by Heidi Saleh, Near Eastern Studies
After a couple of weeks into the class, I found that coming up with fresh ways to discuss and interpret texts that have been studied for hundreds of years such as The Odyssey was becoming a problem. The students were getting tired of straight literary analysis, and quite frankly, so was I.
An example of using the bSpace Forums tool.
by Sarah Cunningham, Integrative Biology
The basic evolutionary and ecological concepts and principles are not difficult to understand…However, in order to tie them together and apply them in the solution of novel problems, students must learn to think scientifically and within an evolutionary framework. It is another kind of common sense that the students must develop, and it often runs contrary to the assumptions they are used to making.
by Lisa Kaborycha, History
The challenge, as I saw it, was to inspire the students through the readings of great historians of the past, while keeping them from being overwhelmed with the task before them. How to demonstrate that history is a lively endeavor, and the day-to-day study of history is being practiced all around them?
by Gretchen Purser, Sociology
Not unlike Dante in the first canto of The Inferno, the students “found [themselves] within a shadowed forest,” clutching these maps, but unable to translate the signs, symbols, and pathways of each map to the actual structures, systems and institutions that make up the social world.
by Gaurav Punj, IEOR
Students usually think of discussion sessions as just problem-solving sessions where the GSI will work on some numerical problems that are relevant for their midterms and finals. I realized that they were more interested in the final answers rather than Physics.
by Bryan Zeitler, Molecular and Cell Biology
One thing I find particularly frustrating is achieving a meaningful class dialogue after student presentations. Despite repeated calls for questions or comments from the class, it is not unusual for me to be the only one speaking after a student talk…[so] I implemented a written and oral peer review process that encouraged students to actively participate during and after student presentations.
by Charles Scott Combs, Film Studies
Though I teach Roland Barthes’ “Death of the Author” as an illustrious example of how criticism broadens our regard of fictional works, the essay threatens to plunge class thought and discussion into an abyss…The problem I face is the temptation students have to read Barthes’ criticism (and the majority of criticism in general)…as an overly-simplified polytheism of reader pleasure.
An overview of social constructivism and its implications for teaching.
by Kathryn Pearson, Political Science
It became clear that students were not absorbing the readings or lectures outlining the process nor my repeated explanations of the differences between a budget resolution, an authorization bill, and an appropriations bill. The congressional budget process presented a greater challenge than did any other topic covered in the U.S. Congress class.