feedback

The Hip Bone is Connected to the Thigh Bone: Fostering Higher-Order Learning by Not Answering Students’ Questions

by Julie Wesp, Anthropology I wanted to create an environment that would stimulate higher-order learning and instill a deeper understanding and organization of the information. Answering the kind of questions the students were asking did not help them to piece together the parts into a whole; it only insinuated that repetitive memorization was the key to success. In an effort to break this cycle, during the next section I simply stopped answering them.

Teaching Students ‘Street Smarts’ Necessary for Navigating Peer-Reviewed Literature

by Jeff Benca, Integrative Biology During the in-class debate, we focused on the question “What caused earth’s greatest mass extinction?” ... It was truly inspiring for me to hear both discussion sections of the class spend 1.5 hours actively ... debating which arguments held most credence by analyzing the approaches of the papers, considering the expertise of the authors, and applying trends in the fossil record covered in previous lectures.

Elusive Allusions: Discovering Kafka in Coetzee

by Sarah Mangin, English We spent a few minutes venting about our most memorable Kafkaesque ordeals, from S.A.T. testing nightmares to transcript requests ... By cultivating a collaborative environment for thinking about literary allusiveness, our class found opportunities to make these references first familiar and then potent.

Engaging with the Thesis Statement: Developing Metacognitive Skills

by Jennifer Johnson, Linguistics (Home Department: Education) I needed to develop in-class peer review and self review activities that assist students in exploring, understanding, and contesting feedback. ... How do I help students develop metacognitive skills — in other words, reflect on their reflections?

Maximizing the Impact of GSI Feedback through Reflections on Writing

by Rebecca Elliott, Sociology In deference to the time they put into writing their exams, I spend considerable time writing up my reactions. I provide substantive feedback in the form of questions and comments, in both marginal notes and in a narrative paragraph...[but] how could I ensure that my students read, reflected, and internalized my feedback in a way that would improve their skills and enhance their learning?

A Pre-Lab Assignment for a More Efficient and Effective Laboratory

by Jessica Smith, Chemistry Prepared students are slow because they meticulously follow the directions rather than thinking critically about the purpose of each step...Students of science become scientists as they begin to comprehend how different steps contribute to an experiment rather than blindly following directions.

A ‘Tradeoffs’ Method for Soliciting Student Feedback

by Sean Tanner, Public Policy I experimented with a method of collecting student feedback that would force the students to make tradeoffs in my time and effort. I gave them a list of the potentially alterable activities I perform as a teacher...All told, I had eighteen hours per week to distribute across nine teaching activities. Each student reapportioned my time to suit his needs.

Teaching the 3-Speed Class

by Jason Purcell, Political Science In the Spring of 2008, I realized that I had a problem: I was teaching a 3-speed class. While some students were content with the pace of section, others were struggling to keep up, and still others were starting to get bored. How can one GSI keep pace with students learning at three very different speeds?

Teaching Critical Skills in Legal Studies

by Sonya Lebsack, Legal Studies I have discovered, to my surprise, in the past few years, that most of my students—including those doing otherwise excellent work — struggle to read a chapter or article and state (in a paragraph or in person) what the author's “project” is and what the stakes of that project are...As a result, I focus my efforts on teaching this underserved area of focus.

Improving Writing Skills and Alleviating Grading Confusion

by Christopher Rider, Business Administration By providing detailed, constructive feedback specific to each student’s essay, my students developed a stronger idea of what was expected. By posing open-ended questions in the feedback emails, I engaged many motivated students to participate in an ongoing email exchange and stimulated many students’ interest in pursuing their topics further.