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The Transform your Teaching podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Join Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles as they seek to inspire higher education faculty to adopt innovative teaching and learning practices.
This is the Transform Your Teaching podcast. The Transform Your Teaching podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. In today's episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Doctor. Jared Pyles do another book review of a book called Designing Impactful College Applying Self Determination Theory to Unleash the Potential of Autonomy Supportive Learning Environments. It's written by several authors, including one of our favorite guests, Doctor. Chantal Levesque- Bristol. Thanks for joining us.
Rob:Well, Jared, it's time for us to do our book review as promised.
Jared:As promised.
Rob:And today, we're reviewing 'Designing Impactful College Courses: Applying Self Determination Theory to Unleash the Potential of Autonomy Supportive Learning Environments' by Emily B. Bonham, Daniel Guberman, and Chantal Levesque- Bristol, who we've had on the podcast.
Jared:That last name should be familiar to listeners.
Rob:And we've got about a 12 chapter book here. One that you know, I'm just gonna give it a quick, you know, overview so everybody kinda has an idea of the structure. First chapter is dealing with self determination theory and, basically what it is and how it applies to higher education. And then they go into giving you the places where you need to look in terms of applying self determination theory, in terms of motivation, learning outcomes. That's the the next chapter.
Rob:Then they talk about how you should do grading, then dealing with tests, writing assignments, so some real practical things, group projects (your favorite and my favorite), lectures and where they fit and how to do them, class discussions. So in the online realm, that would also be like discussion boards, fishbowls, those kinds of things. Applying SDT to labs, specifically, probably any kind of language lab or science and math, anything that requires lab work. And then they get into experiential education, how you can use SDT inside of those kinds of experiences. The role of technology, that's chapter 11.
Rob:And then in chapter 12, they put it all together. And I the layout is very consistent. Just
Jared:Yes.
Rob:Technically speaking, do a lot of case studies in each chapter, which is also very helpful. So it's not just here are the principles.
Rob:Here's how we apply them, but they actually, you know, go through autonomy, relatedness.
Jared:Competence.
Rob:Competence. You know, in each one of these chapters, they also have guiding questions, and then they do those case studies. And then they give you some strategies at the end. Here are some things that that you can do, and they also have some areas depending on what it is, like technology's got some here's some gotcha areas or here's how you might handle Gen AI tools or, experiment with with multiple different types of technology, and they give you the takeaways. So they summarize it all, and then you got the references.
Rob:I think I would say it's a really good overall handbook, especially if you like SDT, and you see any value in it whatsoever. I think it's a really great little handbook to be able to pull off the shelf, reference real quickly, say, am I in the right area? What are some other references? Where could I look? Dig a little deeper.
Rob:Think about how I might improve.
Ryan:So from a bird's eye view, you know, that kinda gives you the structure, but I was hoping maybe you and I both have read the book. So now let's talk about what are the things that really stuck out the most to you in your evaluation or in your going through it?
Jared:So to comment on the format, like you said, this book is laid out like an instructional designer's dream. Everything is like it's set up with a nice little introduction to the idea, be it writing assignments, and then it's broken down by those basic psychological needs that we have talked about with self determination theory, the competence, autonomy, and relatedness, and it pulls that in. Like it kind of meshes SDT with each of those areas in a way that's really, really well done. And it's very easy to, like you said, use this as a reference point. It's a very short read.
Jared:Everything is very it's chunked well. Mhmm. Right length of time to read through this stuff. Doesn't pull any punches. Doesn't use too many words.
Jared:It just gets to the point, and I really appreciate that. When a book that's trying to give you practical ideas, if it lays it out in a way where you're like, okay. I need to know how to do this. I need to know how to do it tomorrow, and I can look at this and not have to wade through the fluff to get to what I need. Yes.
Jared:And this book definitely does that.
Ryan:Yeah.
