Teaching Tips

Now that we are back in-person, many of us are excited to engage in those lively classroom discussions. Could you use a few pointers? The Chronicle article, How to Hold a Better Class Discussion, has many practical tips and suggestions. The article is nicely divided into sections:

• Why Discussion Matters
• 7 Strategies to Change the Norms of Class Discussions
• How to Keep a Discussion on Track
• Common Challenges: Participation Grades, Bad Answers, and Divisive Topics
• Resources

Don’t forget, you can access Chronicle articles directly through Denison’s institutional account.

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Trying something new this semester? It’s never too early to get feedback from your students. Here is a simple feedback technique I head from Dr. Sarah Wolff in Mathematics she calls KQS. Students complete the following:

1. Keep doing this
2. Quit doing this
3. Start doing this

It only takes a few minutes, and is a low-cost way to get some valuable feedback and act as a conversation started of why you do something a particular way.

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Class discussion plays a key role in many of our classes at Denison. So much so that many of us include class participation as a percentage of the course grade. But how do we access participation? Is it just how many times a student speaks in class? Does this reward the risk-taking extrovert and penalize the introvert who needs time to process?

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I’ve had quite a few first days since I taught my first class (last century, cough cough). Regardless, I’ve always reviewed Lang’s How to Teach a Good First Day of Class since it first appeared in the Chronicle a few years ago. It is always updated for the new school year and focuses on four key concepts to help set a productive first impression:

1. Curiosity
2. Community
3. Learning
4. Expectations

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With a few weeks before the start of classes, time to put those finishing touches on your syllabi. Want to get some productive feedback on your syllabus before you hand it to students? Join us Monday, August 23 from 2-4 us for Teaching as Intentional Process & Critical Practice: A Syllabus Workshop  facilitated by Dr. Michael Reder of Connecticut College. 

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One common challenge of expert instructors is understanding the learning needs of novice students, known as the expert blindspot. Between semesters, a group of Denison faculty participated in the Rubik’s Cube Challenge: An Expert Blindspot Learning Adventure with colleagues from Furman University.
Not only did Dr. Jane Saffitz, Anthropology and Sociology, learn how to solve the cube, but the experience provided insight into her students’ learning.

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Need a change of pace from articles? Go on a walk and listen to this podcast Season 2, Episode 5: What Inclusive Instructors Do with Tracie Marcella Addy, Derek Dube, Khadijah A. Mitchell, and Mallory SoRelle. Colleagues at Lafayette College share their findings about inclusive teaching from researching their upcoming book: What inclusive instructors do.

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Recently, I was taken aback by a text from my son: “Super super super stressed out agh.” He is in his sophomore year, with a heavy schedule, but this was out of the ordinary for the “iceman” (a nickname I gave him for always being cool under pressure, and a Bjorn Borg reference). Clearly my son is not alone.

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When colleague’s want me to observe their class for formative feedback, I always ask them to share two or three things they are working on in which feedback would be helpful. For example, working to involve more students, trying to summarize class in the last five minutes, organizing my board work, etc. This helps me to focus the observation and provide more useful feedback.

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The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework helps faculty redesign existing assignments and activities in a manner that makes the purpose and expectations clearer to students. These redesigned assignments have been demonstrated to increase academic confidence, sense of belonging, and metacognitive awareness for all students, with historically underserved students experiencing the greatest benefits. 

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