Student Guide Corner

By  Lew Ludwig  (Editor-in-Chief),  Denison University Ever feel like the teacher from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off,� asking a question and just getting silence back? We�ve all had those moments in the classroom. You pose a well-crafted question to the class, and no one responds.  Several years ago, I watched Dr. Michael Starbird of the University of Texas � Austin employ a simple technique that has forever changed my own teaching. After you pose your question to the class, pause, then state a slightly rephrased version of the same question. After this, ask your students to take two minutes to discuss with a nearby neighbor. I saw Dr. Starbird use this technique at a national convention with 300 attendees in the room. After two minutes, the room of strangers was vibrating with engaging discussion. Dr. Starbird could then point to a person and ask, �What did your neighbor say?� Not only did this technique prompt active discussion and engagement, but avoids th...

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that one of my primary recommendations for improved teaching is the �Three E�s.�   Experiment, Evaluate, and Evolve.   I am not sure anyone can become a better teacher if they don�t take this path in some form.    For that reason, I am always a bit surprised that I don�t have more people coming up to me to tell me about their teaching experiments.  Oh sure, I get a few emails now and then.  But never as many as I would like.  I think all teachers should be bubbling with excitement (my fourth E) over their current attempts to improve teaching.  Every college campus should be an incubator for wonderful new teaching ideas.   Think how education in this world would improve immediately and dramatically if all campuses served as incubators for innovative new teaching ideas.  Does your campus qualify?  If so, let me know. Why don�t we experiment more?   I could...

By Jessica Deshler ,  Contributing Editor,  West Virginia University For students, office hours can be an opportunity to catch up or gain additional insight to coursework that challenges them. Recently, we posted about � 5 Successful Ways to Get Students to Office Hours ,� but what do we do when they come? How do we make the most out of that time so that it�s productive for faculty and students? Here are a few tips you can try to help your students during office hours: Tell them your expectations. Let students know early in the semester what your expectations are for office hours. Do you expect them to bring their attempts at working out problems with them to see you? Do they have to keep and bring a journal? What type of pre-meeting preparation do you require of them? Ideally, these expectations should be outlined in the syllabus and during your first class. Be specific and repeat your expectations throughout the semester. Once you have expectations set, stick to them. Res...

The 51 st Super Bowl is being played tonight.  For a few hours, everyone will stop and watch two excellent teams battle it out for the right to be known as the ultimate champions.   I sent the note below to my students this morning.   I was not trying to convince them I was crazy or that I was obsessed.   They probably already think that.   I don�t care if they watch the Super Bowl.  What I care about is that they realize that success (whether it is their success or Tom Brady�s success) comes from work and not from watching someone else be successful.   I felt they needed to know that I was going to be upset if they show up for my class tomorrow poorly prepared because they had stared for hours at a television set watching a bunch of strangers 1,000 miles away becoming champions.   I suspect that some people want to feel like champions without having to do any of the difficult work so they latch on to a team or to a ...