The need for connection & engagement in education

Anyone who wants to make better presentations should be interested in how people learn. If you are interested in how people learn, you are obviously interested in education. And if you are interested in education, you surely have strong opinions about schools and other institutions of formal instruction and learning. As Sir Ken Robinson said in his first TED talk a few years ago, education is one of those things like religion and money that people have very strong opinions about. Few people think that the formal education systems around the world are perfect. In fact, virtually everyone realizes that changes — even massive paradigm shifts — are needed. As scientists and other specialists learn more about how our brains work, for example, many of the traditional instructional methods used for the past 100 years (or more) seem to be out of kilter with how human beings really pay attention, engage, and actually learn something. From time to time, I will continue to share presentations and talks that deal with education and learning.

"School sucks"
Please set aside 30 minutes sometime to watch this talk by American Physicist Dr. Tae. The professor touches on many things you already know about the short comings of modern formal education, but it is provocative enough that I am sure you will find it worthy of your time. There are many points that Dr. Tae makes that deserve a lot more discussion than a 30-minute presentation allows. I agree with much of what Dr. Tae says here, but what I really am in agreement with is his utter incredulity concerning the continuation of the old one-way large lecture hall. The massive lecture rooms are not designed to produce an ideal learning situation but rather to get a great amount of people through the material on a large scale. In the presentation Dr. Tae touches on the depersonalized nature of the large lecture hall with the "tiny professor somewhere down there" in front going through the material but without engagement or connection with the students. If one of the goals of education is to "have a lively exchange of ideas," the depersonalized one-way lecture seems to be an outdated method for stimulating this exchange. Watch the presentation below or in three parts on YouTube.

Dr. Tae — Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning from Dr. Tae on Vimeo.

Do they just sit there?
Dr. Tae tells an amusing story of one of his colleagues who was giving his daughter a tour of the physics department one day. As they stumbled upon a physics class the 8-year old daughter said to her father the physics professor, "Daddy, what are those people doing?" The father replied that they were studying physics. "Do thy just sit there?" she replied. Yep, they just sit there. It seems even an 8-year old girl can see that "just sitting there" seems like an odd way to learn something.

Get them doing something
In the presentation Dr. Tae mentions how he scraps the traditional lecture format and gets students to work together on problems. As much as possible, I try to do they same, however, in large lecture halls this can be challenging. Still, it is possible even given the constraints of the lecture hall to engage the audience and have them engage with each other.


Above: Although I am speaking in front of nearly 300 students in a large hall in Japan, I still have them get up and *do* something relevant from time to time. (This picture is from page 157 of the Naked Presenter book.)



Above: The typical lecture hall like this in Japan with chairs and tables which can not be moved does not lend itself to engagement (I took this photo before the seminar). I set up my computer away from the lectern on the elevated podium and came down closer to the students. While not ideal, it at least removed some of the barriers and we did our best to do some group work as well in spite of the rigid set up. I further attempted to remove barriers by often walking into the audience, especially during the short activities.




Above: In the seminars I hold around the world the set up is usually like something above (in Tokyo) and the participants are often doing and discussing, not just listening and watching.

 
Above: These photos are from yesterday's 4-hour seminar at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Comments

[DK]

Always interested in your curated thoughts here Garr - thank you.

Your post highlights the need to consider the learning spaces we find themselves in - as a speaker plus trainer I'm often finding myself moving tables and chairs around constantly to create those interactive and 'doing' environments.

To extend the discourse further, you might be interested in my post on 'social school design' which went live days ago:

http://mediasnackers.com/2010/11/social-school-design/

peace

[Account Deleted]

Unfortunately, college professors aren't taught how to be teachers. They perpetuate the methods they had seen in their college classes. It would be novel to see professors taking a course in how-to teach in college.

[Mike Sporer]

Your words are spot-on, Garr! I see an example of interactive teaching in math classes at the Tech school where I work. Every class has interactive elements, and ths students learn.

[Sam]

Joel, without speaking for all universities in the world I can say that in large parts of Europe they are. The amount is limited though, in total it might be half a semester of a "full time" course (~200 hours). An obvious problem with this is that when it comes to teaching there seems to be the pedagogics researchers (who teach the pedagogics courses) in one camp and the neuroscientists (and others who know a lot about the brain) in the other. You also need a teaching statement or a teaching portfolio when you apply for tenure track jobs. This forces you to reflect on your methods of teaching, but it's not anywhere near enough.

I think the bottom line of the problem is that tenure is granted on research success, and all the time you spend on improving your teaching is time you don't spend on writing papers or grant applications.

