Group items tagged

What if you asked students to answer an open-ended question as a way of taking attendance? "When we trace back the meaning of attend through Old French (atendre) to its Latin root (attendere), we can see that when we attend, we are "stretching our mind toward" something. The attendance question gets students to pay attention through inviting them to stretch their minds toward a question which has no right answer."

"We have built our entire educational system, but in particular our course design, on the (ableist) assumption of near-100% attendance from near-100% of the students."

Richard Detweiler's study correlates students' classroom experiences with their lifelong achievement of mission goals of liberal arts colleges.

The New York Times reports on a recent study further confirming the benefits of regular, low-stakes testing. Benefits included grade and attendance improvements compared to a former class of equal size and notable improvements among students from lower-income households.

Some interesting ideas in this article about why students do and don't use office hours, and ways to make your office hours more convenient and less threatening. The idea of offering topical group "office hours" struck me as particularly interesting... maybe office hours would seem less threatening if they weren't always one-on-one.

Do bullet points oversimplify the nuanced arguments in a lecture? I'm not prepared to give an unequivocal "yes" like this author, but I think questioning your PowerPoint style (and perhaps your students' lecture-attending style) is a good exercise.

I am not a fan of "extra credit" in general, but this faculty member has a compelling structure for it. I see three strengths: extra credit is available throughout the semester, not just at the end; it's based on reflection and analysis, not just attendance; and it encourages students to participate in campus events while using the lessons of the course.

The author says "information that is best determined collaboratively with students, should not be prescribed by the professor on day 1." What do you think of his examples?

From the "Poetry Unbound" podcast, a poem which, on its surface, is about the importance of saying our students' names correctly, but also about approaching difficult moments with charity and strength.

Some very interesting ideas in here, but the first one is truly revolutionary. Want to know why your students are skipping class? Ask them.