Articles

Survey of College Faculty Reveals Increases in Student-Centered Teaching and Evaluation Methods

Helping students develop critical-thinking skills and discipline-specific knowledge remain at the forefront of faculty goals for undergraduate education, with 99.6 percent of faculty indicating that critical-thinking skills are “very important” or “essential” and 95.1 percent saying the same of discipline-specific knowledge. Other top goals include helping students to evaluate the quality and reliability of information (97.2 percent) and promoting the ability to write more effectively (96.4 percent).

Mary Bart April 1, 2009

Understanding Learning Styles Research and Instruments

Research on learning styles now spans four decades and occurs across a wide spectrum of disciplines, including many quite removed from psychology, the disciplinary home of many of the central concepts and theories that ground notions of learning style.

Maryellen Weimer, PhD March 31, 2009

Faculty Love It, Just Don’t Call It Assessment

In the corporate world, there’s long been talk of breaking down the workplace silos that often prevent true company-wide communication, collaboration, and growth. Now colleges are looking to get faculty out of their silos, as well. The catalyst? That old nemesis: learning outcomes assessment.

Mary Bart March 30, 2009

Creating a Class Participation Rubric

After years of stating my expectations for tutorial participation orally, I have developed a rubric that I think both improves my accountability as an assessor and provides my students with a clear sense of my expectations for class discussions. It also makes clear my focus in the small group setting: creating a “learners-centered,” as opposed to a “learner-centered,” environment.

Adam Chapnick PhD March 27, 2009

Transitioning from Faculty to Chair: The Importance of Aligning Values

In Tuesday’s post, we talked about a survey conducted by Brenda Coppard, chair of occupational therapy at Creighton University, on the transition from faculty to

Rob Kelly March 26, 2009

Top 10 Traits of an Effective Academic Leader

Despite all that has been written about leadership, the question still remains: What does it take to be an effective academic leader? At the risk of being redundant, and with apologies to David Letterman, here are the 10 characteristics that I have found to positively contribute to effective leadership.

Willis M. Watt PhD March 25, 2009

Five Things that Will Ease the Transition from Faculty to Department Chair

Inadequate preparation, unrealistic expectations, and increased workload can be overwhelming for faculty members making the transition to department chair. Brenda Coppard, chair of occupational therapy

Rob Kelly March 24, 2009

Group Work Ineffective? Try Pairing Students for Better Accountability, Learning

Although group work can provide a welcome change to the regular classroom routine, the results are rarely all positive. Invariably, one or two students in

Denise D. Knight March 20, 2009

Why Do Students Take Your Course?

If you ask students what they want to get out of a course, most give the same answer: an A (never mind if learning accompanies

Maryellen Weimer, PhD March 19, 2009

Tips for Teaching Large Classes Online

Jonathan P. Mathews, assistant professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering at Penn State University, teaches a high-enrollment (more than 400 students) general education online course, Energy and the Environment. Although he has two teaching assistants, the logistics of managing such a large class would be overwhelming without implementing the following course design and management ideas.

Rob Kelly March 17, 2009

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