I’m hopelessly unathletic, which means I’ve usually observed the rituals at the so-called sports school where I teach from a distance—until recently, that is, when a student invited me to something called “tailgating.” My takeaway? The sense of belonging and excitement that I witnessed during
A vital part of preparing to teach is considering what will most benefit the students we encounter. To be successful across a variety of domains, students need instruction on how to engage in critical thinking, synthesize and evaluate information, and self-evaluate their own learning and
While written assessments are the most common tool for measuring learning today, the earliest form of assessment was oral. The Socratic dialectic used by the ancient Greeks, and still used today in Oxford’s tutorial system, combined learning and assessments through a conversation with the student.
How will your class be different in 2024?
Would you engage in a thought experiment with me for a moment?
Technology has allowed online educators to upgrade their teaching material from pages of text to media formats with images, videos, and interactions. But the syllabus generally remains a text-only document. Now some educators are working to bring the syllabus in line with the rest of
A few years ago, while reviewing a student’s feedback on one of my course evaluations, I came across a profound observation. The student described the class, like many science courses, as “stoic,” yearning for more humanity in the learning experience. It struck a chord with
Educators all want teaching to progress, but right now there are two contrary definitions of progress. I call one form of progress transactional teaching and the other transformative teaching, and they are pulling teaching in opposing directions. Let me explain what I mean.
“Presence” has become a major buzzword in online teaching circles. Authors and speakers repeatedly champion methods and technologies meant to improve instructor presence in the online classroom. But what types of activities best improve instructor presence in students’ eyes, and what do they value? Sharon
An ancient practice that has been adapted to modern times, meditation has a variety of definitions. The Tibetan word for meditation, gom, literally means “to become familiar with,” as with the mind (our thoughts, states of mind, emotions). Meditation methods generally take two forms: focused
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