1. Preparing for Learning and Teaching at Oxford (PLTO)
A course for laboratory demonstrators
Martin Galpin
(based on slides by Dr Anne Crook, Oxford Learning Institute)
Welcome
Introductions
Explain aims of talk – to cover some aspects of good teaching practice, to prepare you for working as demonstrators in the teaching lab.
The overarching aim of the undergraduate practical course is to inspire an awareness, appreciation, and enjoyment of practical science.
You have a very big part to play in achieving this: you will be working closely with our undergraduates and they will see you as part of ‘the face’ of the teaching labs.
That places a lot of responsibility on you – the success of the new course is in part controlled by you. We hope that you will take this responsibility seriously, but also that you will gain a lot from the experience of demonstrating and that you will greatly enjoy it!

2. Effective Demonstrating
In groups, discuss (in the context of lab demonstrating) examples of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ teaching
What makes an ‘effective’ lab session (based on your personal experience as a demonstrator/student)
What are/might be your key teaching challenges in labs?

3. The Purpose of the Lab Course
To develop practical and problem-solving skills
To promote safe laboratory working practices
To promote aspects of scientific thinking
To introduce students to scientific practices as used by the scientific community
To improve communication skills, including proficiency at scientific writing
To provide an experimental foundation for theoretical concepts and phenomena
Developed through practice! Will start by demonstrating to students, then gradually remove scaffolding. More on this later
Absolutely paramount, of course. Moral and legal obligation to train students rigorously in safe lab practice
By the end of the course, students should be able to design their own experiments
Prepare for Part II. Not a competition with objective of ‘finishing with the right answer’. Gain knowledge by observing reality, not make ‘reality’ agree with some preconceived ‘correct’ result.
Discussions with demonstrators and other students. In-lab assessments. Sign-off. Write up
Chemistry is an experimental science! Labs will help students understand lectures.

4. The Role of the Teaching Staff
Responsible for health and safety briefings (to Demonstrators and students)
Produce lab manuals and handouts for students
Introduce and explain the relevance of the lab
Identify learning outcomes for students
Instruct Demonstrators regarding areas of focus for students
Moderate and approve marking of students’ work

5. Role of the Demonstrator
Familiarise themselves with the practical and the equipment in advance of the lab session
Comply with Teaching Staff’s instructions
Instruct and assist students with experimental equipment
Answer (reasonable!) questions from students
Encourage safe, respectful and professional behaviour in the labs
Assist in closing the labs in a timely fashion
Proactively engage in helping and advising students
Develop their communication and teaching skills

6. The role of the Demonstrator is not...
Giving students the answers to the lab
Doing the students’ work for them
Spending time on your own research in the lab
Spending time on your phone!

7. Factors that can influence learning
Context
Past experiences
Expectations
Perceptions of relevance
Motivation/need
‘Is it on the exam?’
Competing demands on time
To understand how to teach, we need to understand how people learn. Lots of factors can affect this.
We are teaching a diversity of learners!

8. Your lab sessions
What do you expect students to find difficult, and why?
In your groups, discuss what you do/could do to help students become successful learners in your labs.

9. Supporting learning
There has been a lot of educational research to understand how to support students’ learning
Active learning is important for lab work
Students need guidance, but they must take ownership and construct their own understanding
Effective questioning is important
Students need effective feedback
Give students time to accumulate ‘patterns’
Learn to recognise the ‘lightbulb moments’
Compare to:
behavioural learning (Pavlov!) – stimulate (ask question), get response. If correct, reward.
Cognitive learning – learning occurs through internal processing and logic. World is real, and external to the learner – i.e. knowledge is ‘mind-independent’ and can be mapped onto the learner.
Constructivist theories – humans CREATE meaning rather than ACQUIRING it

10. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
Need to match teaching to the level of the learner
Scaffold learning, to expand the inner circles
Important to match teaching to the level of the learner: this diagram gives a way to visualise that.
Student is in centre. Some things are conceptually within their reach and they can do them unaided. Some things are impossible for them.
In between are things they can do with guidance. Your job is to find, for each student, that ZPD. That’s where you should be focussing your work, helping them to learn how to do things in the ZPD by themselves. Then their inner circle expands, and the ZPD also expands into things they couldn’t do before.
If you focus on the inner circle, they won’t learn anything (and will be bored). If you focus on the outer circle, it is too much of a jump for them to understand.
You need to TALK to the student and LISTEN to their responses, to find out where the ZPD is. This takes a lot of work and practice!

11. Effective questioning
First, watch an example of ineffective questioning:
What are the problems?

12. Types of questions
Closed questions elicit non-negotiable, rote-learned answers.
Useful as an ‘opener’
Build learner’s confidence
Rarely challenge the learner, and operate at a low-level
Open questions elicit longer answers
Require the learner to think and reflect (so give them time!)
Hand control of the conversation to the learner
Help learner to acquire a deeper understanding
Are harder to ask!
Examples of closed questions:
What is that piece of equipment called?
Does the reaction go faster if you heat it up?
What is the equation that you use to predict this?
Examples of open questions:
What do you think is happening?
Tell me why you set the experiment up this way.
Is there another method you could have used?
What would happen if you tried this?
Why do you think it is not working?
What might the next step be to take?
How can you interpret the results?

13. Your questioning style
How do you tend to ask questions? (or how did your teachers question you?)
How confident are you in asking open questions?
Could your questioning style be enhanced? If so, how?

14. Effective feedback
In groups, discuss what you understand by ‘good’ feedback.
What are the challenges to giving feedback in the lab?

15. Explicit formative feedback
Make it forward-looking (applicable to a future activity)
Suggest ways of improving, not just faults
Honest praise: explain why things are good
Use the ‘sandwich rule’
Be sensitive to individuals
Be timely (don’t rush in, but don’t leave it too late)
Be concise and focused
Watch your body language!
E.g.
You have explained the method well in your write-up (it is detailed and accurate but also written concisely). However, your conclusions are a little vague. Next time, try to think more about what the experiment has shown, and the evidence for showing this. That will help you to write a better report and improve your mark.

16. Grading
You will need to give students grades for various aspects of their lab work: more on this later
The grades count towards their final degree mark
Please mark fairly, objectively, and consistently

17. Possible lab scenarios
In groups, discuss one of the possible scenarios on the handout. How would you approach it as a demonstrator?

18. Evaluating your teaching
Critically evaluating your own teaching makes you a better teacher.
More advanced teaching courses (e.g. DLT) require participants to self-evaluate.
How do you/will you evaluate your teaching?
Student learning as a ‘yardstick’?
Peer observation?
Teaching logbook?
Feedback from students? What would you ask?
Teaching logbook:
What did you do?
What techniques did you try?
How well did the students progress?
How did you communicate with the students? Why?
Were the students engaged? If not, why not?
Did you identify any needs of the students?
What have you learnt?
If you did the session again, how would you do it differently?

19. Further training from OLI
Developing Learning and Teaching Programme (DLT)
Series of workshops and final assessed teaching portfolio
Must have completed PLTO and be engaged in some form of teaching at Oxford during the DLT
Successful completion leads to a professional qualification: Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Supporting Learning Award
Professional accreditation is increasingly desired/required by employers in Higher Education

20. Any questions?

21. Good demonstrators…
Mark fairly and without bias to individual students
Mark consistently with other demonstrators
Relate the laboratory work to professional practice
Show good knowledge of techniques and skills
Give clear explanations - when asked for
Criticise constructively, with clear explanation of errors
Support students and help their self-confidence
Admit their mistakes
Are approachable.
(as identified from student feedback)
Source: Oxford Brookes University,