Jared:Man, lectures for sure. I I I always I was I saw that chapter, and I was, like, half tempted to jump right to it. But I decided to pace myself and read through the whole book first and then get to to the lecture side of it. And, man, it is I I I tell you, it it it's a good chapter. It's it's just still something that I I so I've been I'm gonna challenge myself this coming semester to lecture about my percentage keeps changing.
Ryan:Mhmm.
Jared:I initially said I'm gonna lecture 2% of the time. But now I'm like, what about 5% of the time? So I'm like in my range is two to 5%. So I'm trying to find ways of teaching the content that I have and be more direct and more what's the word I'm looking for? Purposeful
Jared:Mhmm.
Jared:In how I teach and only use teaching as or lecturing, I should say, direct instruction as not a last resort, but as like a summary piece or as a kickoff point. Mhmm. And let everything in between be the students. And so the lecture chapter helped a lot with that. And there's a lot of that idea of what was it?
Jared:One of the great I wanna find this one quote in here. It was about how lecturing seems like it's a transactional process where it's like we dump all this knowledge onto students, and then we-- I actually didn't highlight stuff in this book. You'd be proud of me this time. I didn't go through and highlight everything. But it's it it kinda eliminates the idea of being the the sage on the stage idea.
Jared:I really, as I went throughout the book, the the relatedness is where I stuck to the most, maybe because, you know, we speak so much about servant teaching. Mhmm. And we we want to fill that relatedness idea. And it really stuck with me in the lecture chapter specifically, but just more of how they can feel connected and how like, things that you wouldn't even consider when it comes to stuff you would think was a normal private guest. Like, I remember specifically talking about and the the book talks about asking your students just a way of, like, breaking the ice.
Jared:Ask ask your students the furthest they've traveled or Mhmm. Where they went for spring break or something like that. And, like, yes, that's a cool idea, especially for those that are, like have traveled the furthest or something, but it could unearth some issues of, like, privilege and everything that I hadn't really thought of before. I was like, oh, maybe that's not of the best way of, like, finding connection. And, you know, it makes a point about talking about joking and and making jokes and that, you know, there's a point at where where it's, like, specifically probably not the best idea because it could there could be some sense of feeling left out or FOMO when it comes to saying things that don't necessarily fit with your entire demographic.
Jared:Or, like, I when I read that, I thought specifically about my class in the spring. And if you have not seen Sixth Sense, the movie, skip ahead about a minute. Because I I went in and we were talking about suspense and irony and stuff, and I mentioned how authors like to do some last minute reveals to reveal tension or to create suspense or whatever. And I mentioned the ending of Sixth Sense, which came out twenty seven years ago. And I mentioned the ending of it.
Jared:Again, spoilers. The kid's been dead or no. The kid's alive. Bruce Willis has been dead the whole movie. Yeah.
Jared:Again, if you didn't skip ahead and you didn't know the ending, it's your fault. But this girl in my class, like, slammed her hand on the desk and goes, I was going to watch that this week. And I was like, are you serious? And she's like, yes. I'm like, but that movie's been out since, like, the twentieth century.
Jared:It's been twenty six, twenty seven years. She's like, yes. But I wasn't alive twenty seven years ago. And I thought, you know what? That's a really interesting point.
Jared:And so it made me think about that specifically of how I may have, like, created some distance, comically or not, created some distance between myself and, the student. And, she did continue to show up to class, it didn't totally ruin it. But there's a lot of those practical things like that.
Rob:Yeah. And for our listeners, you just evidenced one of the things that they talk about in the book, and that is sharing personal anecdotes, personal stories that that typify the content that you are working with, that it it lands well, and it makes them feel related to you in terms of relatedness. And I think there's probably things that we've all gone through where we thought we were doing something really good, and then you find out, oh, I just ruined something for some I I can say I've done that more times than not. Oh, this would be a great idea. Nope.