[Raccet]

In my county, Germany, many university teachers are professors and they concentrated on celebrating research rather than education when they are speaking in front of the students.
Unfortunately, ...

[Grammela]

Dear Garr, your post made me remember that in the fifties & sixties a great italian designer, architect and artist, Bruno Munari, was seeding the world with these same theories about learning trough doing (and much more). He had a special affinity with japanese aestetic and zen spirit, and created in Tokio a lab dedicated to children, "Komoro no shiro". I'll be very grateful if you would consider to dedicate a post to B.Munari and his work, many thanks in advance. See you soon in Milan!

[wholesale jewelry]

Good post,Thanks for sharing with us, I’ll recommend it to all my friends!

[jodi]

I think I've only seen one person doing this in an academic setting and it drove me nuts until I realized how much I was learning. Knowledge doesn't make someone a teacher.

Love your posts. They make me think.

[Chris Santos]

Interesting video...or Keynote presentation. One thing I'll say, being a teacher - "great" is subjective so I won't add it! : ) There are many content qualified people who should never get near students, and there are many certified teachers who should never get near (secondary) content. Certification programs aren't designed to teach content, but rather to provide basics on how to teach, and even then, most of the "stuff" teachers learn are on the job. I had many professors who were lecturers...in my MA program, I had professors who were more concerned with grammar and citations than actual content.

Teaching is a profession where 50% quit before their 5th year. Imagine places like Apple, Microsoft, or Google where half the employees quit because they are dissatisfied with the working conditions.

[BDC]

As a lecturer in a Malaysian public university, I agree completely with your post.

When I started teaching, I reflected why I did not learn much as a student; then I changed my approach and broke away from the usual lecture method -- and students like my class (sorry, I do not mean to honk my own horn). Unfortunately, MOST lecturers still stick to lecturing. In fact, many of them equate reading Powerpoint slides as teaching!

In relation to what Raccet from Germany posted above, universities here (with the full support of the higher education ministry) focus too much on research and not on educating students. The mantra is "students come to the university to learn, not to be taught" and that's really depressing because in education, the concept of apprenticeship is very important.

[canada goose]

Your words are spot-on, Garr! I

[NathanLands]

Great post, I believe Gamification of Education is one possible solution that wasn't mentioned but fits perfectly with "connecting and engaging". We're trying to start an active discussion around this topic on the Gamification Encyclopedia at http://gamification.org , an open wiki for the world to discuss and collaborate on the topic of how to properly apply game design and game mechanics to non-games.

[cheap hoodia]

My respected managers of this site, I give thanks for your activity so highly! I was here only twice but I really like it at first look

[moncler jackets]

Unfortunately, MOST lecturers still stick to lecturing. In fact, many of them equate reading Powerpoint slides as teaching!

[Paul]

I couldn't agree more. How can we move away from this near zero effective method?

[Mark]

Great subject, but one that can be very very hard to tackle. I think a lot of college professors like myself would like to teach in different ways, but are instead encouraged to keep enrollment high and other measures (e.g. remote learning over video links) that increase the distance between the student and the professor and decrease the ability to get students to interact more. The other 800 lb gorilla in the room is that we have become a culture of very rigid benchmarks that determine success and who we hire (test scores, GPA's). We have to not only come up with better ways to teach, but also discuss how to evaluate the learning in better ways.

The work your ass off dictum is great and one that I see many new science graduate students having to pick up so they understand just how much of graduate learning is self taught and originates from 100's-1000's of mistakes they have to make. I'm always reminded by the great slogan of the Wieden & Kennedy ad agency: Fail Harder!

[Susan]

I totally disagree with your perspective. Children need to go to school to study by esteemed and experienced teachers, which is more effective than being taught by their parents!

[BDC]

Mark,

It's because everything is money-driven nowadays. When profit is the objective of universities and schools, education and learning takes the backseat; sometimes, they get thrown out of the car completely ;-)

[Michael Eury]

Great post Garr! Traditional lecture theatres were great when the only way to hear from the expert was to load up a large room and let him speak. We're past that now, we can all find the basic information any time and any place we like. So, if learners are still to gather in rooms then the best thing they can do is to talk to each other, question their understanding and if there is an 'expert' on site she can tailor her responses appropriately.

[Rickackerly]

great post. We should rally round the standard: "Building a New Culture of Teaching and Learning"

[masterb]

Great article. Adds the nail on the head

[Jody Urquhart]

When i am at a conference speaking- I notice no matter how much I practice and rehearse specific concepts, it's the interaction that engages the crowd the most.

