How to get students to pay attention in class

How can I keep students from getting bored and not paying attention during my lecture?

Students can become bored for many reasons.

* The instructor has not established good rapport with the class.

* The instructor fails to use relevant examples.

* Students may have no interest in the subject matter.

* The instructor has weak and ineffective presentation skills.

* The instructor reads from a scripted lecture with little or no contact with the audience.

1. The instructor has not established good rapport with the class.

The first day of class is an important time to begin building a relationship with your students. Tell them a little about yourself and about your research interests in this field--where your passion lies. Tell them why you think this course is important and how it will add value to their lives.

* Learn as many names as possible and use students' names in class whenever you can. For example, ask a student's name when you call on him/her. Refer back to students' comments when appropriate, ("That's in line with what Margaret said earlier, Jeff.")

* Be clear and fair about your expectations for students. Set high standards and provide the support and resources students need to reach those standards.

* Be friendly. Try to arrive early and stay a few minutes after class so that students can ask questions. Be in your office ready for students during your designated office hours.

* Provide a website for the course with useful resources--handouts, study guides, sample test questions, virtual office hours, a course FAQ etc.

* Demonstrate in as many ways as you can that you care about your students' success in your course.

2. The instructor fails to use relevant examples.

As often as possible center important ideas and concepts on something to which your students can relate. If you are explaining something about business practices, pick a local campus business as an example. Check area newspapers for events, editorials and other news stories that might tie in with the material you are exploring.

Use metaphors and analogies which tie difficult concepts to something that students more readily understand.

3. Students may have no interest in the subject matter.

At the outset, convince students that there is a good reason they should be studying and learning about this subject matter. Tell them how knowing this will make a difference in their lives. Be sure to be clear (in your syllabus and on your first day with students) about what students will know and be able to do as a result of this course and why that matters.

Use examples and illustrations which are relevant to your students' lives whenever possible.

Do not overload your students with content. Give them an opportunity to reflect, to apply what they have learned to other situations, to solve a problem and think critically about the material in the course.

4. The instructor has weak and ineffective presentation skills.

Consider being videotaped with a follow-up viewing and consultation with a member of the Teaching Effectiveness Program to assess the strengths and areas of improvement of your presentation style.

Pay attention to your pacing, the use and quality of your voice and gestures, your movement in the room, eye contact with your students, the amount of interaction you have with your audience, the variety of tools you use to present material: video, slides, overheads, visuals, music, storytelling, metaphors and analogies.

Examine the organization of the presentation, the use of multiple examples and illustrations to clarify concepts, how connections are made, the periodic use of internal summaries to help students understand the most important points you are trying to make.

TEP has an excellent video on how to lecture and speak effectively— How to Speak with Patrick Winston from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching Excellence at Harvard. Please contact Georgeanne Cooper ( gcooper@uoregon.edu ) if you are interested in viewing these tapes. They are now streamed on the Teaching Effectiveness Program Hub. If you have a current UO account, you can be added to this site to view several good teaching films.

5. The instructor reads from a scripted lecture with little or no contact with the audience.

Try to work from a good outline (using PowerPoint or Keynote) or present this as an overhead so that students can use it as an outline for your presentation. Make sure you use a 24 pt. type size and a readable font (simple serif fonts are best).

Don't make the entire focus of the class session a lecture. This puts all the pressure on you to perform. Think of ways to work with the material you want your students to learn in a variety of formats--presentation, small group work, individual reflective writing, video clips, slides, or appropriate web sites.

Classroom Etiquette

Classroom Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned Instructor
Alison Bailey and Maura Toro-Morn, Illinois State University

Even the most well-intentioned people make mistakes. As instructors, one of our jobs is to make the classroom a place where all learners feel confident enough to participate. This involves challenging our own assumptions as well as those of our students. One way to do this is to be aware of subtle behaviors that make some students feel unwelcome or excluded. Keep the following in mind when you interact with students.

1. Everyone has race, ethnicity, gender and nationality. Hillary Clinton is just as ethnic as Maya Angelou. To think of persons who are not of European descent as exotic or ethnic reinforces the idea that whites are the norm and all others are defined in comparison to this standard.
2. Don't mention a student's race unless it is relevant to what you're talking about. Unless you are making a point in which race is relevant, think about whether or not racially labeling is necessary.
3. Don't ask African-American, Latina/o, Jewish, Gay/Lesbian, Italian-American etc. students to speak for the people of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or nationality. No one wants the responsibility of having what they say being taken to be representative of the entire race, religion, or ethnic group. Students may also be uncomfortable having to defend their race, class, or sexual orientation.
4. Don't assume racial-ethnic students know their history. You wouldn't call on a white woman and ask her to tell you about Susan B. Anthony because she is a white woman. Don't assume that Black students would know biographical information about Malcolm X. (It does not follow that racial-ethnic students are not knowledgeable about their own lives and conditions. Instructors should not try to speak for them on these grounds).
5. Don't ask students of color to educate the class on racism. Don't ask women to educate the class on sexism. Don't ask gay/lesbian or bi-sexual students to educate straight students on homophobia, unless they volunteer, or unless you know the student well enough to ask them. These are everyone's issues.
6. Avoid stereotypes in hypothetical examples, unless you make it clear that you are using this example as a pedagogical tool. Not all African-Americans are on welfare, live in Ghettos, or work in the service industries. Not all Arabs are terrorists. Not all Doctors are "he". Not all single parents are "she." Not all Latinas/os speak Spanish. Not all whites are privileged or rich. HIV and AIDS are not confined to the gay/lesbian community.
7. Learn student's names and how to pronounce them. Don't Anglicize names unless the student does also. You might ask students if they Anglicize their name.
8. Keep your audience in mind when preparing lectures and assignments. Don't assume that you will be speaking to a homogeneous group of people. Not all students live in dorms, are supported by their parents , or own computers. Some students work, some have children, some come from single parent households, and some commute. Don't assume that a student's college experience is a reflection of your own. Check your assumptions about students. You may want to consider this when you plan projects or assign extra credit.
9. Be aware of non-verbal behavior between students and yourself. Are you calling on men more than women? Do you/other students tune out, or talk when students of color/returning students speak? Who is talking in the class? Do you feel that students silence themselves in your class? Are students rolling their eyes when one of their classmates speaks? Failure to address these behaviors contributes to a chilly classroom climate for some students.
10. Don't let racist, sexist, or homophobic language and comments in the class discussion or essays go unnoticed. Do comments of students have racist/sexist/homophobic undertones? Ask students what evidence they have for their beliefs and to question their presumptions. No name calling.
11. If you classes are small, spread your eye contact around At the same time, don't just address Black students during discussion about slavery or civil rights. Don't focus on the Jewish students if you are speaking about the Holocaust or Pogroms. Don't address comments on reproductive rights and sexual harassment only to women. Don't address questions of immigration to Latinos, Haitians, etc.
12. People are not hermaphrodites. Individuals are not he/she. Vary your examples using "he" and "she". If sex/gender is ambiguous, then use the plural.
13. When possible integrate questions of difference into your course content and class discussions. This does not mean adding a few authors of color, or women writers/scientists. Putting issues of diversity in separate units on the syllabus sends a message to students that issues of race, class, and sex separable from the main course content and have no place in discussions of the American Revolution, moral theory, Realist paintings, or scientific revolutions. If possible try to integrate issues of diversity into your main course content.
14. If you take attendance don't just notice that the students with disabilities, or students of color are absent.
15. Make it clear that your classroom is a place where all voices can be heard and that you make mistakes too.

