One Stop Learning

Presenting online with free screencasting program

2011-11-22T11:15:00.008+08:00

Example 1: Screencast using Movenote

Example 2: Screencast using Screen_O-Matic

Example 3: Screencast using Present.me

I have benefited a lot from following people on Twitter. Recently I spotted a twit by Robin Good on using Movenote and present.me to produce a quick and simple screencasting. I followed the link to his Scoop.it! page. I watched his sample presentation and I thought, ah...I can try this! Both Movenote and present.me are free, very easy to use and the quality is reasonably good (but judge for yourself). Both programs have limited features compared to the more established Screen-O-Matic but I guess it's quite sufficient. I would add these to my selection of free screencasting program to present my PowerPoint or Keynote.

I have been using mostly Screenr for screencasting and recently I use Screen-O-Matic (for longer screencast up to 15 min). Unlike Screenr, though, Screen-O-Matic and Movenote allow you to capture your face using a webcam. I'm not particularly camera shy, so I thought maybe better to include a talking head in my presentation. Movenote tagline is “Presentation with emotion”. The website is neat and simple with very minimum information. For some reasons even the sign up link is not very evident. Movenote approach in screencasting is different from Screenr and Screen-O-Matic in that you have to upload the file to be presented in the screencast to the cloud (Movenote server). In this respect Movenote is not very flexible in terms of capturing anything on the screen.

Here's my first testing with Movenote (Example 1 above). I uploaded only one PowerPoint (2010) slide for this test. The slide contain 2 animations. Movenote convert it to image but somehow the animated objects (picture) messed up. In the second test, I converted the PPT slide to pdf and that solved the problem. For this test, I used my Samson COU3 USB microphone and MacBook Pro. Movenote placed the 'talking head' on the left hand side of the slide. No option to re-position it. On the other hand, Screen-O-Matic overlay the 'talking head' on the slide itself, thus cover part of the slide. I wish there was an option to re-position it. The bottom line is, for a simple and quick screencast of your lecture Movenote is quite useful. The output is also looks quite good

Present.me is also very simple to use but I think need some improvement. The quality of the 'talking head' is not as good as Movenote. As of this writing (November 2011) present.me is still in beta stage. Like Movenote, present.me is designed mainly for presenting documents such as pdf or PowerPoint presentation. The free basic account allows up to 15 minutes recording and up to 10 recordings/month (50 MB per upload). If you want to capture animation and transition in your PowerPoint presentation you have to sign up for the Plus account (not free). You can capture the presenter with the webcam. I notice, however, the quality of the talking head is not as good as Movenote or Screen-O-Matic.

What do you think of the result?

Haven't Published Yet?

2011-10-27T12:51:00.002+08:00

For those aspiring to publish their first research paper or article in the journal, watch this video to get some inspiration. Enjoy!

What Reviewers and Editors Want?

2011-10-25T22:26:00.002+08:00

This morning I gave a talk, "Getting Your Manuscript Published: What Reviewers and Editors Want?" to a group of 40 graduate students. The talk was organized by the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS), Universiti Sains Malaysia as part of the Professional and Personal Development Programme. The programme aims to increase students’ knowledge, soft skills, ability and credibility in order to develop them to compete and progress both academically and in the future workplace. This talk is actually the fourth one this month on a theme of writing scientific publication (my previous talks can be found in my previous article).

Briefly, I covered these topics:

Duties of editors, reviewers, and authors
What is “peer review” and its brief history
Objectives & process of peer review
What editors & reviewers are looking for?
Surviving the peer review process

The presentation can be viewed and download from Slideshare (link below).

Getting Your Manuscript Published: What Reviewers and Editors Want

How to Write a World Class Paper

2011-08-22T09:20:00.002+08:00

As promised, I have uploaded the second part of my presentation on the theme of publishing scientific paper. The first was posted in my earlier article (here). The title of the second presentation is "How to Write a World Class Paper". Yes, writing a paper that reports novel idea that would advance the frontier of knowledge. A well written article cannot make up for poor research whereas a badly written article can diminish good research! The rule of thumb is actually quite simple: clarity and brevity. Watch the presentation to learn more...

Choose one of the links below:

How to Write a World Class Paper (on Vimeo)
How to Write a World Class Paper (on YouTube)

Note of acknowledgement: The content of this presentation was modified and ‘repackaged’ from the original presentation by Wendy Hurp (Elsevier). I would like to acknowledge and thank Wendy for giving the permission to share the material with the world.

Publish or Perish?

2011-08-18T10:47:00.001+08:00

Publish or perish OR publish and flourish? Getting your paper published especially in the premier/reputable journals is not an easy task. Most of the so-called high ranking international journals have more than 50% rejection rate. There's always something new to learn everyday about scientific writing. Resources to help authors to write and communicate their research in a presentable or publishable from are always available. For example, American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications has launched the Publishing Your Research 101 video series to assist authors and reviewers in understanding and improving their experience with the processes of writing, submitting, editing, and reviewing manuscripts.

The first episode in the series is an interview with Professor George M. Whitesides from Harvard University who has published nearly 600 papers with ACS Publications, and over 1100 articles overall, and has served on the advisory boards of numerous peer-reviewed journals. When asked how many drafts each paper undergo before submission, he said typically 15 drafts!

I enjoyed watching all the videos (ehem...on my beloved iPad). The videos are very informative and especially useful for budding researcher. Even experienced researchers would benefit and can learn one or two things. Supervisors should encourage their students to watch all the videos. Check out also another website on English Communication for Scientists.

Here's the link to all episodes:
Publishing Your Research 101 video series
English Communication for Scientists.

The Road to Successful Publishing

2011-08-18T09:52:00.004+08:00

I was invited recently by the School of Physics (Universiti Sains Malaysia) to give a talk on strategies to publish scientific paper in peer-reviewed journals (the focus was on indexed international journals). It was well attended by graduate students and a number of academic staff. The talk was given in two parts—in the first part I emphasized on the reasons why scientists or researchers must publish their work in indexed journals to disseminate their findings to a wider audience. I hope I have managed to convince the audience (particularly graduate students) the importance of writing and publishing good, quality paper. The second part of the talk focused on strategies, tips, and 'tricks of the trade' of getting the paper (manuscript) accepted by the Chief Editor.

If I may summarize very briefly, writing a scientific paper is always very challenging—it's not an easy task, even for experienced scientist. However, I have made it very clear (hopefully) that writing a paper is part and parcel of a research process. Therefore, we can only write a good, publishable paper if we begin with good research. What constitute 'good research'? This is a topic that need further elaboration itself, but in a nutshell — novelty, well-designed with proper sampling and control (control sample or controlled environment), well-executed and validated. There's much more but perhaps I will give another talk just on this topic.

I would like to thank the audience again (if you are reading this article) for listening intently to my presentation and for actively taking part in the discussion.

You will find below the link to the first part of the talk. The second part will be uploaded soon. I have uploaded the presentation to YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare, and Screenr. See which you is faster to access.

The Road to Successful Publishing (YouTube)
The Road to Successful Publishing (Vimeo)
The Road to Successful Publishing (Slideshare)
The Road to Successful Publishing (Screenr)

Hone Your Scientific Presentation Skill

2011-07-02T22:31:00.002+08:00

This is the first article I write on my beloved iPad 2. I hope in the next article I can write about iPad 2 and how educators can leverage on its awesome features. I bought this amazing thingy on the day it was launched but I had to wait for another 2 weeks because it was out of stock (I came in the afternoon). Although Apple would not pay me any commission or offer any discount, I have to confess that this is simply the best buy of the year, worth every single penny! This iPad 2 has exceeded my expectation and now I can say that its value is worth more than what I have paid. Well, I hope to share with you soon 10 reasons why educators should get an iPad 2. Watch out!

For now, I would like to share what I was reading (of course, on my iPad) recently. Here I would like to share a page on Science website about scientific presentation skill. On this webpage you will find many useful links on various topics on presentation skill. This is one area where all educators and scientists should try to improve because communicating science requires not only deep knowledge of the subject (content knowledge) but also the skill to deliver it in a clear and engaging manner.

The link: Scientific Presentation

Education in the Era of Knowledge Economy

2011-06-23T09:00:00.004+08:00

Recently I was invited by Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) as a panelist in a forum that discussed about the impact of curriculum on graduate employability. One participant (a student) raised the issue about the relevance of curriculum with the actual demand of the job market, i.e., whether what they learn in three or four years curriculum is adequate to prepare them for the real job. Another participant (a teacher counselor) also echoed the same concern of their students, especially at a point when the students are deciding which programme to take at the degree level. For example, if a student take a programme in Forensic Science, would he/she end up working as a forensic personnel?

I think in some professional courses such as medicine, pharmacy, law and perhaps engineering, it is reasonable to expect that the graduates would end up as medical doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and engineers because there is always a great demand for them in the government (public) and private sectors. Unfortunately the situation is different for other disciplines. So if a student has a degree in Chemistry, he/she might not end up working as a chemist but perhaps as an officer in public administration. What's wrong with this? Well, they might say that they are not trained to do administration because they were trained to become a chemist -- so what they have learned is wasted. I think this is a challenge for educators to make our students understand and appreciate the fact that whatever they have learned in their degree will become part of their knowledge, perhaps in this case, a specialized knowledge in chemistry. We have to educate our students to have a larger sense of purpose when come to education, that is to think of the tertiary education as a platform, or as a stepping stone, or as a launchpad for them to explore the 'real world' outside the comfort boundary of the ivory tower.

According to Alvin Toffler, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. In this regard, curriculum in any degree programme should be designed in such a manner that our graduate is equipped with various learning and thinking skills to make them more VERSATILE, FLEXIBLE, RESOURCEFUL, and ADAPTABLE. When our graduates posses these skills then they will be able to learn new skills and adapt readily to new environment. I cannot emphasize more the need that the innovative teaching approaches be integrated with appropriate student-centered learning environment so that the skill of "learn how to learn" can be imparted more effectively. Cognitive research on learning suggests that "how people learn is more important than what people learn in the achievement of successful learning" (OECD 2001, page 20).

We should take cognizant that we are living through a period of dynamic transformation in all aspects of our lives and this transformation is catalyzed by a profound change of economic model and rapid advancement in technology. We have seen the world moving from a resource-based (agricultural) economy to industrial economy (much dependent on labour and natural resources such as coal) and now rapidly into a so-called knowledge-based economy, in which knowledge is the key resource.

Knowledge economy has been defined as:
...one in which the generation and the exploitation of knowledge has come to play the predominant part in the creation of wealth. It is not simply about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge; it is also about the more effective use of all types of knowledge in all manner of economic activity.
The knowledge economy increasing relies on the diffusion and the use of knowledge, as well as its creation. Hence the success of enterprises, and of national economies as a whole, will become more reliant upon their effectiveness in gathering, absorbing and utilizing knowledge, as well as in its creation (Houghton and Sheehan, 2000).

It is obvious that the emergence of the global knowledge economy present new challenges and inevitably will bring about a great impact on our education system. Furthermore, the application of knowledge is all aspects of the economy is being greatly facilitated by the rapid advancement in information, computing and communication (ICT) technologies. Therefore, it is imperative that the transformation in economic model and unprecedented pace in knowledge generation/dissemination be aligned to a similar transformation in education...but how do we go about it? What does our national education system need to do in response to knowledge-based growth? What can educators do to meet the challenge. Do we have to wait for some new policies in place or can we start something on our own initiative to bring transformation into our own practices in teaching and learning environment?

To deal with the new demands and challenges of knowledge economy, lifelong learning has been suggested as a new model to prepare human capital (in most literature the term 'skilled workers' is commonly used) to compete in the global economy.

"A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout the lifecycle, from early childhood through retirement. It encompasses formal learning (schools, training institutions, universities); nonformal learning (structured on-the-job training); and informal learning (skills learned from family members or people in the community). It allows people to access learning opportunities as they need them rather than because they have reached a certain age. (The World Bank Report, 2003).

The next question is, how do we incorporate lifelong learning model into our existing educational framework? It is obvious that our educational systems can no longer emphasis task-specific skills but must focus instead on developing learners' decision-making and problem-solving skills and teaching them how to learn on their own and with others (The World Bank Report, 2003). Achieving these goals requires a fundamental change in the way learning takes place and the relationship between learner and teacher. Our graduates need to be equipped with the essential skills and competencies they need to succeed in knowledge economy era. These skills include mastery of technical, interpersonal, and methodological skills. Technical skills include literacy, foreign language, math, science, problem-solving, and analytical skills. Interpersonal skills include teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. Methodological skills include ability to learn on one's own, to pursue lifelong learning, and to cope with risk and change.

I believe that a systemic (thorough) reform of our education system is urgently needed. Education reform or transformation actually has been a recurrent theme not only in Malaysia but globally. So what are we doing about it and where are we heading? Yes, we have a seemingly comprehensive National Higher Education Action Plan (2007-2010). Here I cite some statements (verbatim) from the document with respect to teaching and learning:

"We must produce confident students with a sense of balance and proportion. While an individual may specialize in a certain area, his or her perspective should be enriched by other experiences as well. The Ministry of Higher Education will thus introduce a holistic programme that will cut across all disciplines and focus on communication and entrepreneurial skills. The programme, which is intended to build a balanced perspective in all students, will expose them to subjects beyond their area of specialisation. For example, students reading for degrees in the sciences such as medicine, engineering and chemistry will be exposed to courses covering literature and philosophy. Likewise, students in the humanities will be exposed to the rudiments of science and technology, and certainly, ICT."

"Dynamic and relevant curriculum and pedagogy are needed to ensure the health and strength of an institution. Inter-disciplinary approaches to the design of higher education curricula will build and stimulate creativity, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship. Curricula must also equip undergraduates with appropriate skills to enable them to compete in an ever-changing market. Curricula must be reviewed, and courses that are no longer relevant must be removed. Peer review and industry collaboration must be enhanced in curricula development and evaluation".

Reading through the whole document giving me the impression that our educational reform is very much in line with the lifelong learning model proposed in the World Bank Report. In fact, lifelong learning was specifically mentioned (National Higher Education Action Plan [2007-2010], page 39) and has been identified as one of the Critical Agenda Projects (CAP). Other CAPs directly related to teaching and learning are "Teaching and Learning" and "E-learning". I want to be optimistic about the successful implementation of the Action Plan but having seen the detail of how the various CAPs are being managed and executed...I have my doubt. But again, I always believe that we don't really have to wait for the policy or strategic plan to come in place. The initiative can be taken by parties at different levels -- institution, faculty/department, and individual (educators).

Further readings:

Houghton, J. and Sheehan, P. (2000). A Primer on the Knowledge Economy. Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Melbourne, Australia.
Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy - Challenges in Developing Countries. A World Bank Report, Washington D.C.
National Higher Education Action Plan (2007-2010)
Rethink the education system.

Teaching or Research?

2011-03-17T17:41:00.003+08:00

This topic on teaching-research nexus has always been at the back of my mind for some time. I wanted to blog about this topic, so I started some research to find out whether teaching and research are intertwined or otherwise. Wow, what did I find? I didn't realize that hundreds of researches have been carried out on the research-teaching nexus and how it relates to ways in which research supports teaching and vice versa. The verdict? Hmmm...interesting...but I will try to summarize the research findings in my future article. Anyway, Thomas Cech, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Chemistry Nobel laureate, remarks: “Why do today’s university faculty so rarely apply the same innovation and energy to their teaching that they invest in their research? There is no mystery here. Good teaching may be appreciated, even applauded, but good research is at the heart of the reward structure” (Science 299, 165, 2003).

