blog posts

• Could Your Assignments Use a Tune-Up?

  Sep 3, 2018 4:45 pm

  Could Your Assignments Use a Tune-Up?  How do students think about assignments? A lot never get past the idea that they’re basically unpleasant things faculty make them do. What does interest a lot of students is finding out what the teacher wants in the assignment, not so much what the assignments asks but more seeking insight as to what the teacher “likes.” Discover that and there’s a better chance of a good grade, or so the thinking goes. Unfortunately, very few students look at an assignment and think, now there’s an interesting learning opportunity. And how do faculty think about assignments? With multiple courses and lots of other work besides, with each new assignment developed there’s a tendency to first consider the amount of grading that will come with it. Assignments are what students ride on their way to learning. Our responsibility is to provide good vehicle maintenance and recognition when it’s time for a trade-in. 

• Three Ways to Engage Students In and Outside the Classroom

  Sep 3, 2018 4:45 pm

  Three Ways to Engage Students In and Outside the Classroom. When students become directly engaged in the learning process, they take ownership of their education. The following learning activities have helped me to engage students in and outside the classroom. The strategies also help keep my teaching relevant, fresh, and creative. They are: a) get real, b) see a show, and c) breathe fire.

• Make the Most of the First Day of Class

  Aug 8, 2018 4:45 pm

  Make the Most of the First Day of Class. The first day of class always creates some nervousness, even for seasoned instructors. It helps to have a mental checklist of objectives to accomplish so that you and your students come away with the impression that the course is off to a good start. The first class meeting should serve at least two basic purposes: 1) To clarify all reasonable questions students might have relative to the course objectives, as well as your expectations for their performance in class. As students leave the first meeting, they should believe in your competence to teach the course, be able to predict the nature of your instruction, and know what you will require of them and 2) To give you an understanding of who is taking your course and what their expectations are. These two basic purposes expand into a set of eight concrete objectives. 

• First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class

  Aug 8, 2018 4:45 pm

  First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class. The old expression that you never have a second chance to make a first impression is certainly true in the classroom. Early in my career, I tried several first-day-of-class strategies, ranging from briefly introducing the course and dismissing students early to spending the entire time reviewing policies and procedures, but I began to feel that I was missing an important opportunity. Students are never more attentive than they are on the first day of class, when they’re eager to determine what kind of professor they’re dealing with, and although it is tempting to delay the real work of teaching and learning until the class list has stabilized, it can be difficult to change even the subtle norms that are established during this initial class. Here are some easy to implement strategies.

• Identifying Pearls of Wisdom from End-of-Semester Course Evaluations

  May 9, 2018 10:30 am

  At the end of the semester it can be valuable to take a few moments and reflect on what went well in your courses, and what you might want to change the next time you teach them. One source of information is the student evaluations of teaching, available to you after you submit your final grades.

• Checklist for the End of the Semester.

  May 9, 2018 9:00 am

  As the semester is coming to a close, when all is still fresh in your mind, it’s the perfect time to review, reevaluate, renew, and recycle. Here is a short checklist of things you can do now to make things easier, more efficient, and more productive next semester; e.g., review your syllabus, update your lesson plans and review your assignments and exams.

• Conquering ‘Forty Percent of the Grade’: Interactive Strategies for Helping Students Prepare for Comprehensive Final Exams.

  Apr 24, 2018 3:15 pm

  “But it’s 40% of the grade!” First-year Political Science students commonly raise this concern about the comprehensive final exam often given at the end of introductory survey courses. Many are simply unsure about how to study for cumulative exams. Further, commonly recommended approaches (such as reading carefully and taking notes) tend to preference visual learners. Students who learn best by talking through their ideas and actively participating are often at a disadvantage and struggle with identifying strategies that work for them. Preparation often becomes an anxiety-provoking, last-minute cram session filled with more stress and caffeine than actual learning. Here are four strategies to help students of all learning styles identify key concepts, relate them to one another, and develop critical essay arguments during the course of the final exam.

• Final Exams.

  Apr 24, 2018 8:00 am

  A common complaint from students is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge that is asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. Whether this perception is accurate or not, it's still an excellent starting point for talking about what you are testing when you give a final exam. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments. If you presented a set of learning goals and objectives to your students on your syllabus, you're way ahead of the game, because that means you've thought through what is important to you for a particular class. The very simplest procedure then is to develop an exam that will demonstrate whether students have achieved these objectives.  

• Class Discussion: From Blank Stares to True Engagement

  Apr 9, 2018 6:15 pm

  The idea of attempting to engage students in discussion is rather frightening. There’s always the possibility that we will be met with silence. Sociologists have long contended that our behavior is guided by norms. The college classroom is no exception. You have likely noticed whichever seat a student sits in on the first day of class is where the student will sit for the entire semester. It is a normative expectation that students have about the classroom. Why can students get away with only paying civil attention; i.e., creating the appearance of paying attention? The answer is that we as faculty let them. Here are some ways to create new classroom norms.

• They Haven’t Done the Reading. Again.

  Apr 9, 2018 6:15 pm

  If you believe the research, on any given day, something like 70 percent of our students come to class having not done the assigned reading. That phenomenon is immensely annoying to most faculty members. Who among us has not faced a classroom full of blank stares, with seemingly no one prepared to answer the well-thought-out question we've asked about the reading? How can we ensure that students are meeting what should be a very basic responsibility? You need to demonstrate that the students need to do the reading to take full advantage of class time.