In This Issue Current Issue Archives

February, 2008

The Teaching Professor - February, 2008 - Full Issue Audio MP3
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The Teaching Professor - February, 2008 - Full Issue PDF
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‘Warming’ the Climate for Learning
By Sandra Allen, Columbia College Chicago
When educators talk about climate, they don’t mean global warming. In academic circles, climate refers to the atmosphere of warmth existing between the teacher and the students. Much research suggests that few other factors produce a more lasting impact on learning than the professor’s approval or disapproval of the student’s work, and their in-class interactions.

Can Training Make You a Better Teacher?
Countless workshops, seminars, retreats, and other training opportunities are offered under the assumption that they can positively affect how faculty teach, which in turn will help students learn more. It seems pretty obvious, but solid empirical evidence supporting these positive benefits is not widespread. In fact, there’s more evidence that short-term interventions, such as an afternoon workshop, don’t have much of an effect when it comes to sustained behavior change.

Police Officer or Professor?
By Peter J. Kakela, Michigan State University
I’m not sure how to say this without appearing either arrogant or ignorant, but I have discovered that there is a difference between being a police officer and being a professor. I have recognized the difference for some time now, but it has taken me the better part of my 40 years as a college professor to feel fairly comfortable in my new skin.

What Do Students Think about Active Learning?
Do students understand why faculty members work so hard to get them engaged with course material? Is it clear to students that involvement and learning (deep, lasting learning, that is) go hand in hand? One good place to look for answers to these questions might be a required, general education course. And that is precisely the venue Patricia Machemer and Pat Crawford chose in order to study student perceptions of active learning.

Student Engagement: Trade-offs and Payoffs
By E. Shelley Reid, George Mason University, VA
I dread the moments when I look out into a classroom and see a collection of blank stares or thumbs clicking on tiny keypads: a pool of disengaged students, despite what I thought was a student-centered activity. Recently, I have been considering how teachers (me specifically) undermine our own efforts to engage students. We do that by putting certain educational goals above getting and keeping students involved. If I sense a lack of energy and involvement on the part of students, right then, I may need to adjust my teaching methods, even if that means sacrificing some other laudable goals. Here are some examples that illustrate what I mean.

Letting Students Set the Rules
If the idea of students setting the rules for classroom behavior makes you shudder, you just might be interested in what happened when Professor Jeannie DiClementi tried this approach in an introductory psychology course and then compared results with a class where students thought she had set the rules.

Writing (Even a Little Bit) Facilitates Learning
The message of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement seems to have gotten through. Developing student writing skills is a responsibility we all share. We cannot expect our colleagues in English to do it alone. What is less well known is that the power of writing to positively impact learning outcomes has been proved. And the very best news of all is that the kind of writing linked to more and better learning is not just the formal paper with numerous instructor comments and/or rewrite options.

Freaks and Brainiacs
In an essay that covers a range of pedagogical issues, Dale M. Bauer describes the following classroom incident. It’s the end of the semester and Professor Bauer is conducting a review discussion. “I end the semester by asking detailed questions about the concepts that inform and unite the books we have read; because I don’t give a final exam, this review gives me a chance to bring the nine novels we have read into some kind of dialogue with each other.” (p. 159)