Home » 2021 Spring » Deep teaching in college STEM classroom: Part 1

Deep teaching in college STEM classroom: Part 1

At our May 18 meeting, we discussed the first half of the article, “Deep teaching in a college STEM classroom”, by Bryan M. Dewsbury, in Cultural Studies of Science Education (2020) 15: 169-191 (Dewsbury Deep Teaching). Consider the following questions:

 

  1. What is meant by ‘Deep Teaching’?
  • Connect with students to connect them with content.
  • We may have thought of “higher learning” as in Bloom’s taxonomy, but we must connect with students to get them “there”.
  • Students want to talk about themselves and seem more comfortable doing this online. How can we encourage the level of participation we’ve had online in person?
  • Continue discussion forums
  • 5-minute free-write
  • Think-pair-share

 

  1. How do we build relationships with students on and offline?
  • Asking about and using preferred pronouns and names
  • The names they tell us may be different from the names they call each other.

 

  1. How is self-awareness as discussed in the article is important for the instructor and what does that mean to you?
  • Am I welcoming? Reflect on your in-class personality.
  • Do the students feel they can answer?
  • Do I give feedback to colleagues differently than to students? Consider the tone in electronic communication.
  • Know your biases (consider taking Implicit Association Tests on a regular basis. Do we judge our students? Do we make assumptions? Many students take our class to get their degree and become a doctor.  Do we assume they won’t achieve this?
  • We must also deal with student biases. All of us at the meeting are female, some minorities.  Be transparent: “Here’s a bias in science.  Let’s discuss it.”

 

  1. What are the ways in which you build relationships with your students?

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