In This Issue Current Issue Archives

June-July, 2006

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Death by Paper: Ten Secrets for Survival
By Frances S. Johnson
Despite the volumes of research that document the multiple benefits that accrue from writing, many faculty are reluctant to assign much, because if assigned it must be graded. Getting out from under the piles of research papers, reflective essays, reaction papers, and journals can be daunting. In the past 20 years, I have found several techniques that can help faculty in any discipline use writing to achieve it's many benefits and still manage the paper load.

Learning the Lessons of Silence
By Faye Marsha G. Camahalan
“The lessons of silence.” I found these four words in Lao Zi’s book, the Tao Te Ching. I have been ruminating over them lately. In our modern society more and more individuals fear stillness. In our classrooms, fewer students appreciate the sound of silence. Their faces light up when I give animated lesson presentations but wilt whenever I ask them to pause and think about the ideas we have just considered. Outside my classroom, I seldom see them minus headsets, earphones, or cell phones. They (and some of the rest of us) have yet to learn that the most profound ideas are born in moments of silence.

Is There a Place for Games in the College Classroom?
By Stacey Beth-Mackowiak Ayotte
It is not always easy to get each student to participate on a daily basis, but I’ve found that when I incorporate games into the classroom, new attitudes emerge and new personalities blossom. Those once inhibited learners open their mouths and contribute to the class. Because I teach a foreign language, participation and involvement may be more important for my students, but I still think there’s a place for games in many disciplines. I use games as warm-ups at the beginning of class and as ways for students to get to know each other.

Summer Reading: Three Excellent Books
In this, our summer newsletter issue, I’m summarizing material from three excellent books--Learning and Motivation in the Postsecondary Classroom by Marillia D. Svinicki, My Freshaman Year by Rebekah Nathan, and Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully by Larry Braskamp, Lois Calian Trautvetter, and Kelly Ward. I hope the summaries accomplish two objectives: first, that they give you new and relevant information helpful to your continuing efforts to grow and develop as a teacher, and second, that this information will be intriguing enough to motivate you to read the whole book.

Critical Thinking: It’s a Hard Skill to Teach
Are there any faculty members who don’t aspire to teach their students to think critically? For most of us it’s a given: critical thinking is one of the skills we would most like students to take from our courses. And yet most of us would also admit that teaching this skill is hard, and some students leave without having mastered it. Here's why.

In-Class Writing: A Technique That Promotes Learning and Diagnoses Misconceptions
By William S. Altman
Instructors need to gauge students’ comprehension and to discover what misconceptions they internalize as they learn. Unfortunately, the discovery of what students don’t understand emerges later, when we give examinations. By then it’s often difficult to remedy those incorrect ideas or approaches. I would like to share how I’ve adapted a technique so that it addresses this problem and accrues other benefits.

Getting to Know Your Students: Three Challenges
Several articles in this issue (as well as lots of material previously published in the newsletter) directly and indirectly reaffirm the importance of getting to know (as in understanding) your students. As important as that understanding is, Dean A. McManus shares three facts that make it a goal full of challenges.