The following are a few ideas adapted from the SUNY Teaching and Learning center, that may help you prepare for the Spring semester, and/or update your teaching portfolio: Keep a copy of your syllabus and each assignment you design Your teaching portfolio may include a range of syllabi and assignments you’ve designed. Make sure you… Read more »
Tag: reflection
Exam Debrief
Dawn M. Wiggins, a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at Illinois Valley Community College, argues that exam debriefs can help students see how self-defeating behaviors can negatively affect their results on an exam. However, the debrief she describes (including the questions she asked (see: https://oncourseworkshop.com/self-awareness/exam-debrief/)) goes beyond providing students with the correct answer on the test. Why… Read more »
The 6 Rs to Enhanced Reflection
The end of the semester is a great opportunity to reflect on teaching. In Engaged Teaching: A Handbook for College Faculty, Elizabeth Barkley and Claire Howell Major put forth a framework for critical reflection as it relates to the practice of teaching: The 6 Rs to Enhanced Reflection Reacting How will I decide what area of my… Read more »
Teaching Tip: Assignment Deadlines
Hannah R. Snyder, Assistant Prof. of Psychology at Brandeis University, is interested in understanding risk and resilience factors for mental health in college students and young adults, focusing on how stress, cognitive function (especially executive function), and coping strategies interact, given that adolescence and emerging adulthood (early 20s) are periods of heightened risk for mental health… Read more »
Ways to Reflectively Conclude the Semester – Revisited
Here are some additions to the previous list of recommendations on how to end your semester. Reflect on your semester (Modified from Arizona State University): Reflection is not only an important aspect of student learning but also offers an opportunity for faculty to seek insights from past teaching experiences. At the end of the semester, when the… Read more »
Ways to Reflectively Conclude the Semester
Student reflections can take many forms: an individual five-minute writing activity, a full-class discussion, or somewhere in-between. (From https://learning.northeastern.edu/reflecting-on-the-last-day-of-class/) Below is a set of possible prompts that you might use or adapt, based on a four-question reflective learning technique that has been shown to increase students’ retention of material (Boucquey, 2014; Dietz-Uhler & Lanter, 2009): Can… Read more »
Mid Semester Feedback
Why is mid-semester feedback important? Mid semester feedback can serve as valuable sources of feedback for faculty and self-reflection for students. Surveys at the mid point of the semester can help you plan effective classes, and: Make course correction before big assignments Understand where your students are learning-wise and to maybe identify some areas where… Read more »
Student Evaluations
The National Institute on Scientific Teaching recently started a conversation on how to consider feedback from end of course student evaluations of teaching in this turbulent and traumatic year of Covid-19. Most faculty find it difficult to consolidate the diverse perspectives received through evaluations and would like to gather more constructive and actionable feedback that they… Read more »
Precourse Survey
One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion. What do you want to know about them? A survey can help you conduct… Read more »