Students Identify Behaviors That Convey Political Bias
Any number of recent books have accused academe of a liberal bias. There are now two websites (No Indoctrination at http://noindoctrination.org and Students for Academic Freedom at www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org on which students can post accusations of bias. What's missing from the literature is information on how students define bias. To remedy that omission, Craig Tollini (a sociologist) constructed a survey that asked students to indicate which of 26 behaviors they considered indicative of bias in the classroom.
An Innovative Way of Analyzing Critical Thinking Skills
The goal of most majors is to develop the kind of critical thinking skills students will need to address the not clearly defined and conceptually complicated problems that most professionals regularly face. The Finance Department at Seattle University wondered if they were preparing their majors to solve these kinds of problems. As described in their first article, they gave senior students enrolled in a capstone course an ill-defined problem (financial issues and options facing an about-to-retire couple) and asked them to write a two-page memo that offered advice to these clients.
Final Fitness and the Louisiana 2 Step
It has always bothered me, as a student and now as a teacher, that students seldom get feedback on their final exam performance. In most college courses, the final is scheduled after classes have ended so there is no "next" class to return the exam and discuss the results. Posting exam solutions on the course website may interest some students, but most just scan for answers rather than analyzing the solution process and comparing it to their own. More often than not, a student thinks about the final exam only in terms of how it affected the final grade.
Heart, Head, and Hands: The Importance of Coaching through Meaningful Conversations
In a time when the emphasis is on content delivery in formats other than face-to-face, meaningful conversations between teacher and student become increasingly important. A variety of educational theorists recommend that faculty adopt a coaching philosophy for these conversations—one that can influence the heart, the head, and the hands of the adult learner. These conversations can lead to deep understanding, reflection, and positive action on the student's part. Jim Knight, in his book Instructional Coaching, writes, "When you see the world through partnership glasses, you come to understand human relationships in new ways".
Music in Political Science
Music plays a role in politics now. Politicians from presidents to local leaders select campaign songs and make entrances before speeches with "their music" playing in the background. Beyond that, students connect with music. Article author Christopher Soper cites research documenting that students (the sample was drawn from California) consider music and fashion more important than religion, race, and ethnicity in their identity formation.
Music in the Chemistry Classroom
As faculty, we want our students to achieve, but more than that, we want our students to see, at least in some way, that what they are learning in class is related to life outside the classroom. In the sciences, this is especially challenging but extremely necessary. Most introductory science students find the idea of relevant science foreign. They enroll in science classes because they are required, either for their major or just to graduate. On a recent student feedback form, I (that's Patricia, the faculty member) even had a student say that he or she thought that our school made students enroll in chemistry class to increase school revenues.
Solutions for Student Incivility
In my workshops and presentations to faculty on engaging Millennial learners, I have been surprised how frequently the topic turns to student incivility. It seems everyone can tell a story of flagrant student disrespect. I have trouble relating to these experiences. In any given semester, I have approximately 200 students, and the vast majority of them are extremely cooperative, conscientious, and excited about their learning. In my 18 years of teaching, I have experienced what I would describe as uncivil student behavior in class on only two occasions.
What I Learned from the CAR
Ensuring that students understand information presented in lectures is the most important goal of teaching. Like most instructors, I constantly ask the proverbial question, "Does everyone understand?" and usually get lots of head nods indicating "yes." However, the accuracy of those responses comes into question on exams. Even with the active learning and formative assessment activities I use to involve students in the learning process, I look at their test responses, and I am amazed at what some of them don't understand. Where do some of those answers come from?
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