November, 2006

The Teaching Professor - November, 2006 - Full Audio MP3
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The Teaching Professor - November, 2006 - Full Issue PDF
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What College Professors Can Learn from K-12 Educators
By Sara E. Quay, Anthony Pastelis, Kathleen McLaughlin, and Elizabeth Cain
Unlike their college-level counterparts, those who teach students from kindergarten through high school (K-12) spend a significant portion of their education studying the “how” of teaching. What they learn can be invaluable to college professors who enter classrooms with vast content knowledge but little (or no) background in teaching and learning. Regrettably, college teachers often misunderstand what their K-12 colleagues do and know. As those who teach these teachers, we’d like to showcase some of what college professors can learn from those who teach younger students.

Course Portfolios: The Next Generation
Teaching portfolios continue to be used as an alternative way of documenting and describing the often-private work that occurs in the classroom. They have been followed by something even more specific, the course portfolio, which allows faculty to delve deeply into the details of a single course. A new book, Making Teaching and Learning Visible, takes course portfolios to a new level.

Reminders for Improving Classroom Discussion
By Roben Torosyan, Fairfield University (Connecticut)
Discussion is an essential element of many courses. Here are some techniques to improve the quality of discussion in your courses.

Developing an Alternate Assessment Exercise for an Introductory Chemistry Course
By James Ricky Cox, Murray State University, Kentucky
In recent years, my desire to teach students more than chemistry content has increased considerably. I now want my students (even those in nonmajor, introductory courses) to learn how chemistry connects to their daily lives. However, the use of alternate assessment techniques is not something I completely embraced before attending a workshop titled "163 Alternate Assessment Ideas" at the recent Teaching Professor Conference.

Office Hours in a Different Format
Faculty regularly face the problem of getting the students most in need of help to come to the office for help. Not only do a small number of students take advantage of office hours, typically those who show up are not those who most need to be there. This article explains how two professors supplemented their office hours with what they call "course centers."