October 2007

The Teaching Professor - October, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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The Teaching Professor - October, 2007 - Full Issue Audio MP3
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Rethinking Assessment
By Jerry Reed, Valencia Community College, Orlando, FL, and Nancy Small Reed
In large, introductory courses, student learning is typically assessed with machine-scored multiple choice tests. This approach works well when the course is a new one or the instructor teaches part-time. Other busy faculty are persuaded to adopt the approach by the helpful test item bank that comes with the text. But students still see these tests as overly abstract, anxiety-provoking, and contrived. Based on our experience, we think that there are better ways to assess learning.

Two Special Opportunities
The deadline for submitting a program proposal for the Teaching Professor Conference is October 19, 2007. Topic suggestions and proposal guidelines can be found at the Teaching Professor website: www.teachingprofessor.com/. Also in October, the editor is beginning a series of Magna Online Seminars using an interview format with authors of new and noteworthy books.

Writing an Analytical Paper in Chunks
By Rita Duarte Marinho, Towson University, MD
The following system breaks up the writing of an analytical paper into four steps I refer to as “chunks.” I have used this system with lower-level and upper-level courses. I have used it with group writing projects and individual writing projects.

Getting to Know You: The Importance of Establishing Relationships
By Patricia Kohler-Evans, University of Central Arkansas
About two or three semesters ago, I conducted an informal experiment with two of my classes. With one, on the first night of class, I asked students their names and major courses of study. I introduced myself in much the same way, with a brief statement about my chosen field.

Does the Administration Support Teaching?
The disconnect between faculty and administrative perspectives on support for teaching is not a figment of our imaginations. It’s real—supported by any number of research findings. Because both sides are somewhat vested in the answer, the truth may be a bit hard to come by. However, the analysis referenced below includes a faculty suggestion that offers a very viable answer to the dilemma.

Some Lessons Learned about Learner-Centered Teaching
Because so much of what college teachers learn about teaching they learn from experience, there is a bit of a tradition of senior faculty sharing instructional wisdom with beginners. It’s not a strong tradition or one that has any consistent format, but, with some regularity, articles and sometimes even books appear in which the “senior” attempts to distill lessons that can be passed on to those more “junior.”

A Behavior Contract That Made a Difference
By Lori Norin and Tom Walton, University of Arkansas—Fort Smith
It seemed that almost every day we would come back to our offices after our speech classes with a frown on our faces and the need to tell a story about the latest shenanigans that happened in class. A student “accidentally” showed an inappropriate image on a PowerPoint slide during his speech. A student walked in 20 minutes late during a classmate’s speech—with a pizza in one hand, a Mountain Dew in the other, and a cell phone on one ear. A student refused to give her speech as scheduled and dared us to do something about it.