Maintaining the Jazz in Teaching

from Keeping it Fresh - Maintaining the Jazz in Teaching: A Panel Discussion with Stanford Faculty

Estelle Freedman, the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History

How do you find renewal? "I got a curriculum grant to internationalize the course. Graduate students working with me, feeding me articles to read from around the world for every subject I did. It changed my teaching, it changed my scholarship.

Pedagogy: In some classes, I say one change a year only. There was the year I learned PowerPoint. This is the year I am doing iTunes. I am bringing music into my lectures. It kept me fresh, listening to music and trying to relate it to themes of my class . . . . Or this could be the year I am breaking open lecture into discussion at least one day a week.

Lying fallow: You taught [a course] enough times, give it a sabbatical, teach it every other year. . . . After the end of a lecture class, I have a file I open called 'thoughts.' I just debrief from the quarter, a stream of consciousness, the good, the bad, the ugly, and I read these thoughts when I start planning the next time."

How has the experience with your students changed your teaching? "I take course evaluations very seriously. I pore over them. . . . I hand out my own [questionnaire] and have students check off on the readings. I ask specific questions to help me rethink the class next time. . . . On the last day of class, I do 'the-most-important-thing-I-learned exercise.' I tell them: 'No name on the papers. This is not an assignment that is graded. Take time to write a paragraph on each question.' I read those not just when the class is over, but before I teach it the next time."

What resources do you seek out? "A short one is Rebekka Nathan's mind-blowing book My Freshman Year. An anthropologist, who goes native under a pseudonym, passes as a returning student and lives in a dorm as a freshman of the public university where she teaches. What I learned is how irrelevant we are to our students.
"Another resource has been the biggest renewal piece of my career. I hope others can learn from it as a model. When I started teaching US women's history over thirty years ago, it was the beginning of a new field. A colleague at UCLA got a grant from the NEH to have a curriculum conference for those of us teaching this new field. In 1978, 15 of us went to UCLA for a one-time, one-day teaching workshop-and we have been meeting for thirty years ever since. . . . We created a network and perpetuated this group that has now a cohort of 25 people. Every year, we volunteer to facilitate part of the day on a topic that we picked the year before and spend a whole day talking about how to revise our teaching. It was out of that workshop that my freshmen seminar emerged one day.

How to Avoid Stage Fright

How can I avoid stage fright?

* Be well prepared! Have a comprehensive lesson plan with alternative back-up activities in case you finish early or some part of your plan does not go as you expected. Don't just wing it. This is not fair to your students. They have paid dearly for your time and expertise.

* If you are a GTF assisting a professor, present yourself as an experienced student rather than a teacher. You have majored in this discipline, attended the lectures, taken the tests, and written the papers. You are the primary conduit between the instructor and your students. You are there to facilitate their understanding of the material and to help answer their questions. You are not, in most cases, a content expert; you won't know the answer to every question your students ask. With your help, however, they can find those answers.

*Write your agenda for the class on the board to help you track what needs to be covered for the period. This way you are free to move around the room.

* Think in terms of communication rather than performance. Your students are not theater critics waiting for you to flub a line. They're probably more empathetic than judgmental, and if you take a moment here and there to refer to your notes, or back up and explain a previous point, you'll enhance the clarity of your presentation.

* The longer you talk, the more your nervousness will subside. Pay attention to the process: I'm better already. . . better yet. . . still better.

* Speak to one person in the classroom at a time. Make eye contact. Try smiling!

* Take it slow. Pause and give people time to catch up with you; they're working as hard as you are.

* Consider going through a practice run with a staff member in the Teaching Effectiveness Program. We can give you valuable feedback and suggestions on lesson plans, good icebreakers, lecturing techniques and overall course organization.

- University of Oregon, Teaching Effectiveness Program

Cooperative Learning Groups

From the Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Many teachers will occasionally break their classes into small groups for discussions, but only a few use the technique as a fundamental teaching tool. A class can be divided into learning teams that are periodically given instructional tasks to complete, either in or out of class. Research has shown that, with careful planning, this technique increases the efficiency and effectiveness of learning.

Groups of six or seven work best because this size is small enough for everyone to participate in problem-solving or debate, yet large enough for a spectrum of views to be represented. To work successfully, groups require a wide variety of viewpoints and intellectual skills, so it is important to make them as heterogeneous as possible. The individual data cards that you collect on the first day of class can yield important information about your students' backgrounds and preparation and make it easier to create heterogeneous groups. A professor of political science who uses long-term groups in his class tries to insure that each team has someone with a math background and at least one political science major. He creates groups with maximum diversity with respect to major, gender, race, and other characteristics.

