Reflection: Changing the Learning Environment
I teach General Education composition classes to first year undergraduate students, which can make my job challenging before students even step into my class. Students often think that taking required…
Syllabi: Best Practices or Just Best Guesses?
Syllabi are a frequent subject of education research. Over the last decade, researchers have measured and assessed student responses to syllabus tone, voice, length, design, and delivery format. It may…
Faculty Focus: A Year in Review of 2021
This past year our Faculty Focus community came together to share their wisdom, their encouragement, and their hope for the teaching community.
Using Teaching Practices to Support Student Learning and Well-Being
*This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on July 8, 2019. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. College student mental health is currently receiving a great deal of attention. Over the…
Three Questions to Help Facilitate Effective Classroom Discussions
Learning should be interactive and reflective. When classroom silence and intellectual apathy become the norm, learning lacks critical thinking and the role of discourse is no longer learning. In an…
Masked Accents and Muffled Sounds: Teaching Behind the Mask
My first introduction in front of students in an American college classroom went like this: “I am Nancy Achiaa Frimpong, a Ghanaian who writes British English and has an accent…
Building Back a Sense of Community and Togetherness with Faculty and Students
In November 2019, I was fortunate to take about 20 of our physics students to the Physics Congress (PhysCon) in Providence, Rhode Island. The conference was a hoot, and I…
Using the Labyrinth as a Self-care Tool for University Students
What is a labyrinth? A labyrinth is an ancient archetype with a singular meandering path that leads from an outer edge to a center. Unlike a maze, which is designed…
Helping Students Find their Writing Voice
I woke up when I heard the opening chords of Chopin’s Ballade in F Major. I’d been dozing off, phone in my hand, trying to keep up with the news.…
An Outsider Looking In: Advocating a Sense of Community for Adjunct Faculty
While checking my university email several weeks after being hired, I beamed with excitement as I read the invitation for my first faculty welcome week brunch and address hosted by…