Archive for August, 2010

Five Minutes and Five Techniques

Posted Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

I was traveling again last week and dining by myself in a local restaurant. I had forgotten to bring something to read, but the restaurant, named the The Library, had stacks of old books decorating the short walls between different sections of the dining room. In the stack near my table I found Teacher Education [...]

Feedback: Negative, Positive or Both?

Posted Thursday, August 26th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

“Feedback by nature must be negative to an extent if it is to be helpful in improving performance. Much of the feedback that instructors give on assignments is to specifically point out the shortcomings of a student’s work and motivate the student toward improvement. Such feedback is intended to be received as ‘constructive criticism.’ However, [...]

Students’ Messages to Teachers

Posted Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

Last week I participated in a beginning of the academic year event for faculty. It included a panel of bright, articulate upper-division students. From the audience came this question: “What are the things faculty do that you really hate?”

Stories

Posted Thursday, August 19th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

Dad died on July 31. He was 98 and it was time, although I don’t think that makes the empty feeling any smaller.
 
Dad was very religious, attending the same small Bible church for 65 years, and he preached there regularly until just a couple of years ago. The elder who delivered the message at Dad’s [...]

Thinking Constructively About Teaching Problems

Posted Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

“One telling measure of how differently teaching is regarded from traditional scholarship or research within the academy is what a difference it makes to have a ‘problem’ in one versus the other. In scholarship and research, having a ‘problem’ is at the heart of the investigative process; it is the compound of the generative questions [...]

Metacognitive Skills for Self-Directed Learners

Posted Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer

Principle: To become self-directed learners, students must learn to assess the demands of the task, evaluate their own knowledge and skills, plan their approach, monitor their progress, and adjust their strategies as needed.
 
That’s one of seven research-based principles for smart teaching proposed by authors of the new book, How Learning Works. They make this observation: [...]

no posts this week

Posted Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 by rkelly

There will be no posts to The Teaching Professor Blog this week. Maryellen will be back next week.