About a year ago, I decided to combine the ideas of a syllabus activity and a get-to-know-students activity. Using Microsoft Forms, I created an introductory exercise to share with students a week before the first day of classes. This optional activity included short videos related
If you’ve ever hesitated to offer feedback to a colleague for fear of creating tension or hurting a relationship, you’re not alone. Even in academic settings, where critique is part of the culture, giving candid feedback, especially to fellow professionals, can feel risky. Yet our
Proponents of rubrics champion them as a means of ensuring consistency in grading, not only between students within a class but also between instructors teaching the same class. Rubrics, they say, also clarify to students the standards of excellence on which they’re being assessed (Taylor
A common faculty complaint is that students do not read their feedback. This is usually chalked up to laziness or disinterest in learning. But neither explanation has ever rung true with me. Everyone likes, and wants, to learn, and in my experience, nearly all students
Educators play a pivotal role in shaping students’ academic journeys, and their impact in the classroom extends far beyond merely imparting knowledge or grading students’ work. Teachers’ communication in and out of the classroom has an effect on students’ self-efficacy, confidence, and resilience during challenging
Feedback on performance has proven to be one of the most important influences on learning, but students consistently report that they want and need far more feedback than they get from their instructors (Hattie & Zierer, 2019). One of the main reasons for this relates
There are dozens of teaching methods that a teacher might use, but instead of emphasizing their differences, I want to focus on what they have in common. These are practices that all teaching methods value. Used correctly, they are universal components of effective teaching. I
As educators who focus on facilitating meaningful learning and genuine reflection, we are painfully familiar with the questions students often ask that demonstrate anything but:
When I first began teaching philosophy, I had a standard comment on assignments for students whose writing was unclear:
While you understand the content, you are having trouble getting down on paper what you know. Note the areas that I marked as
Decades of research show the value of instructor presence and student engagement for online learners. Yet many instructors wonder how well their efforts to foster engagement really work, leading some to question the value of discussion and other types of interactions.
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