Getting Your Students to Engage with Course Readings
Have you ever struggled to get students to do required readings? Do your students treat them as optional? Perhaps they do the readings, but when
Fiona Hunt, MLIS
July 24, 2020
HIGHER ED TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM MAGNA PUBLICATIONS
building student engagement
Engagement to Autonomy: Four Strategies for Face-to-Face or Online Learning in First-Year Experience Courses
Although teaching first-time freshmen across all content areas presents challenges, first-year experience (FYE) courses also have unique obstacles which must be overcome, especially with the
Paty Cantu, MA, and Hayley Kazen, PhD
June 15, 2020
Three Focusing Activities to Engage Students in the First Five Minutes of Class
In the previous two articles, I shared ideas to address student accountability and student preparation in the flipped classroom. Based on your feedback and emails, getting students to come to class prepared is an ongoing challenge for many of us! In this article, I’d like to keep the conversation going by zeroing in on the importance of the first five minutes of class.
Barbi Honeycutt, PhD
April 26, 2019
Playing Games Can Yield Serious Learning
How often do you hear college students say, “that was fun!” on their way out of your classroom? Probably not often enough. Of course, who has time for fun when you have a syllabus packed with serious learning outcomes and one semester to accomplish your goals. Not to diminish the hard work involved in prepping for lectures, but when was the last time you asked yourself: Is my class fun?
Kristina Wright, PhD
December 7, 2018
Reflections on Teaching: From Surviving to Thriving
Editor’s Note: In part one of this article, the author shared openly some of the mistakes he made early in his teaching career. In this entry, he outlines some of the changes he’s made to his teaching over the years and the principles he uses to guide his teaching.
I had known it all along at some level, but now it suddenly became glaringly obvious to me. Deep down, sometimes out of conscious reach, students want to be transformed and their lives made more useful, productive, and powerful. I added the following new goal to my personal mission statement:
Chris Palmer
November 8, 2018
Ten Tips for Dealing with Nervousness on the First Day of Class
Each new semester as I walk down the hallway to my classroom, I am a little nervous, even after 27 years of teaching experience…and I’m okay with this. I think when I get to the point where I don’t feel this anxiety, I won’t be as effective a teacher. After all, I will be walking into that classroom for the next four months and it’s important to make a good first impression. Below are 10 tips to help you get off to a great start.
Delaney J. Kirk Ph.D.
August 14, 2018
A Memo to My Students as the New Semester Begins
To: My Students
From: Your Teacher
Re: A Better Learning Experience
This is just a brief note to let you know how committed I am to making this a good course. But I can’t do my best teaching without your help. So, I thought I’d share a list of things you can do that will make this a better experience for all of us.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
August 23, 2017
How Good Are Your Discussion Facilitation Skills?
Successfully leading and guiding student discussions requires a range of fairly sophisticated communication skills. At the same time teachers are monitoring what’s being said about the content, they must keep track of the discussion itself. Is it on topic? How many students want to speak? Who’s already spoken and wants to speak again? How many aren’t listening? Is it time to move to a different topic? What’s the thinking behind that student question? How might the discussion be wrapped up?
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
August 9, 2017
Fostering Student Connectedness: Building Relationships in the Classroom
A large body of research has documented how students who report strong connectedness with college instructors reap many benefits, including: better persistence (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1978), engagement (Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005), and effort (Kuh & Hu, 2001) in college, as well as greater academic self-concept (Komarraju, Musulkin, & Bhattacharya, 2010), confidence in their ability to succeed (Vogt, Hocevar, & Hagedorn, 2007), and grade point average (Anaya & Cole, 2001; Kim & Sax, 2009). In general, the research literature supports a strong positive correlation between positive student-instructor interactions—both inside the classroom and out—and student learning and development. What is unknown, however, is whether students are aware of these benefits.
Melissa McInnis Brown, PhD, and Teresa Starrett, EdD
April 7, 2017
Participation Points: Making Student Engagement Visible
As I contemplate my syllabi for a new semester, I possess renewed hope for students eager to discuss anything at 8 a.m., yet I have taught long enough to know that I will simply appreciate clean clothes and brushed teeth. As reality sets in, I add to my grading criteria an element that I hope will encourage engagement from even the most timid learners.
Stephanie Almagno, PhD
March 13, 2017