by Yekaterina Miroshnikova, Molecular and Cell Biology (Home Department: Bioengineering) I decided to set up an unconventional discussion section environment... I strategically utilized the uneven playing field in students’ prior knowledge to our benefit by facilitating team-based learning...[and] I taught the entirety of the material in a hands-on and application-based style.
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?
by Lindsay Crawford, Philosophy By making students more conscious of the degree to which modes of presentation shape the seemingly neutral space of discussion, the students who tended to feel intimidated by more assertive students came to realize that many of the factors that encourage and shape their feelings of intimidation are irrelevant to the quality of the positions being evaluated.
by Anastasia Kayiatos, Slavic As the students of the introductory course (many of them first-years) sift through these dense texts (for many, their first brushes with theory), it is easy for them to feel alienated by the language....My job is to make sure they know that feminist theory’s difficult lexicon is not an exercise in esotericism designed to disempower them. On the contrary, I strive to demonstrate throughout the semester, feminist scholars invent new vocabulary with a deliberate political aim of empowerment.
by Zoe Harris, Public Health One morning, my classroom was abuzz with a debate over whether to vote yes or no on Proposition 2...Instead of my original lesson plan, carefully typed up with several handouts, I sat and listened to their debate. Students who only spoke when I cold-called them were the center of the discussion. “STOP!” I raised my arms while students glared at me nervously. “Today, we are going to apply Wilson’s theory of concentrated versus diffuse interests to decide which way you would vote on Proposition 2.” (Stunned looks all around.)
by Paul Bruno, Physics If I could help them recognize what they had learned, and to see how that acquired knowledge empowered them to understand even more course material, I could develop both their understanding of physics and their positive self-efficacy as science learners.
by Timothy Pepper, Classics The Greek institution of blood sacrifice, adapted to the classroom as a melon sacrifice, provided the framework as an institution that was differentiated into separate stages and involved actions well suited to optative and subjunctive constructions.
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?
by Sereeta Alexander, Education Social loafing and diffusion of responsibility may permeate and ruin group work, to the dismay of the teacher and the students who do actively participate. ... I have learned to design group activities that either inherently entice (or even incite!) participation or that are structured in a manner clearly requiring each student's contribution.
by Hillary Gravendyk, English I was ... impressed to find myself in a room full of well-trained environmental studies, engineering, and biochemistry majors who were fearless (it seemed to me) in the face of those mysteries of math and science that had so baffled me as a college student. But I quickly realized that there was one thing about which these poised young scientists were utterly perplexed, even terrified: poetry.