Center for Innovative Pedagogy

Some interesting ideas here for advising conversations - or reflecting on your own personal and professional networks.

A challenging list, but worth deep consideration. The reading list at the end might be good sources for future CIP book clubs.

"By carefully considering what our syllabi are for, what they should include, and - most essentially - what they really communicate to our students, we can create a document that does a significant amount of heavy lifting for us. That document articulates a set of promises about what the course can do for students when they accept our invitation and take ownership of their learning in this collective enterprise."

The idea that resilience is a socially situated behavior, not a just personal quality, seems important, as does turning this lens (which we so often use on our students) on our own lives and work as educators.

There's a basic point here that it's useful to have a set of quick prepared remarks to encourage students to buy in to a new teaching approach. And perhaps some of Dr. Felder's specific language might be useful to you.

"We need to rethink the pedagogical processes by which we get students to truly embrace difference." Lots to digest in this essay from Jose Bowen.

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...)

Terrific way to frame technology use and non-use in the classroom. "Instead of imposing restrictions about what they can't use, invite them to have an experience that can't be had through the use of technology." Also a very good rundown of other writing about the pros and cons.

Patrick Jackson uses a "flipped classroom" model to force himself to not lecture, and instead focus intro-level students on the core skills of historical analysis. From the GLCA Center for Teaching and Learning.

Worth thinking about this as we wrap up the semester and plan for the next one. Did your students find your course to be difficult enough to be motivating, but still achievable?

Interesting to connect the job of helping students prepare for end-of-semester assignments or exams with the goal of bringing a sense of closure to your course.

Our colleagues at Otterbein are crowdsourcing a list of good books for "teaching about social justice in troubled times". Please comment or add your own suggestions!

OhioLINK is joining the Open Textbook Network, a consortium working on controlling textbook costs by providing high-quality open access textbooks. Have you looked at the open textbooks in your field?

Interesting attempt to measure the growth of professionally-oriented courses at liberal arts schools, and some good reporting to contextualize the changes.

From the abstract: "This paper investigates the most common instructor responses following a tragedy and which of those responses students find most helpful."

A strong set of best practices, both for spontaneous "hot moment" discussions and for ways to plan and structure difficult conversations.

Your circadian rhythms may have as much to do with the feeling of sleepiness as the actual amount of sleep you get. That has interesting implications for class scheduling and advising.

In this article from the new GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning, Crystal Benedicks of Wabash College looks at the way that students come to understand the writing process more deeply in community-engaged learning classes.

Doing the assignments you give may help you teach student some of the implicit skills and knowledge in them.

The author uses multiple-choice exams to make sure that students have at least read the material, and as a counterweight to any bias she might have about the content. What is your "theory of exams"?