“Crowdsourcing” exam questions

The Profhacker blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education writes today about “crowdsourcing” exams by having students play a role in devising exam questions.

Jason B. Jones, an Associate Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, invites his students to look back through their notes and texts in order to suggest “passages for identification, short answer questions, and essay exams.”  If enough “smart” questions are suggested, he agrees to draw the final entirely from the student-generated questions:

What’s nice, and sometimes terrifying, about this approach is that the resulting questions usually do genuinely reflect the class’s work. That is, it quickly becomes clear what your students will be taking away from your class. Further, when the students collaborate in this way, they both have to do the reflective, synthesizing work of question-writing (which is better than cramming) and to come to an implicit agreement about what our course was about.

Read the full post here.

Tufts Conference on Teaching & Learning (Dec 10)

I’m excited to announce that Tufts University has made five seats available to Stonehill faculty to participate in their upcoming conference:

“Really Fabulous, Out-of-the-Box, Practical Ways to Enhance Your Teaching and Student Learning.”

Held December 10 from 8:30 – 2:30 in the Aidekman Arts Center, the conference will feature sessions such as:

• Fostering and assessing students’ interdisciplinary thinking
• Promoting active learning in large classes
• Enhancing students’ ability to work with primary sources
• Using technology to enhance teaching and facilitate learning

Plus the afternoon is devoted to a workshop with assessment guru Barbara Walvoord.  You can find the full program here:  http://celt.tufts.edu/downloads/2010TuftsTeachingConferenceAgenda.pdf

The conference is free, but seats are limited, so please email me if you’re interested in attending.

Teacher’s Bookshelf: The Skillful Teacher

Stephen D. Brookfield. The Skillful Teacher. On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. 2nd. Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.

If I were asked to recommend one book that I think every faculty member of the college should read, it would be Brookfield’s classic in its second edition, an engagingly written introduction to teaching, which combines a gentle introduction to pedagogical theory with numerous practical suggestions for every teacher—from the newly minted Ph.D. to the seasoned veteran—that will improve performance in the classroom.

From “core assumptions of skillful teaching” and a chapter on how to survive emotionally the onslaughts of our chosen profession, to sections on how to lecture creatively, increase students’ participation in discussion, or respond to resistance, it’s all here.

To my mind, though, the best chapter is the fourth, where Brookfield addresses “what students value in teachers,” asserting that they learn best when credibility and authenticity are held in a state of ”congenial tension” (57).

The attributes that establish credibility include expertise, experience (in one’s field as well as in the classroom), conviction (our sense of the importance that students “get” what we are teaching), and rationale, which Brookfield defines as the ability to “talk out loud the reasons for . . . classroom decisions, course design, and evaluative criteria” (63).

Sections of Brookfield’s  discussion of authenticity may raise some eyebrows.  He claims we must manifest congruence between what we say we will do and what we do; full disclosure (“regularly making public the criteria, expectations, agendas and assumptions that guide [one’s] practice”); responsiveness (convincing students that what you are teaching actually will help them); and personhood (the more controversial part): one’s ability to allow students to know that we are indeed human beings with personal lives outside the classroom (67-71).

Brookfield’s reflections on this final attribute and the problem of balancing self-disclosure and professional boundaries is typical of the book as a whole—nuanced, clear, and brief.

John Lanci
Professor, Religious Studies

Teaching and Learning Strategies Seminar (due Dec 1)

All full-time Stonehill faculty are invited to apply for the 2011-2012 Teaching and Learning Strategies Seminar.  Applications can be submitted online and are due December 1st.

The Teaching and Learning Strategies Seminar provides faculty the opportunity to critically reflect on their teaching in collaboration with their colleagues and in the context of the larger Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Teaching Tip: Role Playing

Role Playing activities and assignments are a great way to mix things up in your class.  They can help break down students’ inhibitions and get them thinking about ideas from new perspectives.

Giving students the chance to speak or write from an alternate persona can sometimes alleviate the pressure to “always be right” and can help students feel more comfortable taking intellectual risks in class.  The following are some different role play activities you might try.

CFP: International Conference on Innovation and Excellence in Teaching (due Nov 30)

Bentley University through its Teaching and Learning Initiative (TLI) is proud to announce the First International Conference on Innovation and Excellence in Teaching on June 16-17, 2011.

The objective of the conference is to bring together teachers/scholars from all over the world to share innovative teaching techniques and pedagogy, thus promoting and enhancing teaching and learning in academe.

In their call for papers (due Nov 30), the conference organizers invite paper proposals of 250 words or less from faculty interested in presenting their teaching expertise/innovation in an international conference on innovation and excellence in teaching.

New Faculty Seminar December 6th

Evaluating Student Learning
Monday, Dec 6, 11:30 – 12:45
Duffy 114 Conference Room

The New Faculty Seminar is meant to continue the discussions begun at New Faculty Orientation about teaching and the other professional obligations of new faculty at Stonehill — as well as to provide new faculty a “safe” place for discussing their experiences (good and bad) throughout the year.

With the end of the semester drawing near, we’ll use our December meeting to talk about evaluating your students’ learning and other challenges related to grading: How do we design tests and other assignments so that they match with our learning goals for a class? What alternatives are there to assessing learning aside from tests and essays? How do we provide students sufficient feedback about their performance without overwhelming our own workloads?

Pedagogy Travel Grant deadline Dec 1st

December 1st is the next deadline for the CTL’s Travel Pedagogy Grant. Proposals can be submitted online here.

Visit the CTL’s website to read the application guidelines and to see examples of past proposals that have been funded.