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Current trends in teaching and learning
Increasingly, we are seeing the following trends, directions, and movements:
"Research" and "teaching" are perceived as mutually enhancing
rather than antithetical.
Course time is devoted to discovery-based (aka inquiry-based,
resource-based, project-based, and active) learning over traditional
lecture modes of transmitting knowledge.
Teaching emphasis has moved away from memorizing facts towards
finding, evaluating, and using information.
Instructors are realizing what they teach isn't the same as what
students learn and are rescoping the curriculum accordingly ("teach
less, learn more").
New teaching and learning styles incorporate collaborative work
in diverse teams or groups.
Course content is interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, and team
taught.
Course content is publicly accessible and shared beyond the
members of an individual course.
Teaching and learning extend beyond the classroom and into the
campus and community.
The instructor is perceived as a partner in a learning community
(with GSIs, with librarians, with other academic support partners,
and with undergraduates themselves) rather than as a sole
entrepreneur.
The audience for student work is expanding from the individual
instructor to communities of discourse that include peer feedback
and exchange.
Assessment is multilevel and complex incorporating both
formative and summative types and involving reciprocal evaluation of
how well teachers teach and how well students learn.
Today's students have grown up with technology as the air they
breathe, are used to being wired 24x7, are comfortable multitasking
in multimedia, and bring very different expectations to the
classroom as a result.
Today's employers prize transferable skills (e.g., problem
solving, creativity, interdisciplinary teamwork) over encyclopedic
knowledge.
Sources
Frontiers of Education Symposium, Inauguration of Robert J. Birgeneau as
the Ninth Chancellor of UC Berkeley (April 2005).
e-Berkeley Symposium, "From Information Overload to Information Rich:
Teaching and Critical Thinking in the Point-and-Click Age," UC Berkeley
(April 2005).
Teaching, learning 1: Support of research-based learning
Description or problem statement
Faculty research agendas increasingly shape teaching agendas, creating
opportunities to leverage developments in research to enrich the
inquiry-based learning environment (and vice versa).
Examples/existing challenges
Large scale databases used in faculty research are not available
for undergraduate research-based learning.
Instructors and students do not understand how to access many of
the resources that are available both on campus (e.g., library and
museum collections) and off campus (via the Internet, including the
"hidden web").
Instructors do not always know how to introduce research- or
inquiry-based learning effectively into undergraduate instruction.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Make content (data, texts, objects, images, etc.) in scientific
databases, museums, humanities collections, and other campus research
environments accessible for use in teaching and learning.
Provide more effective training and support to help faculty
leverage existing research- and inquiry-based learning tools and
extend their use into the classroom.
Current actions taking place to meet goals
Interactive University and Museum Informatics Project collaboration.
Mellon Faculty Institute for Undergraduate Research.
bSpace.
Future actions needed to meet goals
Teaching, learning 2: Support of active/interactive learning
Description or problem statement
To promote more effective learning, teaching is increasingly emphasizing
how to find, evaluate, and apply information rather than simply to memorize
facts.
Examples/existing challenges
Instructors do not always know how to create effective
project-based learning and assessment alternatives to traditional
lectures and standardized exams and tests.
Classrooms are not typically flexible enough to accommodate both
lecture and nonlecture pedagogical styles — sometimes within
the same course.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Promote pedagogical methods that support and assess the
effectiveness of active/interactive learning.
Research and design new-style classrooms to accommodate active
learning techniques for large enrollment courses.
Current actions taking place to meet goals
bSpace.
Progress on upgrading technology classrooms.
ETS–Capital Projects partnership to regularize design of
classrooms and auditoriums for new or renovated building projects.
New learning tools and learning spaces are needed to bring together
people with common interests and to foster collaboration between
students, between instructors, as well as among students, instructors
and other learning partners.
Examples/existing challenges
The current classroom physical and technological infrastructure
is poorly equipped to support collaborative learning.
Instructors do not have the tools to foster collaborative
learning outside of class.
Instructors who are collaborating on interdepartmental,
interdisciplinary, team-taught courses do not have adequate tools to
manage these courses.
The campus lacks a collaborative learning environment; however,
student expectations are shaped by sophisticated social networking
environments (e.g., friendster) to which they are accustomed.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Guarantee that all instructors teach in a classroom environment
that provides appropriate learning technologies and supports a
diverse range of teaching strategies.
Create an enterprise-level collaborative learning environment
that supports multilevel collaborations among students,
instructors, and other academic partners.
Track, assess, integrate, and support emerging collaborative and
sharing technologies (including social software tools) to enhance
the collaborative learning environment.
Current actions taking place to meet goals
bSpace.
Progress on upgrading of technology classrooms.
ETS–Capital Projects partnership to regularize design of
classrooms/auditoriums for new/renovated building projects.
Future actions needed to meet goals
Teaching, learning 4: Information access and usability
Description or problem statement
The campus needs a technology infrastructure that can support the full
range of new teaching and learning approaches, including ubiquitous
computer and integrated content access.
Examples/existing challenges
Instructors are not easily able to access research resources
(texts, objects, images, etc.) for use in their undergraduate
teaching.
Instructor use of course websites, webcast, and other
instructional technology tools is not always keeping pace with
student demand.
Some library and other search tools are not as user-friendly as
they could be.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Guarantee ubiquitous access to computers and the Internet.
"Knit together" the resources from digital libraries, museums,
etc. with the learning environment and desktops.
Develop better designed, easy-to-use interfaces and provide
training for using them effectively.
Integrate video/visuals into the collaborative learning
environment.
Current actions taking place to meet goals
bSpace.
Webcast/webvideo expansion/upgrade.
Future actions needed to meet goals
Teaching, learning 5: Copyright and intellectual property management
Description or problem statement
The digital teaching and learning environment raises new, complex
questions concerning copyright and intellectual property; a
user-friendly management infrastructure is needed to protect our own
rights and respect others' rights.
Examples/existing challenges
Instructors and university administrators may violate copyright
laws when posting and distributing course materials, syllabi, and
other materials.
Faculty see more instances of student plagiarism due to online
access of material.
Faculty are increasingly looking for ways to publish and access
their materials free of publishers' restrictions.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Raise awareness of significant legal and ethical issues
concerning sharing of intellectual property and other digital
content amongst students, faculty, and staff.
Research and plan an easy-to-use digital rights management
infrastructure to legally share copywritten material.
Provide education and integrated access to alternative
publishing methods.
Current actions taking place to meet goals
Provision of legal music-sharing services and education
campaign about entertainment infringement targeted to students in
residential housing.
Future actions needed to meet goals
Teaching, learning 6: A campus organizational structure for effective teaching and learning
Description or problem statement
Campuswide leadership, a coherent governance structure, and sufficient
ongoing funding to fully support priorities are needed to support
effective teaching and learning.
Examples/existing challenges
We lack a comprehensive and clearly linked planning and budget
process for prioritizing and funding teaching and learning
needs.
Responsibility for upgrading classrooms and supporting bSpace is
split among several units, with the result that such initiatives are
not as high a priority as they should be.
Teaching innovations tend to be driven by individual
entrepreneurs, and there are few mechanisms to encourage
sustainability and portability so innovation can be scaled.
Instructor training and support either are not available, or it
is difficult for instructors to identify and locate the services
they need.
Preliminary goals for this issue
Create a transparent process to review and prioritize proposed
and on-going projects that integrate teaching, learning, and
technology.
Create a clear process for raising teaching as a budget
priority, and for deciding when to fund priority projects
permanently vs. temporarily.
Create a process for obtaining extramural support for teaching,
learning, and technology projects.
