University 200
UNIV 200: Peer Education Practicum
Prerequisites: Instructor Approval (must be selected as a peer instructor for UNIV 100)
Credit hours (3)
Training and support for peer instructors while they co-teach UNIV-100. Distinctive challenges of being a Radford student; course development; planning class meetings and facilitating collaborative learning; articulating a teaching identity; creating supportive responses to student work; reflecting on teaching performance. Sophomore standing. Subject to instructor approval. Variable course content. A-F grading.
Detailed Description of Course
This course introduces UNIV 100 peer instructors to basic discussion-based teaching techniques in order to improve their teaching and professional development, and it creates a classroom community through which peer intructors can collaboratively solve problems.
Introductory Training:
1. UNIV 100: course structure and meterials, learning outcomes, common assignments, team teaching
2. Teaching identity, balancing acts, context-based decisions, fairness, metacognition, reflection
3. Active learning techniques, small group configurations
4. Creating a syllabus and semester schedule in agreement with common learning otucomes
5. Peer education, discussion facilitation, lesson planning, evaluating student work
6. Legal considerations, confidentiality, Title IX, emergency management
Course setup:
1. D2L course customization and usage mechanics
2. Finding class list and communicating with students
3. Creating a grading system that can be maintained between peer and faculty instructor
Early-semester teaching:
1. Teaching presence and professionalism, warm-ups: mental, emotional, physical
2. Setting the tone and expectations for the class, modeling, active learning, in-class writing
3. Discussion-based teaching techniques, small group goal-directed activities
4. Evaluating and responding to student writing, developmental praising and questioning
5. Campus and community experiential learning with reflection
6. Academic resources, community resources
7. Community-building techniques
Mid-semester teaching:
1. Teaching to your particular students, adaptability, student-centered teaching, problem-solving
2. Peer teaching observation, report, and reflection
3. Collecting midterm teaching assessment data from students
4. Addressing and implementing suggestions from midterm assessment data
5. Calculating and reporting midterm grades
6. Intrusive interventions for struggling students
7. Time management: teaching efficiently for balance with classes, prioritizing for maximum impact
8. Teaching specific topics
9. Coordinating with campus partners
End-of-semester teaching
1. Teaching demonstrations, teaching styles, providing teaching feedback, improving teaching
2. Developing final assignments, learning outcomes, immediate vs. long-term impact
3. Cultivating student self-awareness, reflection, and strategic planning
4. Transferring skills about academic success during final weeks and exams
5. Collecting final teaching assessment data from students
6. Calculating, proofreading, and reporting final grades
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Student-led discussions with faculty facilitation, discussion-based small-group in-class writing, role playing for skill development, metacognitive discussions, collaborative problem solving, assignment development, activities for multi modal learners, computer-assisted instruction, evaluation- and feedback-normalizing workshops, use of audio-visual materials, guest speakers, lecture.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Having successfully completed this course, you will be able to:
1. Explain the distinctive challenges of being a Radford student
2. Identify campus resources to help with distinctive challenges of being a Radford student
3. Create lesson plans and a course schedule in alignment with provided learning objectives
4. Develop and use discussion-based teaching strategies to engage students in active, collaborative learning
5. Write developmental responses to student work
6. Critique teaching performance of self and classmates
7. Compare teaching strategies to evolving class and student needs
Assessment Measures
Class discussions, formal and informal reflective writing, formal short-answer assessment, teaching demonstration with workshop-style class critique, role-playing, submission of midterm and final grades, end-of-semester assessment data from UNIV 100 students. Long term, we will also analyze UNIV 100 student data in order to measure the peer instructors' performance. This UNIV 100 student data includes GPA, retention rate to spring semester and the following fall, and graduation rate. A-F grading.
Other Course Information
Course Readings could include:
- "From Playing the Role to Being Yourself: Becoming the Teacher in the Writing Classroom" by Dawn Skorzewski
- "Alternative Approaches to Active Learning in the Classroom" by John Bean
- "Coaching Thinking Through the Use of Small Groups" by John Bean
- "Options for Responding to Student Writing" by Peter Elbow
- "Learning to Praise" By Donald Daiker
- Radford campus resource websites
- Sample student writing
- Other readings TBA as needed
Course resources (consulted as needed-not required)
- Discussion as a Way of Teaching by Brookfield and Preskill
- The Discussion Book by Brookfield and Preskill
- The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer
- Students Helping Students by Newton and Ender
- The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success, volumes 1-4, each volume by various authors, sponsored by the National Resource Center for First-Year Expereince and Students in Transition
Review and Approval
May 8, 2018