In This Issue Current Issue Archives

December, 2008

The Teaching Professor - December, 2008 - Full Issue PDF
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The Teaching Professor - December, 2008 - Full Audio Issue MP3
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Collecting Colleagues for Teaching and Learning
Colleagues can play such an important role in our development as teachers. Most of the time, though, many of us don’t make use of them in ways that really help us grow pedagogically. As noted in other articles in the newsletter, we don’t have the kind of rich, provocative exchanges that challenge our thinking and take us to places of new insight.

Daily Experts: A Technique to Encourage Student Participation
By Angie Thompson, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia
If you’re interested in approaches that encourage students to speak in class and develop their public-speaking skills, as well as techniques that help you learn student names, then my “daily experts” strategy may be of use to you.

PollEverywhere.com: Turning Cell Phones into a Tool for Student Engagement
By Michelle Freeman, Tusculum College, TN and Kent N. Schneider, East Tennessee State University
Cell phones often are a source of distraction in the classroom. Despite admonitions to turn them off, someone forgets and everyone hears the incoming call. Text messaging, on the other hand, tends to distract the instructor but no one else. Rather than fight the texting, perhaps instructors can engage students by encouraging them to text about the class subject matter.

Five Questions from Missouri
By Christopher Baker, Armstrong Atlantic State University, GA
Students too often write “for the teacher” instead of imagining a critical reader, who can be hard for them to conceive of and even harder to convince. I help my students to conceptualize an interested yet judgmental reader by asking them to think of that reader as being from Missouri, the “Show Me” state. This nickname originated with Congressman Willard Vandiver, who declared in an 1899 speech that “frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Vandiver’s distrust of “frothy eloquence” is shared by readers who expect thoughtful content, efficient structure, and clear sentences. I challenge my students to imagine a skeptical reader who expects them to answer five important questions that will demand critical writing and thinking. These questions can help students with a variety of writing assignments across a range of disciplines.

Expectations: Students Stepping Up
Some years back the newsletter contained an article highlighting Mano Singham’s wonderful piece describing how he moved away from a very authoritarian, rule-centered syllabus (reference below). It’s one of my very favorite articles—I reference it regularly in presentations, and it appears on almost every bibliography I distribute. Since its publication in 2005, Singham has continued to explore the role of the syllabus in his courses (and elsewhere) and has become even more convinced that many faculty are using the syllabus in ways that more effectively hinder than promote learning.

Text Highlighting: Helping Students Understand What They Read
By Lydia Conca, Saint Joseph College, CT
Do you have students who have difficulty understanding assigned readings? Do you have students who don’t complete the readings or don’t even bother bringing their books to class? A better question might be how many? Many college students struggle with their reading assignments.

Caring about Students
Most faculty (especially those reading a publication like this) do care about students. We wouldn’t be doing all that we do if we didn’t. However, some semesters are long, some students are difficult, we get behind, we have too much on our plates, and we get stressed and tired. When that’s how we’re feeling we don’t always show that concern in tangible ways.

Peer Assessment: Making It Work Well in Small Groups
“We cannot assume … that students will learn how to become better group members simply by participating in group activities.” Diane Baker (reference below) makes this observation in a first-rate article on peer assessment in small groups. Here’s a sampling of the ideas, information, and resources included in her article.

Teaching Transformation
By Patricia H. Phelps, University of Central Arkansas
As I’ve developed as teacher, my attention shifted from self to students. Although this is a natural progression for teachers, it is not automatic. Some teachers remain the focal point of the learning process. This transfer of focus has been the impetus for changing how I teach. In planning for classes now, I continually ask how I can get students out of the stands and onto the field.