The tasks that you assign for group work should challenge students to analyze phenomena, solve problems, apply theories, exercise judgment, or perform some combination of these activities. Clearly-written instructions are vital to the success of this kind of exercise, which means that the teacher must analyze the task carefully and break it down into its component parts. During the exercise, the teacher moves from group to group, answering questions, clarifying instructions, giving advice, and observing the group process. Group exercises can be designed for 15 to 20-minute periods, and need not consume an entire period.

In a well-designed group activity, there should be little need for direct intervention by the teacher. It is true that many teachers are uncomfortable with the loss of direct control that accompanies small-group work, but remember that you still govern the process and outcome by the instructions you provide for the groups. Small groups can be used with a variety of other techniques, such as peer teaching, case studies, and simulations; imaginative teachers are discovering new ways to use the technique every day. At UNC, many English composition instructors have successfully structured their courses around cooperative learning groups, and teachers in some high schools are using the technique in math classes.

How to give lectures more impact

From the UO Teaching Effectiveness website:

* Watch Susan Glaser's video on "Effective Lecturing." It is available through TEP, and you can arrange to check it out via email.

* Use visual images to describe your point -- a striking demonstration concerning physics or a visual analogy to describe a poem.

* Use language that appeals to the senses: "This smells to me like the Pythagorean Theorem!"

* Use many examples; they make lectures come alive. A vivid example has far more impact than accumulated data.
For example: no matter what Consumer Reports tells you, if your uncle owns a lemon of a Volvo, you will be wary of Volvos for a long time.

* Figure out ways to make lectures interactive. Get students bumping into each other to simulate particle diffusion, or have half of the class argue for an issue and the other half argue against it.

* If there are a few points in the lecture that are crucial to understanding the big picture, figure out how you are going to phrase the key concepts of an entire lecture. It might not be necessary to memorize the words you will use, but get familiar with the approach you will take.

* Begin with a simple story related to the topic of the day.

* Have outlines of your lecture available for your students either online or on reserve in the library. These do not need to be extensive, but should give students the structure of what you are going to present.

Increasing Student Participation

From the hard copy book Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis, University of California, Berkeley; Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1993.

Make certain each student has an opportunity to talk in class during the first two or three weeks. The longer a student goes without speaking in class, the more difficult it will be for him or her to contribute. Devise small group or pair work early in the term so that all students can participate and hear their own voices in nonthreatening circumstances.

Plan an icebreaker activity early in the semester. For example, a professor teaching plant domestication in cultural geography asks students to bring to class a fruit or vegetable from another culture or region. The discussion focuses on the countries of origin and the relationship between food and culture. At the end of class students eat what they brought. See "The First Day of Class" for other suggestions.

Ask students to identify characteristics of an effective discussion. Ask students individually or in small groups to recall discussions and seminars in which they have participated and to list the characteristics of those that wereworthwhile. Then ask students to list the characteristics of poor discussions. Write the items on the board, tallying those items mentioned by more than one student or group. With the entire class, explore ways in which class members can maximize those aspects that make for a good discussion and minimize those aspects that make for a poor discussion.

Periodically divide students into small groups. Students find it easier to speak to groups of three or four than to an entire class. Divide students into small groups, have them discuss a question or issue for five or ten minutes, and then return to a plenary format. Choose topics that are focused and straightforward: "What are the two most important characteristics of goal-free evaluation?" or "Why did the experiment fail?" Have each group report orally and record the results on the board. Once students have spoken in small groups, they may be less reluctant to speak to the class as a whole.

Assign roles to students. Ask two or three students to lead a discussion session sometime during the term. Meet with the student discussion leaders beforehand to go over their questions and proposed format. Have the leaders distribute three to six discussion questions to the class a week before the discussion. During class the leaders assume responsibility for generating and facilitating the discussion. For discussions you lead, assign one or two students per session to be observers responsible for commenting on the discussion. Other student roles include periodic summarizer (to summarize the main substantive points two or three times during the session), recorder (to serve as the group's memory), timekeeper (to keep the class on schedule), and designated first speaker. (Source: Hyman, 1980)

Use poker chips or "comment cards" to encourage discussion. One faculty member distributes three poker chips to each student in her class. Each time a student speaks, a chip is turned over to the instructor. Students must spend all their chips by the end of the period. The professor reports that this strategy limits students who dominate the discussion and encourages quiet students to speak up. Another professor hands out a "comment card" each time a student provides a strong response or insightful comment. Students turn back the cards at the end of the period, and the professor notes on the course roster the number of cards each student received. (Source: Sadker and Sadker, 1992)

Use electronic mail to start a discussion. One faculty member in the biological sciences poses a question through electronic mail and asks the students to write in their responses and comments. He then hands out copies of all the responses to initiate the class discussion.

Build rapport with students. Simply saying that you are interested in what your students think and that you value their opinions may not be enough. In addition, comment positively about a student's contribution and reinforce good points by paraphrasing or summarizing them. If a student makes a good observation that is ignored by the class, point this out: "Thank you, Steve. Karen also raised that issue earlier, but we didn't pick up on it. Perhaps now is the time to address it. Thank you for your patience, Karen" (Tiberius, 1990). Clarke (1988) suggests tagging important assertions or questions with the student's name: the Amy argument or the Haruko hypothesis. Tiberius (1990) warns against overdoing this, however, because a class may get tired of being reminded that they are discussing so-and-so's point.

Bring students' outside comments into class. Talk to students during office hours, in hallways, and around campus. If they make a good comment, check with them first to see whether they are willing to raise the idea in class, then say: "Jana, you were saying something about that in the hall yesterday Would you repeat it for the rest of the class."

Use nonverbal cues to encourage participation. For example, smile expectantly and nod as students talk. Maintain eye contact with students. Look relaxed and interested.

Draw all students into the discussion. You can involve more students by asking whether they agree with what has just been said or whether someone can provide another example to support or contradict a point: "How do the rest of you feel about that?" or "Does anyone who hasn't spoken care to comment on the plans for People's Park?" Moreover, if you move away from – rather than toward – a student who makes a comment, the student will speak up and outward, drawing everyone into the conversation. The comment will be "on the floor," open for students to respond to.

