Mimi+Coughlin's+page


 * Mimi Coughlin's page**

My course schedule Fall 2011 EDTE 10 Crtcl Thinking+Ed Person (Lecture) 74 M, W, 12-2:45 MND 3013 (Discussion) F. 12:00-1:15 ARC

EDTE 387 Social Studies Second Sch (Discussion) 25 Tu 4:30PM - 7:20PM Eureka Hall 103

I completed the **teaching style inventory** and received the following scores: Expert 3.0, Formal Authority 3.125, Personal Model 3.5, Facilitator 4.375, Delegator 4. I much prefer to be a facilitator over the other styles and this an appropriate style in my post. bac teacher ed. classes whiich typically have 25 or so students who are working on long term projects. In the Crit. Thinking course I am teaching this semester with 75 freshman it is a less appropriate style because they are working on a shorter projects and it is a an intro. level course. In that course, I draw on all 5 styles. I see these styles as communication tools all of which have an optimal use. I hope to continue blending them while attempting to structure my classes for "student doing" as much as possible.

The **3-5 questions that I want to focus on to improve my teaching this Fall** in the Critical Thinking course are as follows (modified from my original questions posted earlier)
 * 1) What skills and academic attitudes or stances do I most want students to develop in this course?
 * 2) What opportunities for practicing and demonstrating these skills and developing these academic attitudes or stances can I provide for my students in class? in individual on-line assignments, in group projects?, in a final exam?
 * 3) What content choices can I make that will be most likely to hook students into using critical thinking skills?

I read Teaching with Style by Grasha (p. 56-70). Here he makes the point that it takes time and patience to change teaching practices. Phases of self-reflection and contemplation should not be rushed. Teaching practices reflect many stable characteristics of peoples' personality and lived experiences and cannot be changed easily or quickly. He recommends allowing others and our selves time to think about desired changes and providing encouragement along the path. Backsliding is part of the process and we need to see the change process as acquiring a new skill --like skiing -- that takes repeated attempts to learn.
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