0.3 Findings  (Page 13/22)

Philosophy of teaching

Miller was very clear about her philosophy of teaching:

I’m constructivist. I promote students to build their own understanding, so I’m not at all a lecture-based or behaviorist professor. My approach is to provide students with information and resources and then guide them in an exploration of those materials so that they come to an understanding of the material.

In constructivist teaching, in which knowledge is built within the group, a high level of trust among participants is required. It’s the job of the instructor to help create a feeling of safety where the students are able to express their developing understanding of new concepts being introduced. Miller explained how she tried to help the students get to know each other in the first couple of class meetings by using “joining activities.” She gave an example of one such activity in which she distributed descriptions of personal qualities on index cards. “We pass them around. They see all of them, but they’re only allowed to keep five.” Two had to be qualities they’d like to change about themselves, and three were positive characteristics, which they shared with the class. “Because it’s a constructivist classroom, they have to participate on that level. It’s not a kind of sit-back-and-listen-to-me class.”

Technology training

Miller had taught herself to use computers, but she also attended some professional development training offered by the university. The training Miller received on using educational software consisted of occasional short courses. “I’ve sat through a few of those two-hour-long courses and gotten excited about it, and then really had trouble in the application phase.” The courses were not tailored to the instructors’ teaching or subject area. Instructors did not get to work with their own materials in learning how to set up a class website in Blackboard. Miller saw that as a major flaw in the training. Miller made use of the telephone tutoring provided by the publisher to become oriented to the use of the software for setting up her class website. There she posted the course syllabus, assignments, announcements, and topics for the discussion board.

How she taught

Miller assigned students to watch the online videos outside of class; encouraged students to use the test bank as practice; and assigned students to post to the discussion board, as well as comment on other students’ postings. Additionally, she used videos from her department’s collection to show in class. Miller gave her students access to online help from the telephone tutor, posting the tutor’s contact information on the course website.

Using the hybrid format, Miller was able to discuss any technical difficulties the students might be having at the following week’s class. The face-to-face help she gave them seemed to help the students master the online resources without too much stress. Interestingly, in teaching her first class using technology, Miller had to become a technology advisor to the students. Teaching a hybrid course had added a new role to her teaching repertoire which involved more time, effort and skills.