So is this about monetary or material reward? Can we get more great teachers and educate more lifelong long learners by giving material incentives to teachers? Hmm...Everything seems to be driven by money. Ah, well...reality of life. But wait...read the latest research on the impact of giving incentives to teachers. Daniel H. Pink (author of the book 'Drive') has written an article "Does giving teachers bonuses improve student performance?" based on the latest research finding. Go ahead and read the gist of the finding - you can download the original research article as well.

To start the ball rolling, I have interviewed two of my colleagues, Professor Fong Soon Fook and Associate Professor Mahamad Hakimi Ibrahim. Fong is a Professor of Multimedia Education at the School of Educational Studies and Hakimi is a lecturer with Chemical Engineering background from the School of Industrial Technology.

1. What is your idea about “transforming higher education”? Is it really necessary?

PROF FONG: Quality of Public Higher Education in Malaysia is dynamically being redefined again and again based upon the changes in the top-down policies of the Government and The Ministry of Higher Education. I am of the opinion that the players in the Public and Private Higher Education are compartmentalized and playing their own local R&D game. Such an “inbreeding” might sporadically bring in some surprises once in a while by some individuals. Such a pattern has been going on and will continue with poor return-of-investment.

Is transforming higher education necessary? YES! We need an aggressive and dynamic transformation. The talents in the Malaysian higher education institutes are plenty. Let us tear down the “territorial” fences & slogans and be governed by a corporate-consensus of one vision and one goal to bring this small but dynamic nation forward. As we blend and cross-breed academically, I strongly believed that the “hybrids” and synergy generated by like-minded researchers and academics will result in a “tipping-point” to suddenly transform the landscape of higher education in Malaysia.

DR HAKIMI: Yes, current higher education seems to serve the market forces/hegemony, where our students are basically ‘manufactured’ for a conveyor belted society. Some called it academic capitalism.(By the way do you think people are on the same wave length as to what constitutes education, higher education and hence transforming higher education?).

2. Do you think there is a conflict between teaching and research at a research-intensive university like Universiti Sains Malaysia?

PROF FONG: Research ought to complement teaching. There are plenty of researches conducted in the Public Universities. The findings and implications of the studies are more often than not, resting on the shelves in the libraries and resource-rooms. USM as a research-intensive university should take the initiative to conduct an annual “review and upgrading” of the course curriculum. Such current curriculum with added values from research findings will be a great advantage to our main key stakeholders – our graduates.

DR HAKIMI: No. Both are complementary.

3. In the context of USM, do you think research has been given special attention at the expense on teaching?

PROF FONG: As long as the promotion criteria give more emphasis to publications and conference presentations related to research, it will be more than natural that academics will be inclined towards spending more time and efforts in research at the expense on teaching. At this point, I suggest that the administrators of higher education help academics balance their management of time and efforts. To this effect, the paper chase for KPIs needs to be reviewed. Let us be reminded that our core-business is indeed “teaching and learning” and raising a breed of 21st century skilled graduates to help realized the growth and vision of our nation. Alvin Toffler phrased it very well – “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. May we be willing to learn, unlearn and relearn the art of balancing teaching with research.

DR HAKIMI: Not quite. In fact the so called attention has arrived rather late. The acceleration in research activities goes together with the greater accessibility to internet based research materials and better staff global networking. We are responding to the changes happening globally.

4. Do you think research can enhance the quality of faculty’s teaching and students’ learning?

PROF FONG: On one hand, university graduates must be grounded with basic foundations of various disciplines. On the other hand, our undergraduates should be kept in pace with the latest in research-findings related to their core disciplines. For all you know, such graduates will stand above the crowd and is “market-ready” to lead with the latest findings from the faculty’s research. I am always reminded a quote come from John Dewey “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow”.

DR HAKIMI: Of course.

5. Do you think we should have a separate track for teaching and research? I mean a staff can opt to focus only on teaching OR on research.

PROF FONG: In the university, teaching and research ought to be in the same track. Having been a school teacher for 20 years before joining the university, my first love and passion have been teaching. Since joining USM as a lecturer-cum-researcher, my teaching contents have been frequently upgraded with current findings which in turn help upgrade the competency of my students in various aspects. Teaching and research should indeed go hand in hand.

DR HAKIMI: Possible. But the choice is up to the lecturers – to do singly or both.However we should allow the lecturers to ‘discover themselves’ and not to force a track to ‘manufacture’ an automaton in teaching or research or both. Part of research is the staff ‘researching’ into themselves. To discover their raison d'être. It is to answer the quranic question ‘fa-aina tazhabun’ – where are you going? Part of teaching is to know that we have to learn for knowledge and wisdom. All these should bring us to the One with knowledge and wisdom – AlAleem and AlHakeem. This is where the transformation of higher education should bring us to. Bringing us back to the realization that Allah is The Lord and we are His servants and caliphs.

Learning – from cradle to grave

2011-03-14T21:41:00.001+08:00

"Knowledge does not narrow, knowledge only adds...and without knowledge many experiences in life remain very narrow and very shallow..." - Professor Walter Lewin, Professor of Physics, MIT.

While browsing the internet recently, I came across a picture of the giant mainframe computer of the early '80s. While staring at the picture, I was reminiscing the time back in 1988 during my time as a master's student at the University of Reading, England. For the first time in my life, I had to use a computer to prepare a linear regression plot using a software called Lotus 123. That was still the early days of computer and it marks the beginning of my exploration into the wonderful creation of modern time – computer. It was indeed an exciting and thrilling experience for me to be able to plot a graph and derive the equation so easily. I remember using a software called 'Chi-Square' (if I'm not mistaken) as word processor as well as for drawing a simple flow chart. To draw a simple rectangle or square, I had to press the keyboard key several times horizontally and vertically – just to get a simple box shape! Then Word Perfect came to the fore and later became a very popular word processor (apart from Word Star). It has very basic features, just enough to get your work done. It doesn't have What You See is What You Get (WYSWYG) interface but rather what you see is totally different from what you actually get when printed. So on the screen you see yellow text to represent underlined text, green text to represent bold text, etc. – and you have to memorize a few key commands (so rote learning has its role!).

I became very interested and fascinated with computer, partly because I had to use it to analyze data from my research work. So my acquaintance with computer was partly by default but it was also by choice because somehow I could sense the potential of the technology and how I could leverage it for my work. I started to 'indulge' in computer and tried to get my hand on any form of learning materials (mainly book and magazine which are very scarce). My other learning resources include a few very helpful technical staff from the computer centre. There's no formal training – it's mainly learning by reading, asking and DOING!

What's the point of telling this story? Well, there are a few points relevant to knowledge and learning...

First, all of us are learners – and lifelong learners. We learn new things every day. In a publication of the World Bank entitled, "Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries", lifelong learning is defined as follows: "A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout the lifecycle, from early childhood to retirement. It encompasses formal learning (schools, training institutions, universities); nonformal learning (structured on-the-job training); and informal learning (skills learned from family members or people in the community). It allows people to access learning opportunities as they need them rather than because they have reached a certain age".

According to Hargreaves (2004), "Lifelong learning should mean what the term plainly says: learning lasts for life – cradle to grave – and so begins when we are born and embark on the adventure we are well programmed to pursue: learning. The principal function of formal education, therefore, should be to help people to learn, embracing both content (knowledge, skill and understanding of various kinds) and process (the motivation and ability to learn successfully)".

My experience of learning about computer fits in the definition of lifelong learning. I didn't learn computer as a subject in the curriculum but rather it was through informal learning. I constructed my knowledge and skills on using computer practically from zero and build up or accumulate the knowledge over time. I applied my computer skills in my work (as a research student at that time), so I have the opportunity to hone the skills. Soon I became quite good and knowledgable and I spent many hours to help (basically teach) fellow students using computer. All educators would agree, 'the best way to learn is to teach'. Every time when we teach, the knowledge become deeper and deeper and the knowledge expanded. As Professor Walter Lewin said, "Knowledge does not narrow, knowledge only adds...". The learning process continues because now I have to learn not only about computer but also new development in various forms of educational technology.

In the context of teaching, teachers have the advantage over their students because they are more experienced learners. Teachers are supposed to have the skills of searching for the right information in the large pool of knowledge in various domains and constructing that knowledge for meaningful learning. It is important that we pass on the skills to our students. The students of the 21st century are going to need the skills of inquiry – of research – if they are to be able to investigate and to learn and hence be employable in the future. The greatest challenge would be to make our students understand that learning new knowledge is not for the sake of getting good grade in the examination. It's easier said than done especially in the examination oriented systems that are prevailing in most institutions but I guess we have to try very hard to change their mind set. We have to convince our students that they need to have a larger sense of purpose beyond personal achievement in examination. Students have to understand that it is the learning skills that they have to develop to prepare them for a future in which learning will occur in a greater range of contexts.

I believe our role as educators goes beyond transmitting knowledge – our role is to nurture our students to become lifelong learners – to teach them the skills of 'learn how to learn' and to teach them the appreciation and the love for knowledge. This is the essence that would enable our students to become successful lifelong learners. Before we can do this, however, we have to be honest and truthful with ourselves – are we a real lifelong learner? Educators must set examples for students by becoming lifelong learners themselves. They have to keep up-to-date with new knowledge, pedagogical ideas, and technology. If students are to become better learners, it is essential for teachers to become better at what they do. As teachers, we should not sit in our comfort zone but we should continue to grow by challenging ourselves to new skills and new knowledge. This can be achieved through a continuous professional development programme or through own initiative to learn through reading, attending short courses and workshops, etc.

Further readings:

What I love about teaching
Hargreaves, D.H. (2004). Learning for Life - The Foundation of Lifelong Learning. The Policy Press, Bristol, UK.
Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries. A World Bank Report, 2003. Download the full text from The World Bank Website.

Waiting for 'Superman'

2011-03-10T23:53:00.002+08:00

"In almost every area of human endeavor, the practice improves over time," says Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. "That hasn't been the case for teaching." This is an excerpt of his interview by PARADE – read the full interview on the Parade website. In the interview, Gates shares his insight about the crisis of American Education system and the movie Waiting for ‘Superman’, a documentary from An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim. I have not watched the movie yet but I would surely try to get the DVD and hopefully learn a few things. In the meantime, have a look at the trailer and reviews.

Climbing Bloom’s Ladder of Learning

2011-03-02T12:07:00.004+08:00

A Google search on “Bloom’s taxonomy” recently returned an impressive 1.63 million results! Apparently the literature available on the internet is replete with resources about the famous Bloom’s taxonomy of learning. I don’t intend to repeat what Bloom taxonomy is about and how it evolves because I believe you can find wealth of information on various aspects on the topic among the 1.63 million results in the internet. I have selected a few articles (link at the end of this article) for those interested to know more about the various domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) in the original and the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. What I’m interested to talk about in this article is the issue of implementing and infusing the various domains in the curriculum. I’m aware that certain facets of Bloom’s taxonomy have been challenged (for example the hierarchical cognitive domain) but to me this is more of intellectual academic arguments that do not reduce the overall value of the concept. For educators, to teach and not be aware of the value of Bloom’s taxonomy (original or modified from) will do injustice to our students because the taxonomy provides important perspectives that could improve the quality of teaching and learning at all levels.

So what’s the fuss about Bloom’s taxonomy? In a nutshell, Bloom’s taxonomy of learning focused teachers on the educational (learning) outcomes – what students should know and be able to do. How does the taxonomy relates learning outcomes to teaching? For any given curriculum, knowing the intended learning outcomes determine the what, how, and when of teaching. The focus of this article is on the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy although affective and psychomotor domains are equally important. The six components in the original cognitive domain are arranged in hierarchical manner that form ‘a ladder of learning’ that moves stepwise upwards in terms of levels of complexity, i.e., from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. In this hierarchy form, it is assumed that abilities or competencies needed at the lower levels are also needed as prerequisite to the mastery of skills at higher levels.

Each step in cognitive domain involves a specific kind of competence that supposedly can be tested with appropriate questions, each of which requires some “action” to demonstrate mastery of the material. The six-tiered steps are:

Knowledge – recall of information, remembering facts and information; tested by questions asking that a student list, define, tabulate, name or identify who, what, when, where, and so on;
Comprehension – understanding of information (considered as the lowest level of understanding), tested by questions with verbs such as summarize, contrast, interpret, estimate, discuss, predict and the like;
Application – use of information to solve problems, ability to apply information or concepts in a new situation; tested by requiring students to demonstrate, calculate, illustrate, examine, show, modify and classify;
Analysis – recognition of patterns, components, organization, both manifest and latent meanings and functions, with verbal cues such as explain, connect, compare, separate and classify;
Synthesis – generalization and integration of knowledge including generation of new ideas from old ones, relating knowledge across disciplines, drawing conclusions and predicting, according to instructions such as combine, integrate, modify, plan, create, design, generalize and rewrite;
Evaluation – assessment and decision making in response to demands to discriminate among ideas, test hypotheses, appraise theories, construct arguments in support of, or in opposition to, various propositions, verify evidence and recognize bias and subjectivity.

The first three components constitute ‘lower order thinking’ and the last three constitute ‘higher order thinking’ abilities. The original Bloom’s taxonomy has undergone various modifications to reflect new development in cognitive research. The new (modified) Bloom’s Taxonomy was based on the work of Anderson and Krathwohl who incorporates knowledge from contemporary research on learning and human cognition into its model. The components in revised taxonomy are: Remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, and create. The major differences are the revised taxonomy modifies the original vocabulary to make each word more consistent with how it should be used; the new levels are now listed as verbs. For example, the term ‘synthesis’ was changed to ‘create’ because in order to demonstrate synthesis then there need to be a new creation.

Thoughtful application of Bloom’s taxonomy could serves as a useful structure for writing measurable learning objectives and learning outcomes (LOs). The taxonomy helped to establish a shared, common language for academic assessment and the construction of clear and consistent learning objectives. In fact, detailed schemes and impressive schematic diagrams are available to help educators to write the LOs using specific verbs for each domain. (Fellow blogger, Zaid, has written an impressive and comprehensive article on his blog here). The LOs of the course with all the glory details (matrices, etc.) look nice and impressive on paper but the BIG QUESTION is whether teachers/lecturers are well guided and trained to implement teaching strategies that will help students to achieve the highest cognitive skills. From my discussion with colleagues and educators the general feeling is that the process of writing LOs now has become very mechanistic and to some extent trivialized because now almost anyone can do it without understanding the underlying philosophy that Bloom and others originally intended to achieve in terms of students’ learning. My main concern is that when any process becomes too mechanistic and standardized, there’s a tendency for ‘automation’ and the attitude of ‘just follow the template’, a practice that add little value to either instructional design or the assessment of learning.

I believe that most educators would like their students to function at the highest cognitive levels (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) because these would make them successful lifelong learners (successful beyond the examination hall, hopefully). However, in practice and in reality we have to honestly examine whether our students have enough opportunity to develop these cognitive skills or we (educators) have provided the environment that help to promote the skills. We have to examine and reflect on the way our curriculum is designed and how it is structured and delivered – can we really achieve the higher order learning/thinking or is it barely rising above the comprehension level? I don’t have a definite answer and I’m just throwing this question here for the sake of discussion – if the answer to this question is YES then obviously there is a disconnection between teachers’ sincere hopes and the actual expectations and we need to address this issue.

