Center for Innovative Pedagogy

Interesting post from the Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence blog. The criticism that we conflate "art" and "talent" seems spot on, though I think there's room to debate whether simply being observant and iterative is the same as as "scientific."

Some interesting thoughts here about the differences between "shyness" and "introversion", and the way your classroom participation practices can help or hinder students. Also an interesting reflection on participation in the scholarship of teaching and learning, as the author deals with resistance to her original article.

I like James Lang's movie example here - how can you keep students "on the edge of their seat" to find out what happens in the final minutes of a class period?

Do you respond to students' reflective writing? How might their reflections change if you did?

Midterm might be a good time to review your syllabi and make some notes for next time. Take some time for reflection, then check out the example syllabi at the end of this article for inspiration.

An interesting attempt to categorize areas of work within the scholarship of teaching and learning. Lots of good suggested articles; unfortunately, they're not linked, but many are available through JSTOR, OhioLINK, and Google Scholar.

"perhaps VAK is just a version of the same problem scholars run into time and again, the pull of catchy-but-wrong ideas against the nebulous, unsatisfying ones that are closer to the truth."

What are some basic steps you can take to make sure your course material is equally accessible to all students? Michigan State University provides a good basic checklist.

Interesting studies about students non-academic use of computers during class time. On one hand, we need to remind students that multitasking (of this kind) is a myth, and that they need to learn the skill of occasionally being "disconnected". On the other hand, if the student is "fighting boredom", it's not actually the device's fault...

In the liberal arts, we can be rightly skeptical about teaching "job skills"... but how can we help students develop their sense of what makes their lives more meaningful and fulfilling, including employment?

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

This professor commits to listening to students' conversation by appointing himself note-taker, which frees him from the role of "conversation guide".

How do you read and respond to your course evaluations?

It's interesting to see metacognitive abilities linked to broader issues of self-awareness and personal development.

Teller (of the magic team Penn & Teller) offers thoughts about the performative side of teaching, informed both by his experience as an entertainer and as a high school Latin teacher.

"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."

It's fascinating to watch the cross-disciplinary pedagogical discussions at the CIP.

Important readings as we examine our assumptions about students and technology use in the classroom.

"Our businesslike efforts to measure and improve quality are now blocking the altruism, indeed the love, that motivates people to enter the helping professions." How can we make sure our assessments are focused on the most important things - inside the classroom and of the classroom?

Kenyon is part of the "Turning the Tide" initiative, which aims to change college admissions by prioritizing community engagement and depth over breadth of extracurricular achievements. If this changes our student body, how will it change our classrooms?