Teaching strategies and techniques
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Teaching strategies and techniques
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In the classroom
- Scenes from a Classroom: Making Active Learning Work is an on-line tutorial offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning
Services at the University of Minnesota.
- Donald L. Finkel and G. Stephen Monk, “Teachers and learning groups:
Dissolution of the Atlas Complex.” (PDF) — A very
interesting article on issues about the instructor’s role in the
classroom. A passage from the final section: “The Atlas complex is a
state of mind that keeps teachers fixed in the center of their
classroom, supporting the entire burden of responsibility for the course
on their own shoulders. This state of mind is hardened by the
expectations that surround teachers and by the
impact of the experience that results from them.”
- The Tools for Teaching: First
Day of Class (Jossey Bass 1993), offers a list of tips and
tools.
- A self-reflective exercise on classroom practice: Professor
Ken Bain of New York University has developed an exercise, Capturing
the Particulars of Classroom Practic e, that asks you to explore a “telling
moment” in your classroom practice to learn more about your teaching.
Lectures and oral presentations
- Designing Smart Lectures is an on-line tutorial offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning Services at the University of Minnesota.
- Tools for Teaching: Delivering
a Lecture (Jossey Bass 1993), has a long list of tips and
tools.
- The Berkeley Office of Educational Development offers advice
on oral presentation techniques, including General
Considerations, Delivery
Dos and Don’ts, and How
to Make Your Speaking Easier and More Effective.
- How Do I Improve
My Lectures?, advice from Ken Bain, Director of the NYU Center for Teaching Excellence.
- Twenty
ways to make lectures more participatory is provided by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching
and Learning, Harvard University.
- Interactive
Lectures, offered by the Office of Instructional Consulation at the University
of California, Santa Barbara, is a good listing of tips.
Discussion
Communication, information literacy and writing
- The University of Minnesota distributes a very useful
“Student Writing Guide” (PDF)
aimed at their new students, both freshmen and transfers. Although some
of it focuses on the Minnesota requirements, most of it would be useful
for our students as well. It covers such areas as, “What do I need to
know about university writing?” and “How can I succeed with writing at
the university?” It tries to distinguish between high school and
university writing.
- The UW–Madison Writing
Center offers one-stop shopping for support and assistance. If that is not enough,
the Writing Center offers connections to other
online writing centers.
- The UW–Madison
Writing Across the Curriculum project offers help to faculty, instructional staff
and teaching assistants in integrating writing across the curriculum
- Encouraging
Student Writing: A Guide for Instructors(PDF), Office of Instructional Development,
University of California, Berkeley, is a useful online booklet containing sections,
among others, titled Eight Not-So-Good Reasons for Not Assigning Writing, Teaching
Writing (with subsections on important problems such as incorporating writing in courses,
developing writing assignments and plagiarisms), and a section of 10 Tip Sheets for
Writers, ranging from the active and passive voice, to moving from subject to thesis,
guidelines for introductions, and what to do when you get a paper back.
Large introductory courses
- Have you ever wondered why you get a sea of blank faces when you think
you are being stimulating? Consider the observations of Jonathan
Malesic, who tells his tale of epiphany in The Smell of Indoctrination
in the Morning,
published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in October, 2005.
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A new email and web-based discussion list has been developed to serve
faculty, staff, and teaching assistants who teach large introductory
courses, who are planning them, or who work in areas that support or
assist instructors and students in large introductory courses. The Large Class Discussion List [need new URL?] may be used to seek or share
information or resources, share best practices, deal with dilemmas, ask
questions, debate principles … anything (within reason) that you think
will help you and your colleagues do the best job we can in providing
our students with the best quality education possible. It is appropriate
to focus on nitty gritty details (what are the rules about dealing with
grade complaints?), broader questions of practice (how do you get more
people involved in discussion?), or the big philosophical questions
(what SHOULD we try to accomplish in an introductory humanities
course?). [Reword this?]To view the digest of past messages, go to the
login page [need new URL?].
To join, go to the login page or send a blank message to
subscribe-largeclasses@lists.services.wisc.edu.
- The Teaching
Large Courses Project was funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee
(AUTC), a national body aimed at improving teaching and learning in Australian universities,
through the identification of emerging issues in teaching and learning, supporting
the identification of effective strategies for enhancing learning, and encouraging
the dissemination and adoption of these methods across the Australian university sector.
It is a very impressive and professional site with a wide array of resources, including
a scholarly literature review, cases, best practices and links.
- The University of Western Ontario Teaching
Large Classes site has a guide to teaching large classes, a primer on PowerPoint,
and “ask the expert” site and more.
- Campus Instructional Consulting at Indiana University sponsors
Frequently Asked Questions
about Teaching Large Classes.
- University of Maryland Center for Teaching Excellence site,
Teaching Large Classes,
has resources, a newsletter and links.
- The University of Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence hosts
Using Writing
in Large Classes.
- Teaching
Large Classes Well: Solutions from Your Peers, from the Penn State Center for
Excellence in Learning and Teaching Forum on Large Classes.
- Richard J. Anderson, Ruth Anderson, Tammy Vandegrift, Steven
Wolfman, Ken Yasuhara. Promoting
Interaction In Large Classes With Computer-Mediated Feedback (PDF).
- If you have RealPlayer, see the 15-minute video, Teaching
Large Classes, produced by the Office of Instructional Development and Technology
at Dalhousie University.
Case-based or problem-based methods
- Problem- or case-based teaching originated in various professional
fields, but now finds advocates and adapters in many fields.
- Problem-Based
Learning (PDF). Speaking of Teaching: Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching
11 (1), 2001, contains background on this approach, methods, advice on how to start
and bibliography.
- National
Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, University of Buffalo.
Collaborative learning
Critical thinking
- The Critical Thinking Source, at the Center for Teaching and Learning Services at the University of Minnesota, is aimed at helping instructors help their students become better at critical thinking. The site includes “Essential Points,” an annotated bibliography, and an annotated list of other resources available on the web.
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