Give quiet students special encouragement. Quiet students are not necessarily uninvolved, so avoid excessive efforts to draw them out. Some quiet students, though, are just waiting for a nonthreatening opportunity to speak. To help these students, consider the following strategies:

· Arrange small group (two to four students) discussions.

· Pose casual questions that don't call for a detailed correct response:

· "What are some reasons why people may not vote?" or "What do you remember most from the reading?" or "Which of the articles did you find most difficult?" (McKeachie, 1986).

· Assign a small specific task to a quiet student: "Carrie, would you find out for next class session what Chile's GNP was last year?"

· Reward infrequent contributors with a smile.

· Bolster students' self-confidence by writing their comments on the board (Welty, 1989).

· Stand or sit next to someone who has not contributed; your proximity may draw a hesitant student into the discussion.

Discourage students who monopolize the discussion. As reported in "The One or Two Who Talk Too Much" (1988), researchers Karp and Yoels found that in classes with fewer than forty students, four or five students accounted for 75 percent of the total interactions per session. In classes with more than forty students, two or three students accounted for 51 percent of the exchanges. Here are some ways to handle dominating students:

· Break the class into small groups or assign tasks to pairs of students.

· Ask everyone to jot down a response to your question and then choose someone to speak.

· If only the dominant students raise their hand, restate your desire for greater student participation: "I'd like to hear from others in the class."

· Avoid making eye contact with the talkative.

· If one student has been dominating the discussion, ask other students whether they agree or disagree with that student.

· Explain that the discussion has become too one-sided and ask the monopolizer to help by remaining silent: "Larry, since we must move on, would you briefly summarize your remarks, and then we'll hear the reactions of other group members."

· Assign a specific role to the dominant student that limits participation (for example, periodic summarizer).

· Acknowledge the time constraints: "Jon, I notice that our time is running out. Let's set a thirty-second limit on everybody's comments from now on."

· If the monopolizer is a serious problem, speak to him or her after class or during office hours. Tell the student that you value his or her participation and wish more students contributed. If this student's comments are good, say so; but point out that learning results from give-and-take and that everyone benefits from hearing a range of opinions and views.

Tactfully correct wrong answers. Any type of put-down or disapproval will inhibit students from speaking up and from learning. Say something positive about those aspects of the response that are insightful or creative and point out those aspects that are off base. Provide hints, suggestions, or follow-up questions that will enable students to understand and correct their own errors. Billson (1986) suggests prompts such as "Good–now let's take. it a step further"; "Keep going"; "Not quite, but keep thinking about it."

Reward but do not grade student participation. Some faculty members assign grades based on participation or reward student participation with bonus points when assigning final grades. Melvin (1988) describes a grading scheme based on peer and professor evaluation: Students are asked to rate the class participation of each of their classmates as high, medium, or low If the median peer rating is higher than the instructor's rating of that student, the two ratings are averaged. If the peer rating is lower, the student receives the instructor's rating. Other faculty members believe that grading based on participation is inappropriate, that is, subjective and not defensible if challenged. They also note that such a policy may discourage free and open discussion, making students hesitant to talk for fear of revealing their ignorance or being perceived as trying to gain grade points. In addition, faculty argue, thoughtful silence is not unproductive, and shy students should not be placed at a disadvantage simply because they are shy.

There are means other than grades to encourage and reward participation: verbal praise of good points, acknowledgment of valued contributions, or even written notes to students who have added significantly to the discussion. One faculty member uses lottery tickets to recognize excellent student responses or questions when they occur. He doesn't announce this in advance but distributes the first ticket as a surprise. Tickets can be given to individuals or to small groups. Over the term, he may hand out fifteen to twenty lottery tickets. In a small class, you maybe able to keep notes on students' participation and devote some office hours to helping students develop their skills in presenting their points of view and listening to their classmates (Hertenstein, 1991).

Teaching with Clickers

What Do Students Appreciate Most about Clickers?

In a class of several hundred students, it is virtually impossible for each student to participate and interact with the professor. I like the

Quizdom system because it allows each student to actively participate and thus gauge their comprehension.

They allow me to interact with the material and make sure that I understand the lecture. They force me to apply what I've learned, also

ensuring that I will be better able to remember it in the future.

Using the clicker gives me a chance to think about what I'm actually writing down in my notes, rather than just having a collection of

incomprehensible formulas scattered through my notes.

Sample of student survey responses (Zhu, Bierwert, & Bayer, 2006, 2007)

What Is a Clicker?

A clicker system consists of three components:

1) clickers: wireless handheld transmitters that resemble small, TV remote controls;

2) receiver: a transportable device that receives signals from the clickers; and

3) software: an application installed on the instructor's computer to record, display, and manage student responses and data.

Although radio frequency transmission seems to have become the standard for now (Duncan, 2006), infrared transmission is also still in use. The design of clicker pads varies widely, and the different clicker systems -Classroom Performance System (CPS), Audience Response System, Qwizdom, TurningPoint, H-ITT, Classtalk - are incompatible.

How Are Faculty Using Clickers in the Classroom?

Since the 1980s, the use of clickers has proliferated on college campuses. Faculty from various disciplines such as biology, chemistry, history, mathematics, political science, law and psychology have introduced clicker systems into their classrooms. Faculty use clickers for various purposes depending on their course goals and learning objectives. The most common uses of clickers include the following:

Assessing students' prior knowledge and identifying misconceptions before introducing a new subject

Prior knowledge is necessary for learning but can be problematic if it is not accurate or sufficient. It is a good practice for faculty to assess students' prior knowledge of a subject and identify common misconceptions in order to find an appropriate entry point for introducing a new topic. By using clicker multiple-choice questions, faculty can quickly gauge students' knowledge level. For instance, in a Fall 2006 Chemistry class at U-M, the professor started each lecture with clicker questions asking students to identify new concepts or distinguish between various new concepts discussed in the assigned readings.

Checking students'understanding of new material

Clicker technology makes it easy for faculty to check students' mastery of lecture content. The immediate display of student responses enables faculty and students to see how well students understand the lecture. As a result, faculty can decide whether there is a need for further instruction or supplementary materials. By seeing peers' responses, students can gauge how well they are doing in relation to others in the class and determine which topics they need to review or bring to office hours.

