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.

Course evaluations - everyone does them and nobody is happy with them. A Berkeley statistics professor writes a thorough and readable run-down of why student course evaluations are mostly worthless at measuring what they purport to measure - teaching effectiveness. He also offers useful suggestions for better methods of assessing courses, but they are time consuming.

According to the authors, much of what is widely claimed about learning styles - primarily that learners learn best when they learn in their preferred mode, be it visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically - is simply not backed up with research. They believe that the widespread belief in learning styles has real costs to teachers and students. Faculty neglect other, well-established learning theories and students neglect other modes of learning out of a misplaced belief that they can't learn well in those modes.

A very fascinating, interactive chart that allows you to search for the incidence of words used to describe male and female teachers in millions of RateMyProfessor.com reviews.

I've spoken with faculty who are using Problem-Based Learning effectively in their classrooms but were not aware the practice had a name, nor that it had a substantial body of research literature. Here's a sample that outlines the reasons it is an effective practice, best practices, and practical examples plus a brief discussion of the constructivist principles at work. It comes to us at Kenyon through JSTOR.

Instructors of introductory science classes at Kenyon face the dual challenge of historically large class sizes and the nationally low number of minority and first-gen students completing science programs. This article reviews research that makes a strong case for active learning as a more effective way to engage students in larger classes and to significantly improve the performance of disadvantaged students in those classes.

A great set of resources on finding and effectively reading the scholarship of teaching and learning.

People learn best when they are forced to retrieve the information and concepts repeatedly over time but most people haven't learned to study in ways that do this. Consequently, it may be more effective to move from the common practice of giving a few, high-stakes tests to giving numerous low stakes quizzes to assess and improve learning.

The article reports on a meta-analysis of 225 studies on the effectiveness of active learning techniques in undergraduate STEM classrooms. If anybody needs more evidence that techniques to actively engage students are more effective than the traditional passive lecture and listen classrooms, this report offers compelling numbers. Students in those traditional classes are found to be 1.5 times more likely to fail than those in classes with active learning components. Students in active learning classes earn grades that are, on average, 6% better than their counterparts in traditional classes.

Like many people, I prefer to take notes on my computer rather than writing with a pen or pencil because I can type much faster than I can write longhand. The authors report on a study which indicates conceptual understanding is deepened when one takes notes by hand. The study points to benefits resulting from a greater level of "encoding" of the information because of "selective strategies" employed when a person can't simply type everything verbatim.

A well-done overview of screencasting that covers the pedagogical benefits of screencasts, strategies for using them effectively, a review of tools and techniques for producing them and useful links for further reading.

Wikipedia provides great opportunities for students to learn about the construction of knowledge while contributing to it by analyzing and writing for the online encyclopedia. Written by a very active contributor to Wikipedia and the scholarship surround its development ,this article provides a very useful and concise introduction for anybody interested in teaching with Wikipedia.

The author discusses a report on the value of having students evaluate their peer's presentations in the political science classroom. Being required to evaluate their peer's presentations using the same criteria as the instructor uses, students report a greater understanding of the expectations for the presentations and gain more knowledge from the content of those presentations than they would have otherwise.

The author details a number of critiques of Turnitin's recently released study purporting to show that Turnitin use results in a major decrease in plagiarism at institutions where it is used. The core of the critique is that Turnitin tends to start in classrooms where plagiarism has been a problem so the baseline is high and that it is often used in conjunction with a campus discussion about academic honesty and how to teach in ways that inhibit the drive to plagiarize.

Turnitin released a report covering over 1,000 institutions for a five year period that shows a substantial decrease in what it calls "unoriginal writing" at schools using Turnitin. While some of that reduction is certainly a result of using Turnitin, there are a number of flaws to their claims which we'll see in a follow-up post to this one.

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.

Kenyon's own Harry Itagaki reports on his experience using mock NSF-type grant proposals and blind peer review as the major assignment in his 300-level courses. 

Kenyon's own Harry Itagaki reports on his experience using mock NSF-type grant proposals and blind peer review as the major assignment in his 300-level courses.

Self-awareness is a central component to the Liberal Arts mission and this article lays out simple strategies to promote metacognitive awareness without setting aside class time for it.

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.

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.