Let me paraphrase the question to ponder upon: How do we help students to climb the ladder of Bloom’s taxonomy to reach the high order cognitive skills? How do we design/approach the teaching and learning process to create an environment that would go beyond the comprehension (understand) and ‘apply’ levels? How do we operationalize the different learning stages into at curriculum and course level?

I think a good point to start is to change the mind-set of educators that learning involves a simple acquisition of knowledge. Mayer (2002) argued that when taking a knowledge acquisition view of learning, teachers sometimes emphasize one kind of cognitive processing in instruction and assessment—what we call ‘Remembering’. This is basically the lowest level in the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy. He asserted that any education system should be based on a broader vision of learning that includes not only acquiring knowledge but also being able to use knowledge in a variety of new situations.

If I could offer my humble opinion on the issue of ‘climbing the Bloom’s taxonomy ladder’, I would suggest that we take a close look at suggestion by Paulsen (2001) and Shulman (1986) that teachers should master three types of knowledge and competencies: (1) content knowledge—knowledge of the facts, principles and methods in the discipline that is being taught, (2) pedagogical knowledge—understanding of the learning process and the conditions that facilitate and hinder it, independent of the discipline in which the learning takes place, and (3) pedagogical content knowledge—a term coined by Shulman (1986) to denote knowledge and understanding of the learning process in the context of a particular discipline. I believe that any teacher equipped with these three elements would be able to help students climbing to the top of cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Specific examples on strategies to incorporate and infuse high order cognitive skills can be found from the work of educators from various disciplines. I didn’t do exhaustive search but a few that I found are listed in the reading list at the end of this article. One interesting article that I read with interest was “Teaching Introductory Organic Chemistry: ‘Blooming’ beyond a Simple Taxonomy” by Pungente & Badger (2003). This article provides detailed approach that other educators can take as an example of best practices that can be adopted and adapted in their own classroom. Let me quote two paragraphs (verbatim) from this article:

“Our primary goal when teaching introductory organic chemistry is to take students beyond the simple cognitive levels of knowledge and comprehension. We take a mechanistic approach to teaching organic chemistry. This is reinforced by connections to fundamental chemical principles emphasizing a unification of knowledge. Once students begin to appreciate the explanation of organic reaction mechanisms, they start to see these fundamental principles reappear regularly throughout the study of organic chemistry. True connections emerge and students begin to view organic reactions and interactions from a basis of understanding—using skills of synthesis and analysis—rather than rote memory. This ability to understand the connections between general principles and how they unlock the seemingly complex and confusing reactions in organic chemistry is an empowering experience for students. As empowerment replaces the fear, student confidence grows”.

“Like learning a new language, introductory organic chemistry typically begins with the grammar or taxonomy of organic chemistry. This introduction allows the instructor to speak the language of organic chemistry, re-examine principles, and lay the groundwork for advancement into reactions and mechanisms (applications and analysis). However, too often when the instructor kicks into “higher-level cognitive gear”, and begins delving into applications, the students are still functioning at the lower knowledge and comprehension cognitive levels, memorizing seemingly unrelated facts. This discrepancy between the instructor’s expectations and student performance becomes painfully obvious at exam time. Often, unintentionally or unknowingly, the instructor teaches at the lower knowledge and comprehension cognitive levels but examines at the higher analysis and synthesis levels while the students’ exam expectations remain at the lower knowledge and comprehension cognitive levels. The results: students complain that the exams are too hard; the instructor concludes while marking the papers that the students don’t “understand” basic concepts”.

I believe there are more things we can do to help students to achieve meaningful learning in align with Bloom’s taxonomy educational objectives. As I have written in my previous article in this blog, we need to facilitate a paradigm shift from teacher-centered teaching to student-centered learning throughout the curriculum, such that students obtain a deeper learning experience, improve their understanding and ability to apply learning to new situations, enhance their critical thinking and experimental skills, and increase their enthusiasm for lifelong learning.

Comments, views, and suggestions from fellow educators on the questions/issues raised in this article are most welcome.

References and further readings:

Use of Bloom’s taxonomy wheel for writing learning outcomes
Bloom Taxonomy (A nice introduction to Bloom Taxonomy; Slideshare presentation)
Kinetic connections: Bloom's taxonomy in action
A picture is worth a thousand thoughts: inquiry with Bloom's taxonomy – nice demonstration of Bloom’s taxonomy in action. It takes you step-by-step through the analysis of a photograph at progressively higher levels of thinking.
Green, K.H. (2010). Matching Functions and Graphs at Multiple Levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies – PRIMUS, 20(3), 204–216 (Note: you need a subscription).
Mayer, R.E. (2002). Rote Versus Meaningful Learning. Theory into Practice, 41(4), 226-232 (Note: you need a subscription).
Nentl, N. and Zietlow, R. (2008). Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Teach Critical Thinking Skills to Business Students. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 15(1),159-172 (Note: you need a subscription).
Paulsen, M.B., “The Relation Between Research and the Scholarship of Teaching,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Vol. 86, 2001, pp. 19–29 (Note: you need a subscription).
Pungente, M.D. and Badger, R.A. (2003). Teaching Introductory Organic Chemistry: ‘Blooming’ beyond a Simple Taxonomy. Journal of Chemical Education, 8(7), 779-784 (Note: you need a subscription).
Spencer, J.N. (1999). New Directions in Teaching Chemistry: A Philosophical and Pedagogical Basis. Journal of Chemical Education, 76(4), 566-569 (Note: you need a subscription).

The continuing quest to be a better teacher

2011-02-18T23:02:00.007+08:00

I remember when I joined the university about 17 years ago (it feels like only yesterday!) I was given the task of handling a laboratory class. I already had some experiences as a graduate assistant during my time as a Ph.D. student so it was not very difficult. I think I did quite a good job designing new experiments, interacting with the students and helping them with the experiment and marking the lab report. During the first few months, I had to attend induction courses including one or two sessions on teaching and learning. I don’t think I learn much on the learning theory or pedagogy then but I still remember a session where I had to give a mock lecture that was recorded and later commented by the facilitator. That was how much the training I received to become a teacher (lecturer) and I was supposed to be ready to carry out the task of educating the adult students. Without sufficient knowledge in pedagogy and teaching techniques, I was forced to use my intuition and developed my own approach based on my limited understanding of what good teaching is all about.

Now fast forward and looking back, I think I am a better teacher now than I was 17 years ago—but without seeking new knowledge via self-study, my pedagogical approach and teaching skills probably would not have changed very much. Obviously the task of preparing teachers for the profession is a complex and challenging one. Teachers, especially lecturers in higher educational institution should not take it for granted that the basic training in teaching is adequate to help students to learn effectively. Knowledge is not static – indeed it should expand, honed and enhanced. I believe educators at all levels, from kindergarten to university, should always seek new knowledge not only in their area of specialization but also in other disciplines. I always believe that we can only get better, provided we are willing to learn! As someone who is not formally trained as a teacher, I always on the lookout for good resources (books, websites, blogs or courses) on teaching and learning. My motivation is to enhance my teaching based on sound pedagogical principles and ultimately this hopefully would benefit my students’ learning.

In view of the dynamic progress in the 21st century learning environment and the changing needs of our students, teachers (lecturers, faculty) should strive to seek new knowledge and skills through a continuous professional development programme. According to Grant "Professional development ... goes beyond the term 'training' with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practice, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources”. In other words, professional development involves activities or programmes that develop an individual’s skills, knowledge, expertise and other characteristics as a teacher.

The development of teachers beyond their initial training can serve a number of objectives (OECD, 1998), including:

to update individuals’ knowledge of a subject in light of recent advances in the area;
to update individuals’ skills, attitudes and approaches in light of the development of new teaching techniques and objectives, new circumstances and new educational research;
to enable individuals to apply changes made to curricula or other aspects of teaching practice;
to help weaker teachers become more effective.

What kind of new knowledge, skills and competencies that teachers should equip themselves? In this regard, Paulsen (2001) proposed that teachers should master three types of knowledge: (1) content knowledge—knowledge of the facts, principles and methods in the discipline that is being taught, (2) pedagogical knowledge—understanding of the learning process and the conditions that facilitate and hinder it, independent of the discipline in which the learning takes place, and (3) pedagogical content knowledge—a term coined by Shulman (1986) to denote knowledge and understanding of the learning process in the context of a particular discipline.

It goes without saying that mastery of the subject matter (theories, principles, and concepts) is essential to help students learn the subject. Assuming that one has mastered the subject content, one also has to understand how their students learn – the learning process. In this regard, a teacher should have some basic understanding of learning theory, Bloom taxonomy, etc. Next, according to Shulman, a teacher should also have a pedagogical content knowledge. It represents “the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction”. In other words, teachers with good pedagogical content knowledge are able to explain and transfer the knowledge of content to their students with clarity and meaningful. This means that the teacher would design the teaching approach in such a way, using appropriate techniques (e.g., demonstration, graphic representation, video, factory/site visit, etc., interview, role play, games, etc.) with ultimate aim to make the subject comprehensible. For example in my course, I always use demonstration in the classroom to illustrate certain concept. In designing a suitable demonstration, first I need to have in-depth understanding of the concept myself. Then I would think of a way to demonstrate it in the simplest possible manner. In my classes you might learn why the tomato sauce flows more readily than the plum sauce, why the chocolate bar melts in your mouth, why the soft margarine is spreadable but the block margarine is hard, etc. There are at least two reasons for such an approach. First, it lets the students see the relevance of the information. Second, it helps the students own the knowledge; they can see with their own ears and eyes what the concepts mean for them. Apart from demonstration, I frequently used analogy to illustrate certain abstract concept.

How do teachers seek new knowledge in their subject matter (content knowledge), pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge? This can be achieved in several ways and here I’d like to share my own approaches:

Attending short courses – Attending short courses related to the discipline or subject matter is a good (and faster) way to improve knowledge and gain in-depth understanding of the subject. By attending these courses, I get to learn something not normally found in the book. I remember many years ago I attended a certification course in Australia – it was a five-day intensive course conducted by an instructor with more than 25 years practical experience in the field. He shared his real industrial experiences and most of the examples given were from his consultation work with industry. Those were very invaluable knowledge that cannot be found in a standard text book. The knowledge I gained from these courses has benefited the students’ learning significantly and adds value to the course. With respect to pedagogy, I have participated in a workshop on using technology in the classroom, leveraging learning management system such as Moodle to develop e-learning courses, developing module, introducing active learning into the classroom, etc. The idea and knowledge I gained from the workshop led me to make significant modifications to my teaching approach, experiment with problem-based learning, new pedagogical approaches, and new tools to help enhance my students’ learning experience. These efforts, taken together, result in continuous efforts to refine, change, remove, and add both to the content of my courses and to the methods I use to deliver that content.

Reading – I constantly look for interesting resources (books, articles) and ideas to incorporate into my lectures and classes. The reading fuels both my teaching (as well as my research), as I am constantly exposed to new ideas, techniques and points of view. On the pedagogy aspect, I’d like to recommend a few books to get at least basic pedagogical knowledge:

Alan Pritchard (2009). Ways of Learning – Learning Theories and Learning Styles in the Classroom, 2nd edition. This book presents basic theories on learning, followed by the two major schools of psychology that have dealt with learning: behaviorism and constructivism. I like the simplicity of the presentation – good introduction for the novice teachers (non-education background);
Susan A. Ambrose and others (2010). How Learning Works – 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. [Excerpt from the website: “It introduces seven research-based principles of learning and addresses issues such as prior knowledge, knowledge organization, motivation, and metacognition. Written to be accessible and practically useful, this book helps to explain why certain teaching approaches do or do not support student learning and provides faculty with a framework for generating effective approaches and strategies in their own teaching contexts”].
Barbara Gross Davis (2009). Tools for Teaching, 2nd edition. [Description copied from the preface: “Tools for Teaching provides new and experienced faculty in all disciplines with practical, tested strategies for addressing all major aspects of college and university teaching, from planning a course through assigning final grades”].

Of course, there are more books that you can read but let’s start with a small step if you haven’t started at all.

Educational website and blog – This is another useful (or shall I say VERY USEFUL) source to obtain information and new knowledge in subject content and on pedagogy. For example in my area (food science and technology), Institute of Food Technologist (USA) website publishes latest information on various aspects of food science and technology (processing, ingredients, nutrition, food safety, etc.). As for pedagogy and teaching/learning, there are plentiful of good websites such as Faculty Focus, Edutopia, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Times Higher Education, etc. Often some websites, such as Faculty Focus, provides free articles that are downloadable as PDF file. Over the years I have amassed a huge collection of articles from various websites. Unfortunately I have not read all but I know there's a pool of knowledge on my computer waiting to be tapped.

We should not forget blog and social community network group where educators meet to discuss and share their thought on various issues. One example is Classroom 2.0 (social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education). If you are into using technology, there are plentiful of expert blog such as The Rapid E-learning blog and informative blog such as ZaidLearn.

Journals – If you want to read the latest research in your discipline there’s no substitute for reading peer-reviewed journals. Generally there are two types: Review journals which publish review articles and research journals which publish original research findings. Some journals are only accessible if your institution has a subscription. Others are accessible free of charge through open access. There are a number of open access journals in education, for example the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. To find the open access journal simply go the extensive online catalogue, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Here I copied the description about DOAJ – “This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 6175 journals in the directory. Currently 2631 journals are searchable at article level. As of today 510028 articles are included in the DOAJ”.

To improve the so-called 'pedagogical content knowledge', there are journals in certain discipline that focus on the pedagogical aspect of teaching/learning the content of the discipline. Just to mention two examples, in chemistry there is Journal of Chemical Education (copublished by the ACS Publications Division and the Division of Chemical Education) and in food science we have Journal of Food Science Education (available free online), co-published by Institute of Food Technologist, USA and Wiley.

Well, there’s so much teachers/lecturers/faculties can do in terms of their own professional development. The bottom line is continuous professional development of teachers can no longer be viewed as an option but as a necessity, if we were to enhance the standard of education at all levels.

References and further readings:

Paulsen, M.B., “The Relation Between Research and the Scholarship of Teaching,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Vol. 86, 2001, pp. 19–29.
[Grant, C. M. Professional development in a technological age: New definitions, old challenges, new resources [Available online].

Do you over teach your students?

2011-02-15T19:10:00.000+08:00

I always share my enthusiasm with my colleagues about my teaching approaches and very often one of the issues raised during our discussion is “spoon-feeding” or “over teaching”. “Don’t you think you are spoon-feeding your students by putting your hand-outs, notes, PowerPoints slides, etc. for them to freely download?” “Don’t you think we over teach our students?” – These are the questions commonly asked by my colleagues and also when I give a presentation related to teaching-learning issues. Hmm....actually these are difficult questions to answer because to me there is no fine line or clear demarcation as to what constitutes spoon-feeding or over teaching and what is not.

Well, this is what the dictionary says about spoon feeding in the context of teaching-learning:
"If you spoon-feed someone, you do everything for them or tell them everything that they need to know, thus preventing them from having to think or act for themselves. There is a tendency to spoon-feed your pupils when you’re teaching because it is quicker and easier" (Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary). So apparently the result of spoon-feeding in the academic context is the inhibition of the development of the capacity for independent thinking and learning.