Rob:Yeah. I've hit those walls on more than one occasion, and I'm sure our listeners probably have as well. But I I really like I'm I'm with you. Like, I like the takeaways here. I like also that they have this section called starting small.
Rob:So one of these things that you can be overwhelmed with is when you read one of these books, right, you feel like you gotta change everything. And since the structure of each chapter is relatively the same, you can pretty much guarantee you can go to that that area, say, either starting small or, common challenges you might have or, you know, takeaways and then references. Those, like you said earlier, those of us who do design work, this is like butter. Right?
Jared:Yeah. Mhmm.
Rob:Because you know exactly where to go. And I would say every teacher's involved in design in some way, form, or fashion. So I think it would be you know, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I'm I'm gonna go ahead and say it.
Jared:Okay.
Rob:This is worth having on your bookshelf.
Jared:Agreed.
Rob:This is worth having on your bookshelf. I'm not saying it's the end- all, so please don't hear me say that. But it's like one of those handy tools, kinda like some of the design books that we've had here at the CTL for years, you know, inspirational kinds of designs. I think it was, like, a 101 design ideas or some of those kinds of books where you can kinda get an idea. It's grouped and organized in such a way that makes sense to what you're doing.
Rob:You pull it. Boom. You open it up, and you know exactly where you can go to refresh yourself on a particular topic or evaluate or how would you evaluate yourself, and fair it out on your own some ideas, say, with lectures or even using them. Because maybe you're like us and you've just said, we don't wanna use them. But now you're coming back to it and you go, okay.
Rob:No. I need to use it for structure. Direct instruction is important, but I don't have to sit there and do it the entire time. And I need to also be relational in it. And so, yeah, I would agree with you.
Rob:That was one that also stuck out to me when I was reading it because oftentimes in our work, we just you'll hear people say, ah, and we've probably said it ourselves. Get a get get away from the sage on the stage.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:And I think what we've come to over the years, Jared, and you correct me if I'm wrong, is more of a sage on the stage and guide on the side. It's not one or the other. It's both and.
Jared:Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. I would agree with that. Yeah.
Jared:And this book does a lot to show how you can put the two together. The autonomy piece, like alright. Let me ask you. Of the three, autonomy, relatedness, and and competency, which one do you think for you is the hardest one to get across in your instruction?
Rob:Probably the relatedness. I I have to yeah. I would say I have to work because I was reading some of the examples and all of those things, and I I saw a lot of things that I was already doing in my class. So they were more affirmations of what I'm doing, but the relatedness part, probably not so much, which makes sense. And it makes sense in terms of, like, people's responses to me as well.
Rob:It's like, okay. Either this guy is just a total jerk or he knows more than everybody else, which isn't true. But, you know, some some could take take it away as like, oh, I can't relate to that dude. And and I get it. And so it's something that I've been thinking through.
Rob:I have told some stories, and I found, at least in my class, I found that when I tell personal stories, they tend to land a little better. So the other thing that I'm thinking through too for this time around is is trying to get more solicit more from students in terms of their own personal stories and have that and build that into the course. Like, going back to the the idea of allowing students to help make it meaningful to themselves and where they're at, I think that's something I'm I'm really thinking through this time.
Jared:Yeah. As I was going through it, I was struggling with the autonomy piece, which I don't know if it's a surprise to you or not that that's what I struggle with, but I tend to be controlling of certain things. And to me, though, like, the autonomy piece, like, especially the they mentioned in the objectives chapter about or the learning outcomes chapters, they call them, was, like, allowing room for students to construct their own
Rob:Mhmm.
Jared:Outcome, and that terrifies me beyond belief.
Rob:Yeah. It can be I think it could be a challenge, but I think if you keep it within the bounds of your overall objectives, you're you're probably okay. But the reality is sometimes it's helpful to maybe ask those questions because students are already coming to your class with particular ideas about what they wanna do or not do.
Jared:Sure.
