#teaching large classes

[miltonajake]

An Activity That Promotes Engagement with Required Readings, Even in Large Classes

Encouraging students to read what's assigned is an age-old problem. This activity motivates students to complete the readings and engage at a deeper level.

[teach2learnsc]

The adjustments in an active learning class can be difficult for students, as well. As Catherine Sloan writes in Change magazine, millennials “have a deep fear of failure,” so getting them to take intellectual risks takes patience. Nor do they deal well with ambiguity. They like clear, firm solutions to academic problems, and pushing them to think beyond a single “right answer” also takes work from instructors. Tradition has also made changing the format of classes more challenging. Students have grown accustomed to sitting passively in lectures, reviewing instructors’ notes or slides posted online, attending study sessions (again, passively), cramming for exams, and moving on. Many resent having to take an active role in class—isn’t that the professor’s job?

Wednesday 15 July 2015

This Faculty Focus article gives some compelling reasons for why lecturing isn’t enough in teaching and learning.