I am always looking for ways to briefly( because of time in a plenary session) involve people in a presentation, everything from rhetorical questions, demonstration,turn and discuss with your partner.... always looking for ideas and discussion on this.

The plenary session is the "stand and deliver" lecture format, the seating can be more condusive to learning with round table, etc and it does make a big difference.

[Andrew]

The video is great and useful.

[car fm transmitter]

Someday i miss hre ,nut we can not come banck

[Mojoblast]

Learning a long process which takes place step by step....

[filme gratis]

It is your colourful blog that brings me a lot of konwledge about living.

[Iphone LCD Screens]

"the need for connection & engagement in education" you report is value,espectly to the college student.

[Inlimbo]

"If you want to ruin anything make it more like school" ~ Dr Tae

[Warwick John Fahy]

I have a question: why nobody is changing the education system?

In China, the notorious education system is called "feeding duck" style, which vividly refers to the one-way high intensity memorising way of teaching. Teachers teach with a unique style that bore students. But instead of blaming teachers, students are to blame for not paying attention in the class.

Maybe a simple and quick solution is to teach all teachers some interactive presentation skills and shift the paradigm that teachers know everything. Let the students explore the unknown rather be told of everything.

I have written several blogs about the new digital natives. View from here: http://www.oneminutepresenter.com/category/digital-natives/

[Laptopz Coupon Codes]

both students and teachers have duties about this problem.

[Greg Corey]

Warwick, I think you're spot on. Often we blame the students for their lack of interest and interactivity in the class - whereas it's the responsibility of teachers and schools to be providing not just lessons that are stimulating but also physical environments that encourage interaction. Especially at the primary and secondary school levels where we make our students attend.

Just today I was talking with some staff and alumni from a school in the U.S. that doesn't follow the typical teacher at the front/students in rows format. Instead they have small classes of 8 with the students seated at a round table. Students lead the discuss, show how they solved a particular math problem etc. with the teacher acting as guide. By all reports it's incredibly effective at not just engaging the students but also helping them retain the necessary take away points.

Maybe we should focus as much on helping students be better presenters.

[globe life insurance scam]

great post!

[Berlin Asong]

The central theme of Garr's post captures my works against the traditional lecture-style of knowledge delivery fostered by colleges and universities worldwide. Schools have failed to innovate their knowledge-delivery processes despite the wealth of scientific insights how our brains acquire, process, retain and retrieve learning.

Longtime ago, I come across this video on YouTube: "Good vs. Great Teaching: Are the best teachers born or made?"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOZgkmsyQnc. Before a class of aspiring teachers, Prof. Shannon Kincaid, advises what makes an educator a great teacher. It's worth watching; and drives home Dr. Tae's message.

[Earn Money Online]

today's education needs an evolution.

[Farmville Cheats]

Presentations should be engaging so that students won't fall asleep listening.

[escort bayan]

issues like the nice comments on the website and would like to thank your website and your logo can be assured that I shall work to follow the threads always very, very nice I would like to have such a logo could you help me I wonder I wonder how much do you think the cost of such a website?

[Ci-Sun]

10 principles of Employee Engagement Employee engagement is specific. We cannot sustain engagement all the time and everywhere. When we talk about engagement we need to ask: Who is engaged, with what, for how long, and for what purpose? Employee engagement is connection.

[wymetto]

This article really makes me look back 30 years ago when i was in school and i dont think anything has changed. Back in the day it seems like their were only one or two prof's willing to go that extra mile to get his class involved - great article

[Anon]

Higher ed institution administrators and faculty are simply responding to relative economics of teaching versus research, establishing reward systems and responding to them accordingly.

A student butt will occupy a chair almost no matter what because students have to take that class for their degree, the supply of seats in which are controlled by the university. Thus, investing more in putting an excellent teacher in front of students has no return for the administrator. The teaching just has to get done, which is why more and more classes are taught by itinerant non-tenure track, contract faculty. On the student side, what are they going to do? On their demand side they can't easily "purchase" a higher quality class elsewhere or elect to pay a lower amount for this experience that is in line with its value. The money comes from the student or the state, no matter what.

On the other hand, competing for and hiring the best researchers has definite payoffs for administrators. A very focused researcher will compete more successfully for extramural grant funds than a researcher who is weaker because they devote a larger proportion of their scarce time to being a better teacher of undergraduates.

