>> So my name is Marlene and I teach in Nutrition, Dietetics in Food Sciences Department. This is going to be an outline of our presentation. As Carl mentioned, we're all moms. I have a little girl who is two, and on most nights we go on a walk around our block, and pathway through, she'll usually sit down right on the sidewalk, and say mom I need a break. That's essentially what our objectives are today, is to talk first of all about pauses or intentional learning breaks that are meant to help reinforce learning and give students a chance to reflect, and reinforce what they are learning, but also to highlight the powerful benefits of a faculty-based learning circle. In our intro, we explained what that was a little bit, but Rose is going to talk more about what that actually was and until. Here's some starting definitions; a learning circle at least here at USU, was just a community of faculty who are organized by ETE initially. We met on a regular basis like every month, every three weeks or so to discuss ideas and research related to active learning and teaching strategies.

Then as a group, we decided to read this book called Hitting Pause, and this book defines a pause as a designated lecture break that's designed for periods of self-reflection and evaluation. We're going to give some examples of some of those pauses later, but first, Rose is going to talk about our learning circle and how that all came to be. >> Yes. I'm Dr. Rose Judd-Murray. I worked for the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.

I'm the non-formal and community-based education person. It's a new program there. So our learning circle last September, we met as our first meeting, and like Marlene said, we didn't really know anybody. At last year's ETE conference, they had a little sign up there, that said, "Who wants to [inaudible] about active learning were like?" We do, and then we all came together and there's actually another person who's not with us today, but there were seven of us. We have various teaching roles from various different colleges. Other who is veterinarian and teaches ethics, and at the time, I was teaching Science and Marie teaches Elementary Education. So we're all over the place in terms of the size of the groups that we have and different things like that. Our learning circle, we decided to focus on active learning, and it just so happened that Travis Thurston came to us and said, "What about doing this pause book? Reading this book. We've got this person coming to our session in the fall and if you guys could give us some hands-on about how this is going to work." So we just each broke it up as a chapter.

We didn't know each other, we didn't know how this was going to work. As we started presenting our chapters and then we decided well this is pretty cool, this seems like a good idea. We're going to try some pauses now. Then the next time we met, people were like, "I tried it, and it worked." and, "I tried this, and it totally bombed." Then the other six of us would be like, "I hate it when you bomb." Here's how we can make it better. Here's the cool part about learning circles and I'm giving you the plug for the ETE learning circles. Guys, out in that Sunburst Lounge, they're going to have probably Aaron or Jen or Amy, one of those folks there, and they're going to have a bunch of sign-up sheets.

Get into learning circle because here's why: Collaboration, validation. I've been in this business 20 years now and the most valuable thing I've ever done in professional development was with these ladies, what I did last year. I don't say that lightly because I've been to a lot of them, in a lot of different states in some countries around the world, and this was the most beneficial thing I've ever done. I did a little late review because the learning circle was so effective. We're actually going to write an article and submit it to the ETE journal, so don't do that before we do because we really need that publication.

In the lit review, task-based learning community, in contrast to a knowledge based one, builds trust, openness and reprocess; I hate that word, you know what I mean. We're going to get back together, and we're going to learn from each other. The truth is in true Utah speak, I'll just bear my testimony about this to you folks. This was as beneficial as it was for our students, and it was for us to pause at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of class. It was just as beneficial for us to come back and say, "What was really working in this pause? How did you modify this? When you have this with five students, here's how I need to modify it with 90, and to have that validation, to have that collaboration and openness extremely beneficial." >> Thanks Rose.

My name is Denise Stewardson and I'm an Extension Associate Professor. My faculty department is in the College of Agriculture in the ASTE Department. I teach a Brett Social Science course. It's a Gen Ed course, it's called Food Matters. I have 60 students in a, not a room like this, very traditional classroom. That's my experience, and I did what Rose said about the benefits of this. I want to talk to you about the Hitting Pause book. This is a book that Travis Thurston recommended that we use for our learning circle. I have a lot of books and I read a lot, but this one is just like a handbook. It's like a how to resource, and I really, really appreciate it. It was written by Dr. Gail Taylor Rice. She is a Director of Faculty Development at Loma Linda University, and she makes the case for using pauses. She talks about the why, she talks about the science behind that. It's interesting, this book was really helpful for, as Rose said, for both students and instructors.

