Use service learning in your course to help students gain perspective. As an instructor, you strive to encourage students to learn, strengthen their understanding by adding depth to their knowledge, and give them real world experience through service learning. Service learning is another facet of active learning. Ask students to apply what you teach.
On my first day of high school I was given a slip of paper with the combination to my book and coat locker. I carried that slip of paper with me for a week, glancing at it several times a day until the set of three numbers was firmly in my memory.
Withdrawing a student results in a “W' on her transcript (as opposed to the possible “F' you foresee without significant improvement) and would not factor into her GPA. There are multiple considerations when deciding whether to withdraw a student. Consider the following scenarios, options and implications.
The other day I asked an emeritus faculty member where he derived his teaching style from. Looking back on a stunning 35 years of instructional experience, he said he had a great mentor instructor in undergraduate school and thought, “I want to be like him.'
You’re probably familiar with the old joke in which a man’s wife notices him cutting the ends off the ham before baking it. He tells her that’s the way his dad does it and it’s a key secret to the wonderful taste. When the man’s wife finally asks her father-in-law about it he laughs and replies, “That’s not it! If I don’t cut the ends, the ham won’t fit in my pan.'
The flipped classroom is one in which, unlike traditional methods, lectures and instruction take place outside of synchronous class time, usually in the form of instructor videos or screencasts, while homework and group activities take place during class.
Hey all! I’ve decided to supplement some of my podcasts with vidcasts as well. Since vidcasts are so great for giving tutorials, I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and use this as […]
Last week we talked about how designing some tension into discussions can yield a more engaging student experience. This is often my first suggestion when I hear from faculty that student discussions seem lacking. This week the inquiry centers around timing. Just like hosting a dinner party, timing the various course elements is critical when designing student interactions.
Designing quality discussion prompts can be a challenge whether building an online discussion forum or trying to better engage the classroom learner. As instructors, we’ve all asked questions of our students that failed to lead them to our verdant garden, blossoming with student ideas. Instead, at one time or another, we’ve led students to deserts of superficial or pat answers that lay shriveled in darkness with only the chirping of crickets as adulation.
When the power goes, what happens at traffic intersections? Without the central authority of the automated traffic lighting system, the drivers are forced to slow down and become more aware of their surroundings and fellow travelers in order to pass safely through the crossroads. Traffic continues because people, largely, organize themselves.
When we think about the accepted content in our disciplines, we know that established theories, processes, or standards don’t start out as the perfectly polished final products that we often use as examples for our students. Theories and processes evolve, are reviewed and refined, through trial, error and peer review. Great ideas come from taking risks and accepting that the result may not be what we anticipated or even be successful on the first pass.
Explicit roleplay has a rich history in education. Law students use mock-trials to hone their craft; counselors roleplay client contact sessions, and many disciplines require students give presentations or perform project work while acting in the role of the professional they hope to become. In fact, the dialectical method of Socrates is a form of roleplay, wherein participants adopt an aspect for an argument not necessarily their own.
