Center for Innovative Pedagogy

"One of my biggest regrets as a teacher of writing is that for many years, I didn't make students write enough." John Warner argues for changes in course designs to give students a lot more practice with shorter writing formats.

Interesting list of starting points for considering our own intercultural competence and developing strategies for creating effective multinational classrooms.

This article suggests some classroom assessment techniques and discussion strategies to get the most out of the introverts in your class. The CIP can consult with faculty about other techniques to suit the variety of students that you encounter.

This week, we read the last chapters in Small Teaching, which focus on the emotional dimension of student experience. Here is one suggestion from an immunology professor on making personal connections with students as a way to improve their performance in your course.

This week in our Small Teaching book club, we were discussing the value of monitored practice versus the stress that public feedback can generate in classrooms. Here, John Warner makes some observations about private and monitored practice and suggests that real time feedback is best suited to honing discrete skills

Tips for setting an inclusive class environment from day one, using microaffirmations to counter microinequalities, and how to address microaggressions in the moment.

An "author platform" is "an ability to sell books because of who you are and who you can reach." In other words, it's part of considering your audience when you write - including considering how your ideal audience will find you.

Not making the progress you wanted on your summer projects? Blame the weather. (Or better still, account for it.)

Maybe naming where math aversion started can help turn it around.

Do you contact your students before the semester starts?

Interesting implications here for how we schedule review sessions and talk to students about studying. (And probably for our own practices around conferences and research and committee/department meetings...)

Looks like a great template schedule for courses which want to build public websites.

Powerful stuff about negotiating the power dynamics inherent in mentoring relationships. Primarily about students, but there's a lot here which would apply to mentoring relationships with colleagues as well.

Fascinating, challenging episode of this podcast looking at the way writing assessment can replicate systems of white supremacy. The "labor-based grading" process sounds like an interesting way to get students to be reflective about their work.

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.

Kimberly Van Orman uses "naïve tasks" to get students to make predictions based without advanced subject knowledge, creating a chance to reflect on their reasoning and spark curiosity.

Smart tips, including some in the comments.

Good review of the literature around the concept of "grit." Most of this literature focuses on students and I'm intrigued to see the call that we have to look closer at grit in the faculty life cycle too, with its ongoing opportunities for negative feedback.

This article is very consonant with the work being done to support inclusive excellence in Kenyon's natural sciences division.

"Students who didn't learn about the scientists' struggles were more likely to say that those scientists had innate talent and aptitude which separated them from everyone else." Do you draw attention to the processes of discovery and creativity in your course content, including setbacks?