Group items tagged

An interesting study out of Stanford. While drawn from experience with MOOCs, I think many of these principles are relevant to flipped classrooms at a small college as well. I was surprised by recommendations #3 and #4 (regarding "personal" vs. "professional" production values); I had expected high production values to be more important for classes with no face-to-face contact.

An interesting study out of Stanford. While drawn from experience with MOOCs, I think many of these principles are relevant to flipped classrooms at a small college as well. I was surprised by recommendations #3 and #4 (regarding "personal" vs. "professional" production values); I had expected high production values to be more important for classes with no face-to-face contact.

Rick Detweiler, president of the GLCA, presented data on the outcomes of a liberal arts education at the recent meeting of AAC&U.

This study takes the novel approach of comparing course evaluations for courses and follow-up courses and finds that "teacher effectiveness is negatively correlated with students' evaluations." Except for higher performing students, those who did better in follow up courses, indicating greater learning in the earlier courses, gave worse evaluations.

The next step after the standing desk, perhaps? (Certainly I'd have a better chance keeping a desk that small clean...)

"Students select or reject majors based in large part on the quality of the first college instructor they have in the discipline, new research finds."

Should you give your students your PowerPoint slides? The jury is still out on that one, but this article does list a few classroom strategies you can use to teach students what "good notes" really are and how they should be taking them and studying with them.

Interesting failure to replicate the 2014 study suggesting that longhand notetaking may be more effective than typing on a laptop. Perhaps we should expect our efficacy at using different writing tools to shift over time!

Great news about student resistance to active learning. Have the courage of your convictions!

Fascinating set of articles addressing the ways background music impacts memory, attention, mood, and task performance. (Really short version: quiet is usually better, but not for all tasks, and I'm interested in the ways improved mood and sense of control over the environment might counterbalance other distractors.)

James Lang wrote an essay for his college's newspaper encouraging students to use more effective study strategies.

Good review of a study, and a strong theoretical explanation for the benefits of longhand notetaking. Do check out the caveat at the end about the need to teach notetaking skills.

Interesting context as we look at expanding students' participation in the high-impact practices as part of the Kenyon 2020 plan.

Structured reflection with a trustworthy friend is a great way to improve your teaching, and can make it easier to conduct a project in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).

Rice University's Center for Teaching Excellence has updated their phenomenal course workload estimator to include time spent writing and studying for exams.

Interesting study showing the importance of consistent sleep in the weeks and months before exams, and not just the night before or catching up on weekends. Your bleary-eyed colleagues at the CIP suspect we would see this effect among faculty and staff as well.

"The study presented here explores the responses and perceptions of a group of first year students at an Irish university after their first contact with anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer-reviewed assignments. The results indicate that the use of anti-plagiarism software led to a decrease in Internet plagiarism and to lower grades being awarded in peer reviews. Additionally, students were found to have a positive attitude towards the anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer reviewed assignments." - from the abstract.

What do you do in teaching or advising to help students understand that the key to success in college is not "what you did in high school, but more of it"?

Do you know how your students prepare for your course? Which scholarly processes do you model for them?

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

"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.)