Using Peer Instruction and other active learning strategies

Peer Instruction (Mazur, 1997) and Think-Pair-Share (Lyman, 1981) are cooperative learning strategies that faculty often use to probe students'understanding of lecture content and encourage them to discuss, debate, and defend their answers during lecture. The strategy entails posing a question to students, giving them time to think and discuss their responses with a partner, and then describing the results to the whole class.

Clicker technology makes the use of these strategies feasible and manageable, even for large classes. For example, the instructor will plan for each lecture several concept questions that focus more on the analysis and evaluation of information than simple recall, rote memorization, or calculation. Students are asked to share and discuss their responses with partners. Some faculty ask students to respond twice to difficult questions, once right after they read the question and then again after they talk to their partners. The faculty member then reviews and explains students' different responses, helping them clear up their misconceptions.

Research in physics (Crouch & Mazur, 2001) shows that students' cognitive gains from peer instruction are significant: students' scores on tests measuring conceptual understanding improved dramatically; their performance on traditional quantitative problems improved as well.

Starting class discussion on difficult topics

The anonymity of responses facilitated by the clicker technology allows faculty to initiate class discussion and debate on sensitive topics that might otherwise be difficult to explore. For example, questions on controversial issues in a political science course can sometimes be met with absolute silence (Abrahamson, 1999), but the use of clickers can help change classroom dynamics. Faculty can start the class lecture or discussion by posing controversial questions and offering "common-sense" multiple-choice responses. Students' responses, and their questions about their peers' responses, can provide an opening for class discussion. When students recognize their own opinions and co-direct a class discussion, they may feel a greater sense of ownership over the lecture and discussion. As a result, they will be more engaged in and responsible for their own learning. Also, instead of drawing conclusions from the most vocal students, the faculty member receives

a far more accurate overview of opinions from the entire class. Most important, the anonymous feature of the clicker system ensures that viewpoints that might not otherwise be expressed during class discussion are given a voice.

Administering tests and quizzes during lecture

The relative ease of managing students' responses has made the clicker system a helpful device for testing and grading during lecture. Features such as automatic scoring and record-keeping for each student enable faculty to administer all sorts of tests and quizzes in large lecture halls. For example, in one physics class at U-M, students' responses to questions posed during lecture are scored. Students who answer the questions correctly earn points that count toward a small percentage of the course grade (allocating too many points to a clicker quiz can increase the likelihood of cheating). Moreover, with instant feedback from students, faculty can adjust the pace of a lecture and the amount of content presented, assist students in identifying their knowledge deficiency, help students re- evaluate their study strategies, and determine what additional resources they might need to provide.

Gathering feedback on teaching

With clicker technology, faculty can gather anonymous feedback on their own teaching by asking students to respond to questions regarding the lecture, class discussion, homework assignments, group activities, or the overall learning experience in the course. If used early in the term, faculty can make changes to the class that benefit students before the end of the term.

Recording class attendance and participation

Taking attendance in a large lecture course is usually daunting, if not impossible. But with a system that recognizes each student, it is feasible and convenient for faculty to take student attendance in a large lecture. For example, students' responses to questions asked at the beginning of the lecture often serve as a record of their attendance. The instructor can easily run reports on student responses and find out who is present or absent from the class.

Admittedly, faculty hold different views on student class attendance. Some firmly believe that being in class and listening to a lecture is an integral part of learning, making class attendance a must; others think it is not essential for learning and it can be left to the students to decide. Similarly, student opinions about mandatory class attendance vary. Some U-M students surveyed in 2006 and 2007 responded negatively when clickers were used only to check class attendance (Zhu, Bierwert, & Bayer).

There are many other creative ways clickers are being used in classrooms. Draper, Cargill, and Cutts (2002) list three: Students can use them to give anonymous feedback on their peers'class presentations by responding to a brief post-presentation survey. Faculty can create a sense of community and group awareness by clustering people's hobbies, habits, and preferences through student responses to anonymous surveys. Faculty may also use clickers for psychological experiments. Kam & Sommer (2006) note the use of clickers for campaign simulation and polling research, as well as the technology's ability to monitor and facilitate individual and group games. In summary, the only limitation on innovative applications of clickers is the creativity of the instructor.

Online Tutorial for Designing Effective and Innovative Courses

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Online Tutorial for Designing Effective and Innovative Courses

Is it time to really shake the tree and do something about one of your courses? Do you have a great idea for an innovative course but aren't quite sure where to start in designing it? If so, you might try using the following online tutorial designed to provide practical and effective help for faculty members interested in designing or redesigning a course:

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html

This tutorial is an on-line version of a face-to-face course design workshop developed and taught to literally hundreds of undergraduate faculty in a variety of disciplines for over 12 years by Barbara Tewksbury (Hamilton College) and Heather Macdonald (College of William and Mary). While the workshop was originally designed for geoscience faculty, the tutorial provides examples from other disciplines, including those of you outside the sciences, and offers an easy-to-apply strategy for designing courses in any discipline. This tutorial is designed to give you a way to get your arms around what is typically a daunting task and will guide you through a practical, effective strategy for designing or redesigning an effective and innovative course.

Overall philosophy

We believe that a course should do more than provide students with a strong background of knowledge in a field. We believe that a course should enable students to use their strong backgrounds to solve problems, and that a truly valuable course should focus beyond the final exam to add to students' future lives, abilities and skill sets and prepare students to think for themselves in the discipline after the course is over. Designing such a course is a challenge and involves providing not only opportunities for students to master content but also opportunities for students to practice thinking for themselves in the discipline so that they will be prepared to do so after the course is over.

Why use our tutorial?

This tutorial provides a pathway through what can look like a big, amorphous, overwhelming task and presents a logical way to proceed from the glimmer of a good idea toward a new course while avoiding too much blundering in the dark. Using this tutorial lets you avoid wasting energy on reinventing the wheel. We provide links to hundreds of activities that can be used either directly or indirectly as templates, plus examples of goals and syllabi that can be used as catalysts for your own work and that were developed by other faculty.

