For almost 10 years, I have consistently taught a large, introductory undergraduate course in gerontology, which attracts students from multiple disciplines, many of whom enter the course moderately interested in aging and most interested in satisfying a core requirement toward their degree. By the end of the semester, I am gratified to hear that those same students who entered with lukewarm interest finish the course surprised by how interested they are in aging.
With all of the competing demands we all juggle in our daily lives, it can be difficult to make massive changes to our courses, but small changes can reap large rewards, such as increased student engagement and learning. Throughout the semester, I have found success in embedding short, graded in-class activities into my lectures that require the students to engage with the material beyond listening and taking notes. In this article, I intend to share some small teaching strategies that I have intentionally and strategically incorporated into my course that are based in the science of teaching and learning (Brown, Roedinger, & McDaniel, 2014; Lang, 2016).
Several studies have found that exercises that require students to engage in prediction can prepare the mind for learning and aid in retention (i.e., memorization of information) and comprehension (i.e., the use or application of information; Brown et al., 2014; Lang, 2016). This strategy can be incorporated in several ways. One simple way to incorporate prediction is to conduct a pretest of students’ knowledge of the topic. For example, during my lecture on mental health and gging, students begin class by completing an adapted version of the Adapted Facts on Aging and Mental Health Quiz (Breytspraak & Badura, 2015; Palmore, 1977, 1981). Then, throughout the class period, I reveal the answers and elaborate on the concepts covered in the quiz. Through this activity, students’ interest is piqued because they want to know if their prediction (i.e., answer to the question) is correct.
Another small teaching strategy that is powerful and easy to incorporate is to solicit students’ prior knowledge to help them to make connections between the known and unknown (Lang, 2016). In particular, when we talk about complex theories, such as socioemotional selectivity theory, I ask students to reflect back on their social relationships during their senior year of high school and again when they first started college. Specifically, I ask students to identify what best describes their priorities for social relationships at each of those times from the following choices: (A) It was most important to meet new people and to have a large, varied social network or (B) It was most important to have a smaller network of emotionally close relationships. Then, we talk more about how the theory suggests we prioritize different relationship goals depending on how we perceive time.
Finally, I strive to engage my students through inspiration by deliberately activating their emotions. One way to do this is to tell stories because the emotions evoked by stories heighten students’ cognitive capacities (Lang, 2016; Willingham, 2009). For example, when we are talking about the stressors faced by informal family caregivers, I often tell stories about specific instances where my mother-in-law used problem-solving strategies to improve the situation for my father-in-law with Alzheimer’s disease. I also try to share my enthusiasm for the topic by engaging the students through humor. I recognize some of these attempts are more successful than others, but I can attest that when I make the students laugh, they are more likely to remember what we have discussed that day and to engage with the material because it reminds us all that we are in this together.
In conclusion, all of these examples illustrate the ways that I weave small teaching strategies into my lectures. The benefit of these approaches is that they can be used in classes of any size and in offline and online environments. For additional reading and suggestions, I have included a short list of resources below. I hope that by incorporating these small strategies you can also succeed in convincing even skeptical students of the significance and relevance of studying aging.
About the Author
Kelly E. Cichy is an associate professor of human development and family studies at Kent State University.
References
Breytspraak, L., & Badura, L. (2015). Facts on Aging Quiz (revised; based on Palmore (1977, 1981)). Retrieved from https://info.umkc.edu/aging/quiz/opens in new window
Brown, P.C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Palmore, E. (1977). Facts on aging: A short quiz. The Gerontologist, 17 (4), 315‐320.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/17.4.315
Palmore, E. B. (1981). The facts on aging quiz: Part two. The Gerontologist, 21 (4), 431-437.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/21.4.431
Willingham, D. (2014). Why don’t students like school? A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.