by John Johnson, Astronomy As the Head GSI for Astronomy 10 last fall, I was challenged with administering effective, individualized assistance to the students who needed it most. The solution I developed is The Astronomy Learning Center (TALC). TALC uses collaborative learning as an alternative to traditional office hours...[and] uses the philosophy that students learn better by doing than just by hearing or seeing.
by Kimberly Johnson, English My students approached the readings for my course with a combination of resentment and trepidation...They were reluctant to believe that these alien, stiff, wrought verses could be understood by a 21st-century readership, much less that they could provoke any passion other than boredom.
by Natalia Ferretti, Political Science I was convinced that what we were doing in the class was precisely what my students thought it was missing: we were explaining the origins of the main political and socio-economic structures that characterize Latin American countries today. For us, the connection between these macro-processes and the reality of everyday life was straightforward, and therefore, we took for granted that students would be able to make the link as well. But my students’ complaints showed me that we were wrong.
by Connie Anderson, French What kind of engagement is most effective in allowing students to make the target language their own? This, it seems to me, is one of the ultimate challenges for foreign language instructors.
by Melina Esse, Music I wanted the students to understand the difference between listening and hearing. In order to succeed in the course, they would need to practice directed listening: "listening for" rather than "listening to."
by Nicholas L. Pivonka, Chemistry I sought to improve the laboratory portion of the course by improving the quality of experiments the students were asked to perform. One of the experiments was clearly a candidate for replacement.
by Eric Masanet, Mechanical Engineering This approach — called design-for-environment — has gained significant momentum worldwide and is an invaluable skill for UCB design engineering students to acquire...I was therefore surprised to learn...that design-for-environment was not being taught as part of UCBs undergraduate design curriculum, nor was it even introduced as an important concept to the design students. To address this problem, I initiated, developed and presented a comprehensive design-for-environment lecture that has since become a regular feature in the ME 110 course.
by Selby Schwartz, Comparative Literature The students were clearly struggling with the complexity of character motivations, and I could see them teetering on the verge of dismissing the whole play: mocking its archaisms, flattening its protagonists, ironizing its structure, and dispelling its magic for themselves. Their skepticism exhibited a passive kind of resistance.
by Heather McCarty, History The journals allowed me monitor each student's progress with the readings. I was able to track which students completed the readings, but more importantly, whether or not students understood the material. I enjoyed commenting on the journals and found that they provided me with yet one more avenue in which to individually engage with students.
by Giulietta Spudich, Molecular and Cell Biology I used the students who already had strengths in the theory by interrupting my discussion of the protocol to ask the students why we were doing certain steps. The more theoretically minded students would answer, providing insight to the class. I was attempting to get the students to link the "why" behind the experiment to the practical side of the laboratory.