We know that the design strategy in this tutorial works. Workshop participants comment that our course design process helped them to develop rigorous, effective, and innovative courses and to make thoughtful choices about what and how to teach. In a follow-up survey of workshop participants, 90% of respondents followed through to teach the rigorous, goals-based, innovative course that they had begun to develop at the workshop. Furthermore, 80% of respondents found our course design process so useful that they followed it again when designing or redesigning another course.

Who is this tutorial for?

Most of the examples in this tutorial come from undergraduate courses in the geosciences, although some portions have links to examples from undergraduate courses in other disciplines. Despite the focus on geoscience, the process is generic, and we've used simple examples. If you are interested in designing a course outside the geosciences, you should have little trouble using the tutorial.

The tutorial itself

Course context. Teaching a course involves making choices about what an instructor will ask students to do and why. External factors such as course size, context, student demography, and support structure are significant and should influence the choices that need to be made during course design. We begin the tutorial by having you articulate who your students are, what they need during the course, and what they might need in the future.

Setting overarching goals. The heart of the tutorial involves having you set student-focused goals that enable your students, at an appropriate level, to think for themselves in the discipline, not just expose them to what professionals know. You will set goals that focus your course on developing students' abilities to think for themselves and solve problems in the discipline while still addressing mastery of content.

Setting ancillary skills goals. Before proceeding to content and course plan, you will set one or two ancillary skills goals for your students (e.g., improving writing, teamwork, oral presentation).

Choosing content to achieve overarching goals. Every field is awash in more than a semester's worth of content, and every one of us faces decisions about what content to include and what content to omit. You will make decisions about content by considering what general content topics could be used to achieve the overarching goals you have set for your students, rather than by making a laundry list of content that students should be exposed to.

Developing a course plan. A course plan includes not only the goals and the content topics, but also the order of content and concepts in each broad content topic, and how students will receive goal-related practice with increasing independence as they encounter content and concepts. You will choose appropriate classroom, assignment, and assessment strategies that both help students learn effectively and allow you to evaluate whether students have met the goals.

For Faculty Developers

We now have a complete description of how we run our course design workshops, including links to all of the materials we use to run our workshops, a detailed schedule, tips for adapting or adopting our workshop format, and suggestions for how to use our course design tutorial with faculty. You can find these materials on line at

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/for_developers.html

This course design tutorial is part of a larger web collection of professional development resources developed for undergraduate geoscience faculty through the NSF-funded program On the Cutting Edge ( http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/index.html ).

Writing to Learn

Writing-to-Learn Activities

by Bette LaSere Erickson and Diane W. Strommer

Traditionally, writing assignments assess what students have learned. Writing-to-learn serves a different purpose. In these exercises, students write to and for themselves in order to collect their thoughts and get them down on paper, where they can be examined and revised. Typically, writing-to-learn exercises are short: a few sentences, perhaps a paragraph or two. Although faculty often collect and skim what students have written in order to see what they are thinking, writing-to-learn exercises are usually not graded.

Writing-to-learn assignments, like small group discussion activities, can serve a variety of purposes. Beginning class, for example, by asking students to write a one-paragraph summary of the previous class helps to connect learning. Pausing periodically during lecture or discussion to ask students to summarize the main points helps avoid overloading working memory and keeps students actively involved. To prompt deeper processing of material, stop from time to time during class and ask students to jot down an example from their own experience, write about another context in which the material might apply, describe the way in which they would go about solving a problem, or react to an interpretation or conclusion. (For additional ideas see Bean, 1996; Sorcinelli & Elbow, 1997.)

Similar writing-to-learn assignments encourage more active and thorough reading of assignments outside class. Because paraphrasing is an important step toward processing information deeply, assignments that ask students to write summaries or explanations as if they were writing to a relative or to a friend are good prompts for deeper study. Depending on the nature of the reading, faculty might ask students to write about an experience they have had related to the reading, provide an example not discussed in the reading, imagine how the author might respond to a current event or issue, think of a possible exception to an author's ideas, or write questions they would like to ask the author. The possibilities are many; the idea is to move students beyond verbatim memorization to deeper processing of their reading. Bean (1996) devotes an entire chapter to using writing to help students read difficult texts.

Small group discussions and writing-to-learn activities provide a good beginning repertoire of instructional methods. Simply by changing the tasks and questions, both methods can involve students in practice for a variety of objectives. They are especially potent for encouraging students to process information more deeply. Even a two- or three-minute discussion or writing-to-learn activity engages students in paraphrasing, summarizing, or thinking of other examples. They work in any size class, even very large ones. By alternating these methods or using them in combination, we accommodate both students who learn by talking things through (extraverts) and students who prefer thinking things through before they engage in activity (introverts).

Teaching evening classes and nontraditional students

Teaching Large Evening Classes

They've been working all day, they're tired, and there are scores of them-how do you reach them all?

By Oscar Wambuguh

High enrollments, conflicting student work schedules, and the sheer convenience of once-a-week classes are pushing many colleges to schedule evening courses. Held from 6 to 9 pm or 7 to 10 pm, these classes at my institution are typically packed, sometimes with more than 150 students in a large lecture theater. How can faculty effectively teach, control, or even simply keep awake the students in such classes, many of whom start their days very early in the morning with family responsibilities?

Evening classes bring special teaching challenges. Evening students tend to interact socially more than day students, necessitating frequent instructor interventions to maintain calm and order, and many come to class overwhelmed, hungry, and tired. In addition, there are the usual challenges: poor lighting conditions in many large lecture theaters; lack of, or poor-quality, audiovisual equipment; and distractions caused by student electronic devices such as cell phones, iPods, or laptops. Under such conditions, even the most ardent instructor can become frustrated.

In my large evening classes, I always have a mix of students, ranging from the highly motivated to the couldn't-care-less types. I teach environmental health classes focusing on attention-catching topics such as global warming and climate change; air pollution; epidemiological issues like SARS and Asian bird flu; toxicology, especially of heavy metals in our water and food; biodiversity loss; and food concerns. Over the years, to enhance student engagement and maintain interest, I have incorporated strategies such as combining audiovisuals (PowerPoint presentations, short video clips, and transparencies) and class discussions and activities. Doing so is challenging in large classes set in "lecture-only" theaters. However, I have found four strategies that maintain student engagement and interest throughout what might otherwise be a long evening.

