Evolving Teaching Techniques and Strategies©

Description of Circumstances / Teaching Context

Terry Brown has been teaching Landscape Architecture for thirty years in the Landscape Architecture Program of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. He started as a lecturer in 1972 and in May 1998 was promoted to full professor of Landscape Architecture. He teaches two of the major courses required for all students in the program. The fall term course is Landscape Planning and Analysis, and the winter course is Site Engineering.

Description of Circumstances / Personal

Terry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1981. His teaching methods have been adapted over time as the disease has progressed. When he first began teaching, Terry lectured using a blackboard. As his needs changed, he moved from using blackboards to typed overheads. Now that he uses a power wheelchair, he finds using a laptop computer and LCD projection the most effective way to lecture.

Figure 1: Terry Brown discussing assignment with student

Description:After his lecture, Terry and the students proceed to the studio to work on the week's assignment. The photograph depicts Terry and a landscape architecture graduate student discussing the assignment. The student is next to her drafting workstation and brings her assignment to Terry for his observations and comments. Since landscape architecture problems vary in size, Terry oftentimes pulls up to the drafting table to view the student's work that is taped down to the workstation.

Learning about Effective Teaching Techniques

For Terry, adapting his teaching methods has meant striving to learn more about the art of effective teaching. In the mid-eighties, he had a small grant titled Traditional vs. Automated Teaching Methods, which gave him the opportunity to investigate computer-aided methods of teaching. Soon after receiving this grant, he became a participant in a teaching circle formed by colleagues in the School of Natural Resources. The teaching circle was aided by the Center for Research Learning and Teaching (CRLT) an institution on campus that provides teaching resources to professors and student instructors. The group met weekly to discuss various teaching methods, techniques, and readings in the field. The discussions were not centered on issues of teaching with a disability, but Terry found the information very valuable as he adapted his teaching styles to support his changing lifestyle.

The group used several resources that provided techniques for evaluating learning in the classroom. One in particular that was very helpful was Classroom Assessment Techniques, by Thomas Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. This book provides many different ways of measuring student-professor communication. One technique Terry regularly uses from the book is The Muddiest Question. In this simple exercise, the students are asked to write down a quick point from the day's lecture that was the most confusing to them. Terry can then use the responses to discover what topics he needs to spend more time lecturing on and discussing in studio. A second text introduced in the teaching circle that Terry believes is very valuable was Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers by Wilbert J. McKeachie.

Through the teaching circle and CRLT, Terry learned the importance of monitoring his effectiveness in communicating course materials. He frequently has independent observers from CRLT sit in on his class to critique his teaching styles and provide suggestions for improvement. The independent observers have been very useful for not only teaching techniques, but also course evaluations. He now hands out complete notes printed out from his Powerpoint lectures, finding that the students expand on the notes beyond the basic points of discussion during class. In most lectures, he also uses short active learning sessions, where students are given short problems (three to five minutes) that require them to apply the lecture material. He consults daily with his students about their understanding of the materials to assess whether his teaching is effective and he spends innumerable hours working with his laptop in preparing lectures.

Benefits

The benefits are twofold: for Terry himself and his students. He reflects them in these comments. As he says, "I feel I am a more effective professor and a better communicator because of the ways I've had to adapt." A recent student commented, "As a graduate student, I was very impressed with his teaching methodology, his strict attention to important details, and his comprehensive organization of lectures, assignments and projects. Today as an educator who teaches similar courses and faces similar challenges, I am even more impressed with his highly effective teaching approaches and outstanding quality of his performance. I believe I would not be where I am today if I did not have Professor Brown as one of my teachers."

Although he has been teaching for thirty years, Terry does not take his teaching for granted, but strives to make changes and improvements to his teaching every day. Year after year Terry is able to make his courses understandable- even exciting- to graduate students with backgrounds that run the gamut from dance to physics. His sense of humor, humility, and preparation seem to be the keys to his long and successful career. He respects students and loves teaching.

Summary of Techniques

Angelo, Thomas and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques, Second Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993.

McKeachie, Wilbert J. Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers, Ninth Ed. Lexington: MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1994.

Techniques for Assessing Course Related Knowledge and Skills:
Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

University Course Evaluations
Adding Open-ended questions

Active learning in the Classroom
Computer
Laptop
Multi-Media LCD Plate

Software
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Pagemaker
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Powerpoint

For more information contact Terry J. Brown at tbrown@umich.edu.

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Citation: Brown, Terry J (2002). Evolving Teaching Techniques & Strategies © . Retrieved (Enter Date), from Universal Design Education Online web site: http://www.udeducation.org/teach/teaching_techniques/brown.asp

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