The students will be using these pauses and my colleagues will share these examples of pauses in a few minutes, but it did increase student interests, it helped motivate them, especially in a classroom this. I don't know if I could teach in here. I have to work really, really hard because someone is going to be back there in the corner where I really can't see and I walk and talk a lot, but these pauses are active. They're active pauses. That students are going to be doing something and so you're going to help increase interests or help motivate them to stay with you as you're presenting or talking or they're talking, and then help retain information and I'll talk a little bit more about that also.

It also helps me as an instructor. It's a really good tool for assessment of learning throughout your presentation, throughout your class, without doing quizzes. I'm just not a quiz person and I got 60 students. I know many do have a lot more students than 60, like Jennifer, but it's a great, great way to help assess learning. This book talks about starting pauses, mid pauses, and closing pauses.

Like I said, my colleagues will share some of those examples. >> So Dr. Rice talks about the brain science behind this. This is really interesting. She provides research evidence from both cognitive science and educational psychology in doing this. So I call it the five Rs. The book talks about refocusing, reviewing information, and relieving cognitive load. Well, I don't know how you teach, but there's probably days when you present a lot of information to students and they're just glassy-eyed as you talk for 15, 20, 30 minutes. So it really helps them unload their thoughts, ask them questions, and refocus. Again, retreating information and then re-energizing those. You probably know this. Research shows that students take better notes as you get started, they are focused, they can retain information from the beginning of a presentation, or a workshop, or a lecture, but as time goes on, you start to lose them.

Dr. Rice said this when she was here presenting to us in March. She said, "The less you talk, the more they're going to learn." Well, we don't want to hear that. We're the experts, so we don't want to hear that. But she said, "The less you talk, the more they're going to learn." They need a pause, they need a pause to reset, that's very important. So why pause? I talked about that just a little bit about the five Rs. But she does say that especially these starting pauses, starting with a focused student is very important and making sure that really it's a payoff.

I call return on investment for our time. For me and I know these colleagues will support that that there was a high return on investment for the time it took me to help instigate these pauses. She talks about the fact that it really it makes covering our content easier. It even though it took me a lot of time to get these inserted into my presentations, but it is more efficient in terms of class time and it's a very powerful way to use this. Students have a chance to process what they learn. They process what they learn and she makes the case in one of the chapters here that a closing pause helps close and wrap up, gives them closure to their learning experience. How many of you are like, "Okay, time is up, but remember we talked about this and tomorrow we're going to talk about this." You're closing out, they're shuffling the backpack which I hate, and so these closing pauses are very intentional so that you intentionally wrap up, look at what they've learned before they walk out the door.

Then, the very last part of this book really important, I love the book. More than half of the pages in this resource is an appendix of 65 examples of how you can instigate starting pauses, mid pauses, and closing pauses. I just took some notes here. It provides practical guidance for creating active learning breaks, and so it's a how-to manual basically. It includes descriptions of 65 different pauses with ways to apply those. So it's an easy read, but a great handbook to use. >> Is this on? Yes. Sorry. My name is Marie Lentz and I am a Lecturer in the College of Education and I teach students who are going to be elementary education teachers. The main class that I teach right now is cultural and linguistic diversity in schooling, which means that one of the main objectives of my course is for students to open their minds, think a little bit differently, embrace different perspectives, and recognize that there is a world outside of Utah because the majority of my students are white female, 21-year-old women who have grown up in Utah.

That's the majority of who I teach. So sometimes there are things that we discussed in my class, topics like white privilege or topics like LGBTQIA plus, topics like multilingualism, and those kinds of things. We talk about these ideas and I have students who are 21 years old college students juniors tell me, "I've never heard of white privilege before." So one of the things that we need to do in my class, one of my core objectives is to have students open their minds up a little bit to the world outside of their traditional families that they've grown up here predominantly, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

One of the ways that I do that is implementing a KWL Chart. How many of you have used or heard of a KWL Chart before? Probably a lot of us. The K is for what I know, the W is what I want to know, the L is what I learned. Then I'll add letters onto the end of that sometimes. Maybe I'll add an R for reflect on what you have learned or maybe I'll add an H, how am I going to find this information it wasn't all covered in the lecture or in the idea today? Sorry. I skipped. I didn't expect my second slide first. Thank you. But I love to do this because I want my students to articulate, I don't just want them to think about, I want them to really articulate and write down what do you actually know about this topic? What do you actually know about traditional versus non-traditional families? What do you know about different social statuses? What do you know about socioeconomics and the effect the different things that low socioeconomic students are bringing to the class versus your higher more privileged students? So I really want them to articulate what they know before we begin talking about it, before we read articles and research about it, before we share examples because I want them to see where they started and then I want them to see where they are now, that, "Oh, this class is teaching me something.

