Reflecting on roadblocks

How do you overcome roadblocks?

During the middle of the courses I teach, I have an assignment wherein I ask the learners (via a few prompts) to reflect on how they are doing in the course, and to consider what they need to do to accomplish their goals for the course by the end of the semester. 

The last prompt I provide in this assignment asks the learner if they have any questions for me. Seldom do I receive any serious questions as a result of that prompt. When I do, they are usually fairly simple and straightforward to answer. 

However, occasionally I receive a question that causes me to reflect a bit before I am able to respond with (what I hope will be) a helpful answer. I received one of those questions last fall, and decided to provide it and my response here for others to reflect on it as well, in the hopes that someone else may find it helpful. What follows is a transcription of the email I sent to the learner, along with their response.

My email response

I really appreciate the thoughtful reflections you shared in your Mid-semester self-assessment report. At the end of it, you wrote:

 My only question is if there was at any point in your career where you felt like you've hit a roadblock in CS; and if so, how did you overcome it? After my first year as a CS student in college, I felt like I hit a roadblock after feeling so behind compared to everyone else and I struggled to overcome this. I understand CS is an ever changing field with platforms and new advancements always being added so it is important to always hone your skills while remaining proactive and positive. Regarding this, I know at some point again in my CS career as a student finishing my last two years in undergrad with a plan to attend grad school, I know I will eventually hit another roadblock to overcome some obstacle. I was wondering if you have any advice about overcoming these “roadblocks,” if you've hit one during or had a similar challenge throughout your CS career thus far?

To which I’ll respond with a resounding YES! I’ve hit roadblocks and experienced imposter phenomenon many times. 

 

Thinking back to when I was an undergrad learning CS is a few too many decades for me to precisely remember my experiences, but I’m sure I had roadblocks and doubted myself then. After graduating, I landed a job as a programmer for a company here in Muncie. I was with that company for nearly 30 years—until they didn't need me anymore. I’ve written about that experience in a blog post that you may enjoy reading. Here’s another blog post that tracks my journey from HS to now, as well. (I’ll not continue to link to other blog posts, but if you have time and interest, there may be others you’ll find interesting to read.)

 

For the last 17 years, I’ve either been in grad school (2.5 years) or teaching here at BSU. I certainly questioned myself as a 50 year old going back to college as a grad student. How was a 50-something going to keep up and be accepted by the other 20-something learners? But I persisted, and discovered it was very doable, and people were very welcoming. I’m now in my 15th year teaching full time at Ball State University. Especially during the first decade of teaching—but still now—I experienced doubts about being “qualified” to teach. Do I know enough? Am I providing the best learning environment for the learners? Am I being understanding of their needs and challenges?

 

These questions all led me to focus my research on education and learning, more so than on CS research. But even with better understanding of ways of teaching and learning, I continue to explore what I might be able to do to be a better teacher. Those thoughts of “am I enough” and “am I delivering enough” always haunt me.

 

I think, to a large extent, people who doubt themselves are the ones who take time to reflect on their lives and what they are accomplishing. People who have no doubts about themselves likely are not doing much (any?) reflection. I’ve found that growth mostly comes to those who are seeking growth—those who reflect on their current experience and consider how they’d like it to change.

 

So, I see the fact that you are doubting yourself as a good thing—you’re wanting to grow! Keep doing that.

 

I’ll be glad to talk more, if you’re ever interested in doing so. I also want to thank you for posing your questions. It’s forced me to take a step back and reflect a bit.

The learner's response

(Included with the learner's permission.)

Thank you for your detailed response to my question. I appreciate you including your blog postings, I really enjoyed reading them.

After reading your blog from 2017, I was inspired how you overcame your unfortunate dismal from the company you were working at from 1979–2007. I am glad that the “last pieces fell into place” for you, and you were able to continue your journey in CS as an official graduate student at BSU. I understand why it must’ve been difficult learning new languages after working in the industry for nearly thirty years and how you felt conflicted to teach your students since the weight of not knowing if you were “qualified” enough was haunting you at the time. After reading this, I realized this was your version of hitting a “roadblock” along with experiencing a case of the imposter phenomenon. 

