Before I get started today, I wanted
to pass along a link to a great article (sent to me recently by a friend)
titled “Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results”:
There was a lot that I loved about
this article but here are two great observations:
“An entire industry of books and
consultants has grown up that capitalizes on our collective fear that American
education is inadequate and asks what American educators are doing wrong. I would ask a different question. What did
Mr. K (a teacher that he profiles) do right? What can we learn from a teacher
whose methods fly in the face of everything we think we know about education
today, but who was undeniably effective?”
“Studies have now shown, among other things, the benefits of moderate childhood stress; how praise kills kids' self-esteem; and why grit is a better predictor of success than SAT scores.”
Read it – I’ll bet you’ll gain
something from it.
**
Joe: Today, I have the
great pleasure of exchanging some thoughts with Bob Jensen, one of the best
known accounting educators in the US, especially because of his tireless work
with technology.
Bob, I know you are kind of retired although you seem to stay extremely busy. Can you furnish us with a biography of some of your many accomplishments over the years?
Bob: It's hard to
summarize the innovative things I've done for students across 40 years of
teaching. My teaching changed a lot over the years from lectures to
BAM-like. BAM-like has been described
in the following manner: The main
innovation of the BAM pedagogy is that students teach themselves in a discovery
learning pedagogy. The main purpose of BAM is to make students constantly
confront ambiguity.
I guess you and I are similar in class where we like a Socratic method that forces students to seek their own answers. I carried it further by forcing them to find the answers on their own outside the classroom. However, I was somewhat inconsistent, especially in Accounting Theory and in AIS when dealing with issues that had highly technical and crisp right and wrong answers such as forming a relational database in MS Access or accounting for an interest rate swap.
I guess you and I are similar in class where we like a Socratic method that forces students to seek their own answers. I carried it further by forcing them to find the answers on their own outside the classroom. However, I was somewhat inconsistent, especially in Accounting Theory and in AIS when dealing with issues that had highly technical and crisp right and wrong answers such as forming a relational database in MS Access or accounting for an interest rate swap.
On very technical issues I provided
value by making hundreds of Camtasia videos that students use much like
students use the Khan Academy. Rather than remain totally overwhelmed by the
technicality of some issues, students could watch my Camtasia videos over and
over and over again until, at last, they could shout --- I got it!
That's a bit like learning on your own --- but not quite. Real learning on your own means going to the library and to the Web and to experts such that there's value added in searching experience. Viewing videos that I provided did not have the search value added. But often there was nowhere else to search on topics where I prepared my own Camtasia videos.
If there is one difference between you and me when it comes to teaching, I think I was more eager to explore the unfolding wonders of education technology.
That's a bit like learning on your own --- but not quite. Real learning on your own means going to the library and to the Web and to experts such that there's value added in searching experience. Viewing videos that I provided did not have the search value added. But often there was nowhere else to search on topics where I prepared my own Camtasia videos.
If there is one difference between you and me when it comes to teaching, I think I was more eager to explore the unfolding wonders of education technology.
Joe: Since you brought it
up, let’s talk a little about technology. We are certainly in the middle of a
transition period in college education. You mentioned the Khan Academy but we
could also bring up Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, edX, Knewton, as well as
credentials and badges. One concept that you hear a lot about is the “flipped
classroom” which I have seen defined as “a pedagogical model in which the
typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed.” Basically,
students use technology in advance of class to achieve a foundation level of
knowledge. Class time is then used to make sure that this level of knowledge is
in place so that the teacher and students can start adding more in-depth
knowledge. How well do you think this will work? Isn’t the real question how
you get students to do the work in advance of class? Can technology overcome
student (human) tendencies to procrastinate?
Bob: Actually, I had a
type of flipped classroom. My students
each had a computer work station and usually worked in class from that station
such as when solving MS Access relational database assignments or in theory
courses when making journal entries for derivatives transactions. I think they
hated the quizzes but that was based on the extent to which they prepared for
class.
The question is class size. Top business schools and law schools often use cases and the Socratic method for upwards of 100 students. But these horror shows of filled lecture halls with 500-1500 students are more likely to require lectures and PowerPoint shows. Flipped classrooms are also not practical for MOOC classes of 5,000-250,000 students.
What would really be interesting would be a study of student performance when students are randomly divided into your preferred pedagogy that you use now versus same-sized classes where you lecture with PowerPoint shows. Most research shows that if students know what is expected of them for high grades, there will be "No-Significant-Differences" due to pedagogy. (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#AssessmentIssues)
But a course grade is only one measure of extent of learning. The BAM project in intermediate accounting suggests that self-learning metacognitively improves long-term retention. (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm)
Put another way, the top student in a lecture section of a course might also have been the top student in a self-learning BAM section of that course. But the students most likely will have better long-term recall regarding what they learned on their own even if they really, really hated having to learn on their own. However, don't look for stellar teaching evaluations in the BAM sections.
