Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

Are there any training and reference books for teachers?

I never thought I would teach in a university, and I have taught in four schools for several years. When I received the assignment at that time, I regarded it as the "college version" of intern training and new employee training, or continued to emphasize practice, feedback, cooperation, and so on.

In Microsoft, to do most of the things related to people, there must be a training, only after attending the training, can you interview others, bring interns, and so on. I don't know if a new teacher will attend teacher training or ask for a psychology course when he arrives at the university. Tsinghua University, or any other school, didn't mention any training, so I went to class.

After my first year of class, I read a book by Professor Randy Pausch. This book gives me a lot of inspiration, one of which is the relationship between teachers and students. By clarifying this relationship, teachers and students can have the same class.

Not long ago, Mr. Zhou Yun recommended this book to me (the Chinese version of how to be an Outstanding University teacher). The excellent teachers mentioned in this book range from ordinary colleges and universities to Ivy League schools, from science and technology, medicine and farmers to the philosophy of literature and history. After I read it, I felt that I was too far from it. Here are some of my notes and messy thoughts (some words are translated more amateurishly):

Do "research" universities still attach importance to teaching?

In recent years, many universities in China have boasted that they have become, or are about to become, "research" universities. Readers can see the expectations of teachers from research universities on this Weibo. It can be seen that universities have a lot of requirements for teachers' scientific research, which is the only one for teaching, and there is no feedback from students as a condition:

During the employment period, you must undertake two courses (at least one is a main course or professional course). Before the end of the employment period, you must teach more than one course in English or bilingual.

I don't know what other types are besides the research type. I imagine there are "teaching type" and "diploma wholesale type". What's wrong with a teaching university? If everyone studies, then send away all the students in the university. how many teachers can still hand out papers and do "research"? There is a famous "research institution" in the world-Institute for Advanced Study, which enlists a large number of famous scientists to do research. These scientists do not have to give lectures (there are no students here), nor do they have to write research funding application reports, or "horizontal projects". The school allows them to do research full-time. I personally think that among the thousands of university research institutes in the world, there might as well be several such institutions that are not confined to one style. But how much of its output does not seem to be in line with people's expectations. Richard Feynman (Feynman), a famous physicist of the 20th century, said of the institution:

... And nothing happens. Still no ideas come. Nothing happens because there's not enough real activity and challenge: You're not in contact with the experimental guys. You don't have to think how to answer questions from the students. Nothing!

-Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmancy, 1985

Without the "learning" part of "teaching and learning", perhaps the "research" of research universities can not be done well. What is the purpose of the teacher's class?

Both college students and graduate students are adults and have the ability to study by themselves. Why do teachers give lectures to them when there are so many open classes, open exercises and open homework answers on the Internet? Why do students come to class?

To get them to pass the exam? Or...

Through class, exert a positive, important and sustainable influence on students' thinking ability, action ability, perception ability, etc.

There was nothing to say about this, but at the university in China, something like this happened to me: an influential teacher in a certain school said the following very roundabout words to me:

Due to historical reasons, there are many engineering departments in our school.

Due to other reasons, the department of the Academy of Engineering has won a lot of places for postgraduate studies.

In this case, there will be very few places left for the computer department.

In this case, many students in the computer department will have to pass the examination to go to graduate school.

So, they need a lot of time to review.

Your software engineering course is very good, but students should take the time to review and prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination.

Therefore, your class can not do so many exercises, so that students have time to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination.

What does the teacher do in class?

Do you have a class, read dozens of handouts, show some slides, and then end the class? Or...

Treat the students as different individuals and construct a natural, critical, learning environment (Natural Critical Learning Environment) for teachers and classmates to ask, communicate, try, feedback, and summarize.

The characteristics of an excellent teacher

Excellent teachers do not necessarily have a large number of academic articles, but they are all scholars or experts who are active in their respective fields and have certain achievements. Through a large number of interviews, the author found that these excellent teachers have something in common:

A) have a good understanding of the history of the industry and have a keen insight into the origins of some things.

