Group items tagged

Annotating your syllabus with your students is a great way to practice transparency, clarify your expectations, and check your assumptions.

Specific scripts you can practice so you have an answer at the ready when conflict arises in the classroom.

"based on the collective experience, over many years, of CUR members who have engaged undergraduate students in research, .... Roger Rowlett, Linda Blockus, and Susan Larson have drawn on this extensive knowledge base to design an instrument to assist institutions to self- assess the maturity of their undergraduate research programs. The instrument aspires to present the best practices in undergraduate research."

"A meta-analysis of 62 studies involving 11,837 students indicated that... students participating in SL programs demonstrated significant gains in five outcome areas: attitudes toward self, attitudes toward school and learning, civic engagement, social skills, and academic performance. ... Furthermore, as predicted, there was empirical support for the position that following certain recommended practices--such as linking to curriculum, voice, community involvement, and reflection--was associated with better outcomes." (This link requires Kenyon authentication; the full citation is doi: 10.1177/105382591103400205 Journal of Experiential Education September/October 2011 vol. 34 no. 2 164-181.)

"Survey of literature and arts professors finds 60 percent see the practice as harmful to academic freedom -- although many favor general descriptions on a syllabus, even as they avoid labeling particular works."

This article outlines steps toward developing an ethos and reflective practice of inclusivity in the classroom.

Lots of people at Kenyon use Word's Track Changes or Turnitin's GradeMark. This post talks about ways to attach verbal comments to a document. (This idea is used by some language profs, as a way to get students some listening practice at the same time they're working on a written project.)

A qualitative study on the ways students use print and ebooks differently for personal reading and academic work. While the researcher admits that the study is self-selected and not generalizable, it presents interesting evidence about student preferences and decision making in reading generally.

Flipping the classroom is about more than students watching videos outside of class. It is about taking advantage newly available classroom time to lead students in active and engaging activities for improved learning outcomes. Developing new and effective activities can be a challenge and differs by discipline. This useful article discusses a range of practices at various universities and the offers thoughtful quotes from faculty about the pros and cons of those activities.

The way you state policies and practices on a syllabus communicates quite a bit about the classroom environment you're trying to shape. In this column, Mark Sample talks about revising his accessibility statement to best communicate his goals of academic success and inclusion.

Perhaps the biggest outcome of a liberal arts education should be the understanding that every discipline is more based on learned and practiced skills than innate aptitude. The four tips in this article might be boiled down to one umbrella concept - talk to your students about growth mindset.

Short, accessible articles summarizing literature and best practices around student course evaluations.

Everyone's looking for a way to make grading more efficient without sacrificing effectiveness. Most of these tips boil down to finding ways to make feedback engaging, usually by focusing on things the student can do to improve (in a rewrite or on the next assignment).

"Backward design" is a popular approach in planning a syllabus - start with your goals for what the students will learn and practice, and work back from there. This article suggests an interesting twist on that process. Concentrate on how your work will flow during the semester, and use your imagined ideal month to make sure you have the time and energy to meet your teaching goals.

A discussion of the meaning and practical interpretation by recent courts of the term "transformative." Folks in the fields of literature, music, and visual arts will find synopses of recent cases covering the specific application of the law with respect to their media. While not necessarily of direct importance to academicians in the classroom, these synopses should be of interest to anyone (faculty and students) who produce outside of the classroom.

This chapter from a University of Virginia handbook gives specific suggestions which can make the classroom more welcoming to people from all backgrounds. Some of the "suggestions" look more like probing questions for reflecting on your own teaching - which is also a good thing! Also available as a PDF at http://trc.virginia.edu/resources/420-2/teaching-a-diverse-student-body-handbook/

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

We talk a lot about the value of "active learning"; this essay makes some interesting points about what that looks like in practice. There are some obvious differences in what "active learning" looks like in large schools like the author's and small schools like Kenyon, but the principles are worth considering.