The comments that my peers are helping me to understand and to know what exists outside of my head, outside of what I have seen on TV or something like that." So I use this KWL to have my students do that. To show them, look what you've learned, look where you've come from, and then to pull in connections. Sometimes I throw a C onto it and I say KWLC. What connections have you made to the world to text that we have read in this class, to other courses that you're taking because it's not just about what we're doing here, this course is part of the whole elementary education degree.

What connections are you seeing beyond the walls of our classroom, beyond the conversations we have here? So I love to use this and my students when I utilize the KWL, when I have students articulate what they know and then go back and reflect on where they are now, what they think now. Then it shows them that they have progressed, they have learned, their perspectives have or have not opened up through the course of this class that I'm teaching through the conversations that we're having. Thank you. Another great starting pause is to start with a little quiz. I love to do this using polleverywhere.com and there's also a Poll Everywhere app that you can have students use. It's free up to 40 responses. My classes typically don't get larger than 40 at a time, so if you have a larger class, you could have students respond in groups or you could debate whether or not you want to pay for the use of that. But I love to do a word cloud with this.

I'll ask students, what do you think of when you hear the name Christopher Columbus? Everybody throws words up. Discovered America and Italian, sometimes somebody says Spanish, or French, or something else. Then what do you think of when you hear Christopher Columbus? Then we watch a short YouTube video clip about Native Americans perspectives of Columbus which are typically completely different from the white 21-year-old female that I have in my class. Then we come back and say let's talk about this. What are the differences? Why did you feel this way and these Native American groups felt that way? But when we throw these word clouds up, we have the opportunity for everyone to see what we think. >> No one has to raise their hand and share, everyone gets to share at the same time. Distance education students reported that by using that poll everywhere, by using some of the stops, these pause throughout the class, that they felt more engaged and more connected to what we were doing on campus.

Here at the Logan Campus, as well as there out in Price, or far, far away. All right. >> We'll skip that. >> I know some are already here, just seem to forget. You can go. >> Well, I'll find myself. That's okay. So my name is Lacee Boschetto. My current position right now is an instructor for the Applied Sciences Technology and Education Department as well. I'm in family consumer sciences education. I'm going to tell you about the mid-pauses. Try to do my own slides for me. Okay, awesome. So the mid-pauses are hard to implement because you're on a roll and you're doing your thing, and you lose track of time, especially I teach a large class 50 minutes. It ranges anywhere from 120 to 130 students. So I want to get as much content as I can into them. So the mid-pauses are, I think, probably the most important or the most challenging to me.

I'm going to share two with you. One is note sharing. So obviously, every student takes in a little bit different information and they analyze a little bit differently and they write it down a little bit differently. So note sharing, it gives them a chance to stop and you tell them beforehand. So when you begin the class, let them know so they do take notes because some of them don't. Then midway, wherever you want the pause to be, you have them stop and you have them share their notes to somebody else.

So they can see, did somebody else get something I didn't? Did they use an example, or did they put an analogy in their notes that is excellent and I would not have thought of? So it helps them confirm what they know and then figure out how other people looked at it the same way. So we could talk about these forever. Certainly, make sure I hit all of the talking points. You can do two to three people. Since I had a larger class, actually, did three to four. Just depending on your size of class. So that's fine. Then if you want, at the very end, you can have them, silently after they finish talking, come back to themselves, reread their stuff, and just reflect on what they knew, what their fellow classmate shared with them and then they can re-add an extra notes here or there or just have some time to decompress a little bit.

So the next pause I'm going to share with you, which is a huge favorite of mine especially in a large class, is fresh person. So fresh person is somewhat similar. They are sharing something out except, they're not sharing notes. Fresh person is in the middle of whatever you're lecturing on, you stop. They need to actually sit for a minute, summarize what they've learned so far, and then they're going to go meet somebody new in the class.

In a small class, that might be really good. So you can get like really good intimate setting. In a large class, that's fantastic. So they don't feel lost in the sea of students. They get to just share. Here's my summary, here's your summary. Again, it compares how each student's conceptualize the information that you're giving them. But also, gives them a chance to connect with other students, to know that they are not alone. Some of your students are super chatty, other students are very introvert-like. So the thing I like about the fresh person is, it allows you to hear the conversation. Hear the buzz a little bit more. If you want to, go to the next one.