Most grant funding includes funds for indirect costs, which are costs not associated with actually doing the research (buying lab supplies, lab equipment, hiring lab technicians and research assistants (graduate students)) but are diverted by administrators to pay for other things such as administrator salaries (Even state school Deans are >$300K these days), building operation and maintenance, library subscriptions, run the university information technology system and so on. With state support declining from 75% of the costs of operation to 25% at best, state supported schools are becoming state assisted and are competing with the private institutions for donations, student tuition and support from research funding indirects.

Typical indirect rates from government funding sources such as NIH are 50%, meaning that the researcher has to acquire twice the amount of funds that they need to actually do the research. In some institutions, indirects are 100%, meaning that the amount of the grant money used for direct research expenses is 1/3 of the total grant amount.

In this economy, what was cut-throat competition for grant funding is increasing. Funding success for NIH proposals is well under 20%. As many funding agencies accept proposals once a year, twice a year at best, the odds are not good. After incorporating reviewers comments, researchers can submit revised proposals twice more if they are initially rejected.

Because tenure is granted based on the amount of grant funding obtained and the number of scientific papers published in the five years since hiring, having several major grants continually rejected usually leads to the denial of tenure, no promotion, and the assistant professor has to look for another job.

Failure to obtain grant funding means that established researchers have to downsize their lab, laying off laboratory technicians, firing post-docs and not supporting graduate students in the middle of their programs.

It is almost a wonder that faculty at research institutions do any undergraduate teaching at all, let alone doing it well.

[Tadalis]

Oh my god!!! This is so very incredibly amazing. Couldn’t thought that something as interesting as this was still in the oblivion. Your piece of work is just astounding. Congo dude!!!

[Death Knight]

I definitely agree with the statement "school suks"

[prediccion horoscopo]

In this days we have loss our attention to the comunications, in class the expose a bored(an often not usefull materia) with no intention to comunicate.
I've had very few professors that TEACH really, they get better notes in his classes and I remember lots of things the teach me..

[six pack ab program]

More teachers / lecturers should read this post!

When I was in high school I thought it sucked so bad that I really wanted to get out of it immediately without ever going back even as a teacher!

Now I'm really happy because I'm free from those boring teachers...lol

However, not all teachers are boring. Only one or two are *real* teachers.

[buy kamagra jelly]

Alas!!! I finally have somebody who has written just the way I think. Though a bad luck that I cannot write equally well like you, but you did it on my behalf and I am thankful of you to have understood the problem and written on as there are as many of people who undergo the torture just like me.

[moncler]

thank your good luck

[Testking 642-436]

Awesome, reminds me of those Japanese bento boxes, great for surprises you could put each part of a set in that earring in on necklace in the next and so on

[msp]

I am usually looking for ways to quickly( because of amount of time in a plenary program) involve individuals in a demonstration, everything from rhetorical queries, demonstration,change and consult with your partner.... usually looking for suggestions and dialogue on this.

[Wilson Usman]

I love the points you make, this is actually one of the reasons I'm afraid to go back to school. I know it's important, but I felt I learned more reading books at home that going to some lecture.

Hopefully if we can spread the word about this problem, schools will start doing something about it. Or maybe someone that cares about education more than universities.

Thanks for sharing it, I love the video too by Dr. Tae

[Keith Davis]

I like the contrast...
Just sit there versus getting involved.

Linking this back to Public Speaking I guess that the idea is to get the audience involved or at least make them feel that they are involved.
In a word "Rapport".

[Hisspresentation]

Thanks for a good article! Agree totalt with you.

[rejuv by caci]

Thanks for this information, this is a good article, and very knowledgeable thing written in this.

[Kamagra]

Oh hell!!! You are just too cool man. I never knew that there could be something better to know about than from this piece of article. I shall have this forwarded to all my friends and even my dad, I am sure they too shall enjoy reading this piece.

[Custom Writing UK]

The points you emphasize is surprisingly well and great to follow and i have taken those points into consideration!

[UGG Boots]

Man is not made for defeat. A mean can be destroyed but not defeated.

[Jeff Gilbert]

Garr. Thank you for posting this article, and thank you to Dr. Tae for producing the great video. I am a solar energy trainer and I am passionate about teaching and empowering students. To this end I will be buying your book "Presentation Zen" and taking my courses to the next level.
Regards,
Jeff Gilbert
Azimuth Solar Training LLC
jeff.gilbert@azimuthsolar.net

[seo services]

Education Pattern is changing now, classroom teaching is no what the youth wants today...he want a mentor.

[film seyret]

great post

[parça kontör]

Thanks for a good article

[Alex Boghiu]

From my point of view, the school does not provide a complete education! Many things are useless! School life is the best!