A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the importance of using recall to learn new concepts and ideas. According to the article, two psychology journals just published papers showing that the strategy of recall works. According to the author David Glenn, recall is when students put down the text or notes that […]
Continue Reading 1 comment May 11th, 2009
Instructors can have a less than easy time trying to implement teaching strategies that are outside of certain methods, like lecturing. There are other effective alternatives to lecturing, however. One of these alternatives is group learning, which has its merits. Team-Based Learning is also one of these alternatives that is growing in momentum and offers […]
Continue Reading April 3rd, 2009
We found this list of ten “commandments of lecturing” by Rob Weir interesting. Weir generated a list of ten policies for instructors to follow when they lecture. Please read the list and feel free to share your own ideas. I. Thou shalt connect new lectures to previous ones. II. Thou shalt move beyond chalk and […]
Continue Reading 1 comment March 24th, 2009
The use of Wikipedia for class assignments or as a citation source has been an ongoing debate. Some professors accept the website’s use, usually after encouraging their students to caution what they take from the website. Other professors absolutely abhor the use of the website by their students. Robert E. Cummings says that he has […]
Continue Reading 1 comment March 20th, 2009
The idea that a 60 minute lecture can be condensed into 60 seconds may sound absurd and even impossible, but there are some instructors in higher education who seem to think otherwise. The “Microlecture” is gathering followers across different disciplines in college teaching. Supporters of the one-minute lecture think that condensing a lesson strictly to […]
Continue Reading March 6th, 2009
It’s no secret that people learn in different ways. The key to success in teaching is realizing that people learn differently and finding ways to incorporate different learning styles into our classes. Recently, we held a workshop titled Pragmatic Practices for Teaching Assistants, Learning Styles that addressed how to assess learning styles and how to […]
Continue Reading February 26th, 2009
Using a framework to provide effective, impactful, and quality education is not a new concept. While grounding pedagogy in theory is important, Teaching Assistants more often are interested in how to implement educational practices that will result in student learning. Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) 7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education is a foundational […]
Continue Reading February 18th, 2009
Here are just a few pictures from the Third Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair, held on Friday, February 6, 2009 in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Barbara Millis, from the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Teaching and Learning Center, presented the keynote, Persisting with Passion: A Summary in Break-throughs in Teaching and Learning. For more information on […]
Continue Reading February 9th, 2009
A recent string of ideas came across the Lilly Conference on College Teaching listserv recently. Here is a sampling of some ideas you can try in your large lecture class to remember students’ names: From L. Dee Fink (author of a great book – Creating Significant Learning Experiences): …(L)earning names is extremely helpful but challenging […]
Continue Reading January 20th, 2009
As the semester is about to begin, it’s time to think about the most important day of the entire semester… the first day of class. The first day of class sets the tone for the entire semester. While most of us plan to simply go over the syllabus, there are other things that we can […]
Continue Reading January 9th, 2009
