Panelists
Pamela Terrell, PhD, CCC-SLP, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point
Julie Cox, PhD, CCC-SLP, Western Illinois University
Facilitators
Radhika Aravamudhan, PhD, CCC-A, Osborne College of Audiology
Grace Hao, PhD, CCC-SLP, North Carolina Central University
Description
As part of the year-long teaching symposium, seven synchronous online peer discussions were held.
In the second session, the panelists were asked to address fostering independent learning, and
attendees were encouraged to engage with the panelists. Below is summary of the discussion.
QUESTIONS/TOPICS DISCUSSED
- What does independent learning mean to you?
- How do you foster this kind of independent learning with the students?
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
- Any advice on how to be explicit and get students to sort of relax and take the information in a
relaxed manner so they are actually open to learning? - How transparent, or direct, have you had to be about what’s okay to do independently versus
collaboratively? Is that an issue with respect to academic integrity? - How do you balance independent learning with the overly zealous and confident student whose
perspective and deductive reasoning is skilled? - Independent learning expectations for undergraduate versus graduate students—how do you balance and facilitate this?
- How do you motivate students to [come to class prepared rather than] coming out with a clean
slate and showing up in class and expect it to be all filled in? Do you have any strategies that we
could use successfully to get them to pre-read and come to class prepared? - Can discussion in undergraduate classes lead to more critical thinking? Are they ready? Shouldn’t
we start this sooner? - How does independent learning translate to future clinical practice?
- What challenges have you faced when you wanted students to come prepared for class?
- Does anyone ever leave the room so the students will talk more?
What does independent learning mean to you?
Dr. Cox
- Independent learning does not mean that a student cannot seek help
from professors, supervisors, instructors, etc. - The transition to independent learning is rooted in helping students to
build their insight into their own knowledge and knowing what they
don’t know so that we can be active supporters of them. - Raising the level of independence is putting the onus on students to ask
questions [and] to seek help, instead of [professors] always giving it
maybe too readily.
Dr. Terrell
- It’s a huge maturity…learning when we know what we don’t know.
[Professors] should be helping model that by recognizing and
acknowledging what is unknown, as well as supporting [students] when
they come to that place. - When either there’s something students are interested in or they
recognize a gap in their learning, and they take the initiative to fill that
on their own, they dig a little deeper, and they don’t wait to be told
“you need to do this there.”
How do you foster this kind of independent learning with the students?
- Emphasize the clients [who] we will have at some point, and try and
get that human connection that if you, as a clinician, don’t know what
you don’t know, you’re not going to serve the people that you need to
be serving. - Start building those skills now—because this is a tough field, and critical
thinking is paramount. - Providing resources: Narrated PowerPoint that has embedded quizzes,
so [students] can skip over what they do know and go directly to what
they have questions about. Have handouts as resources—and a library
to connect to all the grammar rock videos on YouTube.
Any advice on how to be explicit and get students to sort of relax and take the information in a
relaxed manner so they are actually open to learning?
- The key is making very explicit connections and making them often…
repeating yourself, even if it sounds like you’re a broken record—going
back and hitting that point over and over again. - Remind students if they feel uncomfortable, they’re where they should
be. They’re in cognitive dissonance, and that’s where learning happens
because right now [they may feel] very unsure, but [their] brain is
working really hard to find patterns and connect things, and that’s a
good thing. Reassure them if today you’re confused about x, y, and z,
that’s okay. The next week [or] tomorrow, maybe you have x [concept]
down, but you’re still a little shaky on y and z . . . you’re doing okay.
How transparent, or direct, have you had to be about what’s okay to do independently versus
collaboratively? Is that an issue with respect to academic integrity?
Dr. Terrell
- I’ve had to tell students [that] they could just write some stuff down
or copy each other’s paper and come to class and not do the
independent work, but [if they do that] they’re cheating themselves—
and why not just do the work? Because it’s going to take time to do
that, as well.
Dr. Cox
- Put a little professionalism piece in there. When you’re in the real world
and working on a team, it’s one outcome, no matter who does what
work. Whatever [students] put together, [they] must work together and
what [they produce] is the outcome and what they’ll be assessed on.
Scaffold that along the way, as students get closer and closer to truly
being professionals.
How do you balance independent learning with the overly zealous and confident student whose
perspective and deductive reasoning is skilled?ndependent learning expectations for undergraduate versus graduate students—how do you balance and facilitate this?
Dr. Terrell
- Not allowing access [to assignments] early [so students will] have more
content or more discussion before they get to it. - Referenced a book by Susan Blum (2020) on the concept of
“ungrading.” The student determines their grade and collaborates with
[the professor], and it’s more [focused on] iterative feedback.