Your experience is similar to how I feel at times; unsure about my skills and not fully knowing if I’ll be able to achieve a certain project. Despite your “roadblock” and uncertainty, you continued forward on your journey and achieved many things thus far, such as: presenting papers, publishing in journals and books, along with helping all of your students, myself included, at BSU since 2010. From your second blog from 2022, it was interesting reading about your journey from high school to Manchester University, to graduate school, and to eventually your current position–a senior professor at BSU.

Reflecting on my initial “roadblock” question after reading about your experiences, I know now that there is no easy road to take when confronted with an obstacle–there is no clear left/right path. There is, however, an upward path to overcome that brick wall and simply climb over it. Of course, this is easier said than done, but after reading about your journey it is possible with discipline, perseverance, and determination. The next time I hit a “roadblock,” I will reach towards that upward path and climb over the brick wall to search for the silver lining–just as you have.

I want to thank you for your encouraging words; I do want to grow, and I will continue to have this mindset that doubting myself will allow me to prosper as an individual and a CS student by reflecting on my past experiences and accomplishments.

Your reflection and response

Now it's your turn to reflect.

• What would have been your response to the learner's question?
• What insights or advice would you have offered different from what I provided?
• How have you navigated roadblocks in your life? 
• Have they taken you in directions you did not expect?

I look forward to receiving your responses in the comments.

Image credits: https://stock.adobe.com/

Assessing Assessment

For the last two years, I’ve served my college as one of three “Pedagogy Fellows.” Our role has been to be a pedagogy resource to the college’s faculty in a variety of different ways. One of those ways has been to write short messages that we emailed to them on an (almost) weekly basis. The following is a slightly edited version of the last post I was responsible for writing.

It’s the second week of April, with just a couple more weeks of instruction left this semester. The spring semester is nearly over, and course grades will soon be posted. Once they’re submitted our thoughts will turn to preparing for fall courses. OK, we’ll likely take a few days or weeks off to catch our breath, but sometime in the next few months we’ll start that preparation. Some of us like to address it early in the summer and then devote the remainder of the summer to other activities, and some of us flip that around and prepare at the end of the summer.

What are you assessing?

As you start your fall course planning, I encourage you to consider what you’re assessing. Are you assessing (all) the course learning objectives? Are you (sometimes) assessing learner behaviors (such as meeting due dates) rather than course learning objectives? Is it important that those behaviors are assessed, or is that occurring because that’s the way we’ve always done it? Take time to identify what knowledge and skills you want your learners to leave your course with. How well does your list match up with the course learning objectives? If there is a significant difference between the two lists, is that OK, or should they be reconciled, perhaps removing some from one list, and adding some to the other?

How are you assessing?

Besides considering what you are assessing, reflect on how you are assessing? Do your assessments measure learning and understanding, or just the learner’s ability to memorize content for a few hours or days? Is the course grade calculation structured in such a way that a learner can do poorly in one part of the course, but make up those points in another part of the course, thus producing an average grade? Is it OK that the course grade may “hide” the fact that they did poorly in part of the course? Is it possible for a learner to do so poorly on an exam during the start of the semester that there is no way their course grade can recover, regardless of how well they’ve learned the course content by the end of the semester? Does it matter if a particular learner has not gained understanding by a particular date early in the semester, or just that they have the understanding by the end of the semester?

As you are pondering all of this, I encourage you to check out low-stakes and authentic assessment. Also, review material on the mastery learning model and backwards design. And lastly, consider moving away from a points-based system to other alternative grading systems, such as collaborative grading, and specifications grading. Both approaches help center and encourage the learning that you want to occur, rather than having the learners focus on “what do I have to do to earn points to get a B.” Lastly, review this list of blogs and podcasts to see what you can glean from them.