With the large class that I teach, I have it a rule that they have to go to the other quadrant of the classroom because there's a big auditorium where they sit. That forces them to get up. Of course, you can always keep in mind or let them know that you're getting back to your brain and they're getting a good break and taking good stroll. I always tease my students because I do this a couple of times, that if there's somebody that you've been eyeing because [inaudible]. Some of them are trying to get a degree in marriage. So I give them the initiative of, hey, if somebody's on the other side, go meet them. I'm like you're dating network. But it happens and then they move seats later on.

It's cute. I actually did this one pause when I interviewed for Distance Professor position for our department, which I got. But I got to finish this amazing thing called a PhD a couple of months, anyhoo. This is one of my activities within my observation class for my interview process. I was impressed because my students actually went and interacted with the faculty that was sitting and observing me. I did not expect that to happen with this activity, but it did. It was fantastic. Something I'm going to do this semester, which is a little bit different just to teach students how to network because we as professionals know networking is huge. They will have an index card and every time that they communicate with another student, they will get their name, their major or any little snippet of information so that when they leave, they're going to have a bigger index card, five by seven.

But they're going to have a huge networking community that they can go to after this class or if they need help with something else. So I think that's it. So it's a good one. >> Hi. I'm Heloisa Rutigliano. I'm an Assistant Professor in the Animal Science Department. I teach in the Vet School. I teach Physiology, Immunology and like Rose said, ethics. So my course is a very diverse. I teach first year vet students, and probably as some of you know, vet students, most of them are type personalities. They're very focused on studying.

They're very competitive. We have a small class size. So we only have 30 students per class. So I tested some of the pauses, and actually I tested the fresh person standing pause in my class and it did not work. Because no one is fresh in a class of 30 people that are taking 20 credits together, at the same time they take all the classes together. So one recommendation I have is that you try a few pauses and see what works best for you because your scenario may be very different from your colleague scenario.

Another benefit of learning circles because you can go back to your learning circle and say, "I feel they hated it, so let's change it." So that's what we did. So there is one pause. So I'm going to talk about closing pauses now. One of the pauses that the book recommends is this YouTube or Twitter, video or Twitter post. So you ask the students to make a video clip of the summary of your lecture and post it on YouTube, post it on Canvas, whatever you prefer, or keep it to themselves and share with their colleagues. Another one is a Twitter post. So you ask the students to recall information, summarize information, and make a Twitter post. In my case, I asked them just to post in the discussion board on Canvas. I don't use Twitter. I don't have a Twitter account. I don't even know how to do it. So again, use what works for your class. Next one. Another one is the 4-Square feedback. So 4-Square feedback is the pause where you ask the students to take a piece of paper, fold it twice.

So we have four quadrants. You ask them specific questions. You don't have to ask those questions. I actually modify. Those questions are the questions that are recommended by the book, but actually modify them, and I'll show them in a second. But you can ask them, what's the most important idea of today's lecture, what's the second most important idea, or the third? How useful is this information to you? How to apply that information. Another one is the lecture wrapper. You can go back once. Yeah. The lecture wrapper is another. The lecture wrapper, you ask the students to summarize your lecture without specific questions. So you can just eliminate those questions and just say, can you summarize the lecture for me and I'll give you one minute? So it's similar to a one-minute paper.

>> So how I modify the Lecture wrapper? I tell my students in the beginning of class that they will have to create their own summary for their class. So in the beginning of semester, I started giving them their summary. So I give class notes to them, and I summarize all that information at the end of class. But then I said, well, I'm going to have them summarize the information. So I deleted all the answers to that summary, I just hit prompts to that summary, and I gave them a directed Lecture Wrapper, or a more directed one-minute paper where I asked them questions that are related to a summary of the lecture, how they apply course material to a real life scenario? Or how they integrate course material? So depending on the lecture, I give them different questions, and I think that's it. >> So just some final thoughts, I asked each member of our group to summarize the impact for them, and so Rose said this, "Participation in our learning circle last year was one of the best professional development experiences of my career, not to mention by far the most enjoyable.

Additionally, the incorporation of pauses, the development and practice of this technique has significantly changed the way I approached lecture-type teaching. Lecture instruction has a role to play in university instruction, but it should be done with a consideration of how knowledge is acquired and retained by students. Without proper lecture instruction, lots of information is lost and both the instructor and student do not benefit from their time spent together".

