The clips below showcase a new seminar series on teaching, hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, called “Instructional Moves Live”. This series showcases reflective Harvard instructors using high-leverage teaching strategies applicable to multiple settings and grounded in research. Each session offers expert teaching firsthand, followed by collective debrief and reflection.
Demonstrating Moves Live
1.) Establishing Inclusivity and Belonging
In this session, Dan Levy led a demonstration lesson that he uses in his own coursework on thinking probabilistically when making decisions. During the lesson, his teaching staff tracked participation using the Teachly app. After the demonstration, Junlei Li spoke with Dan about his approach to establishing inclusivity; then, both Dan and Junlei answered questions from the audience. (Date: February 14, 2023)
2.) Disrupting Traditional Classroom Hierarchies
In this session, John Asher Johnson led a demonstration lesson from his Astronomy 16 course. During the lesson, participants worked in small groups, with support from John and his teaching team, to calculate the mass of the earth and the moon. After the demonstration, Kimberlyn Leary spoke with John about the intentional moves he makes and the language he uses to disrupt the traditional hierarchy between students and instructors; then, John answered questions from the audience. (Date: February 21, 2023)
3.) Including More Student Voices in the Conversation
In this session, Gretchen Brion-Meisels leads participants through a World Café protocol in a demonstration lesson. Over three rounds, participants move between small groups for discussion about participation. Gretchen moves between groups to listen and share ideas. After the demonstration, Gretchen and Monik Jimenez discuss the way the activity was scaffolded to encourage participation, as well as other strategies Gretchen uses in her classroom to bring in student voice. (Date: February 28, 2023)
4.) Beyond The Paper Chase: Learning from Legal Pedagogy
In this session, Todd Rakoff facilitates a discussion of a short case he uses with his students on their first day of Law School, relying largely on Socratic questioning and cold calling to draw out participants’ thinking. Participants also watch a brief video of that HLS class in action. After the teaching demonstration, Meira Levinson leads the group in a collective reflection on Todd’s instructional strategies and the implications for their own practice. (November 18, 2019)