Teaching mantra: if a teacher is willing to teach, students will be willing to learn too...

Last updated on: 12 August 2008 12:49:52 PM

Background:

In NUS, students have more or less 10/11 tutorial sessions per normal semester (for special term, it is around 5/6 weeks). Tutorial sessions are started from week 3, once per week, up to the next 10/11 weeks (week 13/14) --- as there is 1 recess week in the middle of semester.

For each tutorial session, typically the students are given a problem set about last week's lecture. There will be around 3-4-5 questions with varying difficulties but usually not that hard. The questions are usually taken from past years tutorial/mid-term/final exam questions.

Usually, this 1 hour per tutorial per week is `not enough' for students who are (usually) `lost' at that stage to catch up with the lecture material...

To complicate the issue, it is well known that most NUS students actually do not really do their tutorial problem set if it is not going to be graded (i.e. there is no participation marks...). To make the life of NUS Teaching Assistants (TAs) even more difficult, the students here are very shy (hehe, I was like that too during my undergraduate days :p). They usually do not dare to voice out their answers during classes (probably because they are afraid that their answers are wrong..., etc).

To date, I have taught tutorial classes or lab sessions for several semesters. However, I have not tried teaching higher level modules or teaching modules outside the topic of programming/data structure/algorithm (see my teaching record).

From such experiences thus far, complemented with what I have received from lecturers/tutors who have taught me in the past, I come up with this personalized teaching style:

Before the class:

1. I usually e-mail my students (in alphabetical order, every student will get his/her chance during the semester) few days before the actual tutorial to:
   (1). assign some of them to prepare their answer and to
   (2). summarize what we are going to do in the forthcoming tutorial
         (except for week 3/tutorial 1 as I usually do not have the class e-mail/roster list yet).

2. I will make sure that I am well prepared to deliver the tutorial by reviewing the lecture materials, preparing additional interesting questions, preparing some common wrong answers that the students will possibly make (to identify their common mistakes, etc). I will make sure I will be one of the 'smartest' person in the tutorial class. If I look confused or unsure about the material that I teach, the students will start questioning my credibility.

3. As now is the age of technology. Many (if not all) tutorial rooms in NUS are equipped with a projector, thus I can use my laptop or use the desktop in the classroom to deliver my tutorials in Microsoft Power Point format :). By doing this, I save time by not having to WRITE down too many things on the white board during the tutorial (my handwriting is not that good either). The students who are asked to present their answer can also use Notepad/Word/Power Point to present their answers... They can prepare their answer files using flash disk. For algorithm modules, I can also pinpoint them to certain websites that provide algorithm animation applets. I can also add intermezzo slides, e.g. for priority queue, I can give a cartoon of people 'beating' the queue, etc.

During the class:

1. I usually use the first 10-15 minutes just to give a motivating summary of last week's lecture. The summary will look 'easy' compared to last week's lecture. After this summary, my target is that the student say this in their heart: 'Aha... so this topic is not difficult at all...' or 'wow... Now I realize that this topic is actually interesting...'. If I do not do this, most students (who did not fully understand past week's lectures) will be lost during my tutorial sessions. This style will suit the weaker to average students but will make the stronger students bored.

2. I will then call the students (they have been pre-assigned previously --- otherwise I will have a difficult time 'begging' the students to come forward and answer the question...) to present their answer for the given problem set.

3. Because their answers are BEYOND my control, I must be able to pinpoint and correct their errors (if any), rather than giving up in fixing their wrong answer and just give the modal answer (I must become a facilitator, I must not spoon feed them with modal answer!). This requires a very in-depth knowledge to the topic that I taught!, e.g. in algorithm/programming related courses, I must be able to scan student's code and quickly identify whether there are problems or not... ON THE SPOT!!

4. When some of the students presenting their answer, I will try not to say too much to the other students, as any information that I give at that time will be missed by those who are presenting. Wait until he/she finished, then say what I want to say :).

5. The students can stop me at any time to ask something if they are not clear about an issue.

6. Time management control! Tutorial slot is 1 hour, I will try my best to control that time slot properly. Students prefer their tutorials to be not too quick, e.g.: 30 minutes (remember: they have already paid expensive school fee!! --- to pay us :p, really... a very small fraction of your school fee is to pay us) but also not too long (exactly or more than 1 hour, as some of them need to switch classes too and perhaps the room is going to be used by OTHER class...). Knowing this situation, I usually conduct my tutorials in ~50 minutes per 1 hour slot...

7. If I see some students are sleepy/do not pay attention, I will use my trump card: the midterm/practical exam/final exam hints =). Most of the time this trick is useful to regain the student's attention.

8. I will try to always looks enthusiastic during the class, regardless my personal emotional state at that moment (e.g. sad, happy, brokenhearted, etc :p).

9. I will try my best to use my ability in remembering names - faces association... That is, I will try my best to call my students by name (100 students/semester, not an easy job... at the end I will only remember 20-30% of those names :p).

10. I will probably share "food for thought" every week - moral stories to motivate the students... This is like what professional motivational speaker used in their talks... but in a much smaller scale hehe...

After the class:

1. I will not immediately disappear after tutorial class (unless I have something really important), as according to my experience, some students (who are shy to ask during the class) will approach me to ask for further clarifications about the subject (or other things).

2. I think I am quite open... I am contactable via e-mail for further clarifications, but I usually set one-two days that can be used for consultation (1-2 days/week). I do not encourage the students to ask me anything during the days when I said I am busy with my research... Hey, I still want to graduate as a PhD too... (I am currently a final year PhD student too!)

3. I am eager to set up extra (consultation) session if necessary, e.g. to discuss lectures, midterm test, practical exams, or discussing past semesters' exam papers, etc...

4. I will frequently update my webpage so that my students will not miss any details about my class as the semester goes on... My summaries/notes/power point slides are uploaded in this web page. I add extra materials/examples in my notes so that interested students can follow up their studies by doing additional questions related to the tutorial session that they have just attended... The students can download and print a copy for themselves after the class (of course I cannot give my answers to the students before the class :p).

If I need to set questions (for programming labs/exams):

1. I will try my best to make the problem description as clear as possible. However, sometimes I cannot avoid some ambiguity since my assumption may differ with students' assumptions. Sometimes, I also need to set tricky question to test students' reasoning capability, to work around with limitations set in the problem, etc.

2. Whenever possible, the test cases will be set with increasing level of difficulty so that at least the student get some marks if they attempt, get good marks if they do basic things, or full mark if they implement everything correctly. The students can then choose how far they will go by themselves.

3. It is very hard to change the problem/test cases once they have been released to the students... So, before release... I will try my best to ensure that nothing is wrong...

Code of Conduct:

1. I will never reveal lab/mid-term test/practical exam/final exam questions if I happened to be the one who set one or two questions (yes, I have set several tutorial/lab/PE/exam questions before :p). Hm, so what will be the content of my trump card: midterm/PE/final tips? They are just a general hints hehe...

2. I will maintain "professional distance" by not being emotionally involved with my students (especially the ladies)! Btw, I am happily in a relationship with a nice lady (you can view our photos here) :).

3. I will never do their lab assignments (code for them). I will try to avoid giving too many hints!!

4. During marking, I will be as objective as I can... FYI, I am quite lenient in giving marks :). But I can get tired easily by reading a lot of messy handwriting, so write your answers legibly!

After the semester is over:

1. I usually take class photos during the last or penultimate session of my tutorial class/lab.

2. I will browse through the teaching feedback from the students and learn from their feedbacks... (NUS always conduct a teaching survey before the exam. Via this teaching survey, the performance of the lecturers/tutors/lab TAs will be assessed...)