I posted a question about this issue in my e-learning portal (title: Spoon-feeding: Are you being pampered?) and asked the students to give their response. Here is one of the responses (verbatim):
“Here is my two cents' worth. Honestly, it is not only me that has been spoon-fed, in fact "all" of us will have to raise up our hands and own up! (Please don't sue me for defamation because I think that this is true) Ha ha.... From young, we have been fed with a silver spoon by our biological parents and in school, the same goes with our dedicated "second-parents". The spoon feeding practice is part of our Malaysian education culture which has long built its warm nest and is still very much alive and breathing. That is why we turn out to be pampered passive learners...” (Chan Lai Ean).

I think providing our students with basic learning resources (within reasonable limit) do not mean we spoon feed the students. What’s important is how we design the learning activities - it should be designed carefully in such a manner that it would require the students to construct and scaffold the knowledge, individually or as part of their group assignment. In doing such activities they will acquire the essential skills such as using databases to search the literature and summarizing the information. After all, in this information era students can easily access and download various learning resources related to the subject, sometimes with better quality than those supplied by their teachers. For my course, I do provide students with basic hand-out and all my PowerPoint slides but they know that they cannot find the answer for the assignment without doing further reading and find more learning resources on their own.

What about “over teaching”? Is it possible to over teach? This issue is perhaps relevant and could happen in a traditional teacher-centered classroom when teachers try to deliver and transmit subject content to their students as much as possible. Enthusiastic teachers prone to do too much (rather than too little) during the 50 minutes lecture – very often they talk more than students do. According to Paula [1] this happens for several reasons: teachers are so anxious for students to learn that they try to shove as much information during the set time period, more than the students could effectively comprehend. It boils down to teachers making themselves feel good, thinking that they have covered the essential information on the topic/subject without much thought as to what the students are actually learning.

In student-centered learning paradigm, the role of teacher is shifted from merely transmitting the knowledge passively to students to one involving more students’ participation and responsibility in a classroom. However, one of the teachers’ concerns about student-centered approach is the notion that more time need to be allocated in a classroom for student-centered activities, taking away precious lecture time to cover the syllabus. Obviously in order to create a successful student-centered environment, teachers should change their mindset from “more is better” to “less is more” approach to classroom teaching. Instead of trying to cover everything in the subject, concentrate on fewer major (core) topics and spend more time on those. This approach would promote deep conceptual understanding rather than just a superficial or cursory knowledge of the subject. To facilitate learning and discussion, relevant learning resources can be uploaded in advanced on the learning portal and students can be instructed to read the materials before the lecture. Using this approach, class time can be used more productively to cover conceptually difficult material, leaving the students to cover the rest for themselves.

References and further readings:

Evans, C., Gibbons, N.J., Shah, K. and Griffin, D.K. (2004) Virtual learning in the biological sciences: pitfalls of simply "putting notes on the web" Computers & Education, 43, 49-61.
Felder, R.M. and Brent, R. Navigating the bumpy road to student-centered instruction.
Paula, E. (2009). Be a more effective teacher: How to avoid over teaching in the collegiate business classroom. Proceedings of ASBBS, 16(1),

The Quest for Teaching Excellence

2011-02-10T23:43:00.005+08:00

"Teachers should not be predictable in their teaching practices or approaches – in fact, in my view all great teachers are not predictable because they always surprise and excite their students with different “tricks of the trade” up their sleeve" - A. A. Karim.

In this posting I will share some of the 'open secrets' of being great teachers and their attributes that provide the environment for teaching excellence. In fact, I put the original title as "Open secret recipes of great teachers" but I changed my mind and instead use the current title. The main points actually are based on the article “The Quest for Excellence in University Teaching” written by Sherman and others [1]. It was published more than 20 years ago but I think the idea is still very much applicable and relevant when we talk about the characteristics of teaching excellence, be it in school or in higher education. Some might argue whether it is still relevant to talk about teaching excellence while the trend now is towards changing the paradigm from teaching to learning paradigm (teacher-centered to student-centered)? In my view, teaching and learning have to go hand-in-hand – it is inseparable. The student-centered paradigm simply means an increased responsibility and accountability on the part of the student but the role of the teacher is still vital although not so much as a provider of knowledge but more as a facilitator.

Five characteristics have been identified by the authors to constitute excellence in teaching: enthusiasm, clarity, preparation/organization, stimulating, and love of knowledge.

ENTHUSIASM – Without doubt, enthusiasm is a critical element for good teaching, and believe me students have a sixth sense for it! If students see a teacher who demonstrates a passion and exude enthusiasm for the subject he/she is teaching, inevitably they will be affected by this energy and will engage themselves actively in the learning process. The enthusiasm that teachers bring to the classroom helps to create an encouraging and supportive atmosphere. I firmly believed that teachers, who share their passion for teaching, and teach with enthusiasm and empathy, are more likely to both connect with learners and increase learner performance. Numerous researches have affirmed that students respond favorably to enthusiastic teachers and this trait has always been associated with teaching excellence, so it is highly desirable to remain enthusiastic. Having said that, enthusiasm has been regarded by some people as a natural part of the individual teacher – the intrinsic attribute – one either "has it" or "does not have it."

What attributes define enthusiasm? These include vocal delivery that is rapid and excited, eyes that dance, facial expressions that show surprise, word selection which is highly descriptive, and an overall energy level that is explosive and exuberant. Hmm…”overall energy level that is explosive and exuberant?” Yes, this factor is actually very important, at least for me. I’d rather cancel my lecture if I were not mentally or physically prepared. This is because I always want to be seen energetic and enthusiastic when delivering my lecture. Of course, it’s hard to maintain the same level of enthusiasm every time but teachers have little choice if they expect the students to reciprocate and if they want to make the classroom comes alive. “A sound mind resides in a sound body” – so we (teachers) should keep reminding ourselves to maintain a healthy mind and body, keeps fit and be energetic to keep the fire burning!

Dr Patrick Allit in his book “The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educators” shares many tips and strategies to master the art of teaching. He raised this interesting statement and question (page 58) – “In the early days of your teaching career, you were no doubt filled with excitement and energy but what happens after 25 years down the road, when you’ve been teaching for so long that every class seems like a rerun of one you’ve done before? Every vocation can become dull through repetition and familiarity, teaching included, but the best teachers find ways to prevent a sense of monotony from ever setting in”.

CLARITY – A good teacher is one who clearly explains themselves clearly so that their students understand exactly what is being taught. Teachers should have an excellent grasp and the mastery of the subject they teach. Teachers should be able to articulate their ideas succinctly without any ambiguity. However, even though teachers are the subject matter expert, sometimes they need to try a few different ways of explaining before they find one that is most effective for their students. In my view, when a teacher is able to explain something in more than one way, it shows that they have a complete understanding of the information they are teaching. That not only gives validity in what they say, but it makes their students believe them too! According to Wallen [3], the effective teacher is one who appears to be able to explain concepts clearly and such that the students seem to be gaining understanding. The bottom line is that teachers should strive to embrace and immerse themselves in the subject matter to achieve an expert level and this would benefit both teachers and learners immensely.

Personally in my classroom, I spend more time on introducing and explaining important concepts. The approach in presenting the material in the class is of utmost important to achieve this objective. Typically, before delivering a new concept to students, I articulate the background information, and ask them to find out the solution. Along the way this approach would reveal the depth of their prior knowledge and their grasp of fundamental principles. Then I introduce the theory I wanted to communicate. This approach creates curiosity to learn about the concept. It enables the students to remember the subject forever and also stimulate them to look for other approaches for that task.

PREPARATION AND ORGANIZATION - Preparation describes the types of activities the teacher performs to ensure that a lesson or course can be conducted as planned. Organization refers to the way the teacher organizes or structures the subject matter [1]. A good teacher put considerable effort, energy, time and even money to organize and prepare their teaching materials. Typically, this included: constructing detailed course outlines, establishing course objectives, and defining evaluation procedures.

STIMULATING - Boredom can be a teacher’s greatest enemy! Thus, it is important that teachers create a stimulating environment that captures and captivate the interest of the students. Stimulating teaching includes elements such as entertaining, motivating, captivating, engaging, interesting, enlightening, and thought-provoking. According to Sherman and other [1], stimulating teachers appear to create interest and thoughtfulness in students resulting in closer attention.

Making learning fun and stimulating is easier said than done – it is an art as much as it is a practice. This is the part where teachers can be creative and use any “tools” or techniques available at their disposal. Teachers should be aware of the various pedagogical options and techniques so that they can “mix and match” as appropriate to suit certain learning environment and different learning styles. It’s just like a buffet lunch with a variety of foods to choose from to suit your taste. With all the teaching repertoires, teachers should not be predictable in their teaching practices – in fact, in my view all great teachers are not predictable because they always surprise their students with different “tricks of the trade” up their sleeve. If you recall my previous posts about MIT’s physicist Walter Lewin then you’d understand what I mean.

KNOWLEDGE – Sherman and others divided knowledge into two general categories: the teacher's grasp of the subject matter and the teacher's love of and passion for the subject matter. I guess this is the “disciplined mind” as Howard Gardner explained in his book, “Five Minds for the Future”. Gardner asserted that one needs to know how to do at least one thing really well - not only superficially – not a generalist – not that of Jack of all trades but master of none! In other words, a disciplined mind refers to the ability to focus and develop a deep knowledge and mastery of any subject matter, be it music, photography, quantum physics, etc. So if teach about food chemistry, I should have the in-depth knowledge of the subject so that I can guide my students in their exploration appropriately.

Paulsen [2] suggested that teachers should possess three types of knowledge: (1) content knowledge—knowledge of the facts, principles and methods in the discipline that is being taught, (2) pedagogical knowledge—understanding of the learning process and the conditions that facilitate and hinder it, independent of the discipline in which the learning takes place, and (3) pedagogical content knowledge—a term to denote knowledge and understanding of the learning process in the context of a particular discipline.

Five attributes of great teachers as mentioned here are by no means definitive. To be one of the best teachers, one has to make a systematic and reflective appraisal of own teaching approaches and strategies. Knowing what make great teachers is not enough – what’s more important is practicing and infusing the best practices of great teachers in our teaching consistently towards achieving the teaching excellence.

References and further readings:

Sherman, T.M., Armistead, L.P., Fowler, F., Barksdale, M.A. (1987). The Quest for Excellence in University Teaching. The Journal of Higher Education, 58(1)1, 66-84.
Paulsen, M.B.(2001). The Relation between Research and the Scholarship of Teaching. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 86,19–29.
What are the dimensions of teaching excellence?
Suggestions For Producing Teaching Excellence
A Berkeley Compendium of Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence

I hope to add more resources and links for this posting (when I can find the time!).

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

2011-02-05T23:06:00.004+08:00

Here I'm just sharing Carmine Gallo's presentation he posted on the Slideshare. Carmine Gallo is the author of two international best-seller books, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience" and "The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs", which reveals the principles that have driven Steve Jobs’ success and that can help readers achieve incredible breakthroughs. I have not read the books but looking at the points presented in the slides, I'm sure the books contain wealth of good tips and strategies for speakers/presenters.

For those who's doing a presentation is your bread and butter, then I would highly recommend you to spare a few minutes of your precious time to view the slides. If you can't make it, below I have extracted some important quotes and points from the whole presentation (verbatim).

"A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter" - Gregory Berns

"The single most important thing you can do to dramatically improve your presentations is to have a story to tell before you work on your PowerPoint file" - Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

In the nutshell, to create and deliver a captivating, effective and memorable presentation, you have to:

Create the story
Deliver the experience
Refine and rehearse

Steve Jobs presentation is strikingly simple, highly visual and completely devoid of bullet points.

Researchers have discovered that ideas are much more likely to be remembered if they are presented as pictures instead of words or pictures paired with words. If information is presented orally, people remember about 10% of the content 72 hours later. That figure goes up to 65% if you add a picture. According to John Medina, your brain inteprets every letter as a picture, so wordy slides literally choke your brain!

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" - Maya Angelou.

Check out other great presentations below:

Creating a World without Poverty

2011-02-04T01:26:00.018+08:00

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” This phrase is simply mean that having a good job is better than giving someone a handout.

This is an inspiring story of Dr Muhammad Yunus (read his biography), the recipient of 2006 Nobel Peace Price for his creation, the Grameen Bank, to help the poor people in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank provides small loans through a micro-credit (small loans for self-employment) scheme to millions of poor families in Bangladesh to start and grow their own business. Since its establishment the Grameen Bank has helped almost half of them work their way out of poverty.The repayment rate was said to be more than 98%. "You cannot get a dollar without a dollar in your hand", he said. Dr Muhammad believes the concept of Grameen can end world poverty: "There is no reason why poverty should be here. This is a rich country - 120 million energetic, hardworking, intelligent people. They can change the world", he said.

One of his greatest challenges was to convince the bank to lend money to the poor people. "It can't be done,it can't be done - they are not credible, they will not be able to pay back", said the bank manager. He failed to convince the bank even after a few pilot projects (after he agreed to become the guarantor) were successful. That was when the idea came up - why don't we have a bank for the poor people? "The conventional banks are for rich people but Grameen Bank is for the poor. It offers interest-free loans to the destitutes to help them improve their lives," he said. "Never give up when people said it could not be done," he said, adding that everybody had to face the challenge if they wanted to succeed.

Interestingly, over 90% of the bank's customers are women.This is because Dr Muhammad noticed earlier on that the loans were most effectively administered when it was the woman of the house the one who control the budget. He explained, "Money that went to the family through woman brought so much more benefit to the family because she knew exactly how she's going to make business with that - she get the best mileage out of that money and children become the beneficiaries of the mother's income directly".

Grameen bank and its microcredit model has spread to many countries, especially in the developing world, through thousands of microcredit institutions launched by nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and business entrepreneurs seeking to emulate the success of Grameen, serving tens of millions of the world's poorest citizens. For example, Jessica Jackley, inspired by the initiative of Dr Muhammad and the success of Grameen Bank, co-founded Kiva.org with her colleague, Matt Flannery. Kiva uses a peer-to-peer model in which lenders sort through profiles of potential borrowers -- be they a farmer in Cambodia, a pharmacist in Sierra Leone, or a shopkeeper in Mongolia -- and make loans to those they find most appealing. Watch her TED Talks presentation, "Poverty, money -- and love".

In his Nobel Prize Lecture (read full text here) entitled "Poverty is a Threat to Peace" Dr Muhammad said that peace is inextricably linked to poverty - poverty is a threat to peace. He provided the startling statistics of the world's income distribution: 94% of the world income goes to 40% of the population while 60% of people live on only 6% of world income. Half of the world population lives on two dollars a day. Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. "This is no formula for peace", he said.

On the initiative and idea of Grameen Bank, Dr Muhammad Yunus said this in his lecture:

"In 1974, I found it difficult to teach elegant theories of economics in the university classroom, against the backdrop of a terrible famine in Bangladesh. Suddenly, I felt the emptiness of those theories in the face of crushing hunger and poverty. I wanted to do something immediate to help people around me, even if it was just one human being, to get through another day with a little more ease. That brought me face to face with poor people's struggle to find the tiniest amounts of money to support their efforts to eke out a living. I was shocked to discover a woman in the village borrowing less than a dollar from the moneylender on the condition that he would have the exclusive right to buy all she produced at the price he decided. This, to me, was a way of recruiting slave labor".

Dr Muhammad was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts in setting up Grameen Bank to address poverty in Bangladesh. He also received the Honorary Doctorate in Economics from Universiti Sains Malaysia in the university's 36th convocation.

Dr Muhammad Yunus has written a book, "Creating a World without Poverty - Social Business and the Future of Capitalism". I hope to get my hand on this book soon and share with you the summary - and the spirit of the true intellectual of Dr Yunus.

