Center for Innovative Pedagogy

Some strategies for creating a space for failure in the classroom to encourage students to learn better on their own.

A broad ranging survey of best practices, unlikely successes, and unacknowledged challenges in the critique of student work that stresses the importance of authentic communication that directs both the students and the instructors themselves on how to improve their work.

A new online hub for promoting diversity in STEM education with relevant articles, personal stories, and profiles of advocates in higher education.

A sketch of how liberal arts colleges foster learning through personal encounters, inquiry-rich campus culture, and research applied in the classroom.

An English composition instructor reflects on the difficulty of initiating the transfer of skills across disciplines and contexts and recounts his own struggles learning to write for a broader audience.

"though we work together, we usually follow parallel, rather than intersecting lines. We rarely ever actually see each other teach. And it's a shame, because every time I've observed a colleague, my admiration for them has grown, and each time, I felt a little closer to them."

Terrific podcast interview with Bryan Alexander, looking largely at digital literacies and students as creators. Bryan will give a workshop on digital storytelling at Kenyon this summer; contact Joe Murphy for details.

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

A video tutorial on creating open blocks for meetings in Google Calendar using the Appointment Slot options.

Complex and wide-ranging statement from the AAC&U about the relationships between academic freedom, free expression, liberal education, and the search for truth.

The author argues that coping strategies for anxiety in the classroom are insufficient and that teachers need to reorient instruction to move away from a focus on performance toward one on exploration and investigation; she provides links to her own activities and student testimonials.

This testimonial brings up a crucial aspect of course design--making sure that you have reasonable expectations for your own workload when developing activities that require significant amounts of direction and feedback from the instructor.

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.

Even when a discussion of evidentiary standards or fallacious reasoning is beyond the scope of a course, the occasional introduction of relevant articles from responsible journalistic sources can help contribute to a student's information literacy.

The author proposes an innovative solution to small group assignment for a collaborative project. First, students create a resume sharing their interests, skills, and views on group work. Then, students provide the instructor with a short list of their most (and least) compatible partners.

Short metacognitive activities at the end of class are great ways to give coherence to learning and give insights for planning the next session.

This is tricky for the CIP - at the same time that faculty need a space to wrestle with sensitive topics (and even vent occasionally), students can add to and benefit from our conversations about teaching and learning.

We include a question about what the student could do to improve their learning in a course in our mid-semester GIFT sessions, but there are more explicit ways to think about how classes function as communities of discourse.

Might be some good tips in here as we close in on the end of the year.

"To be seen, valued, and included was a critical aspect of their career satisfaction and affected the degree of connection they felt to their campuses." Great article from Kenyon's Jan Thomas and her collaborators.