PowerPoint Presentations

I start my lectures with a two- to three-minute video clip about current course-related issues. Then I lecture using PowerPoint slides for about an hour and a quarter. Although PowerPoint isn't exactly a brand-new technology, it works well for my classes. Many students are relatively fresh at the beginning of class and likely to remain attentive through the whole lecture. I use illustrations and pictures interspersed with text slides as much as possible. I time myself carefully and always stop after seventy-five minutes, after which students take a ten-minute break to recharge for the next session.

Intergroup Questions

Before the first class meeting of a semester, I organize students in groups of eight to ten and post group numbers and the names of group members on a Blackboard site, where students can access them. I end up with fifteen to sixteen groups for a class of 150 students. During the first meeting, as I call students' names, I ask them to move into their groups for a "get-to-know each- other" session and information exchange. To maintain regularity, I ask group members to stay with their groups at the same location in the lecture theater in future meeting sessions. The groups are responsible for generating five short-answer questions (typed, with answers) for each class meeting. Within their groups, students take turns developing questions each week and circulating them among other group members for feedback through Blackboard before class. Once we begin intergroup question time, two groups are chosen to answer two questions asked by each of the other groups.

Here's how it works. When the first session begins, groups 1 and 2 are ready to begin answering questions. The first question comes from group 3, which asks group 1 one of its five short-answer questions. Members take turns each week reading the questions aloud as everyone in the class listens. One member from group 1 (members take turns) responds briefly (taking no more than two minutes total) to the question asked. If I judge that a concept is not clear, I add to the answer given. Then group 3 asks group 2 its next question, after which group 4 asks groups 1 and 2 questions. The process continues for between forty five and sixty minutes until all groups have been reached. Satisfactory answers are given two points each, recorded next to the question asked. Throughout, I maintain order and monitor timing. At the end, I collect all the groups' short-answer questions for grading and record the points earned by the two chosen groups. At the next meeting session, groups 3 and 4 will be the chosen groups, and so on until the last group is reached.

This system works well in a number of ways. It encourages students to read course material ahead of time; helps the instructor cover course content and explain concepts and material that are not clear during the question-and answer session; keeps students motivated and energized by requiring individual responsibility, attention, and group commitment (no one wants to be blamed for letting the group down); encourages active participation among students, allowing them to develop and polish their oral communication skills; gives students a sense of owning the questions and the learning; and creates excitement and a sense of achievement, especially if group members answer their questions correctly.

Article Time

Another part of our evening class deals with current articles in the field. Each group will have had a week to choose and summarize an article from the media (newspapers, newsmagazines, science magazines, journals, or the Internet) dealing with a topic covered by the course. Summaries, which are usually about half-a-page long, must be typed and must include the names of all the students in the group. Group members take turns choosing and summarizing the weekly article on behalf of their group.

During article time, the member of each group who chose and summarized the article stands up and tells the class the title of the article and the reasons why he or she chose it and then reads aloud the typed summary. The groups report in order of their group number, taking about two to three minutes each for a total of forty-five to sixty minutes. Everyone, including the instructor, listens, and the class is free to comment briefly after each article has been read. At the end of the session, the instructor collects the fifteen summaries for grading. This happens each week. Reviewing each article and its summary is quick, taking an average of about ten minutes (a total of just two-and a- half hours a week for the ten instruction weeks of the quarter).

I have found this process beneficial in many ways. It encourages literacy about current events in the field among everyone present, including the instructor; improves student reading and analytical and comprehension skills by requiring students to summarize two-to-three page articles in about half a page; improves students' confidence in their oral and written communication skills while also enhancing those skills; helps keep students engaged and motivated at a late hour of the evening as topics spin from one area to the next; and allows students to appreciate the practicality, complexity, and interdisciplinarity of some of the material covered by the course.

Short Quiz

While it is debatable whether college-level students should be required to physically attend every meeting session, I have made it hard for students to miss class unless something unavoidable happens (like an illness, a baby sitter not showing up, a transportation problem, or a family emergency). In such cases, students must call my voice mail or send me an e-mail and present a note at the next class meeting explaining the reasons for their absence.

What motivates students to be sure to come to my class? During the last ten to fifteen minutes of each evening session, we have an optional extra-credit quiz worth ten to fifteen points. If a student misses class but leaves me a voice or e-mail message and gives me a written note, I prorate his or her points based on a simple ratio of the total points earned for all prior quizzes divided by the total expected, multiplied by the total points for the quiz missed. The quiz, which is multiple choice, is given on a projection screen (eliminating unnecessary copying). Students complete it silently on fifteen- question Scantron forms- machine-readable forms designed for multiple-choice tests-without using class notes or text. I advance the questions on the projection screen as students answer them. I use a $20 sensor that works with PowerPoint and Word, which allows me to advance the questions remotely from anywhere in the room.

All the points students accumulate over the weeks are put into a "point savings account" that students can see on Blackboard. The "fatter" the account gets, the more motivated students become to keep it high. The account can swell to an average of about eighty-five points for most students. But they understand that no matter how many points they "save," their total is prorated so that it does not offset more than 10 percent of the overall course points, usually eight hundred. For example, if a student has accumulated twenty five points before the first midterm, he or she can miss up to twenty-five questions on the exam, which usually has a total of a hundred questions. If by the second midterm, the student has a total point savings of fifty-five, those points can offset the total points missed on the two midterms. Similarly, if by the final, the student has accumulated an overall total savings of eighty-five points, he or she can offset the total points missed on all three exams (subject to the 10 percent cutoff).

The quiz is very popular and has obvious benefits. It allows students to monitor their understanding of the lecture session's material right away; it gives the instructor feedback about the quality of instruction and student understanding; it motivates (or forces) students to stay for the entire class, as the quiz is administered at the very end; it encourages students to pay attention to the material presented (because of the pressure of immediate assessment); it allows the instructor to monitor daily attendance; and it saves the instructor's time, because some of the quiz questions can be rephrased and used on midterms and the final.

