It is important for us to remember that what students believe about learning and themselves as learners plays a key role in determining their success as learners. Research evidence is very clear on this issue. If a student believes that no matter what they do, they won’t succeed in a course, even being in a course with a highly rated effective teacher does not change the effects of those beliefs.
Archive for September, 2009
PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts
Posted Thursday, September 24th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerThe use of PowerPoint is widespread now in college classrooms. Compared with the old transparencies of overhead projector days, it gets all sorts of points for legibility and glitz. But a lot of the problems with the way faculty used overheads still prevail. So please take these gentle do and don’t reminders in the spirit [...]
Zemsky on Learning
Posted Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerI’d like to share a couple of the points made by Robert Zemsky in the second part of a two-part essay that appeared in Inside Higher Education. (There’s a link to this second part at the end of this post.) I don’t know if you’re familiar with Bob Zemsky’s work—he’s a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has been on the forefront of efforts to reform higher edcuation for decades, and he’s a superb writer. In this article he put three items on the higher education reform to-do list. The first one is learning—I love that it was listed first.
What Should be Standardized?
Posted Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerI was reading an article that describes the attempts of a marketing department to standardize the various sections of an introductory principles of marketing course. What caught my attention and has been following me around since I read it is this: “In all sections students must pass the exams for the course regardless of their grades on other assignments for the class. This keeps students from using group projects to raise their grades.” (p. 12)
Sharing Knowledge
Posted Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerHave you considered submitting a program proposal for the 2010 Teaching Professor Conference? You should and you’ll find all the information you need to do so at www.teachingprofessor.com/conference/proposals. The deadline for program proposals is October 31, 2009.
Dealing with Free Riders
Posted Thursday, September 10th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerWhat makes students hate group work? A 2003 study found that getting a poor grade on a group project and having a free-rider in the group were the two factors most highly predictive of negative attitudes toward group work. Students want to be in groups where the work is shared equally—don’t we all? So what [...]
Test Frequency
Posted Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerThis weekend I read an article pragmatically titled, “How Many Tests Do We Really Need?” Like most faculty, I opted for more, rather than less. However, as I read the article I realized I’d never really thought about test frequency, never even considered that the question might well have been addressed empirically.
Writing to Learn
Posted Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerFor me writing is like a crowbar, it helps me pry apart ideas, chip away at what they mean, get them out in the open where I can see what they’re made of. Writing is the best way I know to become one of those reflective practitioners.
Properties of Thinking
Posted Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerI’m reading a great book. This probably won’t be the only blog entry about it. The title is long: Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. The cognitive scientist, Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of [...]
