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November, 2009

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The Graduate Revisited: Not ‘Plastics’ but ‘Metacognition’
By Barbara Mezeske, Hope College, MI
In an iconic scene from the 1967 film The Graduate,, a successful businessman whispers in the ear of newly graduated Dustin Hoffman the one word which holds the key to everything: “plastics.” For teachers today, that word is “metacognition.”

Grading: Alternative Approaches
Students are very motivated by grades—we all know that. For that reason, it’s useful to consider alternative approaches that might affect not just the motivation to get the grade, but the motivation to learn and develop important skills. Here are highlights from two articles that propose these kinds of intriguing alterations.

Don’t Waste the First Day
By Kevin Brown, Lee University, TN
Despite the fact that numerous articles have been written on the importance of the first day, too many of us still use it to do little more than go over the syllabus and review basic guidelines for the course. This year I decided to try a different approach, and the results were much more dramatic than I expected. I taught real material on the first day.

Could We Hear from Somebody Else, Please?
By Elayne Shapiro, University of Portland, OR
Generating participation in a large class discussion is fraught with teaching land mines. We can call on people who raise their hands, but too often it is always the same people. We can ask to hear from someone else and risk offending those who have been volunteering, so that there are even fewer hands.

Uses for Participation
Participation is one of those workhorse instructional strategies—easy to use, straightforward, expected, and often quite successful at accomplishing a number of learning goals.

An Analysis of PowerPoint-Based Lectures
In many classrooms, PowerPoint slides have replaced the use of overhead projectors and the black (green or white) board. But despite their popularity, they aren’t used by all instructors. In fact, in a recent study of business faculty members, almost 33 percent of the respondents said that they never used PowerPoint slides. Believe it or not, that was the most common response given.

How Many Tests?
Most college teachers assume that more tests are better than a few. Why? What caused us to decide on three or four unit tests followed by a final? Is there evidence that students don’t do as well in courses where there are only a midterm and a final? Why do we think that more tests might be better? And what do we mean by better? Higher grades? More learning?

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION
The Teaching Professor Newsletter 2009