In addition, the quizzes encourage students to stay on top of the course material, because they have to review an evening's material ahead of time so that they can fill the "holes" as we discuss the same material in class. This, many students believe, provides an extra edge as they are not encountering this material for the first time before the quiz. Perhaps most important, the points students earn on quizzes give them a sense of hope that they can miss some questions on the midterms or final without penalty. The quizzes also allow them to remain optimistic about the course even after a devastating performance on the first midterm exam. Students quickly forget the optional nature of the quizzes and soon start taking them as a matter of priority and survival (some students who have missed an entire session have shown up the last fifteen minutes of class so as not to miss this quiz!).

During quizzes, the instructor has to remain vigilant, moving around the room to discourage students who whisper to each other, exchange Scantron forms, or check their notes. The instructor must also be sure to collect and secure all Scantron forms before taking time to chat with students after class.

Over the years, I have had positive evaluations about the quizzes. Many students are pleased that they get immediate feedback about their comprehension of course material, allowing them to take advantage of the period in which they can drop the course without penalty. Do the quizzes contribute to grade inflation? Hardly, given the 10 percent cutoff for the number of quiz points counted toward the final course grade and the fact that the questions are not "giveaways"; they are real exam questions, requiring advance preparation, sustained attention, and understanding.

The quizzes do not help all students. I find that some routinely miss class despite the cost to their grades, while some perform consistently on the quizzes. Most students actually look forward to taking the quizzes. On the rare occasions that my schedule doesn't allow me to prepare a quiz by the end of a class meeting, I can see disappointment on most students' faces. They consider they have been "robbed" of the opportunity to accumulate point savings and improve their grades.

Today, with an increasing number of nontraditional students returning to school, we are challenged to develop creative and innovative ways to make our classes work for them and to make our course material relevant to their daily lives. Evening classes, which afford these students flexibility and convenience, are one way to meet their needs, and I hope my experience with evening classes will help others find ways to make them work for this diverse and dedicated group of students.

12 Essentials for Success: Competencies employers seek in college graduates

12 Essentials for Success: Competencies employers seek in college graduates
http://careernetwork.msu.edu/pdf/Competencies.pdf
From the Career Services Network at Michigan State University.

Students often want and need ways that they will be able to “use” what they have learned in courses. The competencies outlined in this publication are not new but are the kinds of skills just about any course can enhance. (Note: the actual PDF is beautifully done and makes a fine resource.)

Working in a Diverse Environment
Learning from people who are different from you—and recognizing your commonalities—is an important part of your education and essential preparation for the world you will join.

Managing Time and Priorities
Managing how you spend your time, and on what, is essential in today’s world. Learn how to sort priorities so you stay in control of your life.

Acquiring Knowledge
Learning how to learn is just as important as the knowledge itself. No matter what your future holds, you’ll continue to learn every day of your life.

Thinking Critically
Developing solid critical thinking skills means you’ll be confident to handle autonomy, make sound decisions, and find the connection between opportunities you have to learn and how those opportunities will affect your future.

Communicating Effectively
Developing listening, interpreting, and speaking skills is just as important as reading and writing.

Solving Problems
You may only have thought about problem- solving when you’re faced with a crisis. Understand the process and mind-set of successful problem-solving and you’ll more easily handle the bigger challenges that come your way.

Contributing to a Team
In the workplace each person’s contribution is essential to success. Having the ability to work collaboratively with others is vital. This includes identifying individual strengths (yours and others) and harnessing them for the group, building consensus, knowing when to lead and when to follow, and appreciating group dynamics.

Navigating Across Boundaries
Life is filled with boundaries—good and bad. Discover how to avoid the boundaries that become barriers so you don’t hamper the ability to collaborate with other people.

Performing with Integrity
It only takes one bad instance to destroy years of good faith and good relationships. It’s important to develop a code of ethics and principles to guide your life.

Developing Professional Competencies
The end of college is the beginning of a new education. Build on what you already know and keep learning new skills—your job will challenge you to grow and develop in ways you haven’t imagined yet.

Balancing Work and Life
You’ve got a lot to accomplish in limited time. How do you get it all done and still stay sane? The key is maintaining balance among the different parts of your life.

Embracing Change
Just about every aspect of life is in a constant state of change. Sometimes it may seem that no sooner do you get caught up than you have to start all over again. No matter how you feel about change, you have to learn to deal with it.

Great Beginnings: Things to do early on in your class

Great Beginnings: Things to do early on in your class

http://ctl.stanford.edu/handouts/PDF/great_beginnings.pdf

From the Center for Teaching and Learning at Stanford University

First Impressions

Arrive early and put information on the board

Start class on time

Hand out an informative and user-friendly syllabus (if it’s your own class)

Let your students see the enthusiasm you have for your subject

Building Community

Greet students at the door and chat with students as they arrive

Introduce yourself and your interest in the class

Tell about your current research interests and your own beginnings in the discipline

Take attendance to learn names

Use an icebreaker to help students learn each others’ names

Make collaborative assignments for several students to work on together

Course Logistics

Tell students what will be expected of them with regard to attendance, grading, participation, assignments, and late work policies

Tell students what they can expect of you with regard to office hours, reading drafts, calling on students, accessibility at home

Explain the difference between legitimate collaboration and academic dishonesty

Organize your class and provide structure by posting the day’s “menu” on the board or overhead

Challenging Students

Have students write out their expectations for the course and their own goals for learning

Hit the ground running on the first class with substantial content

Relate course material to students’ interests and experience

Give students two passages of material containing alternative views to compare and contrast

Have students apply subject matter to solve real problems

Ask students to fill in an index card telling you something about their backgrounds

Encouraging Active Learning

Have students write their questions on index cards to be collected and answered the next class

Encourage group work and active discussion to accomplish specific objectives

Put students into pairs or “learning cells” to quiz each other over material for the day

Move around your classroom

Give students a take-home problem relating to the day’s material

Remember the Golden Rules of Teaching:

Be prepared

Be honest

Be creative