To get a quick overview of the Grameen project, watch this video clip "Banking On The Poor - Bangladesh", produced by ABC Australia and a documentary produced by the nobelprice.org. Watch also Dr Muhammad Yunus's talk (about 1 hour 7 minutes) at UCSD about the microfinance revolution around the world, and the launch of Grameen America, which will bring microcredit to the U.S.

On the fate of the so-called "bottom billion", you might want to listen to a talk by Professor Paul Collier on the huge gap between the rich and the poor. He is also the author of a book "The Bottom Billion" (read the book review in the New York Times, London Book Review.com, and The Sunday Times). Other links to TED Talk on the issue of poverty is given below:

Engaging learners – Use their mobile phone!

2011-02-02T21:37:00.004+08:00

“Technology doesn’t inherently improve learning; it merely makes possible more effective pedagogy, and only when it is consonant with an instructor’s educational philosophy and beliefs and reinforced by other components of the total course” – Educause Research Bulletin, 2004(3), 2004.

No, no…I’m not talking about mobile learning here but rather on using mobile phone in a classroom for interactive learning. First, let’s picture this scenario: You walk into the classroom with high spirit and full of enthusiasm, eager to start your lecture. As usual, you have prepared well in advance and you have visualised in your head how you would deliver the lecture. You start the lecture and after 10 or 15 minutes you pause and ask, "Does anybody have any questions?" More often than not, nobody raises a hand. “Hmm…sure everything clear?” (yeah…nodding…). If you ask a specific question, “Can anyone give one example of shear-thinning food?", perhaps only one or two students would willingly respond (in most cases, the same student every time). This scenario is quite common in most traditional “passive” classrooms and it can be very discouraging even for enthusiastic teachers. Obviously, merely asking questions and pausing for students to think is insufficient – it hardly engages the students and makes them an active participant in the learning process. It is likely that you end up giving the answer for your own question!

Research has shown that two fundamental challenges (among others) in teaching are (1) how to engage students in the classroom and (2) how to determine if they are learning what you are teaching. Lectures, even well-crafted and entertaining, are not the most effective way to encourage conceptual understanding and to promote deep learning. Yet lectures are still the dominant mode of teaching. Supplementing or replacing lectures with more active learning approaches can seem daunting, particularly in large classrooms, but a number of alternative methods involving group interactions and inquiry-based learning approaches have been used successfully.

In this writing I’d like to touch on the aspect of engaging students in the classroom using an electronic Student Response Systems, often referred as “Clickers” or the web-based (online) polling system such as Poll Everywhere. Clickers system consists of a simple hardware and software set up. The teacher asks a multiple-choice question, and the students choose an answer and click a button on a small transmitter. A receiving unit counts all the answers and displays them on the instructor’s computer, usually as a histogram. The histogram may be projected for the class to see. Based on the overall response, the teacher can then decide whether to proceed or to spend more time to revise on a particular topic. Properly designed and implemented, this system provides a convenient way for a teacher to conduct formative (continuous) assessment and evaluate the conceptual understanding of the students. Additionally, the student learns immediately whether he or she understands the concept that the teacher is presenting, without waiting for a test. According to Weiman and Perkins (2005), if used properly, clickers can have a profound impact on the students' educational experience.

Teachers may have the tendency to cram a lot of things in a 50 minutes lecture. Cognitive research has shown that the amount of new material presented in a typical class is far more than a typical person can process or learn. Moreover, recent research has shown that an average person’s attention span is just around five minutes! According to Mayer (2003), the more things the brain is given to process at the same time (called cognitive load) the less effectively it can process anything. Any additional cognitive load, no matter what form it takes, will limit people's abilities to mentally process and learn new ideas. To overcome this problem, Weiman and Perkins (2005) randomly divide the students seating at adjacent seats into several groups (3 or 4 students per group). For each lecture, they designed a series of about six clicker questions that cover the key learning goals for that day. Putting the students in a group allows them to discuss and interact before they submit the answer. Weiman and Perkins asserted that peer discussions serve several purposes:

Discussion in a group encourages students to share their thoughts and carry out the primary processing of new ideas and problem-solving approaches.
Critiquing each other's ideas to arrive at a consensus answer also enormously improves their ability to carry on scientific discourse.
The discussion helps them to learn to evaluate and test their own understanding.

Although multiple-choice questions (MCQ) may seem limiting, they have found that the activity managed to promote the desired student engagement and guiding student thinking. MCQs work particularly well if the possible answers embody common confusions or difficult ideas.

The problem with using clickers is the investment for the hardware and software system and maybe other logistics and maintenance problems. Worry not – there are several web-based, online polling systems that can be used as long as internet connection is available in the classroom. There’s no requirement for special hardware or software. One system that I have a direct experience is Poll Everywhere which I have described in details in my previous post. The system is free for up to 30 votes. The cost of subscription for more than 30 users is quite reasonable. With Poll Everywhere, you can give MCQ or a question that require a short answer. The cost per "sms" is about the same with normal 'sms'. I have yet to try it in my lecture but my experience using it in the seminar was very positive. I don’t want to elaborate further because I have blogged about it here.

Duncan (2006) has listed the following advantages on using clickers in a classroom:

Measure what students know before you start to teach them (preassessment to gauge students’ prior knowledge)
Measure student attitudes
Find out if students have done their assigned reading
Get students to confront common misconceptions
Transform the way you do any demonstrations
Increase students’ retention of what you teach
Test student understanding (formative assessment)
Make some kinds of grading and assessment easier
Facilitate testing of conceptual understanding
Facilitate discussion and peer instruction
Increase class attendance

References and further readings:

Duncan, D. (2006). Clickers: A New Teaching Aid with Exceptional Promise. Astronomy Education Review, 5(1), 70-88.
Martyn, M. (2007). Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach. Educause Quarterly, 30(2)
Mayer, R. Learning and Instruction, Merrill, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2003) [cited from Weiman, C., & Perkins, K. 2005].
Weiman, C., & Perkins, K. (2005). Transforming Physics Education. Physics Today, 58(11), 36.
Slideshare presentation - Using Clickers in the Classroom
An Educator's Introduction to Poll Everywhere (You Tube)
Best of Web 2.0: Using Poll Everywhere (You Tube)
Student Engagement with Poll Everywhere

A picture is worth a thousand words

2011-01-30T20:55:00.002+08:00

Seeing is believing! In journalism, an image or picture can be so powerful that it can change the world! Jonathan Klein in his TED talk (below) says that images themselves don't change the world but the images have provoked reactions in people, and those reactions have caused change to happen. The image can have a profound impact on our mind and can change our perception on certain issue and how we view things around us. Good image (photo) tells a visual narrative – it tells a story. A photograph has the ability to convey emotion, mood, narrative, ideas and messages – all of which are important elements of storytelling.

In another TED talk “Photography Connects Us with the World”, David Griffin says, “photography carries a power that holds up under the relentless swirl of today's saturated media world, because photographs emulate the way that our mind freezes a significant moment”.

There’s a problem, though, a picture can also be deceiving! People will interpret pictures differently depending on their social backgrounds, personal beliefs and technical/professional knowledge. A picture can also be used for exploitation and for the wrong purpose. Sometimes the photo is ‘doctored’ or manipulated in order to portray a different meaning or to increase the news value (see for example “Controversy crops up over Economist Cover Photo"). So the next time when we look at a picture we have to be careful and not easily jump to conclusion because “seeing is no longer believing” in this day of digital manipulation.

How do we use pictures to enhance learning? I hear, I forget...I see, I remember...I do, I understand... This ancient Chinese proverb suggests that students learn in many ways, like seeing, hearing, and experiencing things first hand. In a classroom, a graphic representation in the form of picture, video or even live demonstration can be very useful to explain and illustrate a concept.

In my course, I try very hard to get across the excitement of food science. I do live demonstration in the classroom to introduce or illustrate a concept. Usually I will get one or two students to help me out. In one lecture for example, I bring one full bag containing different types of food products. In another course, I bring and assemble the apparatus in front of the classroom. Over the course of a semester these demonstrations include pouring tomato sauce on the plate and pouring milk into a glass to demonstrate the concept of viscosity, “playing” with silly putty to illustrate viscoelastic properties, etc. When live demonstration is not possible, I will show a video. In most of my lectures I use pictures and graphs to help illustrate different concepts, as most students can then at least intuitively understand the concepts even if they have trouble understanding the analysis.

Another graphical tool that I encourage students to use is mind mapping technique. At the end of each major topic, I will ask the students to summarize what they have learnt and understood in the form of a simple mind map. In the next lecture, I will show my own mind map and ask the students to compare and improve their mind map. I used a free mind mapping software called Freemind but recently I tried Bubble.us and I think it is quite good (see link below for other free mind mapping softwares).

Here are some useful links:

The Power of Story and Anecdotes

2011-01-27T18:07:00.005+08:00

Do you know how MSG (monosodium glutamate, a common flavor enhancer added to food) was discovered? Do you know we can produce sugar from starch – any starch? Do you know the history of food canning? Do you know that everything flows, even the mountain – if we wait long enough? Do you know…OK, let me tell you an interesting story…here goes...

I like stories and I think students of all ages also love stories. In fact, one of the classroom techniques that I personally have found most rewarding is the anecdotal and storytelling. Science is full of interesting stories and anecdotes that can spice up and enlighten ordinary lecture/presentation into a memorable one. So whenever possible, I like to start my lecture or presentation by asking question or telling story and anecdotes. Judging from students’ response and facial expression, I would say that most of the time (perhaps all the time) the students enjoy listening to the story. From my experience, every time when I tell a story or anecdotes in my lecture most students would listen intently. You don’t have to be Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman to lighten up your class room (although my students would be enthralled if they were around!). All that is needed for the storytelling approach is a pool of stories and a little narrative ability (that’s all I have really…only a LITTLE narrative ability).

I think telling a story is an effective way to draw students’ attention because I can engage them more readily in the learning process – it’s a valuable way to make the learning environment exciting, encourage learning, and also a way to put things into perspective. Let me give one simple example. I teach a course on “Starch Chemistry and Technology”. Starch is a type of carbohydrate that we can find in bread, rice, cereals, etc. Starch in our food is a very important component because it provides the essential energy for our daily lives activity. I want to emphasize to my students that starch is actually a form of storage energy in plant and this energy can be released and harnessed by our system by “breaking down” starch into sugar! As an analogy, it is like chemical energy stored in a battery which can be converted into electrical energy. The challenge is how to explain this important fact by making it as a lively and interesting story? Well, I do have a story to tell but the bottom line is I can whet the appetite of the students to learn more about the chemistry and technology of starch. To ensure your storytelling or anecdote will capture and captivate the attention of the students (or audience, if you are giving a presentation), it is important to rehearse it beforehand because when you start telling the story, you have to deliver it smoothly, coherently, convincingly, and enlighteningly!

From my limited reading on the use of storytelling in education, I found that many researchers regarded it as one of the most appropriate pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning of science at all levels of education. According to Gere, storytelling involves imagination and the use of language and gestures to create scenes in the mind of the listener. The magic of story time is that it exercises the powerful muscle of the imagination, which is the center of being human.

Some advantages of using storytelling in a classroom can be listed as follow:

Storytelling stimulates the imagination. Scientist Albert Einstein said that "imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Stories go straight to the heart. Because students are emotionally involved and truly enjoy storytelling, it can help to create a positive attitude toward the learning process.
Storytelling engages students and encourages them to think critically, to analyze evidence, and finally, to develop positive attitudes towards science and the place of science in human culture (Kokkotas, 2010).

According to Hadzigeorgiou (2006), the beginning of the story is crucial and decisive for activating the imagination of students. In the main part of the story, the concepts to be taught should be interrelated and expressed in a clear structure. The end of the story should include an ethical message or idea for the learners. The aims are not only to create perspectives, hopes, motivations, and wonder for the students, but also to facilitate their acquiring a deeper understanding and remembering of the concepts.

In my subject area (food science), there are a number of interesting stories I can share with my students. In other areas such as pure sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics), engineering, medical, social science, humanity, etc., there are even more stories that can be used to spice up the class room. I would encourage educators to incorporate stories and anecdotes into your classroom because you can certainly make learning exciting and fun for your students.

Here are some links and references if you want to learn more:

Folino, A.A. (2001). Stories and Anecdotes in the Chemistry Classroom. Journal of Chemical Education, 78(12), 1615-1617.
Green, M.C. Storytelling in Teaching (very interesting and comprehensive article – highly recommended).
Gere, J., Beth-Ann Kozlovich, Daniel A. Kelin II. By Word of Mouth: A Storytelling Guide for the Classroom.
Hadzigeorgiou, Y. (2006). Humanizing the teaching of physics through storytelling: The case of current electricity. Physics Education, 41(1), 42-46.
Kokkotas, P., Rizaki, A., Malamitsa, K. (2010). Story telling as a Strategy for Understanding Concepts of Electricity and Electromagnetism. Interchange, 41(4), 379-405.

I found some interesting presentations about storytelling on SlideShare:

Not in the right frame of mind? Get more sleep!

2011-01-23T23:36:00.013+08:00

Why am I writing about sleep? Well, no obvious reason. As usual, I stumbled upon a short clip "The Power of Sleep" on CBS website. Another interesting clip, also on sleep, has an interesting title, "How to succeed - Get more Sleep". Actually I've been reading my student's doctoral (Ph.D.) thesis for the past few days. Nowadays my mind get tired easily, perhaps because it's constantly being fed with reading too much of technical things. Reading critically can really drain my energy, not to mention my eyes - and the strain on the neck, back... So how do I deal with the stress? More readings...and listening! This is my escapism, or...hmmm...shall I say, my recreational activity! I like to read blog, mainly educational blog (read this article: 10 reasons to get educators blogging). I have a long list of websites and blogs in my browser's bookmark.I also subscribe via RSS feed (I'm using iGoogle and Pageflakes). Now I'm rebuilding the bookmark in Diigo and hopefully I can share with the world.

Reading topics outside my own specialization sort of ease my mind. It's my way of relaxing. I like to read short blog article mainly on these topics: teaching, learning, education, research, presentation skills, brain science (cognitive), e-learning, and...comedy! I especially like to watch short video clip on YouTube, Teacher Tube, TED, Times Magazine, CBS, Discovery Channel, etc.These video sharing sites are really goldmine of educational resources for students, educators, and lifelong learners. I remember many years ago (before YouTube time), I was looking for a video showing the processing step of producing wheat flour (from grain to flour). There was none to be found on the internet. Finally I had to order the video (on CD-ROM) from the Australian Wheat Board. Nowadays this is no longer an issue. People are ever willing to share via various popular video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Blips.TV, etc.

Now, back to the topic on sleep. Watch (listen) the following short presentation, "How to Succeed - Get More Sleep" by Arianna Huffington in TED Talks. She says, in the nutshell, you need to get enough sleep to enable you to think clearly and unlock billions of brilliant ideas. Hmmm...Her secret of a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is...getting enough sleep! I hope the secret is not patented! She says sometimes we don't see the big picture simply because we are not able to focus our thought - we cannot think straight. Yes, I think it's true, to some extent. I don't need to dig deep into the scientific databases to look for evidence, although as a researcher myself I like to substantiate any arguments with evidence. I have experienced myself that there are days when I don't get enough sleep (my fault, poor time management) and the next day I feel sluggish. Sometimes when I have a discussion (with students or colleagues) I have to apologise, "I'm sorry, I'm not in the right frame of mind" - or simply put, "I can't focus".