B) they like to ponder the question [how people learn] very much and have four general opinions:

1) the knowledge system is constructed, not received / / xinz: instead of instilling knowledge, let the students build it themselves.

2) people's cognitive model changes very slowly / / xinz: those quick, crazy, slogan-shouting training may not change people's cognitive model.

3) asking questions can help build a knowledge system / / xinz: encourage students to think and debate

4) physical and mental input is the key to learning.

But it should be noted that these teachers are not born with these educational talents, they are not perfect, and they sometimes fail to achieve the best methods they preach. But they are always in the process of learning and improving.

How to design the course

Before class:

The teachers mentioned in the book are all experienced teachers, but some people often think about it in terms of "original mind": if this course is brand new, and I really want to teach it, (not because I taught it last year, not because of the requirements of the academic Affairs Office, not because I have learned it before, not because.) Then how should I teach this course well?

The first day of class:

1) give students a very clear expectation. The courses of these teachers are usually very demanding, but they also provide a lot of opportunities for learning and improvement.

/ / xinz: not that-if you fail the first test, you won't get an A.

2) ask the students to tell the teacher what they most want to learn in this course and what problems they want to solve. This can be achieved through a simple questionnaire.

/ / xinz: I did it once, but the feedback from my classmates did not affect the content of the lecture. Either my question was not clear, or I lacked the flexibility to change my teaching plan. We can try again in the future.

3) at this time, some teachers tell the students what the general questions of the final exam are.

Usually in class:

These excellent teachers use many methods, and what they have in common is:

Create... "natural critical learning environment". In that environment, people learn by confronting intriguing, beautiful, or important problems, authentic tasks that will challenge them to grapple with ideas, rethink their assumptions, and examine their mental models of reality.

This seems to be the focus of the book. Let's talk about it separately:

Natural naturally: to solve all kinds of problems, challenges, and confusion raised by the course. These are all part of the course. / / xinz: do not artificially divide the restricted area, for example: this part will not be tested, students do not have to read it.

Critical critical spirit: the purpose of class is not to transfer knowledge to students' minds, but to let students use critical thinking, present facts, be reasonable, and constantly speculate.

What Learning learns: students don't have to listen to the conclusion in class, they can't think about it for half a semester, and finally they have to listen to the teacher's standard answer. Students should give their own answers. More importantly, students have to ask, if this question is the answer, what is the next question? With questions, the students began the next round of understanding and thinking.

As for the specific teaching methods, in addition to "lecturing", teachers can also experiment with various ways to establish a NCL environment:

Questioning; classroom discussion; case study; role playing; Simulation; fieldwork

This NCL environment is the focus of the book, I would like to say a few more words.

N (Natural) is very important. If you send a student to a labor camp and do coolies, do 100 calculus, memorize 100 foreign words and write 1000 lines of code every day, if you can't write them, you will be whipped. It is estimated that the goal can also be achieved, this environment may be very Critical, people can also Learn, but not necessarily Natural. It's like memorizing words by yourself in order to meet the English exam, so the learning effect won't last.

Chinese employees in foreign companies are eager to improve their English communication skills, and companies often pay high prices to hire consultants to hold crash courses for a day or two to talk about several tricks and misunderstandings of English communication, interspersed with jokes, and so on. After the class, the students are very happy and think they "learned it". But according to my observation, there is no significant change in the communication ability of these colleagues in the long run. At the same time, we have set up Toastmasters Club within the company. There are no teachers. According to the tutorials, everyone talks about their work and life in English. There are impromptu speeches and formal speeches. At the same time, provide critical advice to others (grammar, words, rhythm, body movements, etc.), and finally choose some of the best speakers. The activities are carried out after work, and the general members' communication skills (not just English) have been significantly improved after completing the speech exercises stipulated in the course.

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