Around midterms, instructors tend to see student engagement plummet. Over the past few semesters, I’ve written about encouraging peer-to-peer engagement as well as a few tricks for getting your students talking. Today, I’m going to highlight two instructors who facilitate innovative and successful group work during class time. Sarah Fischer (PhD Candidate, Associate Instructor, Lieber… Read more »
Entries by Sarah Pedzinski
Prove Me Wrong: How One IU Professor Works Smarter with Active Learning by Enlisting Students’ Help
Put down the pool floats, fruit smoothies, and sunblock: the fall semester is beginning! As you begin to prepare your courses, you may find yourself overwhelmed with choices about course design, assignment sheets, and student engagement. Sometimes, the easiest way to incorporate innovative teaching in these busy semester moments is through simple interventions with large… Read more »
I Built It, but They Won’t Come: Constructing Effective Office Hours Spaces
One of the questions I receive most often as an Instructional Consultant is about office hours. Students are struggling with coursework, but they are not coming to office hours. Instructors are teaching large classes and would love to get to know their students more, but students are not coming to office hours. Students are missing… Read more »
Growth Mindset: A Key to Student Success
When I was teaching introductory composition, my students often warned me early in the term that they were “bad at writing,” or “just not that good at English.” These statements were frustrating—who wants to begin a semester with unenthusiastic students? However, they also demonstrated a prevalence of what psychologist Carol Dweck dubs as the “fixed… Read more »
Upcoming SoTL Reading Group: Range by David Epstein
In his 2019 monograph, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein defends the importance of developing a diverse skillset to achieve career success through a close investigation of some of the world’s top performers and experts. Generalists, he argues, are creative, out-of-the-box problem-solvers who fully embrace the power of knowing a little… Read more »
Students Helping Students: Encouraging peer-to-peer engagement in your classroom
There’s nothing like the first day of a new semester: waking up early, preparing your course notes, and walking into a classroom full of silent faces staring at screens. Sound familiar? Think about it: How often do you actually see your students talk to one another? Do they share weekend plans before class? Discuss course… Read more »