She added, "And they think that means that they (political, finance, business leaders) are so incredibly busy and productive, but the truth is they're not, because we at the moment, have had brilliant leaders in business, in finance, in politics, making terrible decisions. So a high I.Q. does not mean that you're a good leader, because the essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic. And we've had far too many icebergs hitting our Titanics".

Now we have good reason to have more sleep. So, I guess it's time to sleep now. Let's get enough sleep and tomorrow we can wake up fresh and we can unleash and unlock the brilliant ideas that have been dormant and tucked away in the dark corner of our brain...

From Teaching to Learning Paradigm

2011-01-22T10:14:00.003+08:00

"I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think" – Socrates

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn" – A. Einstein

In the quest to explore and probe how teaching-learning practice is best approached, I read with great interest the long (14 pages) article written by Barr & Tagg, “From Teaching to Learning – A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Teaching” which was published about 15 years ago. I was interested to get hold of the original article because it is often cited in many discussions (article/book) on student-centered learning vs teacher-centered practice. Basically in the article they compared the traditional “Instruction Paradigm” and the emerging “Learning Paradigm”. The terms are equivalent to “teacher-centered” and “student/learner-centered” that are more prevalent in the contemporary literatures.

Barr & Tagg argued that the purpose of teaching institution (schools, colleges, universities) is NOT to provide instruction (teaching) but rather to produce learning with every student by whatever means work best. They used the term “instructional paradigm” to describe the traditional “teacher-centered” classroom where the teacher talk and most students listen. They asserted that teaching/instruction is the means (method), not the end (purpose) of college education – “To say that the purpose of colleges is to provide instruction is like saying that General Motors' business is to operate assembly lines or that the purpose of medical care is to fill hospital beds (page 13)”. Their contention was, because learning and learning outcome should be the end or the purpose of any college education, the shift to learning paradigm (student-centered) is much warranted.

According to the authors, if the instruction paradigm is to teach, to lecture, and to deliver courses, then in the learning paradigm the mission is to produce learning. They preferred the word 'produce': not 'provide', not 'support', not 'encourage' but to 'produce' learning. It is a question of responsibility and it represents a shift from taking the responsibility for providing quality instruction (lecturing, talking) to taking responsibility for student learning.

Here I summarized some major points from the article:

In the Learning Paradigm, a college's purpose is not to transfer knowledge but to create environments and experiences that bring students to discover and construct knowledge for themselves, to make students members of communities of learners that make discoveries and solve problems, and recognizing that the chief agent in the process is the learner.
Learning Paradigm views faculty/teacher as primarily the designers of learning environments; they study and apply best methods for producing learning and student success.
Learning paradigm views teacher as a coach, rather than a sage on a stage. As a coach, not only he/she designs game plans but also create new and better "games," ones that generate more and better learning.
The Learning Paradigm should aim ultimately to provide students with a sufficient grasp of concepts, principles, or skills so that they can apply on new problems and situations. This involves the mastery of functional, knowledge-based intellectual frameworks rather than the short-term retention of fractionated, contextual cues.
Knowledge exists in each person’s mind and is shaped by individual experience.
Learning environments and learning are cooperative, collaborative, and supportive.
Empowering learning is challenging and complex.

[Adapted mainly from an article by Robert B. Barr and John Tagg, "From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education", Change Magazine, Nov/Dec., 1995].

To summarize the key points, I have produced a brief presentation (in 2 parts):

Part 1A – A Changing Scenario of Teaching-Learning (4.07 min) and
Part 1B: Student-Centered Learning – The Changing Role of Teacher & Student (4.11 min).

[NOTE: For best view, I would suggest view in full screen by clicking the "Play in HD" button (the icon on the right of speaker icon)].

Your comments and thoughts are most welcome!

Optimizing students’ learning

2011-01-19T22:24:00.004+08:00

“Great teachers maximize the opportunities for students to learn, but even the greatest teachers cannot guarantee learning. The final outcome of what is learned in any course will always be the students’ responsibility” – Terry Doyle, Helping Students Learn in a Student-Centered Environment.

Maximizing the opportunities – that’s the keyword – and the key to good teaching. “I choose the word opportunities because that is all any teacher can provide for his or her students”, writes Doyle in his book (page 4). This reminds me of this idiom, “you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink”. I truly agree with his view on providing the environment to create learning opportunities that optimize students’ learning. Teachers are not only responsible to teach content but also responsible to create opportunities for students to “learn how to learn”. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon put it this way: ‘‘The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it. The goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge necessary to think productively’’ (cited from Doyle).

How do we go about creating learning opportunities? This entails us (teachers) to ponder and rethink our strategies and approaches in teaching and reexamine every aspect of course planning to determine whether it will optimize our students’ learning opportunities.

Much has been written about moving from teacher-centered to learner-centered models of teaching and learning. Barr and Tagg’s in their book ‘‘From Teaching to Learning” asserted that teachers would be much more effective if, instead of focusing on their teaching, they focused on how and what their students are learning. In other words, we need to adopt a student-centered learning approach to teaching.

Creating a student-centered (or learner-centered) learning (SCL) environment has been suggested as one approach that educators can use to optimize students’ learning. In a SCL environment, the traditional roles of students (and also teachers) change dramatically. It requires students to take on new learning roles and responsibilities that go far beyond taking notes and passing tests. Students will learn that they are responsible for their learning and identify their strengths and weaknesses as learner.

Most educationists have moved beyond the notion that as a teacher—“I’m here to teach you this course”. Instead, teachers are encouraged to take on the role of learning facilitator to help students to learn through activities, exercises, and discussions. Here the philosophy might be, “We’re here to learn together and you (the students) are as much a source of our learning as I (the teacher)". In a traditional teacher-centered classroom, the teacher’s traditional role is passing on knowledge—primarily in the form of lectures—using chalk and board, overhead projector, PowerPoint presentations, readings, etc. In SCL, teacher still has these functions but also provides students with opportunities to learn independently (and from one another in a group) and coaches them with appropriate skills needed in performing the task.

In general, SCL include the followings tenets (Lee et al., 2003):
• the reliance on active rather than passive learning;
• an emphasis on deep learning and understanding;
• increased responsibility and accountability on the part of the student;
• an increased sense of autonomy in the learner;
• an interdependence between teacher and learner;
• mutual respect within the learner teacher relationship;
• and a reflexive approach to the teaching and learning process on the part of both teacher and learner

Implementing SCL in the classroom can include techniques such as:
• Substituting lectures with active learning experiences;
• Assigning open-ended problems that require critical or creative thinking;
• Involving students in simulations and role-play;
• Assigning a variety of unconventional exercises
• Collaborative group project.

Inevitably, teachers will face many challenges in implementing SCL. For example, an important feature of any student-centered classrooms is collaboration. The challenge is, how do we get them to work in groups? There are other issues as well: How do we convince them to take a deep approach so that their learning will last a lifetime, rather than a surface approach that produces learning that will fade at the end of the term? How do we get the students to take responsibility of their own learning?

Coffman in her article “Ten Strategies for Getting Students to Take Responsibilities for Their Learning” proposed the following strategies:
• Ask your students why they are taking the course;
• Get your students to come to class prepared;
• Help your students attain the proper mindset for class;
• Make participation and interaction integral parts of the course;
• Make your students responsible for each other;
• Teach your students to behave responsibly in groups;
• Model high cognitive skills;
• Have your students analyze their learning experiences;
• End class in a meaningful way;
• Don’t try to save your students.

I will elaborate later…

References:
Lea, S.J., D. Stephenson, & J. Troy (2003). Higher education students' attitudes to student-centred learning: Beyond 'educational bulimia'. Studies in Higher Education, 28(3), 321-334.

How does students' prior knowledge affect their learning

2011-01-16T11:47:00.002+08:00

This presentation is a summary of important points from the first chapter of the book "How Learning Works - 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching" by Ambrose and others. In Chapter 1 (How Does Students' Prior Knowledge Affect Their Learning) the authors discuss the importance of teachers to recognize that students bring with them prior knowledge acquired naturally through daily life activities or in prior courses they have studied. Some of the prior knowledge are relevant but some are not directly relevant. Sometimes students have misconception or inaccurate understanding of certain key principles or concepts. The authors emphasized the importance of connecting the prior knowledge with the new knowledge in order for effective learning to take place. This connection can be achieved by activating the prior knowledge at appropriate time during the learning process.

I have summarized part of Chapter 1 in the presentation below (in two parts). Each part of the presentation takes about 3 minutes. For best view, I would suggest view in full screen by clicking the "View in HD" button (the icon on the right of speaker icon).

Here's Part 1A:

Here's Part 1B:

NOTE: The presentation was produced on Macbook Pro. All softwares used are free: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011 (Mac), Voki (for narration using text-to-speech), Real Player (downloading and extracting audio), and Screenr (for screen recording). If if you have any technical question, feel free to contact me.

Education for All

2011-01-14T23:43:00.003+08:00

Picture source: Flickr

"Education is a human right with immense power to reform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.... there is no higher priority, no mission more important, than that of Education for All" -- (Kofi Annan, 1998)

"....essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy and problem solving) and the basic learning content (knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions and to continue learning" -- (World Declaration on Education for All 1990).

Nearly one quarter of the world's population live in extreme poverty, on less than the equivalent of US$ 1 per day. 70% of these people are women. 39% of the 1.3 billion people live in South Asia, 34% in East Asia and the Pacific and 17% in Africa. For the poorest one fifth of the world's population, their share of the worlds income fell from 2.3% to 1.4% in the 30 years from 1960 (Source: Learning Opportunities for All).

In the year 2000, 189 leaders from around the world met at the historic Millenium Summit in New York and came up with The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) proposal. The MDG target is to ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

According to the then Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan, the UNs role for the next millenium will be crucial; making it a focal point for joint efforts in a world that presents worrisome statistics that endanger the perpetuation of generations to come.

• 1.2 billion people live with less than US$1.00 per day.
• 800 million people are malnourished.
• 153 million children are below their ideal weight.
• 115 million children are not enrolled in school.
• 97% of these children are in developing countries.
• 64% of the worlds illiterate population are women.
• 80% of the worlds refugee population are women.
• 60% of children not enrolled in primary school are women.

Besides inadequate access to such basic essentials as personal and community security, food, health and assured basic income, poor people are deprived of adequate educational opportunities for themselves and for their children. It is estimated that over 900 million adults are illiterate; two thirds of whom are women.

Poverty is a substantive barrier to sustainable development. It limits the potential for economic growth and denies many people the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills to enable them to participate fully in the social, economic and cultural life of their communities.

Learn more:

Understanding How Learning Works

2011-01-13T21:34:00.002+08:00

“When it comes to teaching, most of us are still learning. Teaching is a complex activity, and yet most of us have not received formal training in pedagogy. Furthermore, teaching is a highly contextualized activity because it is shaped by the students we have, advancements in our respective fields, changes in technology, and so on. Therefore, our teaching must constantly adapt to changing parameters” -- Ambrose et al., 2010, How Learning Works.

Constructivism, behaviorism, pedagody, andragogy, Bloom Taxonomy, student-centered learning...?? I must humbly admit that, after more than 16 years teaching, I didn’t know much about the various learning theories and pedagogical aspects of teaching-learning. I’m not trained as a teacher – I’m a food technologist. My only experience in teaching was teaching my friends and a short stint teaching in a private school (secondary level). Soon after I completed my Ph.D. in Food Technology, I came back and joined the university as a lecturer – and I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to teach the adult students! I think most university lecturers (except those from education background) do not have sufficient knowledge and exposure on pedagogy, learning theory or instructional methods. Of course, there are “induction” courses and other programs conducted by the university for young lecturers but these are still largely inadequate to equip them to become good educators. So we end up using our best teacher/lecturer during our school/university days as a role model and try to emulate them.

It is clear to me how much more there is to learn, how much more there is to do. The knowledge in the subject matter alone is not sufficient for effective teaching. Developing mastery in teaching is a continuous learning process. Therefore, I continue to learn and enrich my knowledge so that I can be a better teacher for my students. Not having a formal training in teaching is not an excuse for not doing anything to improve my teaching skills. I know that if I want to improve my teaching and enhance students’ learning, it is useful to understand what research says about how learning works and about how to foster learning. To achieve this aim, I try to read as many books and articles on teaching and learning philosophy. I’m constantly on the lookout for a book which can explain and summarise the philosophy of learning in a simplest manner without ambiguous jargons that distract the unmotivated readers.

To my delight, recently I found two books which fulfil my criteria – simple, concise, straight to the point, well organized, and clearly written. Here I’d like to write a bit about the first book which I’m still reading – How Learning Works: 7 Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching. The authors are principally from Carnege Mellons' Centre for Teaching Excellence (S.A. Ambrose, M. Dipietro, M.C. Lovett, M.K. Norman), and also including one (M.W. Bridges) from the University of Pittsburgh.

The book is organized around seven learning principles: (1) Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning; (2) How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know; (3) Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn; (4) To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned; (5) Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning; (6) Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning; (7) To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Each learning principle forms a stand-alone chapter (so there are 7 chapters); each chapter is further expanded with a discussion of the research that supports them, their implications for teaching, and a set of instructional strategies targeting each principle. Clear understanding of all the seven principles would help teachers (a) to see why certain teaching approaches are or are not supporting students’ learning, (b) generate or refine teaching approaches and strategies that more effectively foster student learning in specific contexts, and (c) transfer and apply these principles to new courses.

I especially like the approach taken by the authors to start each chapter with stories that represent typical teaching situation. Under a heading “What Principle of Learning is at Work Here?” the stories are analysed to identify the core problems or issues involved and use them to introduce the learning principle relevant to those problems. The learning principle is discussed and elaborated in relation to the research that underlies it. Finally, the authors provide a set of strategies to help teachers to design instruction with that principle in mind.

I would recommend all educators to read this book! I hope to find time to summarize the important points of each chapter in the form of PowerPoint presentation which I will upload to YouTube or Slideshare. Follow me to get the update!

Teaching one child at a time

2011-01-10T23:18:00.015+08:00

"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around" – Jim Rohn.

"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn" - John Lubbock.

In the TED talks, Shukla Bose tells the story of educating the poor in India’s slums through her groundbreaking Parikrma Humanity Foundation which brings education to the deprived group. As Bose puts it, the goal of the foundation is to help build a better India by tapping its greatest strength: the vitality and potential of its people. "Education of children is at the core of our aim to transform poor communities into self-sustaining, contributing communities, says Bose. The vision is to see every street and slum child gets the opportunity and access to education. She adds"We also believe that it's the content that is more important…it's not the infrastructure, not the toilet, not the library, but it's what actually happens in the school, that is more important, creating the environment of learning, of enquiry, of exploration,…is what is true education". (Alternatively, you can watch her presentation at the TED website and read the discussion thread about the presentation).

Another example of unsung hero is Master Ayub, who has taken the initiative of running an open air school for the children of slum dwellers in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has transformed the lives of these poor kids with virtually no help from the government.

Lighting the Spark of Learning

2011-01-09T23:20:00.007+08:00

"There are places on Earth, in every country where, for various reasons, good schools cannot be built and good teachers cannot or do not want to go. And those places, as it turns out, is often where trouble comes from" – Sugata Mitra.

