Group items tagged

We complain about students' distractability, but what can we do in the classroom to practice holding focus?

In a hyperactive age and an academic culture which tends to reward quick thinking, how can we model the process of slowing down to notice details and let ideas form? Most faculty are aware of the importance of not always calling on the most eager students; this article suggests 7 other kinds of pauses which you could introduce in your classes to give students room to mull over the topic.

How can the CIP help protect time for "quiet conversation and stillness of mind" without adding yet another darn thing to the calendar of events? (The success of this year's writing groups suggests one way...)

The author's review of the readership statistics for his own papers has some implications for both open access and information literacy instruction.

Active learning in the classroom can increase student engagement and improve learning outcomes but how can instructors be sure to include introverts in an environment that tends to favor extroverts? The article outlines a framework for thinking about engaging all learners without leaving introverts behind and details some simple techniques for doing so.

"Our real goal is to improve how students integrate new information. We want to change them. While what we have to teach our students may get them a first job, it will not on its own get them a second job-especially one that may not yet even exist. We want our students to be able to learn new things, analyze new knowledge, integrate it into their thinking, and change their minds when necessary." Jose Bowen argues that we should treat both technology and disciplinary content as tools, in pursuit of the larger cognitive changes we try to create in the liberal arts.

A review of the book "Minds On Fire", which discusses "subversive play" as an engaging pedagogy. Part 3 in a series on the "Reacting to the Past" series of "role-immersion" games; the other 2 entries are linked from this one.

I was particularly interested by the finding that mind wandering which is related to the subject may actually be good for learning - if you ask the questions which encourage the students to wander that way.

Interesting online tool for examining your perspectives on teaching (broken down into beliefs, intentions, and actions). The guidance to have a specific type of course or student in mind seems powerful; are you a different teacher for majors and non-majors, first-years and seniors?

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."

This is the second of two MOOC-related stories in the Chronicle yesterday. I am "taking" a MOOC at the moment, which is taught by a professor at Duke University. I do get the feeling that he is treating me (and all the students in the MOOC) with respect, but I can imagine a situation in which this may not be the case. The conveners of the meeting that drafted this "Bill of Rights" clearly want to send the message that online educators should have the best interests of their students FIRST and foremost in their minds. I stress FIRST here because the drafters of the document want to avoid having MOOC students become a commodity that can be sold such as with social media participants (e.g., Facebook).

"Rechtschaffen (2014) notes that "Students are told to pay attention a thousand times in school, but rarely are they taught how" (p.10), and we have observed that before our focusing activities students generally seemed distracted, stressed, and irritated. After the focusing activity, their posture became more relaxed and they seemed more receptive to learning."

"Wouldn't it be nice if there were a movement for reading like there was for 'slow food'?" A recap of Vassar's efforts to understand and support the reading culture on campus.

"In my view, the way to defend the value of college is to defend the importance of intellectual virtues and then show that the education that colleges provide is successful at cultivating those virtues." Swarthmore psychologist Barry Schwartz gives an interesting list of the habits of mind which are the components of "critical thinking."

We had a conversation in a staff meeting recently about "contemplative pedagogy"; this conversation from Xavier University of Louisiana's podcast is a good introduction. The way that contemplation plays into theory formation and the understanding of complex models is particularly interesting.

"perhaps VAK is just a version of the same problem scholars run into time and again, the pull of catchy-but-wrong ideas against the nebulous, unsatisfying ones that are closer to the truth."

An interesting concept map of different theories of how we learn (or learn best), and how they relate. It's admittedly oversimplified, but an interesting start. (Also an example of what you can make with mind-mapping software.)

Professors share their tips making summer break plans for productivity and peace of mind.

If we want students to be more mindful about digital distractions, they may need intentional training, not shaming or blanket orders.

I have to admit I can't reliably tell "resting scholar face" from "I think you're an idiot face". This might be a valuable resource not only for your own presentations, but for you to share with students before you have them presenting in class.