Several years ago, I read Judith Grunert’s book The Course Syllabus. The book taught me several things about syllabi that changed the way I look at them and use them in my courses. Too often we have a limited view of the syllabus, seeing it
A threshold concept is discipline-specific, focuses on understanding of the subject and … has the ability to transform learners’ views of the content.” (Zepke, p. 98) It’s not the same as a core concept, although that’s a useful place to first put the idea. “A
Can you teach students to be creative? Most of us would say no. It’s more like trying to teach for it—encouraging it, promoting it, acknowledging when it happens, and rewarding it. Despite the difficulties associated with teaching creativity, teachers shouldn’t be excused from trying to
Course websites now include such things as the course syllabus, PowerPoint slides, study guides, discussion questions, links to online content sources announcements, reminders of due dates, and opportunities for online discussion via e-mail and discussion boards. Most faculty put materials online to help students learn
Often the articles highlighted in The Teaching Professor are examples of pedagogical scholarship that could beneficially be done in many fields. That is the case with this piece on developing writing assignments, but it also contains content useful to any faculty member who uses writing
The benefits of concept maps are well established. They encourage students to organize knowledge and do so in ways meaningful to them. They help students sort out, prioritize, and understand relationships between terms, concepts, and ideas. Students can also use concept maps to forge relationships
Thanks to the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum movement we are having our students write more and we’re using a wider range of writing assignments. Right?
If that’s what you’re doing, it’s consistent with the actions of faculty teaching undergraduate sociology courses; as documented by an analysis of 405
Though tons of attention has been paid to what good college writing looks like and to how bad student writing typically is, the writing process movement has made a radical breakthrough in terms of getting more students to actually write better.
No, the objective isn’t to make assignments optional. But the article referenced below raises the possibility of giving students some choice over the kinds of assignments they complete. In previous issues of the newsletter, we have shared systems that give students some discretion in the
The College Success course taught at Polk State College introduces library resources and support services available to students. In a critical thinking and information literacy assignment, students are supposed to learn how to differentiate between a valid Web page and one that is questionable. They
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