The title of this posting is taken from the “Hole-in-the-Wall” website. Hole-in-the-Wall is a famous experiment conducted in 1999 by Professor Sugata Mitra and his research in a slum area in New Dehli, India to prove that kids (in this case deprived kids) could teach themselves and learn on their own without any formal training. In this experiment, a computer was embedded in a wall and connected to high speed internet and left it there. True enough, curious children were immediately crowded around the computer and “playing” with it. Within hours and without instruction, children began browsing the Web. "I repeated the experiment across India and noticed that children will learn to do what they want to learn to do", said Mitra. Follow up experiments suggest children around the world can learn complex tasks quickly with little supervision. During his TED talk Prof Mitra quoted Arthur C Clarke, "when learners have interest, learning happens".

"Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another" - Marva Collins.

Watch Professor Mitra's interesting TED Talks on the experiment and the implication of the findings on education.

Here's a few interesting links to learn more about "Hole-in-the-Wall" project:

How to make teaching come alive by professor Lewin@MIT

2011-01-09T00:32:00.003+08:00

It's a 9.5 min video but worth watching and listening. I must admit that I'm inspired by his dedication to teaching. Some excerpt from his talk: "Teaching has always been one of the greatest and most satisfying experiences in my life. Through the wonders of teaching we can reveal the hidden beauty to our students. Knowledge does not narrow, knowledge only adds...and without knowledge many experience in life remain very narrow and very shallow - and that include the appreciation for art".

No place for chalk and board?

2011-01-06T23:17:00.020+08:00

"If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow"
-- John Dewey.

Much has been written about integrating technology into a classroom. The question that is usually asked is, is it really necessary - is it really useful? In my opinion, the traditional approach of chalk and board still has its place but I strongly believe that educational technology could offer myriad of pedagogical benefits. Technology today, in various forms, have grown tremendously and have permeated all areas of our lives. Similarly, students today are connected in ways that previous generations could never have imagined and this has a direct implication on how they learn and impacted on how teachers teach in a classroom. So it makes sense to connect with our students in ways they already familiar. It is incomprehensible if educators today are still reluctant to use technology in teaching and learning activities or still perceive technology negatively. Of course, as most things in life, we should be cognizant of the shortcomings and over dependent on technology. Too much of a good thing also runs the risk of becoming ineffective. Technology should always be used in tandem with sound pedagogical principles. It's NOT THE ONLY thing, but it will add value. It would never replace good teacher!

How can traditional modes of classroom instruction engage and inspire students when life outside the classroom has changed so dramatically? I believe in leveraging technology available to enhance educational experiences of my students. Although I teach a full time course (face-to-face), I also supplement some topics of the lecture in the form of online (virtual) lecture. This is done to further enhance understanding of certain difficult concepts or to discuss more examples which otherwise not covered in the classroom due to time constraint. Preparing some lectures as online lecture also serve a few functions: (1) I can ask the student to view the lecture before the class (normal face-to-face lecture) so that I can use the class time for more discussion and interaction; (2) student can review the lecture at their convenience.

The online lecture is done in the form of PowerPoint presentation (converted into Flash format) using my favorite rapid authoring tool, Articulate Presenter. Flash format is essential because the file size is much smaller than the native PPT file – this is important for fast access and to cater for slow internet connection. A software such as Articulate Presenter (which is part of Articulate Studio suite) is called “Rapid Authoring Software” which allows non-techie like me to develop e-learning course easily – and rapidly! In most cases the lecture is combined with narration and sometimes including the “talking head”. To be honest, preparation of good online lecture is strenous and time consuming. It involves preparation of the slides, script for each slide, recording and editing the video, recording the audio and finally combining everything into a single presentation. However, with regular practice, the process of preparing online lecture would become easier and faster.

How useful is the online lecture? Used wisely and sparingly, online lecture can be used effectively to add another dimension to the classroom lecture. The students can view the presentation repeatedly either for revision or to get better understanding of the process. This is a great way to add value to the classroom teaching because very often the time to cover even the important aspects of the course is very limited. It is advisable that each online lecture be limited to 10 minutes. For a longer lecture then you can divide it into a few 10 minutes segment.

I’m teaching science and technology subject (food science/technology) – a subject which requires practical approach. While many food science/food processing concepts can be learned in a classroom they can be greatly enhanced by reaching beyond the walls of a lecture room. One cannot teach a course on food processing just by showing the flow chart and perhaps some pictures. Likewise, it is not sufficient to explain the principles and the step-by-step procedure in certain analytical method. In an ideal situation, it is best to teach a principle or concept by hands-on approach or by a direct demonstration. Imagine teaching a student about Lane-Eynon titration to determine reducing sugar. Being an empirical method and the reaction is nonstoichiometry, strict adherence to the procedure is critical in order to obtain good results. A video recording of the whole experiment can be made and critical steps of the titration can be highlighted. This would avoid students making unnecessary mistakes or systematic errors in carrying out analytical procedure. Similarly, when teaching food processing operation (e.g., extraction and refining of vegetable oils), each step of the process can be recorded in visual form and combined with narration. When I teach about production of snack foods, I can explain the sequence of the process and showing the picture and video clip of each stage of the process. These examples represent a different form of pedagogy (teaching methods) that can be fully utilised for effective teaching and eventually will greatly benefit the students.

So let's embrace technology but don't forget the low-tech but time-tested chalk and board!

Free Speaking Avatar for Everyone

2011-01-06T20:22:00.008+08:00

Aha...I stumbled upon this tool called Voki - it offers a free speaking avatar. Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. To hear the message, simply click on the arrow in the frame below. Here's an article describing how avatar can be used in education. Get a Voki now!

Doing a literature review

2011-01-03T17:04:00.004+08:00

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow – Woodrow Wilson.

Embarking on a new research project is very much like getting into unknown or unfamiliar territory. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is to carry out a proper and thorough background research. This will help you to become more familiar with your topic and introduce you to any other research which will be of benefit to you when you begin your own project. To do that efficiently, you need a plan. If you plunge into any available sources on your topic, you risk losing yourself in an endless trail of books and articles!

What is “literature”? It can be defined as a collection of all the scholarly writings on a topic (Fink, 1998). To put it simply, literature is about telling a story, sort of an interconnected chain story where each writer starts with a partial story created previously by others and expand on it…the existing literature is the story so far…So, doing a literature review is basically a systematic method for identifying, evaluating and interpreting the work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners.

There are many reasons for doing the literature review but the bottom line is it would enable the researcher to formulate new idea that would contribute to new knowledge in the field, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Here are a few slides to summarize different stages in doing a literature review.

The full presentation can be found here:

Managing Graduate Student-Supervisor Relationship

2011-01-01T19:20:00.002+08:00

I presented this topic recently in a Postgraduate Colloquium organised by the School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia (Penang, Malaysia). The participants were largely new graduate students but there were also some senior students. Briefly I covered the common issues, elements, roles, and stages of development associated with supervision along with practical strategies for nurturing rewarding relationships with graduate students.

Supervision of graduate students is a challenging journey that the supervisor (advisor) and the student embark on together. It includes not only academic guidance, but also prolonged nurturing of the student's personal, scholarly, and professional development. From my perspective as a supervisor, the experience of supervising graduate students is doubtless very challenging but also very rewarding. Watching a fresh graduate become an independent scholar, plan the project, execute the plan with care and thoughtfulness, write up the results and present their first published paper at a conference is a wonderful and satisfying experience.

Using the online poll which I described in my previous post, I asked a few questions to the audience to gauge their view on certain issues. One of the questions was how they view the relationship with their supervisor should be (see below). Majority of students obviously regard the relationship as a mentor-apprentice type. Personally I prefer to view the relationship between graduate student and supervisor as a collaboration or partnership – so as in other kind of partnership, to make it sustainable and successful, it requires that every part be concerned, not only with its own benefits, but also with the benefits of the other part. In addition, it also demands genuine effort from each part to understand the motivations of the other and contribute consistently to their fulfillment.

There is perhaps no single magic formula for a successful student-supervisor relationship – nevertheless, there are certain general practices that can be used as guidelines. Rugg and Petre in their book, “The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research” emphasized the importance of compatability in order for the relationship to be fruitful. “The relationship between student and supervisor is about as close as many marriages, and lasts as long as many marriages. It’s a fairly good analogy in several ways. One important issue is compatibility”. It is indeed very important element because compatibility would result in synergies that constitute the very essence of productive research collaboration. The authors also opined that the relationship should take the form of mentor-apprentice – “It’s not your supervisor’s job to put up with every unpleasant idiosyncrasy of every idiot who wants to do a PhD with them. As a student, you are an apprentice, not a customer who is always right”.

James and Baldwin (Eleven Practices of Effective Postgraduate Supervisors, the University of Melbourne) listed eleven practices of effective PhD supervisors which presumably would result in successful supervision of graduate students. I reproduced (verbatim) the eleven practices here: Foundation phase: (1) ensure the partnership is right for the project; (2) get to know students and carefully assess their needs; (3) establish reasonable, agreed expectations; (4) work with students to establish a strong conceptual structure and research plan; Momentum phase: (5) encourage students to write early and often; (6) initiate regular contact and provide high quality feedback; (6) get students involved in the life of the department; (7) inspire and motivate; (8) help if academic and personal crises crop up; Final stages: (9) take an active interest in students’ future careers; (10) carefully monitor the final production and presentation of the research.

In my presentation (see links below), I discussed about possible approaches and strategies and flags potential problems that can undermine or can even be fatal to the relationship. The points presented are based on my own observation and consistent pattern that have emerged over the years and also distilled from books and other references.

I would like to hear some feedback from graduate students and also supervisors on how best to manage the relationship in order to achieve a successful and fruitful outcome.

Leveraging Intrinsic Motivation for Learning

2010-12-31T00:16:00.006+08:00

When my students ask me, “How would I know that I have chosen the right job after I graduated from the university?” My standard answer is always… “Well, when you are happy doing your work and always look forward to do your work then you know you are doing the right job”. This is basically the essence of the book “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us”. This book is written by Daniel Pink (the author of another bestseller - A Whole New Mind). The main idea presented in the book is what truly motivates us and how to harness that knowledge to find greater satisfaction in our lives and our work. The idea is a significant paradigm shift and a surprising insight in what we normally believe, i.e., the best way to motivate ourselves and others is through external rewards like money-the carrot-and-the-stick approach. Pink termed this carrot and stick approach as “Motivation 2.0”. Tangible incentives (carrots) such as bonuses, stock option, and higher salary work well with routine, mechanical and repetitive work. He asserted that this approach doesn’t always produce the desired outcome – high performance. According to Pink, the key to high performance and satisfaction is intrinsic, internal motivation: the desire to follow your own interests and understand the benefits in them for you – simple desire to do good work – when work doesn’t feel like work but something that you always enjoy doing it (he used the term “Motivation 3.0” to describe this approach). This entails basically asking yourself: what is my motivation? Why am I doing this stuff? Am I pushing or forcing myself to do this task? Am I prepared to go the extra mile to excel in my work? The answer should be as honest and truthful as possible in order to discover the real motivating factor.

The book title could well be “Beyond Monetary Reward” because that’s basically the take home message after reading the book. Realistically, a limitation of Pink’s idea about intrinsic motivation is that many people may be too busy making ends meet to seek out work or other activities that hold intrinsic interest. It’s hard to imagine that hard work is not given proper incentive and reward – it requires a significant paradigm shift. Having said this, the big idea is indeed an exciting way forward in mobilizing the work force in any type of business organization and to me it’s worth pursuing. Overall, although the tone of the book is mainly directed to business organization, I believe the idea can be adopted and adapted to educational institutions as well (which is my main interest). One passing example cited in the book is that of educational institutions such as Montessori schools that let kids follow their natural curiosity in self-directed activities. This is actually consistent with self-directed learning as one of the practices in learner-centered approach in learning.

Appying the concept to our students to promote and enhance learning is quite a challenge. Barry Corbin, author of Unleashing the Potential of the Teenage Brain (2008), describes motivation as an emotional reaction in which the learner sees a benefit, reward, or the potential for a positive reward in a task. He notes that while the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affect motivation vary widely; the following factors appear to influence motivation in learning: Relevance, control and choice, challenge, social interaction (the chance to work with others), anticipated chance of success, need, and novelty. The question is, how do we encourage our students to leverage their intrinsic motivation? This article offers some strategies that we can try.

I would like to hear more from scholars and academics who have read the book on how we can leverage Pink’s idea to achieve educational excellence in schools and higher educational institution.

Get the essence of the book by listening to the author’s presentation and interview:

Interact with your audience with online poll

2010-12-23T00:43:00.013+08:00

A couple of days ago I gave a presentation to graduate students from the School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The presentation was scheduled to start at 2.30 pm for 2 hours. Giving a lecture or presentation at this time is always very challenging. When I have to give a presentation in the afternoon session I always challenge myself to keep the audience awake and alert for the whole duration of the presentation. To prepare for this presentation, I spent a great deal of time to prepare my PowerPoint and gather the material from books and, of course, internet. It is my habit that while I'm busy working on my project (in this case my presentation) I would switch to another window reading email or blogs. That was when I came across a posting about "Poll Everywhere". Basically it is an online polling application that tries to simplify the process of holding polls. It allows anyone to participate in the polls by using either a simple text messaging system, email, or twitter - and it is free for up to 30 voting. I thought, wow, this is great! I can use this thingy as an interactive tool to engage the audience and keep them alert.

After signed up for the free account, I did some testing and everything worked very well. For the presentation, I prepared seven multiple choice questions (see below).

The plan was to ask the question at appropriate point during the presentation, ideally to cover for the entire duration. I was excited but anxious. I asked the organizer to make sure the internet connection is available but as a backup plan I borrowed a broadband from my relative. I just wanted to make sure that I can try the online polling for the first time...successfully. Since the free account allows only 30 participants to vote and the number of participants on the day was around 70, I had to divide them into group, each with two or three members. Only one member representing the group will vote (they can take turn to vote).

This is how the question looks like on the screen:

I asked each group to discuss the question in 30 seconds to one minute (depending on the question). The poll was done simply by asking the group to send SMS (the message would be the code for the answer) to the phone number shown on the screen. The outcome? Within less than 1 minute the results appeared in real time on the screen (see below), and new votes are added very quickly! I was very pleased and I think the participants were also equally excited. The "experiment" was a success. (Note: I would like to hear some feedback from those who attended my talk the other day).

What are the advantages of using the online poll? Well, it's a better and faster way to get a feedback. You get a better picture of the audience response towards certain issue that you are discussing. The audience will have the opportunity to interact and discuss among them (in a group). Certainly it is better than asking the audience to raise their hand (hand count). Hmm...now I can't wait to use this online poll in my classroom and in my other presentations. Online poll is certainly one of the best Web 2.0 tools for 2010! Thank you Poll Everywhere!

Learn more about Poll Everywhere at their website or watch this You Tube video.

To get a taste of the online polling, send your answer to the question below. Don't forget to put the plus (+) sign before the phone number. Don't worry, it costs only 20 to 30 cents per vote. It's for educational purposes...Alternatively, tweet the answer or use your web browser to send the answer. Give it a try!

Make a live audience poll at Poll Everywhere

I have a few messages to share in this posting:

Upgrade to PowerPoint 2010 - you have access to many useful new features;
Read blogs - you can LEARN a lot of new things everyday!
Create your own blog and share information and knowledge with others. Sharing is caring!
Don't be afraid to try new things to enhance teaching and learning.

