Readings about Teaching

As part of our efforts to increase support for and conversations about teaching, learning, and research, please find below some articles that might be useful. If you come across any that look interesting that you would like me to share here, please let me know!

Academic Honesty/Teaching Research Skills

• Inside Higher Ed weighed in again to the discussion of how we should deal with student’s increasing use of Wikipedia with this article bearing the dubious title, “Does Wikipedia Suck”? http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/instant_mentor/weir22 Of course, there is always the very thoughtful and early entry to this discussion, as most of you will remember, from our own Mark Wilson.
• http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/04/01/wilson

Advising Writing

• As we help our students make that final push with Senior I.S., the tips in this article on a “Writing Routine” (http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/dissertation/single7 ) might prove helpful. I also find these suggestions valuable for all of us in finding time to do some writing during the press of the semester!

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Class Participation and Discussion

• How do you grade class participation? This Chronicle article discusses strategies for grading student involvement in class: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/How-to-Grade-Students-Class/23726/
• Does it matter is students are not talking in class? In today’s Chronicle of Higher Education, an English professor at CUNY discusses how to deal with quiet students, and whether we should care: http://chronicle.com/article/Whats-the-Problem-With-Quiet/124258/

Course Evaluations and Bias

• These linked articles discuss current research on potential gender/racial/sexuality bias in course evaluations.

Creativity

• This evocative article comes via Jenna Hayward. “Creativity and Collaboration in the Small College Department” by Wendy Moffat provides some interesting models for pedagogy and departmental collaboration

Distractions in the Classroom

• Following a Teaching Matters sessions on distractions in the classroom, Gary Gillund forwarded this thoughtful piece on the connection between laptop use and grades: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-stop-surfing-after-being-shown-how-in-class-laptop-use-lowers-test-scores/4576
• An increasing issue for many faculty is whether or not to allow the use of laptops in class. Here is a thoughtful discussion of this from Inside Higher Ed: “Laptop Bans Are a Terrible Idea ” http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/laptop_bans_are_a_terrible_idea. How do you handle laptops in the classroom?

Diversity in the Classroom

• This report from Denise Bostdorff, Ellen Falduto, and Anne Gates provides thoughtful ideas on teaching first generation students.

Using Film in the Classroom

• From the Film Studies program, this form has proven useful to faculty in teaching from film.

Grading

• How to deal with that “B” student who thinks that he or she should have gotten an “A”. It can be found at this link: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/To-the-B-Student-Who-Thinks/20792/?sid=at

Group Projects

• Carnegie Mellon has a good article on website on designing effective group projects:  http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/index.html
• In defense of group projects, Carol L. Colbeck, Susan E. Campbell and Stefani A. Bjorklund write “Grouping in the Dark: What College Students Learn from Group Projects”:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2649282?seq=3
• This article by Larry K. Michaelsen of Central Missouri State University discusses some interesting design features of effective group projects.
• Columbia University’s Teaching and Learning Center provides this document to help design group work.

Lecturing

• Although more of us are moving away from straight lecturing, a great lecture can still be a powerful teaching tool. Here is a fun article from Inside Higher Ed providing the “10 Commandments of Lecturing”: http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/instant_mentor/weir3. I particularly like commandment VII.

Miscellaneous Teaching Advice

• A “carnival” of teaching advice from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Teaching-Carnival-42/27382/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
• This article provides a nice compendium of ideas for the first week of class, coming from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/From-the-Archives-Preparing/26067/

• This article presents some good tips for teaching difficult or controversial topics. Pace, D. (2003)“Controlled Fission: Teaching Supercharged Subjects”, College Teaching v51 n2 p42-45.

Team Teaching

• Here is a quick article on how to think about Team Teaching: Joshua Landy, Lanier Anderson “Ten commandments of Team-Teaching” http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/712.html

• “How Teaching Changed My Mind about the iPad” http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-with-the-ipad/28652.

 Visual Literacy

• This article by Laurel Bradley entitled “Curricular Connections: The College/University Art Museum as Site for Teaching and Learning” provides a nice discussion of how the museum can serve as a site for learning.
• Kimerly Rorschach discusses “Why do Universities have Museusms“