In This Issue Current Issue Archives

May, 2006

The Teaching Professor - May, 2006 -Full Issue PDF
…

Critical Connections for the First Day of Class
By Joe Kreizinger
If you typically use most of each opening class session reviewing your course syllabus but seek a more engaging alternative, let me suggest focusing your first lesson on “making connections” rather than “giving directions.” The three “critical connections” I emphasize on opening day are (1) connecting students to instructor, (2) connecting instructor to content, and (3) connecting content to students. By focusing on these connections (and saving the syllabus for the second day of class), I aim to create a positive and productive working relationship with my students right from the start and, perhaps most important, to awaken in them early on the benefits of engaging with the subject matter.

Characteristics of Good Undergraduate Mentors
Interested in a good example of how teaching, scholarship, and service can be integrated into a single activity? Cecilia Shore suggests that mentorship of undergraduates doing scholarship (be it research in labs or bibliographic searches) may just be that example. Despite its potential, she observes that few resources exist to support efforts to assess this important professional role or to assist those who would like to improve how they work with undergraduates on scholarly projects.

What Will Happen to My Ratings?
At a recent workshop on learner-centered teaching, a participant told us that philosophically she couldn’t agree more with the need to make students more responsible for their own learning. She knew it was right, but she couldn’t go there because her ratings would take a hit. I assumed this meant she was a new faculty member and under scrutiny for tenure. I was amazed when she told me after the session that she was a full professor with years of tenure under her belt. With all that security, the chance of bad ratings was still preventing her from doing what she thought was right. She couldn’t incorporate changes that might improve learning outcomes because she would lose at the ratings game. At the time, I didn’t know how to answer. Now I’ve thought of several responses.

Using Student Lecture Reviews as an Extra Credit Option
By Eva Jackson Hester
During my more than 15 years of teaching, extra credit has not struck me as an appealing teaching or learning technique, although every semester students make the request.

Brain-based Learning Meets PowerPoint
By Elayne Shapiro
To PowerPoint or not, that is the question. For some, PowerPoint is the antithesis of active learning; for some, PowerPoint is the frame that helps students stay focused; and for some, PowerPoint is a tool to encourage active participation. Ever since my first exposure to Zull’s work on “brain-based learning,” I have looked for ways to use PowerPoint to help students foster connections that “change data into knowledge.”

Help! Students Who Need It; Students Who Seek It
When defined broadly, academic advising covers a lot of ground. It can help students with course content or with study strategies. It can help students understand financial aid or take advantage of various support services. It can help students choose and navigate through its many requirements to degree completion. It can help students become better decision makers—setting realistic goals, being honest with oneself and making good decision on one’s own. It can help launch a career—offering advice on interviewing and assessing job offers.

Assessment: Options and Opportunities
As interest in scholarly work on teaching and learning continues to grow and more faculty are trying their hands at work in this arena, materials are needed that summarize the available methods and approaches used in systematic analyses of classroom practices and learning outcomes. Just such a resource appeared last year in the Journal of Engineering Education.