A lasting faculty-student relationship

2010-12-21T01:23:00.001+08:00

In this video, Dr. Paris Butler talks about how close relationships with faculty, like his relationship with biology professor Dr. Darwin Jorgensen is very useful in enriching his learning experience and helping him to make the right career choice.

Powerful message, powerful presentation

2010-12-19T22:31:00.004+08:00

The above presentation was voted as the winner of the World's Best Presentation Contest 2010 on Slideshare website. Not only the message is loud and clear but the way it is presented is very engaging. With creativity we can do without the bullet points on the slide! Congratulations to the winner! Watch it here...

Present like Steve Jobs

2010-12-19T22:16:00.000+08:00

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is well known for his electrifying presentations. His presentations are brilliant demonstrations of visual storytelling that turn customers, employees, and the entire computer industry into evangelists. Communications coach Carmine Gallo discusses the various techniques Jobs uses to captivate and inspire his audience — techniques that can easily be applied to your next presentation. Learn more...

Secret Google Tips for Researchers

2010-12-17T16:46:00.000+08:00

My favorite search engine is...Google. In fact I set my homepage to Google in all of my favorite browsers (Firefox, Chrome). Searching for information is a skill that can be developed and honed over time. Google provides several features that allow users to optimize their search, i.e., to search and filter just the right information. Here's a video (in four parts) that explain how to unlock the power of Google in searching for the right information.

Secret Google Tips for Researchers: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.

21st Century Perspectives on Teaching, Learning, and Technology

2010-12-16T09:47:00.002+08:00

E-Learning: 21st Century Perspectives on Teaching, Learning, and Technology

View more presentations from Kiran Budhrani.

The secret powers of time

2010-12-16T00:41:00.000+08:00

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world. Apart from the message conveyed in this video, it is interesting to note how the points are translated and summarized in the animation form -- basically another form of mind mapping. I guess visual learners would love this kind of presentation.

Changing education paradigm

2010-12-16T00:27:00.001+08:00

This is an animated version of a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

Unconventional teacher

2010-12-15T23:30:00.005+08:00

Starring Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a hell-raising guitarist with delusions of grandeur. Kicked out of his band and desperate for work, Dewey impersonates a substitute teacher and turns a class of fifth grade high-achievers into high-voltage rock and rollers. The private school's uptight and skeptical head, Principal Mullins, watches on as the 'new sub' preps the kids for Battle of the Bands. The message: teachers can use unconventional approach in the classroom to engage students in the learning process. Watch the trailer...

Achieving deep learning

2010-12-14T23:12:00.005+08:00

I believe that learning requires deep understanding that can only come when students understand the concept and principles and actively apply knowledge in creative and meaningful ways. Therefore, the goal of my lectures is generally to acquaint students with the fundamental and applied aspects of physicochemical properties of food systems. My priority is to ensure proper and clear understanding of the concepts, principles and the underlying mechanisms of a process or phenomenon. This is in line with a quote from the great Physicist Albert Einstein: ‘I do not burden my memory with simple facts that can be looked at in text books, but the true purpose of education is to train the mind to think, for that purpose it is priceless’. Thus, I spend more time on explaining these aspects in the classroom. Typically, before delivering a new concept to students, I articulate the background information, and ask them to find out the solution. Then I introduce the theory I wanted to communicate. This approach creates curiosity to learn about the concept.

The approach in presenting the material in the class is of utmost important to achieve this objective. I try to convey the importance of a thorough understanding of basic concepts and principles, rather than memorizing facts, equations, and numbers. Whenever possible, I try to present the intuitive non-mathematical description that accompanies the mathematical one. The goal is to reinforce this association so that it might be useful when the student re-encounters the problem later in his/her career. It helps the student to achieve deep learning and also stimulate them to look for other approaches for that task.

Learn while having fun!

2010-12-14T22:39:00.004+08:00

Learn while having fun - If learning is about problem-solving and skills mastery, what greater way to accomplish this than by using games and simulations to help us teach and learn? By “doing” and by collaborating, it has been repeatedly shown that people learn more and retain that knowledge longer over time. Students are actively involved in the process of working a problem through to solution. I experiment with this idea using my e-learning portal as a delivery medium. I set up different types of interactive games: crossword, quizzes, matching pairs, groupings, and word game.

Through my e-learning portal or my wikis (Physical Properties of Food and Food Ingredients), I add some elements of fun in the form of interactive crossword puzzle, word game (akin to Wheel of Fortune – see picture above – try it out yourself), interactive quizzes, matching correct pairs, grouping items into correct category, etc.. These add another dimension to my teaching while offering the students a multitude of learning approaches. My students really enjoyed the games!!

Here are some feedbacks from the students (verbatim):

“The word game was fun and mind boggling. Very interesting! With the clock ticking, my heart couldn't stop a beat and there was no time to refer to notes in order to answer the questions as fast as possible before time out. I wouldn't consider this game as childish because at times I'm a kid at heart too. Ha ha.. We can't be all that serious at all times, can we?”

“For the word game, I would say it's really an interesting game. Even though I had searched the lecture notes several times, I was still not able to solve the puzzle. It really made me think repeatedly what suitable letter should be put into the box”

Learning beyond a classroom

2010-12-07T20:52:00.001+08:00

Learning beyond a textbook and classroom—As a teacher, I teach beyond the textbooks. Since I first started my teaching career, I have put tremendous efforts to continuously improve my teaching method. I have taken great pains to ensure that students understand what is being taught. I always go the extra mile to garner interest from the students on the subject being taught. My approach in teaching has always been “hands-on”. I spend a great deal of time with the students during laboratory classes to explain and demonstrate the right techniques in carrying out experiments. I also believe that students should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development. This would make learning more engaging and relevant and allows them to appreciate the wider perspective as well as nurture their creativity. I have found that taking the students out to the real world immensely enhanced their understanding of the course. I put a lot of effort to arrange for factory visit for the students or conducting a final year research project in the factory to give them useful practical knowledge.

Bring the laboratory & factory to the classroom—Sometimes it is not possible to arrange for a factory visit either because of the big number of students or the restriction by the factory (some factories only allow visitors to visit the laboratory but not the production area). Some of the courses I teach have no laboratory component but sometimes it is necessary to show the students certain techniques to carry out some experiments. To overcome these problems, I set up experiments in the laboratory, take pictures or videos of the experiment and show them in the lecture. I go to the factory to take pictures and videos (with prior permission) – these are edited, added with narration and presented in my lecture.

Teacher Makes a Difference

2010-12-04T23:10:00.008+08:00

Being an educator is a big responsibility. I believe that a good and responsible educator can make an impact to one’s life in a positive way. It is important to have empathy and reaching out to our students, try to understand and help them with their problems. I believe that building close rapport with students is important because it allows the students and teacher to relate to each other. Establishing close rapport with students enable me to engage them in reciprocal conversation about their activities and interests.

Talking about making a difference as a teacher, I was touched and inspired when I watched a movie “Making a Difference” on the internet. The movie was created from a fictional story written by Elizabeth Silance Ballard published in 1974 by Home Life Magazine as “Three Letters from Teddy”. Here’s the quote from the last scene in the movie: “You can never tell what type of impact you may have on another’s life by your action’s…or lack of action. Please consider this fact when you venture through life, and just try to make a difference in someone else’s life today”. Watch the movie here.

Here's another video on how teacher can make a difference and a lasting impact on one's life:

Making Learning Fun

2010-12-04T21:22:00.003+08:00

Learning is hard and challenging, especially learning a new subject that requires hard thinking. However, as an educator, I believe we can make learning fun, even for a hard subject (for me mathematic and physics). It's easier said than done, but it can be done. The present generation of learners learn differently -- they are digital natives. This becomes a challenge for us to search for ways in which our learners can learn and at the same time enjoy every moment of it, or any approach employed to make that learning process a success. However, to create a classroom environment that is lively and interesting, both teacher and students should demonstrate enthusiasm. I always believe that teaching is an exciting adventure in which both the teacher and the students participate and cooperate to achieve a common goal. It is much like “Explorace”, where the team members have to work hard together to accomplish certain task and finally reach the destination.

Learning activities can help transform a classroom into an exciting, meaningful, and active learning experiences. These learning activities can be used to increase interactivity, engage learners, accomplish learning objectives, and promote active learning. My experiences with “playing to learn” has taught me that the use of games and simulations can help bring to life knowledge and information that might otherwise exist only as bullet points on slides. The use of stories as the basis for case studies, scenarios, role-playing, and problem solving in a game or simulation-based format provides a memorable, vivid, and fun means for students to learn, remember, and retain knowledge effectively over time.

Making learning fun is not an easy task. The following video shows how learning history can be fun for the students. Tim Bailey, 2009 National History Teacher of the Year, teaches at a Salt Lake City, Utah, elementary school serving mostly disadvantaged students. Although most of them come from families that recently immigrated from Latin America, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world, the children respond enthusiastically to Tim's creative approach to teaching American history and citizenship. He remarks, "Real learning doesn't take place without emotional connection".

Unforgettable Learning Experiences

2010-12-03T23:54:00.007+08:00

Steve Spangler is a celebrity teacher, science toy designer, speaker, author and an Emmy award-winning television personality. Steve Spangler teaches teachers, and people in general, how to create unforgettable learning experiences with humor and attention-grabbing science demonstrations. Wonder, discovery, and exploration -- these are the elements that all educators should incorporate and integrate in their classroom. See Steve in action showing teachers how to be amazing with fun science demonstrations.

For science teachers, here's some more cool science experiments by Steve Spangler...

A Passion for Teaching

2010-12-03T23:20:00.004+08:00

I simply love teaching! Teaching, above all else, brings me great joy. My first teaching experience was when I was in the secondary school (Form 3) when my friends asked me to help them with the science subject. In Form four and five, I taught my friends Chemistry and in the school I was known as “chemistry wizard”. When I graduated in 1986 during the economic slump, I took up teaching in private school while waiting to get a permanent job. That experience was very exciting and rewarding and led me to choose teaching as a lifetime career. I genuinely enjoy teaching and cannot imagine myself doing anything else. I still teach every class with excitement and enthusiasm as if I am teaching it for the first time.

Passion and patience—I believe these two elements are utmost important in all good educators. Passion and love for the subject is essential and it can do wonders in terms of the tangible benefit for the students! I show my enthusiasm of the subject during teaching from the facial expression and voice intonation. I can imagine having a teacher without these qualities will lead to a boring lecture and there will then be a lack of interest in learning on the students’ part. As for patience, we need a lot of it because students come in different “forms” and attitudes!

Christopher Day in his book A Passion for Teaching writes, "All effective teachers have a passion for their subject, a passion for their pupils and a passionate belief that who they are and how they teach can make a difference in their pupils’ lives, both in the moment of teaching and in the days, weeks, months and even years afterwards. Passion is associated with enthusiasm, caring, commitment, and hope, which are themselves key characteristics of effectiveness in teaching. For teachers who care, the student as a person is as important as the student as a learner. That respect for person-hood is likely to result in greater motivation to learn".

Active learning

2010-11-29T23:09:00.002+08:00

"There is no such thing as an unmotivated student. There are, however, students in unmotivated states" -- Eric Jensen. I truly agree with this statement. This is one of the common challenges that teachers face everyday. How do we deal with students in unmotivated state? I think this problem is more prevalent in a teacher-centered classroom environment, i.e., the traditional lecture method in which teacher/lecturer talk and students listen. In my class, I try to promote active learning approach. I try to incorporate some elements of active learning strategies, for example talking and reflecting. For example, at the beginning of each lecture, I will ask a volunteer to give a summary of pertinent points covered in the previous lecture. I allow the student to reflect on the central points of the class session and if necessary I will add some additional points. This will allow the students to connect what they have learned in the previous lecture and what they will learn in that particular lecture. I intersperse my lecture with questions designed to allow students to reflect on important points I have highlighted during the class session, share their reflections with surrounding classmates, and briefly discuss the insights gained from this activity as a group before continuing with my lecture.

J.P. Downing in his book "Creative Teaching: Ideas to Boost Student Interest" listed 30 tools for creative teaching (page 44). I will just summarize here: Storytelling, seminars, discussions, puzzles, problem solving, designing, ensemble design, dramatic reading, question reading, question stringing, story writing, creative elaboration, description, imagination, readers theater, choice mapping, ethical dilemmas, collaboratibe inquiry, case studies, reconstructive writing, fictional narrative, fictional correspondence, simulations, discovery labs, role-playing, scripts, ensemble biographies, enactments, and schematizing.

The author also listed six skills for creative teaching: managing, presenting, questioning, designing, running activities, and relating.

We can also leverage the technology such as clickers to get an instant feedback from the students. In the video below Dr Steve Vaisey shares his experience using an audience response system to engage students in active learning.

Aspiring to be like Walter Lewin

2010-11-28T18:47:00.013+08:00

Albert Einstein said "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge". Indeed, boredom can be a student's greatest enemy! I believe in making learning fun and exciting but effective. It’s not always easy especially if you are teaching a “dry” subject such as physics or mathematic. It requires careful thought and planning. You may have seen Professor Walter Lewin of MIT giving his physics lecture – he is simply…incredible! You have to watch the video (below) on how he conducted his lecture and listen to the interview on his passion and enthusiasm in teaching. He is proud to be a teacher -- a professional teacher. "Teaching is my life", he said. I think all teachers should aspire and strive to be a dedicated teacher like him. I believe the hallmark of a good teacher is the ability to inspire the student to learn. A quote from William Arthur Ward: "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrate. The great teacher inspires". And as Professor T.S. Andy Hor, National University of Singapore put it: “There are only four types of professors: they make student sleeps, sad, angry or hungry for more”. So what kind of professor or teacher are we?

And here's the interview:

Excellence in Teaching & Learning

2010-11-28T17:32:00.002+08:00

This is my presentation entitled "Achieving Excellence in Teaching & Learning". I have presented the topic in different versions at various places. Content in brief: What are the issues regarding teaching and learning? What are the challenges facing education systems that have a direct impact on our graduates? How can traditional modes of classroom instruction engage and inspire students when life outside the classroom has changed so dramatically? This presentation attempts to cover some of these issues.

The Art of Presentation

2010-11-27T20:22:00.003+08:00

As a lecturer, I have given tons of lectures. As a researcher, I have also given quite a number of presentation in seminars and conferences as a speaker or keynote speaker. However, after almost 16 years, I still feel that there's more room for improvement. I'm still honing my presentation skill. There are a few books available on using PowerPoint to deliver good and engaging presentation. Here's one: Why Most PowerPoint Presentation Sucks by Rick Altman. The following presentation from Slideshare gives some useful tips on the art of preparing good presentation.

The Art of Presentation. Following the ZEN path. WHY

View more presentations from Eduardo S. de la Fuente.

Effective presentation skills: Using eye contact

2010-11-27T16:53:00.001+08:00

Eye contact is the most effective presentation skill to reduce your nervousness. The best way for you to implement eye contact is to connect with one person for a sustained thought. That would be from the beginning of a sentence, until there's punctuation like a comma or a period. When you finish the sentence, you'll want to move your eyes to another person and repeat the process. Learn more...

The Don'ts of PowerPoint

2010-11-27T16:02:00.003+08:00

I have listened to countless presentations and I would say that 99% of them are....dull and boring! The problem is not with the software - whether it is Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote - it boils down to the presentation and the presenter. Here's is a funny video "How NOT to do PowerPoint" by Don McMillan - it may be funny but he correctly highlighted many pitfalls of "modern" day presentation. We can learn something from him...

Here's another one (more recent one with more jokes on using PowerPoint).