One of the things about blogging that I really like is how blogs feed off each other. Here’s a great example: several entries back I shared some of the principles of effective instruction offered by Ronald J. Markert, a medical educator. One of those principles, “Good teachers do not talk as much as their less effective colleagues do—Good teachers talk less because their students are talking more,” reminded my friend and colleague Ricky Cox of a favorite quote by Deborah Meier, “Teaching is listening, learning is talking.” Ricky posted both quotes on a blog he hosts for faculty at Murray State University: http://msuctlt.blogspot.com/.
Blog » Teaching and Learning
Teaching for Transformative Learning
Posted Friday, July 23rd, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerPicking up where we left off on the previous post, so how do teachers intentionally teach for transformative learning? And how do they do that, given the fact that a teacher cannot make (as in require or force) students have a learning experience that changes what they believe, how they think, or how they act? [...]
Transformative Learning
Posted Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerI’m immersed in writing one of 34 chapters commissioned for a handbook on transformative learning. My chapter explores the relationship between learner-centered teaching and transformative learning. I am convinced the two are related, but I’ve never spent time trying to sort out the nature of that relationship. It’s a good project—I’m learning a lot, although I seem to be uncovering more questions than answers.
A Tired Teacher
Posted Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerLast week I met a tired teacher—23 years of teaching at a two-year institution. That’s a lot of teaching; many times it was year round. He didn’t say he was tired. He said he was thinking about a career change. “Teaching’s become work, a job, no different than slicing meat at the deli counter.”
The Role of the Text in Course Planning
Posted Monday, June 14th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerAs you plan a new course or revise an existing one, when do you decide on a text? I worry that many of us make that decision early on and then use the text to anchor our course design decisions. What gets included in the course as well as how it’s presented are often strongly influenced by what’s in the text and how it’s presented there. As the authors below point out, that’s not the role the text should be assuming in course planning.
Course Planning
Posted Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerThe course planning activities of faculty have not been studied extensively. The most impressive studies done on the topic were completed 20 years ago. But then, I can’t think of any compelling reason why our planning processes might be different. Can you?
Blending Instructional Formats
Posted Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerAn article in a recent issue of Change magazine reports on the transformation of general education courses at the University of North Texas. Faculty fellows, competitively selected and awarded with grant funds, redesign a general education course in ways that promote higher-level learning. Carefully constructed assessment plans are also developed for the course. I was especially interested in the blend of instructional approaches recommended for these course redesigns.
Pronouncements about Teaching
Posted Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerI had breakfast with a good colleague this morning. We were following up on a conversation we’ve been having electronically. It started when I recommended a book that my colleague said he’d read; however he objected to all the “pronouncements” made by the author. He was referring to how this author tried to distill research [...]
The Learning Question
Posted Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerA neighbor of mine has an 18-year-old friend who started his first year of college at the end of August. Last weekend he came home for the first time. My neighbor asked him what he’d learned so far in college. I complimented my neighbor for asking that question instead of the more common, “How are [...]
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.