The question is class size. Top business schools and law schools often use cases and the Socratic method for upwards of 100 students. But these horror shows of filled lecture halls with 500-1500 students are more likely to require lectures and PowerPoint shows. Flipped classrooms are also not practical for MOOC classes of 5,000-250,000 students.
What would really be interesting would be a study of student performance when students are randomly divided into your preferred pedagogy that you use now versus same-sized classes where you lecture with PowerPoint shows. Most research shows that if students know what is expected of them for high grades, there will be "No-Significant-Differences" due to pedagogy. (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#AssessmentIssues)
But a course grade is only one measure of extent of learning. The BAM project in intermediate accounting suggests that self-learning metacognitively improves long-term retention. (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm)
Put another way, the top student in a lecture section of a course might also have been the top student in a self-learning BAM section of that course. But the students most likely will have better long-term recall regarding what they learned on their own even if they really, really hated having to learn on their own. However, don't look for stellar teaching evaluations in the BAM sections.
Speaking of Coursera, Udacity,
Udemy, edX, Knewton, etc. I view these as fundamentally different in that
prestigious universities deliver the courses and these corporations are mainly
concerned with competency-based assessment of that learning.
Khan Academy, on the other hand, is
a nonprofit organization that actually prepares the learning modules but does
not assess the degree of learning.
The SMOC (synchronous massive online
course) providers like the University of Texas are going to do both --- the
teaching and the assessment.
Joe: Let's go forward 10
years. What do you think college education will look like at that time? Will
any students anywhere walk into a small classroom where a professor will give
the equivalent of a lecture? Some people foresee a radical overall of the
educational experience in the next few years. Others think that such predicted
changes have been vastly overstated. What do you believe?
Bob: I will give you
some of my specific predictions for 2024 and 2040. In 2024 it's more likely
that classrooms with 500-1500+ will virtually disappear. Universities by 2024
will replace these with either classrooms of less than 60 students or
competency-based credits without contact hours required for credits.
Small classes of less than 60
students will probably increase in numbers both onsite and online. Many will be
classes of less than 25 students and have intense communications with
instructors and each other, including small online courses. Professors will
teach more subjects and more students than is the case in 2013.
College campuses provide much more
than learning for degrees. Heavily endowed universities like Swarthmore,
Davidson, and Haverford will continue to thrive as Tier 1 residency campuses as
will schools like Richmond (where you teach) and Trinity (where I taught). Most
poorly endowed colleges will disappear or totally redefine their missions.
More students will enroll in
Minerva-like programs, although these will still be a small proportion of the
total number of higher education students.
Medical students and perhaps accounting, engineering, nursing, and
pharmacy students will drop more and more education from their increasingly
intense and streamlined training programs.
In 2024 there will be an enormous
increase in degrees awarded to students who have no instructors or very few
instructors. By 2040 there won't be such
things as degrees and diplomas.
Students will continue to live,
learn, and mature on larger campuses like the Ivy League, Notre Dame, and BYU.
Smaller classes will increase in frequency. Enormous universities like OSU,
Texas, Illinois, etc. will have the hardest time adapting, but they will
probably adapt with more online courses, MOOCs, and SMOCs taking the place of
large lecture halls. At the same time they will offer many more small and
specialized courses onsite and online.
MOOC and SMOC mentoring sections
will greatly increase in number that will be somewhat similar to the recitation
sections that now exist for enormous lecture courses. These mentoring sections
will also be available for smaller classes, although usage by students willing
to pay the reasonable fees will probably be voluntary. Mentoring fees for
minority students and learning disabled students will increasingly paid for by
taxpayers.
Degree programs based on course
credit accumulations will probably disappear, although perhaps this will be
more like 2040 than 2024. Students in virtually all universities will
eventually be confronted with competency-based certifications. The “washed”
will do so as residents on campuses. The “unwashed” will do so without spending
many (probably not any) terms on campus.
Competency-based performance will
cease to be on a pass-fail basis. Instead competency-based scores will be
reported on ordinal or possible even ratio scales that have common zero points.
This may also be the case for professional licensing scores on things like CPA
examinations, BAR examinations, medical certification examinations, nursing
examinations, etc.
Tenure will probably disappear by 2040, although it may not matter much if seniority based upon years of service is still engrained in the USA. Performance rewards may be more heavily based upon teaching performance than research. More performance credit may be given for micro-level research. This is a good thing.
For more predictions for the years
2000-2024 go to
http://go.rm0001.net/rmgo.asp?tid=3722512&eid=3362&sb_id=781901
http://go.rm0001.net/rmgo.asp?tid=3722512&eid=3362&sb_id=781901
Joe: And here are some
other great links to Bob’s thoughts about education:
Bob Jensen's threads on education
technology and learning theory ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on listservs,
blogs, and social networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads on Shared Open
Courseware (OCW) from Around the World: OKI, MIT, Rice, Berkeley, Yale, and Other
Sharing Universities (OKI. MOOCs, SMOCs, etc.)---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on Higher
Education Controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
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