Here's what Denise had to say "This Learning Circle has provided information and motivation to re-energize my classroom teaching strategies using effective pauses. This in turn made my instruction more student-centered and provided opportunities for students to take more ownership of their learning." Marie said, "I teach three hour-long undergraduate courses. Incorporating these pauses has helped my students maintain engagement during class time without requiring additional breaks. Student feedback in my class show that shifting gears and pausing to review, share, reflect, and report throughout class helps students to refocus their attention without filling burned out during a long class period." Lacee said, "This Learning Circle has allowed me to connect with, and be inspired by colleagues that I may have otherwise not across path with. Pauses have increased the value of my courses by focusing on the student experience, and by providing content transferability through reflection." Heloisa says, " Our Learning Circle has provided me with a safe environment to share my successes and failures as an instructor.

It has been a source of inspiration for me when I make changes to my courses." Then my paragraph was for me, being part of this this Learning Circle has been a game-changer. It's given me new ideas and energy, encouraged me to try new things, and help me become a more intentional teacher. But more than that, I now have a new tribe. Sometimes I call my therapy group. But it's a community of friends that I can count on, collaborate with and go to when I need help, encouragement, advice, or added perspective. They are simply spectacular. So I hope you'll honestly consider Learning Circles, and it doesn't even have to be a formal one set up by ETE, it could be within your own department. Anyway, there's no right or wrong way to do it, but we'll take questions for about five minutes. Does anyone have anything they want to say or mention? >> I find that if I give them cues that I'm ending my lecture, it starts the packing out like Denise said, that's really annoying.

So how do you keep with the closing pause? Not having to become like this cue that, class is over I'm going to just start packing up. >> So I make it very clear at the beginning of my class. I introduce myself the first day of class. I said my pet peeve is the backpack shuffle. That is so rude. You can see the clock. I know when we're supposed to end and I value that time we had together, but I will end when class is over. So I just set the stage for that, because they would think that if the clock go up, it's time to go.

I say that is so rude to shuffle your backpack while I'm talking. So I have to say it a couple of times beginning the semester. So I think that might just help. So I would say well, it's time to wrap up. That doesn't mean it's time to shuffle your backpack, or close up and get your phone out and see who texted you while we're talking for the last 75 minutes. So I think you'd have to set the stage for that. Then knowing that you're going to use these closing pauses. I mean does that make sense.

>> I actually try to incorporate my closing pauses with an index card as much as possible. Then they have to turn that in for their participation points. So it gives them some accountability. >> Audience response systems to responses. So you record their participation. I give participation points. So I have some of my closing pauses are through top hair to a uphold everywhere. So I keep track of who's in-class and who's been paying attention. >> This question is actually for you Marie. I was wondering, when you're using Poll everywhere and you ask the quick quiz questions then you do the word cloud. Does Poll everywhere create that word cloud? >> Yes it does. It creates the word cloud as they do it. Students have the app on their phone. They can respond through there. I just tell my students to text it in and it gives you a number that they can text. So as students respond, it shows responses that have been entered multiple times or larger within the word cloud, and responses that have been entered once or fewer times are smaller.

Every time someone responds, it creates a new image. So that is live for students to do. It has multiple choice questions. It has short answer questions. It has graphs. So you can have a chart. If I want to pull students. How many of you are first-generation college students versus not and then we can see. But no one actually had to raise their hand, so they don't have to identify themselves. But within the website or within the app, I can click on that as the professor and I can see who responded and who didn't, and that's how I factor in participation in those. Does that answer your question fully? >> Yeah, thank you. >> This is for you as well. I think KWL, is that the right initial? You said you had them do a table in their notes.

Do they submit that in some way, or do you see them, or be able to get that feedback from them, or is it just for their personal benefit? >> Yes. So because there's a lot of reflection in the course it self, they go back to those and they use those reflections, or use those notes in papers and other written assignments that I have them do. Every once in a while, I'll have them submit that, take a screenshot of it, take a picture of it, or send it to me. I try to do as little hand me papers as possible, because I know myself and I know what will happen with those papers and there's a 12 percent chance students will get them back from me. So I tried to not have physical papers that I have to keep track of because I won't keep track of them very well.

I see them sometimes, but it's mostly for students to see what their thought process has been, how their opinions, and views, and perspectives have changed over the course of this semester. But at midterm and at the end of the semester, they have larger assignments that are 40 percent of their grade where they have to come back and tap into those reflections. So it's mostly for their own personal reflection for them.

But then if they don't do that, they're going to be in a bad place at the end of the semester when they have to reflect and write an eight-page paper using those notes..

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