Kevin Duden

I have considered providing guided notes after at the end of the program before they take their post-test and making it a prerequisite. I've found many of my students (incarcerated men) tend to check boxes and just quickly go through post-test to get the certificate of completion. I think requiring this would slow them down and raise post-test scores which technically are used to evaluate me as an instructor. One issue I see with guided notes during the session is having slow down the lecture and PowerPoint to allow time for students to fill in their notes. I concerned slowing… >>>

The "making the course content relevant" could work in my situation. I teach "pre-release" which is a required course that is designed to cover areas that will help our incarcerated residents stay out of prison. If I could start each session with a discussion of how a particular class may help them in staying out of prison, maybe that provides some motivation.

I've tried to incorporate all the learning preferences into my lessons. We have lecture and discussion; PowerPoints (where students read the slides aloud) and videos; worksheets and group activities; and a simulation. I am flirting with the idea of trying to find a way to find out each student's preference and try to find a way for me to easily identify it during class.

The video about students raising their hands was spot on. I often see students raise their hands when I haven't finished what I believe to be a salient point. I was then call on them and many times they do take us backwards. Maybe one strategy would be for me to slow a bit to give their brains time to catch up. I also like the concepts of episodic and semantic. I have some vivid memories from decades ago and they usually revolve around having experienced some kind of powerful emotion.

In my situation, a prison school, we don't have labs or do experiments in the classroom, but we do have a Living Guide which has specific rules and guidelines for behavior; many of which involves safety. They take a test to show their knowledge of this guide and then the rules are generally enforced including in the classroom.

Most of my formative assessments are simply questions and discussion during lectures and/or questions at the end of the session to make sure we covered our learning goals, but I have thought about having a short time during the class where they can reflect on what they've learned and discuss during the session. We essentially do have some competency-based assessment where they work together to practice certain sections of written assignments they turn at the end of class (essentially a portfolio).

In larger classes, I think it will be a challenge to find each student's learning style. I've tried to incorporate the different styles at least when it comes to kinesthetic, aural, and visual. I use PowerPoint with graphics (visual), I have students read the slides aloud (aural), lecture (aural) and I have worksheets and other group activities (kinesthetic). I have flirted with the idea of having each take a learning style assessment then have them wear a color on the ID corresponding to their style. That way, while lecturing and assigning groups I would have some guidance.

My first thought was why should we care about anything other than if they can actually do the job (perform the required tasks), but I can see the point the critics made about competency-based education not going far enough in developing the mental aspects. One concern might be that they would be pigeon-holed into one career if they do not focus on other aspects of learning.

The clearest/muddiest thing seems to be pretty simple and useful.

While I'm supportive of alternative assessments, they ought to be as rigorous as the normal ones. I think often alternative assessments tend to be easier and designed to move students forward regardless of what they've learned or not.