Posts Tagged ‘creating a class environment’
April 5 - What Group Dynamics Can Teach Us about Classroom Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
I am unabashedly proud of my pedagogical article resource file. I’ve been collecting good articles on teaching and learning since the early ’80s. I use the file almost every day, and in the process of looking for a particular article, I regularly stumble onto others whose contents I remember when I see them but have otherwise forgotten.
February 7 - Role Reversal: Learning from a Master Teacher
By: Barbara A. Mezeske in Faculty Development
I had a most interesting experience last summer. I have taught college composition for many years, but I had not participated in a writing workshop as a writer for a long time. Of course, I had regularly run workshops in my classroom. But this time, I had written a short, 600-word essay, and it was workshopped (which to those of us in composition means reviewed and critiqued) by my peers as part of a larger in-service on curiosity and writing.
When the workshop was finished, I turned to a fellow English professor and said, “So that’s how it’s supposed to be done!”
January 28 - Love the One You’re With: Creating a Classroom Community
By: Cynde Gregory in Effective Classroom Management
It’s the first day of class. They shuffle in, spot similar life-forms, and slip in with that group. Hipsters sporting wild hair and tats, buttoned-up and serious young scholars, middle-aged moms and dads, maybe a couple of aging hippies. One or two sad souls choose spots isolated from the others; they don’t want to identify with them for reasons of insecurity, arrogance, or something else.
January 9 - First Day of Class Activities that Create a Climate for Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
There’s no discounting the importance of the first day of class. What happens that day sets the tone for the rest of the course. Outlined below are a few novel activities for using that first day of class to emphasize the importance of learning and the responsibility students share for shaping the classroom environment.
November 18 - Humor in the Classroom: Reviewing the Research
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
The December issue of The Teaching Professor newsletter contains a piece highlighting a review of research article on humor. It’s so impressive I decided I’d mention of few of its features and findings in this post.
September 28 - The Question of Control in the College Classroom
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
The August 24 post, What Does Your Syllabus Say About You and Your Course?, in which I asked a series of questions designed to encourage revisiting the syllabus in terms of its role in setting course norms and establishing the tone of the course generated some interesting responses. I am always pleased when a post stimulates reaction, including disagreement. This is how we learn and grow as professionals. It also makes blogs worth reading, in my opinion.
May 13 - How Do I Create a Climate for Learning in My Classroom?
By: Mary Bart in 20 Minute Mentor, Student Engagement
How Do I Create a Climate for Learning in My Classroom? Program includes a CD with the video presentation, plus supplemental materials, PowerPoint slides, and complete transcript • $99 We’ve all encountered “toxic” learning environments–apathetic students, disillusioned faculty, an entire roomful of people waiting for class to just end, already. But of course, that’s far
July 3 - Tell Students When They’re Wrong
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Academic Leadership
Instructors need to be thoughtful and reflective about those strategies they use when they respond to students’ answers, and this is especially true when the answer given is wrong. Most of us understand that the stakes are high in this case. Students are easily intimidated. Even those not participating can be negatively affected by how an instructor handles incorrect answers. Some current philosophies of education argue against telling students that they are wrong. The thinking here is that students need to figure out for themselves if their answers are right or wrong. Instead of telling them, instructors should guide them to the right answers, possibly through some sort of Socratic dialogue…
