Hi all! I have a couple of new endeavors on the horizon. The one that is most heavily on my mind right now is my intro stats class. Some of you may know (well, actually, many of you may NOT know) that I taught a full, stand-alone intro stats class for the first time last summer and that it was a struggle (and that's putting it mildy). Needless to say, no one was happy with the way the class turned out. It's tough to relive this horror, but I must provide context, so please bear with me...
I have suffered with math anxiety since junior high school, but after successfully navigating many math and stats classes during undergrad and grad school, tutoring folks on stats, and teaching snippets of it as a part of research methods courses (without taking any type of anti-anxiety meds), I felt like I had beat my anxiety. So, back last year, I had actually looked forward to teaching that intro stats class last summer. Well... in retrospect, I think teaching a full-fledged stats class (in the traditional, commonly implemented approach) simply caused a relapse in my math-related anxiety--of course, teaching a stand-alone course is way different than taking a course or tutoring someone. To make a long story short, by the end of that summer, I was ready to drink myself into a stupor and pass out on my living room floor. Luckily, I fought back the urge... until, of course, I got my course evaluations--which were the worse I'd seen since 2004 (I started teaching in 1999, by the way, and I had never gotten evals that poor even then).
So, this time around I made a drastic decision--I decided to teach the course again. Yes. I was determined! This stats course was NOT going to beat me, dag-nabbit! Very soon after making that decision, I also decided that I was going to use a completely different approach--I was going to turn that course over on its head... yes, indeedy. How, you ask? Well, I'd recently heard of this teaching approached called the "flipped classroom" that these two high school science teachers had begun using (to learn more: http://youtu.be/v-y9vR7YTak) and then the eiphany hit me--that's the answer!
Give my lectures to my students before class, so that they can watch them at home, at their own pace and re-watch as necessary. Give them the 'homework" problems to do in the classroom with me and their classmates present. We could use the classroom to focus on reiteration, elaboration, and application of concepts. We could use class time to get students talking and working together to comprehend the concepts and make deep applications of stats to research. We could encourage collaboration through every aspect of the course (except exams, of course), so that students do not have to feel that they are struggling alone. On top of all of that, not having to lecture in class will free me up to provide that "just-in-time" coaching and interact with my students in small, intimate groups--so I can get to know their individual areas of strength and weakness. And the in-class practices will help me know how students are learning and what I need to re-teach or review. WOW! This was it! This was my solution... *lets out excited sigh of relief*
Soooo... I had an idea for what to do. I also decided that I need to teach in a way that matched my lively, happy-go-lucky, and fun-loving personality (I know, I'm pushing it) and I figured I could indulge the performer in me through recording those videos and selecting materials that matched. I selected Andy Field's award-winning stats text, Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/field3e/) which is the ONLY stats book I've ever read that actually got a chuckle out of me as soon as I opened it. Yes, the humor can be a bit crude (after all, his website is http://www.statisticshell.com/, but it's stats so what do you expect?), but darnit, it's a 7 week stats course during SUMMER--we need to laugh... desperately.
So... now fast forward to today... we are in the third week of class. The students seem very, very happy with how things are going. They like the videos and being able to watch them at home. I am peaceful and content (though I drastically understimated how long it would take me to script my video lectures, so I'm struggling a bit to keep up) and able to rest, when I do get a chance to actually make an attempt at sleeping. And most important, my students are learning!! They are understanding the concepts--the questions they ask in class show me that they come prepared and are truly processing the content. Their work in class shows me that they are able to make applications and teach each other. They are truly learning. So far, this has been a great success!
Overall, things are pretty peachy, but this process is not without its challenges... for example, I drastically underestimated how long it would take me to prepare the video scripts and get the video lectures ready for them, so I am struggling to keep up and have been since day one. Also, this past Friday, we were hit by some crazy damaging thunderstorms that knocked out power across the state. Most of my students were NOT able to get work done and I am now even more behind with my preparations--I've learned that extenuating circumstances like these wreak pure havoc on this style of teaching that relies so heavily on technology and the Internet (my videos are streamed). So, I will be using my next few blog posts to share about these challenges, the wonderful accomplishments of my students, and my personal/professional lessons learned from this experience.
I am ever so glad I listened to my mom (a quantitative research Goddess in her own right) when she said, "Nawww, Trace, don't give up after teaching it just once. You gotta try it at least ONE more time!" She just never stops being right.
Until next time (and I promise it won't be six months from now)!!
Dr. Tra
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