Articles and resources to empower your teaching experience.
Our foremost objective at Denison is to cultivate adept critical thinkers. Yet, as seasoned critical thinkers ourselves, we sometimes forget the steps required to nurture this valuable skill in our novice learners. Merely observing us critically analyze topics doesn’t automatically equip students with the same capabilities. We must adopt a deliberate approach. This short article by Dr.
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Students form a lasting impression on Day 1, not just of you as a teacher but of your course. This one-page newsletter gives a brief summary of the four key things to consider for that important first day, based on a piece by James Lang.
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Attendance has always been a tricky thing – how do we keep students accountable while at the same time being empathetic to their situation? The aftereffects of a global pandemic and the rising needs around mental health concerns have only exacerbated things.
In the Chronicle piece, When Students Miss Out, Beckie Supiano reports ways to get ahead of attendance issues.
Traditionally, the TTT goes on summer break until August, but I couldn’t help doing a quick check-in on ChatGPT. I am eager to return to the classroom after my sabbatical, but I need to figure out how to navigate this new technology. A lot has developed in the past few months, and I am curious to see how you will address this AI in the fall.
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Twice a year, I get that email that always causes a twinge in my stomach: your course evaluations are now available. Course evaluations can be tricky to navigate, whether it’s your first or fifteenth semester. In the compelling article, The Agony and the Ecstasy: Reading Your Student Evaluations, Regan A.R. Gurung offers invaluable insights into dealing with the emotional toll of student feedback.
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Whenever colleagues invite me to observe their classes for formative feedback, I always ask them to share two or three aspects they’re working on where they’d appreciate some constructive input. For instance, they could be aiming to engage more students, attempting to summarize the class within the last five minutes, or simply organizing their board work more effectively.
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Does your students’ writing seem vague? As we approach the final weeks of the semester and brace ourselves for the onslaught of paper revisions, John Orlando offers a fresh perspective that might hold the key to addressing this issue. In his insightful article, Writing versus Thinking Skills: A False Dichotomy, he posits that writing problems extending beyond basic grammar and spelling errors are, in fact, manifestations of muddled thinking.
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When I started teaching last century, I was hyper-sensitive about avoiding mistakes. Or at least that was my intent. However, welcoming mistakes and ambiguity in the classroom can spark your students’ curiosity. In their Chronicle article, How to Embrace Uncertainty in Your Teaching, Murphy and Levison give five simple ways to spark curiosity, including pursuing the unanticipated in class discussions and modeling not knowing (something I’ve grown more honest about).
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Over the past several decades, considerable scholarship has focused on conditions that promote students’ learning, retention, and transfer of academic knowledge. The term ‘science of learning’ is often used to describe this field of specialization. My center colleague, Dr. Chris Hakal, recently shared the free e-book In their own words: What scholars and teachers want you to know about why and how to apply the science of learning in your academic setting, which explores the history, principles, application, and practice of the ‘science of learning.