Dr. Cox
- Need to have a one-on-one chat with those students. Overzealous
students are sometimes the same student to work ahead, [and] they
will maybe try to argue points from time to time. There is a need to
really talk it out and let them know where the gaps are and pull it
back to “I’m seeing a gap in what you know right here and how you’re
explaining it—and we need to fill in these holes if you’re truly going to
continue growing in your independence.”
Independent learning expectations for undergraduate versus graduate students—how do you balance and facilitate this?
Dr. Cox
- In undergraduate classes, [professors] tend to be more often the telling
type of teacher, maybe lecture heavy . . . not 100%, but more lecture
heavy. Then, as you get further into the graduate program, it’s much
less lecture and much more student discussion.
Dr. Terrell
- Team-based learning in undergraduate classes. There’s a pretest, but
it is completed independently, and then students do it again with their
team—and so that can be a way to scaffold into being prepared [for]
the reading guides.
How do you motivate students to come to class prepared rather than] coming out with a clean slate and showing up in class and expect it to be all filled in? Do you have any strategies that we could use successfully to get them to pre-read and come to class prepared?
- Survey students in the spring and see what they want to discuss—and
then build a syllabus from that. - You get what you give, [in] that type of discussion-based class. There
are many standards from ASHA to meet in terms of professionalism
and ethics, but in terms of the depth of the discussion, the articles that
we read, the books we read . . . if you put a lot into this, you will get a
lot out of it. - Students make their own notes from the pre-reading and drop that on
the podium before class. These are collected to see that they’ve done
something, but then there is still a discussion to evaluate the depth [to
which] they “got” the material—but no one is forced into discussing. - Reading guides for both undergrad and grad courses make students feel
more empowered, [and] they tend to like it. Highlight, in the text, what
they need to take notes on. Take the headings of the different parts of
the chapter, and any things that are important, and put it in there. These
aren’t graded or checked; you can tell who completes them. - Assigning roles for discussions on journal articles. There’ll be a
discussion leader, a devil’s advocate, a passage master (that person
must find the relevant quotes or passages to discuss), and a creative
connector (their job is to connect the article to content from other
courses or social media or pop culture—or any kind of connection). They
come, and they are prepared for that role in the discussion—and, then,
[during] the next discussion, they change roles so everyone gets to be
all four roles at some point. They feel a responsibility to be prepared.
Can discussion in undergraduate classes lead to more critical thinking? Are they ready? Shouldn’t
we start this sooner?
- It’s never too early to start pushing them into critical thinking;
[professors] have to take on more of that cognitive load for them early
on and [must] very explicitly line out, “This is how I go through the
critical thinking process.” - Need to show those examples [of clinical cases]—early—and how to
use critical thinking in the field. It [i.e., expectations] can’t just be basic
memorization and things like that in the early years then expect a rapid
shift at the graduate level; it must be a continuum
How does independent learning translate to future clinical practice?
- It directly relates. SLPs are constantly seeing people with disorders and
a medical diagnosis that we’ve never heard of or syndromes [in which]
there [are] three people in the world who have that syndrome, and
your client is one of them. So, what skills do we need, what resources
are out there, and what resources are out there when we no longer
have access to an academic library? How do we stay current, and how
do we troubleshoot? That’s where that independent learning [comes
in]. We have to stay curious about all those kinds of things. - Knowing where your limits are [when it comes] to what you can hold
with you—and, then, where you can find the rest. Those things in the
classroom directly relate to the clinic when we actually work with
[individuals with] these disorders
What challenges have you faced when you wanted students to come prepared for class?
- [Submitting notes on readings] was a requirement, and that was a train
wreck, but part of the problem was how students took notes—because
undergrads rent their textbooks, so they can’t write in them or anything,
but grad students buy [their textbooks]. - Ten students were supposed to meet via Zoom for their first article
discussion. Two students were present in class [in person], and
everyone else chose to Zoom that day because no one read the article.
Had to enforce the policy that if you’re not symptomatic and you’re
scheduled to be in class, you need to be in class.
Does anyone ever leave the room so the students will talk more?
- No, because with undergrads, they’d get off task. Grad students
would continue to talk, but it is preferred to kind of float around and
hear what they’re talking about. - Milling around sometimes shuts down a small group if [a professor
is] nearby. If that happens, just pull up a chair, and have a
conversation with them—show them that [professors are] collaborators
in this learning process and [are] not scary. This helps to build the
relationship between instructors and students, as well.
Additional Resources
Blum, S. D. (Ed.). (2020). Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do
Instead). West Virginia University Press.
