An Assessment Technique Using Research Articles
In entry-level courses it’s often a struggle to get students to see that the content has larger significance and intriguing aspects. In most science textbooks, for example, only well-established facts are presented, and they are supported by equally well-know research studies. Textbooks don’t usually identify areas of inquiry where the questions have yet to be answered or the findings so far are controversial. And yet often, this is the content most likely to interest students. But can you expect beginning students to read original sources, like research studies? Could you expect them to answer test questions about those articles?
Communication Satisfaction Scale
Some research efforts produce tools that can be used by teachers to generate interesting and useful feedback—we’ve illustrated that in previous issues and have another example to share here. Communication education researchers have developed a communication satisfaction scale that measures how satisfied students are with the communication they have with their instructor.
Embracing Texting during Class
If you want to get your students’ attention, try listing this course policy in your syllabus: “Texting during class is encouraged.” Most of us wouldn’t dare. We know firsthand how distracting cell phones in class can be. But with so many students disengaged and increasing pressure to create more student-centered learning environments, maybe we should stop thinking about texting as a problem and start seeing its potential as a solution.
Enhancing Out-of-Class Communication: Students’ Top 10 Suggestions
Out-of-class communication makes student-teacher relationships more personal and contributes to student learning. It is also the wellspring for continued academic exchange and mentoring. Unfortunately, electronic consultations via email have diminished the use of in-person office hours. Although students and faculty favor email contact because it’s so efficient, interpersonal exchanges still play an important role in the learning process—much research verifies this. As teachers we have a responsibility to encourage, indeed entice, our students to meet with us face-to-face.
From the Last Five Years to the Last Two Semesters: An Update
The last time I wrote about retirement (The Teaching Professor, March 2010), I could count the remaining number of semesters on the fingers of one hand. Now in my last year, I’d like to offer observations about the final lap.
Gateway Criteria: Minimum Standards before an Assignment is Graded
Do you sometimes (maybe regularly) get papers from students filled with spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and other more serious grammatical problems? Yours is not an English class and you have other content to teach, making it difficult to address these writing problems. And yet leaving them unaddressed puts students in jeopardy. They may not believe us, but the fact is we still live in a culture that “sorts out” people based on their use of language. Maybe that won’t be the case in 50 years, but today it is a reality. A student who can’t put together an error-free résumé or cover letter isn’t likely to get many interviews or good jobs.
Of Mice and Men: Using a Book Club to Improve Teaching and Learning
Effective teaching requires continual reflection about teaching techniques, strategies, and materials. This necessary reflection can be prompted by attending teaching conferences, classroom observation, formal and informal assessment, and reading research on teaching and learning. All these activities can be done on your own, but all are more effective when undertaken with a fellow teacher. However, few of us find the time to sit down with colleagues and thoughtfully discuss teaching. Instead, too often we only participate in a once-a-semester teaching in-service activity.
Participation Money
Encouraging students to talk, getting a variety of different students speaking, improving the intellectual caliber of what they contribute, and then fairly assessing those contributions makes participation a more challenging instructional strategy that it might seem at first. The following approach addresses several of these participation problems
Using Reading Prompts to Encourage Critical Thinking
Students can critically read in a variety of ways:
•When they raise vital questions and problems from the text,
•When they gather and assess relevant information and then offer plausible interpretations of that information,
•When they test their interpretations against previous knowledge or experience,
•When they examine their assumptions and the implications of those assumptions, and
•When they use what they have read to communicate effectively with others or to develop potential solutions to complex problems.” (p. 127)
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