I'm teaching an intermediate-level class in the fall that I've taught a few times before with varying levels of success. I've taught it enough times that it's time to do some tweaking, and I find that I'm faced with a very interesting dilemma. In a nutshell, the dilemma is this: which thing, or things, do I cut to make room for Potentially Very Cool But Untested Module, or should I even incorporate Untested Module in the first place?
For pseudonymity's sake, let's say the course is Ice Cream Construction. The course covers the building blocks of ice cream, the ice cream making process, the various recipes and techniques used to make ice cream (the ice cream schools of thought), and a survey of past and current ice cream making technologies.
In the past, I've taught the class using a comparative approach. There are several common techniques, or schools of thought, used by ice cream makers. I have the students study and work in detail with two of these specific techniques. Really they can get the same effect by working with one, but the techniques that they work with are very different, and I think it gives them a much more nuanced understanding of ice cream construction.
The book that I use discusses one of these approaches in detail, but because they are enamored of Ben and Jerry's, presents many examples of the Ben and Jerry's Technique as well. I include some of these examples where appropriate, but don't go into too much detail because the B&J Technique is somewhat complex, at least for this course level.
However, there is a really fascinating first-hand account of the B&J Technique: how it evolved, the problems that B&J encountered when developing their technique, how the technique revolutionized ice cream production, etc. I would love for my students to read this. This book does a really fantastic job of personalizing the ice cream making process, of giving a real-world glimpse into the very concepts my course covers, and of hitting upon some themes that I try to work into the course as well.
I could make reading the book optional, but I suspect that no one will read it then. So I'd like to incorporate the book into the course. But there are some things to consider:
- How to make the book a meaningful part of the course, rather than something seen as a neat-o add-on. Do I have them read it over the course of a week, or integrate reading various chapters/sections throughout the course?
- If I do the book in one fell swoop, how do I construct meaningful assignments to go along with the reading? Dare I try integrating a writing-intensive assignment? Or should I try a case-study group-project sort of thing that requires them to synthesize and apply what they've read and what they've learned in the course? (Hmmm, this might be a really cool final project....)
- If I do the book in pieces, how do I integrate the readings into the existing assignments and/or classtime? How do I tweak the assignments, or what classroom activities can I design, to motivate the students to actually do the reading?
- The class is already a bit too full, and I need to cut material anyway. If I integrate this book, I will definitely need to cut something substantial. Does this mean that I have to drop one of the techniques I cover in detail altogether? Or can I get away with keeping both techniques, and just reducing one of them to a lab or 2 over the course of the class?
I'm going to be doing some serious thinking about this over the next week, and figure out if this is even plausible at this stage. But as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If you were me, what would you do, or what factors would you consider in your decision? If you've done this before, what was your decision process like?
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I'm assuming that by using the Ice Cream Making metaphor, that what you're teaching is something that is used out in the field, and as such, it's a relevant skill for future computer scientists. As such, I think one of the things to consider when you want to add/take-away something is whether or not it is used extensively in the industry. For example, whilst going through college for my first degree, one of the courses that I had to take involved learning Fortran. While it was something that was cool to learn, I've never had to use that language in "the real world," and I would have liked it if they could have covered something like machine code and/or an intro to C/C++ which would have been more relevant in the industry.
Of course, if the course involves not really teaching the state of the art, but *how* we got into the state of the art, then the decision is not so simple. In this case, it's important to teach how you got to that point, and thus, it's not so easy to cut out potentially dated material, since it might be relevant to the evolution of the technique that you're trying to teach.
So what does this all mean? I'm assuming that you probably have more than one session of this class to teach in any given semester. Might I suggest performing a pilot in that you teach the new module in one session, and compare the results with another session that is taught the original way? That way you can see if the tweaking idea works, and if you're happy with the results, you can implement it for all of your sessions. Otherwise, if you are only teaching one session, I'd still say add the new content, keeping in mind the stuff that I said above.
Quick disclaimer though, I'm not a professor, so I might be insane in what I just said, but I figured giving you the perspective of a student that has gone through a BSCE might be helpful. :)
Good luck!
Um, I totally want to take a class on ice cream construction...
ScienceMama, I know....I got so hungry writing this post! Lesson learned: don't write about ice cream metaphors just before lunch.
Lledowyn, your comments are very helpful; thanks! The course is more along the lines of "how we got here" than "this is what we do now", so you're right in noting that cutting something is not so easy. I now think, actually, that I can retain both techniques and perhaps just cut down on the content of the assignments to get this other module to fit. At any rate, I ordered the book yesterday, so I think this means I've now committed myself to actually trying this module out.
Hi,
I also want to raise this question do you believe a course can be run without doing a final exam? If so, how to reach the maximum benefit of the course without losing it value?!
Cheers
Iris
Iris, when you say "without a final exam", do you just mean "final exam" or do you mean "any kind of final evaluation tool (like a final project)"? I'd say that I give final exams in about 50% of my classes and final projects in the other 50%. In both cases, I try to come up with something that is sufficiently comprehensive---that tests pretty much everything they've learned over the entire class. So, for instance, I may have my intro students write a simple computer game for their final project; for upper-level classes, I'll have the students design and implement a piece of software that relates to whatever the class covered.
As an instructor at the university level for many years, I say go with the new approach/new module. Just tell them that's what you're doing, and tell them why, as well as what qualms you have about it, etc. Be honest. This is new, this is untested, it MAY not work, BUT if it doesn't, we'll figure out why. I once used a book, a novel in fact, that was quite off the beaten path AND I HADN'T READ IT YET. It was quite new. I told them this upfront, and that it might be terrible (it wasn't, but it had some problems), but that if it was bad, we would figure out why together, and THAT would be the learning experience. In fact, since I had no idea how to test on this material, part of what they had to do was to help me figure out how to test student's on it in the future. What would they want to be asked? Led to great discussions (as you know, in doing something like this, the A students rise far and above the others), and they enjoyed it immensely.
I have also asked the students at the beginning of the semester which they would want to do. "Here's what I would have to cut, here's why that's important, etc. Here are the benefits, here are the problems, etc." At the intermediate level, I've found students love this kind of thing. Of course, you have to disabuse some of them from their idea that education involves an infinitely knowledgeable professor relating info to empty vessels. If one isn't comfortable not being omniscient in front of class, it wouldn't work. Me, I love it.
Brad