Center for Innovative Pedagogy

Not only in science, but in all disciplines, we need to question the narratives about talent and moments of revelation and instead talk about hard, sustained work. How do you talk to students who are waiting, instead of working, for a subject to "click"?

Kenyon alum Rob Edsall (K'91) has been involved with the creation of an app for community input on the Portneuf River. Community members and tourists can record sites of interest - positive or negative - as they enjoy the environment.

Bryan Alexander has an excellent, extensive list of terrific tips for public speaking. I particularly like the way he breaks down the stages of preparation and giving a talk. Might be a useful tip sheet for students - or as we enter summer conference season!

Educators rely on the fair use of copyrighted material heavily - but not always with a clear grasp of what "fair use" really is as a legal principle. The Copyright Office has released a new tool for exploring case law on fair use; this article looks at the usefulness of the tool, and its limitations.

Educators rely on the fair use of copyrighted material heavily - but not always with a clear grasp of what "fair use" really is as a legal principle. The Copyright Office has released a new tool for exploring case law on fair use; this article looks at the usefulness of the tool, and its limitations.

What are the benefits of having students compile a portfolio of their work, and what are the critical choices you make as a teacher in creating a portfolio requirement? This list of 11 key issues is a good place to start.

Much of the information about undergraduate research is written by professors for professors. This article gives the students a voice, as 5 students from the University of Central Florida give their insights on what practices made their research experiences worthwhile.

A guide to mentoring undergraduate research from the University of Miami, including many concrete suggestions for habits and activities to develop. Also includes a lot of information specific to undergraduate research opportunities at Miami, which might spark conversations about scaffolding research experiences at Kenyon.

A few tips from Ball State about ways to wrap up a course. What will you do in the last week of class to give students a solid sense of what they've learned and how to bring that knowledge to their next experiences?

Interesting review of a new book on writing pedagogy. The central message of the book appears to be one which I've heard many Kenyon faculty members discuss - deliver only a few critical messages to a student per writing exercise, based on their current stage of writing development. There's a much better chance that the student will take those one or two lessons to heart than if they're hidden in feedback which bleeds red ink.

Six tips for good professional email style, framed in a kindly "dear student" letter. I've heard plenty of complaints about 2 AM emails consisting only of "hey, what's the reading for tomorrow?"... perhaps circulating this essay might help.

A list of six recent good books on teaching and learning. These are widely available in OhioLINK, and on the CIP bookcase.

A study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology "found that after using a search engine, people were more confident in their ability to explain an unrelated topic." This poses an interesting question for the lit review component of research assignments - how do they affect students' self-perception of learning? What do you do to help students accurately assess their own ability to answer questions? Hat tip to Simon Garcia for the link.

Video is a powerful and increasingly common pedagogical tool - but what's the experience like for a student with a disability, or just one who forgot her headphones?

Our discussions about writing often come around to whether students actually read (and internalize) the comments. Sometimes we hear about students not knowing how to turn on Track Changes or the GradeMark panel in Turnitin, so at the most basic level electronic comments do introduce friction for some students. What do you think of the research project proposed here - do students actually approach electronic feedback differently?

Interesting example of games designed to provoke ethical discussions, and an example of how they can be used in class.

James Lang offers a set of strategies to get students to read the syllabus, and to actually internalize the information in it. I've recommended syllabus quizzes to many faculty members, but I'm intrigued by the way Lang suggests personalizing them with open-ended questions.

I'm actually a big fan of pop quizzes - I think they motivate students to keep up, and provide useful diagnostic information to the teacher. However, in-class quizzes chew up valuable face-to-face time, require manual grading (which slows their utility), and as this article points out, are deeply unfair to students with some disabilities. This article suggests other ways to hold a "pop quiz" which are equally accessible to all students (and potentially provide information faster to the faculty member). Hat tip to Erin Salva for the link.

A remarkably even-handed article which really does take the provocative title as a question. Design thinking might well provide a useful problem-solving mode for interdisciplinary efforts and curricular coherence.

An example assignment from the HASTAC Pedagogy Project suggests having students submit their bibliographies in process to peer review. Getting students to review one another's sources can help them think about their own, and breaking out the research step fights the tendency to write the whole paper at the last minute. (A similar collaborative feature is available in RefWorks, a web-based citation manager available through Kenyon LBIS.)

Students tend to hate cumulative exams - partly because they're harder (which is good and proper) and partly because they may not feel prepped for them. This article suggests some teaching strategies which you can use to help students integrate material across the semester.