{"id":16520,"date":"2015-03-18T08:42:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T12:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=16520"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:13","slug":"blog-quality-teaching-time-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2015\/blog-quality-teaching-time-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Quality Teaching Time in Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Blog: Quality Teaching Time in Higher Education\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Andrew Robinson, Contract Instructor, ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Department of Physics <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By \u201cQuality Teaching Time\u201d, I mean the time in the class when the learning process is effective for the student. Any experienced teacher can tell when the class is restless and wants to be out of the room. Epidemics of dropped pencils, fidgeting, squeaking of chairs and clicking of binders are all symptoms of this. Whenever possible, as educators, we should strive to reduce this, preferably to zero. To do that we need to consider the way the class is conducted, the design of the classroom, and the approach of the institution to timetabling and schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My classes are what could loosely be described as \u201ccontent heavy\u201d. They are survey courses of large swathes of introductory physics. Traditionally, this is taught straight from the textbook, and the student is not expected to have read the textbook before the class. This is in contrast to many other subjects, where the assigned books or readings should have been read beforehand, and the class is more of a discussion based format. There is a trend in many subjects, which is often described as \u201cthe Flipped Classroom\u201d, to get the students to read ahead, and then present them with activities in the classroom other than the traditional \u201cchalk and talk\u201d methods. This probably is a more effective use of teaching time, but there are several problems with the Flipped Classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Increased preparation time for the teacher. This is particularly relevant when the class is taught by a contract instructor, who may only teach the course once. The investment in time to prepare the class will be out of all proportion to the remuneration provided. Similarly, permanent staff with a busy research agenda will have difficulty allocating enough time to develop the necessary resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Scalability. If more student-instructor interaction is required, then the class size has to be fairly limited. If larger classes are taught this way, then often extra teaching assistant support would be needed to make it effective. In my particular field, my experience is that around 20 students can be supervised effectively by each classroom instructor or TA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Ensuring that the background reading or study has been carried out. This probably involves setting some sort of quiz or test, either in the classroom session, or more likely these days, as some sort of online activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you can see that quality teaching time may well cost more in terms of extra staff cost, and extra time devoted to the teaching. But, you have to pay for quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own solution to this has been to modify my traditional lecture class to rotate activities every ten minutes or so, in order to keep within average attention span limits, and use think-pair-share instruction (often called peer-instruction), where the students discuss solutions to problems amongst themselves, and help each other reach the correct conclusions. Educational research shows that this is a more effective method of teaching than the traditional lecture format. I usually do a ten minute presentation, and then set a problem for the student to work on. In addition to these, I also used internet based resources, such as animations which demonstrate certain physical principles, or YouTube videos. In an ideal world, I would also do actual demonstrations of physical principles using equipment set up in the lecture room. This depends on the proximity of the lecture room to the Physics department where the equipment is based, and the portability of the equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings me on to placement of lecture rooms on campus. I believe that every discipline which might use lecture demonstrations involving equipment, should have a lecture theatre in their own departmental building, with additional nearby space to store demonstration equipment. Certainly all science and engineering departments should have these facilities. This would allow an enhanced teaching experience in those classes. I used to work extensively with classroom demonstrations, and they are satisfying for the students and for the instructor (when they work). They are also a shift in activity, and can provide a memorable experience which teaches something. Making someone\u2019s hair stand on end with a Van de Graaff generator, for instance, is far better as live theatre, than it is seen on a video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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