Posts Tagged ‘higher education teaching and learning’
February 9 - Defining Active Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
There’s a definitional “looseness” about many of the terms commonly used in higher education. I know, I’ve written about this in previous blogs, but when terms are bandied about assuming everybody defines them similarly, that’s a recipe for misunderstanding. Equally important, we can be using terms without having done the intellectual homework necessary to precisely understand their referents.
January 13 - More on Students and Reading
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies, Teaching Professor Blog
Last week’s “Sink or Skim” blog post on students and reading generated some comments! Yes! Thank you!
Dave shared his daily quizzing strategy which he describes as “brief but challenging.” His approach includes several noteworthy design features. First, before the quiz students can ask him about anything in the chapter this is unclear to them. Then they take the 10 question multiple-choice quiz. After that they retake the quiz in groups of three and their score is an average of the two quiz scores.
October 26 - Developing Students’ Self-Directed Learning Skills
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Self-directed learning skills involve the ability to manage learning tasks without having them directed by others. They are skills necessary for effective lifelong learning and are one of many learning skills students are expected to develop in college. The expectation is that students will become self-directed learners as they mature and gain content knowledge. Here’s a study showing how students can become self-directed with explicit instruction.
August 11 - Good Teaching: The Top 10 Requirements
By: Richard W. Leblanc, PhD in Philosophy of Teaching
One. Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It’s about motivating students not only to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful and memorable. It’s about caring for your craft, having a passion for it and conveying that passion to everyone, but mostly importantly to your students.
July 8 - What to Teach When There Isn’t Time to Teach Everything
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Faculty have always faced time constraints when planning their courses, but the Information Age is now making it even harder to decide what to cover in a semester. Get advice on what to include, and what you can safely disregard, as you write their syllabi and plan your busy semesters.
June 15 - Teaching and Learning Award Winners Recognized at Sold-Out Teaching Professor Conference
By: Mary Bart in Teaching Careers
Last week McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications announced the winners of the second annual Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning Award. The award recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions that advance college-level teaching and learning practices.
May 20 - Inquiry into the College Classroom
By: Paul Savory, PhD, and Amy Goodburn, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Are our students learning? Are they developing? Are we having an impact? These questions are only a small sample of those that faculty ask before, during, and after each course that they teach. Faculty often attempt to answer such questions using the evidence they have—student remarks during class and office hours, student performance on examinations or homework assignments, student comments solicited via teaching evaluations, and their own classroom observations. While these forms of evidence can be useful, such informal assessments also can be misleading, particularly because they are generally not systematic or fully representative.
December 11 - Redesigning Learning Spaces to Improve Teaching and Learning
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
The most effective college renovations don’t just happen. They begin with the idea of engaging learners through classroom redesigns. This seminar will showcase innovative ways to incorporate the latest technologies into powerful new learning spaces.
December 10 - Making the Shift from Rhetoric to Performance
By: Michael Harris, PhD, and Roxanne Cullen, PhD in Academic Leadership
Discussion of teaching and learning as an academic, scholarly endeavor has become an acceptable conversation on college campuses. A shift is beginning to take place whereby the scholarship of teaching and learning is now being taken seriously. We are making progress in higher education by making undergraduate education intentional, thus moving toward a learner-centered paradigm.
October 2 - Understanding What You See Happening in Class
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
While conducting a class, even though teachers may be doing all or most of the talking, students communicate important nonverbal messages. They communicate these messages through facial expressions, body postures, and how they say what they say, as well as what actions they do or the skills they attempt to perform. Both novice and expert teachers see the same student responses, but expert teachers see in those responses something very different than novices see.