Rob:Unfortunately, most of that is, I don't wanna do any of the work. Mhmm. You know? Was it enough that I'm paying for this? Can't you just and I showed up.
Rob:Can I not just you know?
Jared:Well, it could be they're expecting that transactional relationship too where it's like, I'm going to sit here. You're going to spew knowledge.
Ryan:Right. I'm gonna take notes.
Jared:I'm going to regurgitate it.
Rob:Yeah. Yeah.
Jared:Yeah. The other one that was the autonomy one that I thought was a really cool idea, but then never thought of was like, I like I like to use timers in my class.
Rob:Yeah.
Jared:And putting five minutes up. You can discuss for five minutes. And sometimes throwing those five minutes up I don't know why I didn't think of this because it bothers me too when people give me something timed, and there's a giant timer right in front of me. Like, when we do free writing you know how much I love your free writing. Right?
Rob:Oh, yeah.
Jared:The idea that there's a timer going just adds so much to it. And then when you yell out one minute or thirty seconds, I just give up. So instead of instead of throwing a timer up there, give the students an opportunity to figure out how they're going to keep time, and they do it themselves, and they have it there instead of a bean. Like, just small things like that where it's like, okay. That's not a bad idea.
Jared:I could try that. There's there's not much of a but part of me, though, is like, well, there's a bit of a loss of control there. Because what if a student brings out something stupid like, you know, one of those hourglasses with the sand? I'm like, dude. You know?
Jared:But I know that's such an extreme example, and no one would ever do that. But
Rob:You never know. They might have a the game boggle.
Jared:In their backpack?
Rob:Yeah. I was trying to think if there are any other games that have, like, the sand.
Jared:Or that game concentration where you put the shapes and the slots, and then it would explode. That was the most stressful one of all time. I would love if a student get me with a game of concentration and use that to keep time. That would be that would be hilarious. But anyway
Rob:We digress.
Jared:This book is great. It's challenging. Like you said, it's great on the shelf. It's a great reference point if you wanna, like, refine your teaching. If you're really struggling with you feel like students are not attaching like they should
Ryan:Mhmm.
Jared:I think this is a good resource to pull from for sure.
Rob:Oh, and one last thing to say to you know, about it is, like, figures and tables. So they, like, have the list of figures and tables up front and the list of case studies up front. Right? Like, right after the table of contents. When I saw that, I was like, oh, that's pretty sweet.
Rob:I mean, I haven't done that since my dissertation.
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:Right? But it it's extremely helpful. And so It's very good. Yeah. So, I mean, you can quickly look through the case studies, and you've got this whole list.
Rob:So it doesn't matter where you're coming from. So if you're teaching biological sciences, math, you know, education, technology, English, communications, elementary ed, they've just got this wonderful list of the instructor name and their discipline and then where that case study appears. And so I because I know we're gonna have folks who are gonna be like, I'm teaching x. Right?
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Do they have any is there anything in there for me? And the answer is more than likely, yes.
Jared:Yes.
Rob:More than likely, yes. So, again, just it just is an example of how this is a very useful book to be able to pull off the shelf and quickly get to information that is helpful and useful. So thank you to the authors.
Jared:Yes. Thank you for sure. This is a this is a definite read. Definitely recommend picking it up. There's even two paragraphs on backchannel alone, which, of course, you know
Rob:You love that.
Jared:I love me some backchannel communications. Yeah. Definitely recommend
Jared:In our next episode, Rob, we are kicking off our fall series. We are going back to the basics. And we have a distinguished professor here at the university who is coming alongside us--I don't want to give too much away,
Rob:Yeah.
Jared:But I am super excited about what we're doing in our fall series.
Rob:I'm looking forward to it.
Ryan:Thanks for listening to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. If you have any questions or comments about our book review of 'Designing Impactful College Courses', feel free to email us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu. You can also reach out to us on LinkedIn. And finally, don't forget to check out our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog. Thanks for listening.