modeling this process is even more important. When we teach  an aspect of critical thinking, we should run a classroom assessment such as a one-minute paper (NN v1 n 6) at the end of class to see if the most important concept we taught is the one the students recognized and understood. There is a difference between perceived disorganization by students and a truly disorganized class that has never been grounded in operating concepts. We may not be able to totally eliminate the former, but we can plan and teach so as to minimize both situations.

(2) We need to be careful not to get caught up or react badly when we encounter defensiveness of students. It is irritating when a student says “I don’t know what you want! The grade you gave me is just your opinion, and it’s no better than mine.”  This is a poignant moment from which student growth or a lot of broken china will be the outcome. Unless we’re moving out of the business of teaching and into the business of destroying self-confidence, this is no time to “put that person in her/his place.” Instead, remember that Perry’s work shows that the transition from dualism to multiplicity is a growth period replete with frustration and tested confidence. It also reveals that the separation of evaluation of self from evaluation of work  won’t occur until later, during development of contextual relativism.  Chances are pretty good that the comment above is not so much about us as about a student’s simply being scared to death that he/she perhaps can’t think as well as he/she believed. Now is a good time to reteach the process, possibly tell the student about Perry’s work, which reveals  students who are growing intellectually will  feel like making such comments, and resolve to teach more about process in the next class.

(3) When reviewing fiery comments written by students on their teacher evaluations, reflect on how growth may elicit venting. There shouldn’t be many such comments, but one or two may be unavoidable. We should make changes when needed, but never allow such comments to damage our self-confidence.

Teaching Improvement Grants
As result of the traditional problems that ensued year after year from awarding grant monies at the end of a fiscal year, the calendar on these has been changed to allow grants to be submitted through June 10 and for awards to be completed by June 20. This gets money into recipients’ hands at the start of the fiscal year. Midge and Mark state that about $10,000 total will be available for this coming year. Grant applications will be short--about two pages with budget maximum and will be submitted totally by e-mail.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
2000 UCD Teaching Enhancement Grants

These are the instructions the 2000 Teaching Enhancement Grants. We have changed the calendar for submissions so as to allow grant monies to be awarded at the start of a fiscal year. It also will allow people to do some thinking and reflection for a proposal in a relative "down-time" portion of the year. The applications will be reviewed by members of the UCD Teaching Committee. No formal application form exists. What follows is the total information required to prepare your application.

PURPOSE and SCOPE
The teaching enhancement grants are designed to improve the quality of teaching for the students of UCD.  These grants are available only to full-time faculty at UCD. The Committee has approximately $10,000 to award this year.

Requests are limited to an upper budget request of $5000.  Course releases may be requested and should be budgeted in accord with college requirements (usually ~$3000).  Applications may include requests for staff support, hardware, materials, travel, software or other expenditures, and training workshops. This year’s "BootCamp for Profs®" will be held in Leadville, Colorado July 23-29. If you request funding to attend, the cost is $700.00 plus your travel expense (estimate $100). A very unsophisticated web page at http://www.cudenver.edu/public/OTE/nn/vol6/6_6.htm provides information on this year’s program. Funds CANNOT be used for curriculum development or faculty salaries.

SUBMISSION
All applications will be submitted by email at Ed_Nuhfer@maroon.cudenver.edu. Reviews will be done online. Deadline for submissions is Saturday, June 10. Awards will be announced by end of June.

FORMAT
Your application should include the following pages and information.  The total application is strictly limited to three pages.  NO attachments are allowed.  Please do not use a font size smaller than 10 pt. Follow the three page format below.

Page one.  Page one of your application should include applicant(s) name(s), campus address(es), campus phone number(s), campus e-mail address(es), total dollar amount requested and title of proposal.

Page two.  Page two of your application should have: (1) the project title; (2) an abstract that describes (a) your project, (b) how it will enhance teaching at UCD and (c) the specific population of students who will be served (note—the actual numbers are not a factor in evaluation);  (3) A list of the major expected outcome(s)—maximum of three; (4) A sentence or two describing how expected outcomes will be assessed.

Page three.  Page three of your application should include an itemized budget of the expenditures proposed in this grant application. Remmeber, requests must not total more than $5000.
 
 

BOOT CAMP for PROFS- 2000 is Coming!
Boot Camp for Profs® will be held this year in Leadville, Colorado, July 22- 29. Contact Ed Nuhfer (556-4915) enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu if you want to attend. Details are now available at
http://www.cudenver.edu/public/OTE/nn/vol6/6_6.htm
Apologies for the in-process appearance of this web page. Our student web helper is struggling with finals. We’ll make the page more cosmetically pleasing soon, but the information you need is there.

Ed Nuhfer, Director Teaching Effectiveness & Faculty Development
CU-Denver Campus Box 137 PO Box 173364 Denver, CO 80217-3364
(303) 556-4915 Fax (303) 556-5855