Pause for Professional Development: Reflective Journal Article Reading to Enhance Teaching and Learning
Summer. That time of year you think you’ll catch up and have more time for “light” reading and thinking. And yet, here we are, summer in the rearview mirror, a new semester already begun. Perhaps you did successfully catch up on your projects? Way to go! One success we had was hosting a “light” version of our SOLS Reading Group. We chose to meet every other week on a Wednesday afternoon, ultimately reading five articles from June through July. 
One thing we realized is, even if you don’t have the time to devote hours to developing your teaching methods and crafting better learning experiences for students, you can find small moments to read shorter articles with evidence-based practices that you can implement. I encourage you to take breaks from your screen, get a cup of coffee or tea, and spend 15 minutes each day or week reading to develop yourself for teaching. Set a timer. Create a habit. Schedule it into your calendar, and don’t give it up. It’s your time to develop yourself for the betterment of your teaching practice.
In yoga, they call it a practice. They do that because you are finding ways to challenge yourself, improve yourself, and ultimately grow in skill and ability. No one starts the same. We are all practicing, and getting better as we try new things. I think of teaching in the same way. It is a practice that we grow with time, development, and experience.
Post author: Sarah Prosory is an Instructional Designer within the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. She has worked in higher education for 10 years, supporting faculty in law, engineering, and biological sciences. Her experience includes assisting faculty with in-person, blended, and hybrid courses, as well as making the leap to fully online courses. She provides training to faculty and teaching assistants on how to use educational technologies, and shares best practices in course design to improve the student experience.
One thing we realized is, even if you don’t have the time to devote hours to developing your teaching methods and crafting better learning experiences for students, you can find small moments to read shorter articles with evidence-based practices that you can implement. I encourage you to take breaks from your screen, get a cup of coffee or tea, and spend 15 minutes each day or week reading to develop yourself for teaching. Set a timer. Create a habit. Schedule it into your calendar, and don’t give it up. It’s your time to develop yourself for the betterment of your teaching practice.
Practice and Praxis
Your teaching practice is most likely a gathering of your experiences from when you were a student, perhaps some teaching assistant work when you were in grad school, and maybe a few teaching workshops or webinars you've attended over the years. All of these have created how you teach in the classroom, and as with all things it changes over time. 
In the education field, teaching is often seen as a cyclical process, called praxis. Praxis is described as “a form of critical thinking and comprises the combination of reflection and action.” It is also through the application of ideas and reflecting on them, that we enhance the learning experiences for our students. When I think of praxis, I immediately want to write down and reflect upon what I’m learning about, and how it specifically applies to the courses or work I am doing. I believe your teaching praxis should include a journal or perhaps a colleague or two who you can discuss the topics that you’re reading about.
Often we seem to be chasing time, not finding chances to develop our teaching practice/praxis. So, perhaps printing off or saving to your tablet some articles, setting aside small amounts of time in your day or week, you can feel successful or at least progressing.
This post will briefly summarize each of the five articles we read this summer, provide links for access to the article, and any additional supplemental materials. I’ll also include at the end some journals or websites that you can browse for more articles that are relevant to you. Hopefully you can use these as a starting point as pauses for professional development in teaching. Happy reading!
Article: Dewsbury, B., & Brame, C. J. (2019). Inclusive Teaching. CBE life sciences education, 18(2), fe2. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-01-0021
Article: Petersen, C. I., Baepler, P., Beitz, A., Ching, P., Gorman, K. S., Neudauer, C. L., . . . Wingert, D. (2020). The Tyranny of Content: “Content Coverage” as a Barrier to Evidence-Based Teaching Approaches and Ways to Overcome It. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(2). https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.19-04-0079
Article: Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322-331. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.13-06-0115
Article: Riggs, C. D., Kang, S., & Rennie, O. (2020). Positive Impact of Multiple-Choice Question Authoring and Regular Quiz Participation on Student Learning. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(2). doi:10.1187/cbe.19-09-0189
https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.19-09-0189#d1184912e1
Additional resources:
Effective Educational Videos
Are you recording more videos now that you’re teaching virtually? This article has excellent examples and tips of how to make your videos more effective for student learning. It includes a concise explanation of cognitive load theory, as well as discusses considerations for student engagement and active learning as they relate to videos in education.Article: Brame C. J. (2016). Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content. CBE life sciences education, 15(4), es6. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0125
Additional resource:
- Playposit- a new tool that ASU has licensed, you can add questions to your videos to provide natural pauses, as well as checking for understanding in your students.
Inclusive Teaching
Become more aware of your classroom climate, and how it fosters students' sense of belonging, competence, and interest in your course. Through self-awareness, empathy, and pedagogical choices, the instructor has the ability to include students so they do not leave the STEM field. This article can be used as a foundational part of your inclusive teaching knowledge, or as encouragement to keep going, to support our students in STEM. The best part? They provide an in-depth guide you can use for examples to improve your teaching with inclusive practices.
Additional resource:
Content Coverage
Do you often feel overwhelmed by how much content you have to cover in your course, or perhaps how to fit all the content into less time/weeks? This article covers three strategies you can adopt to to move away from content coverage, and move towards a learner-centered approach. This comes with a mindset shift that includes "replacing the goal of coverage with the goal of student learning" and "understanding how students learn and which strategies best promote student learning (Petersen et al, 2020)."
Additional resource:
Student Engagement and Classroom Equity
This article is one that is mentioned often, and rightly so (has over 36k downloads!). Tanner has created a framework that can be returned to every semester, along with a self-assessment you can use to determine what equitable strategies to add to your course. With 21 teaching techniques listed, many of these can be implemented in your course this week!
Additional resource:
Student Question Authoring
Do you ever wish you had more questions to provide your students for practicing what they have learned? Or are you interested in learning how to write more effective questions? This article describes how instructors implemented an activity in their course where their students created the questions and answers, developing a large pool of practice questions. They discuss how the authoring of questions also enhances the learning of the content, beyond just answering questions.
https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.19-09-0189#d1184912e1
Additional resources:
Search for Articles to Read for Teaching & Learning
There are many ways you can locate articles to read to develop your teaching practice. The best would be the evidence-based research articles, but sometimes those can be long and less exciting, if you're trying to start a habit. To switch it up, you can also subscribe or browse higher-ed websites for blog posts, often written by credible authors or some opinion pieces to get you thinking. No matter what you choose, get going! Here are some places to start:
- Search in the ASU Library's ERIC database, making sure you filter by year and choose keywords that are relevant to your needs. Try: "biology education" or "teaching biology higher education"
- CBE- Life Sciences Education journal: from the American Society for Cell Biology, many of our ASU faculty and graduate students have published in this journal about their research findings in biology education. All of the articles we read this past summer were from this publication.
- Ulrichs Web: search this to find a list of journals relevant to your topic area, such as biology education, or science in higher education.
- Inside Higher Education: specifically the Teaching & Learning section.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education: be sure to use the ASU Library's link to access all the articles.
- EdSurge- Higher Ed: news on the future of education, and the technology that is providing support.
Do you have others you'd like to share or suggest? Or are you interested in discussing what you've read? Contact us at tic@asu.edu! We are happy to chat, as well as learn about resources you've discovered!
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