Blogs

• Faculty Focus: Higher Ed teaching strategies from Magna Publications.
• Grading for Growth: Innovative grading methods that work with rather than against student learning: specifications grading, standards-based grading, ungrading, and more.
• BSU Teaching Innovation Blog: A virtual hub for dialogue and community: learn about and share research-informed, learner-centered pedagogy, from teaching with technology to experimental and active learning strategies.
• Paul Gestwicki's Blog: A blog for reflective practice focused on Computer Science, but applicable to all.

Podcasts

• Tea for Teaching: Informal discussions of innovative and effective practices in teaching and learning.
• Teaching in Higher Ed: Faculty development for professors.
• Think UDL Podcast: Discussions with people who are designing and implementing strategies in post-secondary settings with learner variability in mind.

Time to act!

Since you’ve got to this point in my ramblings, I must have held your interest. What caught your eye? What has caused you to consider doing something different? Do you have other suggestions of assessment-related things we should consider as we prepare our courses? Now’s the time to act. It’s time to assess your assessment.

Image credit: https://stock.adobe.com/

What do you see when you compare these two ID cards?

I received my first non-student ID card from Ball State University (the top ID shown to the left) when I started teaching full time in August 2010. The card served me well for nearly a decade and a half. I had to replace it a few days ago (the bottom ID shown to the left), due to BSU upgrading the card readers for some of the rooms in the building in which I regularly teach. The technology changed, and my original card no longer granted me access to the rooms. Since I was allowed to keep my original card, it provides me the opportunity to compare the two.

What do you see when you look at these two ID cards? There’s an obvious difference in card design. When comparing my two photos, I see that my hair has turned silver (that sounds more sophisticated than gray) and is considerably longer. My eyeglasses have changed as well. I was dressed a bit more formally when the new card's photo was taken than I was for the original. On the surface, that’s about it.

But there are other differences hiding below the surface! What’s not obvious from simply comparing the two cards is how I’ve changed in other ways. When I look at the new card, I see a teacher and mentor who has transitioned from…

• Being a “sage on the stage,” to being a “guide on the side.”
• Using lecturing exclusively, to using flipped classroom and active learning pedagogies, as well as discussion-based pedagogies.
• Using a “pile of points” grading system where everything was worth points, to using Specifications Grading where there are no points.
• Being very teacher-centered, to being very learner-centered.
• Being very strict with course policies, to understanding that “life happens” and providing grace is a much better thing to do.
• Imposing penalties for late assignments, to having no penalty imposed for late work because life gets in the way, and people learn at different speeds.
• Giving learners one chance to get their assignment correct, to allowing them to rework and resubmit their work until they have it correct, demonstrating their learning.
• Thinking that grades are meaningful, to realizing they are arbitrary and get in the way of learning because learners focus on earning the points rather than learning.
• An anxious, "can I really do this!?" Instructor, to a confident Senior Lecturer.
• Someone who sought advice from others, to someone whose advice is sought. (Although, he still seeks advice from others on a regular basis!) 

I also see someone who…

• Created and taught five new courses, some multiple times.
• Created and led a three-week field study for learners who traveled in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
• Continuously seeks ways to improve diversity, inclusion, and equity in Computer Science and elsewhere.
• Published more than 70 book chapters, journal articles, conference proceedings, trade magazine articles, and white papers, and presented well over 60 times at international, national, and regional conferences.
• Serves as the coordinator of the CS 120 All-section Art Show every semester, an event he created twelve years ago to promote the department and recognize learner accomplishment.
• Serves as a mentor to new faculty.
• Mentored twelve Immersive Learning courses which had a positive impact on the community.
• Serves on multiple college and university committees.
• Delivered the address at a summer BSU commencement.
• Was recognized with multiple awards.

Reflecting on all of this, apparently more than just the color and length of my hair has changed. Very little of it seemed like a big change at the time, however. Much of it has been a gradual change over time. How have you changed in the last 15 years? What items would be on your list?