Conversations & Explorations

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In this interview, Dr. Peter Saunders talks with Toni Doolen, who uses simulations to achieve learning objectives in her Lean Manufacturing class. Learn how she puts students to work in paper airplane “factories” to demonstrate differences between batch vs. continuous production systems.

Watch video clips from the interview and the class activities in our
Best Teaching Practices Video Library.

Program Outline

00:50 Q: What classes do you teach?

01:24 Q: What key concepts do you want students to come away with?

07:10 Q: How do you divide students into groups?

08:10 Q: What are some “aha” moments or outcomes that come up during the simulation?

10:16 Q: Do you see problem solving in the students’ interactions?

11:20 Q: How do students react? Do they take this activity seriously?

12:40 Q: What comes up during the student reflections?

14:30 Q: How does grading work?

20:27 Q: What is your role in these activities?

23:55 Q: Do activities take too much time away from lectures?

27:30 Q: Do you lecture from slides?

29:07 Q: Do you use the same strategies in lower classes?

22:00 Q: Do you see differences between incoming freshmen and seniors during the activities?

31:08 Q: Is there a class size limit for doing these activities?

31:40 Q: Would round tables facilitate these activities better?

35:12 Q: Where do you find your activities, or do you create them?

36:00 Q: Did you have these kinds of experiences during your training?

37:20 Q: Did you have doubts when starting this technique?

38:30 Q: Did you have to learn new time management skills?

40:05 Q: Many schools don’t use lecture-based classes. What do you think about that approach?

41:55 Q: Any advice for instructors who want to start doing this?

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In this interview, Dr. Peter Saunders talks with Minjeong Kim, who teaches in the Health and Human Sciences department at Oregon State University. Learn how she gets to know her students and how she is able to effectively “shrink” the physical space of large classrooms.

Program Outline

00:39 Q: What courses and what levels do you teach?

01:10 Q: What’s the room like that you teach in? Is it tiered, with fixed seats?

02:25 Q: How do you connect with your students in these large rooms?

03:42 Q: Is it a daunting task to learn your students’ names?

06:09 Q: How do your students react?

07:17 Q: Is there a seating plan? Is attendance improved?

08:40 Q: What behavior improvements have you noticed?

10:12 Q: Could you tell me about the benefits of peer-to-peer teams?

12:13 Q: How does grading work?

16:51 Q: Who picks the team captain?

17:41 Q: Where do the team meetings take place?

18:56 Q: When do you form the teams?

20:05 Q: Do you see problems arise when some of the teammates who knew each other prior to class want to work together?

22:00 Q: Do you have any rules about teams in your syllabus?

24:39 Q: What kinds of assessment do you do?

29:47 Q: What other techniques do you use to engage your students? (Storytelling, creating a business plan for a sushi restaurant)

36:00 Q: Anything else you’d like to share with instructors or GTAs?

37:44 Q: Can you tell me how you move around the room?

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Today’s learners mirror societal change; 60-90% of the population thinks with mental visual language. Teaching strategies have not kept up with these changes. As a result more learners experience difficulty with higher order thinking skills. To address this problem, Dr. Kaakinen, a nurse educator, collaborated with Dr. Arwood, an educator with a language/learning background. The results of their multi-disciplinary collaboration included innovative teaching strategies designed for visual thinkers.

In this two-part interview, Dr. Peter Saunders talks with Dr. Kaakinen and Dr. Arwood about their research. This interview a continuation of Part 1. Want to know more? Watch the workshop Visual Teaching in an Auditory World in our Best Teaching Practices Video Library. Log in and then click on “Visiting Speakers”.

Program Outline

00:45 Q: How do the textbooks help? Are students reading them?

11:32 Q: Do your techniques increase student motivation?

22:45 Q: Is there a certain percentage of students who don’t like this visual system?

24:40 Q: Are the qualifying exams your students have to pass geared for auditory learning?

27:25 Q: Can you explain more about scaffolding?

42:35 Q: Can concept-mapping tools be used to produce visual language?

49:20 Q: Can drawings be used as formal assessment tools?

56:30 Q: Can all of Bloom’s levels be achieved through visual language?

58:56 Q: Are there certain types of subject matter, perhaps, for which there are no visual representations?

Listen Now or View Transcript

Today’s learners mirror societal change; 60-90% of the population thinks with mental visual language. Teaching strategies have not kept up with these changes. As a result more learners experience difficulty with higher order thinking skills. To address this problem, Dr. Kaakinen, a nurse educator, collaborated with Dr. Arwood, an educator with a language/learning background. The results of their multi-disciplinary collaboration included innovative teaching strategies designed for visual thinkers.

In this two-part interview, Dr. Peter Saunders talks with Dr. Kaakinen and Dr. Arwood about their research. This interview is continued in Part 2. Want to know more? Watch the workshop Visual Teaching in an Auditory World in our Best Teaching Practices Video Library. Log in and then click on “Visiting Speakers”.

Program Outline

02:38 Q: How did you get started in this branch?

05:19 Q: Is it a learning disability that we’re dealing with? Or is it just a cognitive difference?

08:11 Q: Are universities not visual? If not, how are kids surviving now?

11:50 Q: Can you explain the term “Visual Language”?

16:38 Q: I’m going to go to your article now, “Visual Language Strategies for Innovative Teaching of Science.” And you write, and I quote, “Students learn science concepts the way their underlying neurobiological learning system processes the incoming information.” That’s a big statement. It’s a good one. Can you parse it out for us?

25:10 Q: You used the term “multitasking” Are you using it differently? Because I would think 99% of the faculty I know will say all their students can do is multitask, that they aren’t able, they themselves aren’t able to do it.

26:14 Q: Does the visual language get at how this fits into learning styles now, learning preferences?

28:12 Q: If I prefer to be taught in a visual way and it’s not happening, aren’t I going to be frustrated? So isn’t that a preference?

31:25 Q: What’s your perception on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?

34:53 Q: Why should instructors use visual language strategies if students are capable of learning from lecture and PowerPoint presentations?

41:13 Q: What does this mean for science courses trying to cope with the explosion of available information?