My colleague Chuck Walker, a psychology professor at St. Bonaventure University (NY), shared a collection of instructional strategies that illustrate how the principles of positive psychology might be applied in the classroom. (For examples see: http://wellbeingincollege.org/faculty-resources) I especially like this one.
Good answers depend on good questions. That’s why we work so hard on the content of our questions and why we should work with students on how they ask their questions. What also helps to make questions good is asking the right type of
On the first day of classes two years ago, I had students in my professional and technical writing course send me an email with their goals for the semester. I discovered they had no understanding of goals, expectations, or objectives. I realized there are reasons why
When student ratings first started being widely used and the research associated with them was prolific, many faculty objected to the focus on teaching effectiveness. “It shouldn’t be about me! I’m a good teacher if my students are learning. Measure how much my students have
In the article referenced below, biologist Kimberly Tanner proposes a set of strategies to ensure that “all students have opportunities to verbally participate, all students can see their personal connections to biology, all students have time to think, all students can pose ideas and construct
For many of us, learning to teach in a different way is a long and not always easy journey. Old habits die hard. Moreover, most of us are not particularly well-prepared to confront the task. We have copious amounts of content knowledge but lack great
Use of online quizzing continues to grow. If taken online, quizzes don’t consume valuable class time. Grading occurs automatically and doesn’t consume valuable teacher time. Students get feedback immediately. The technology also offers a variety of format options. But do we know anything about how
Students need to be able to make decisions about learning on their own. Are there instructional behaviors teachers can use that move students in that direction? There are, and the research highlighted here offers one very practical set of teacher behaviors that increase student autonomy.
Most would agree that the classroom is a place for discourse, reflection, and learning. But whose class is it? Who’s doing the learning? The teacher or the students? We submit it’s both—teacher and students learning from each other. Too often, faculty see themselves as the
When Washington University School of Law enlisted the help of 2U, Inc., (www.2u.com) to develop its online master of laws program, the challenge was to figure out how to make the Socratic case method work in an online environment.
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