Student-Centered Teaching Resources
"Getting Students Involved in the Classroom"
Excerpted from Bergquist, W.H. & Phillips, S.R. (1975). A Handbook for Faculty Development. Council for the Advancement of Small Colleges, Washington, D.C. The authors detail the more common causes for student non-involvement-instructors using one-way communication; students preferring involvement-avoidance learning styles; courses lacking specific structures that foster participation-and offer some possible solutions.
http://www.cte.cornell.edu/faculty/materials/GettingStsInvolved.pdf
"Novice instructors and student-centered instruction: identifying and addressing obstacles to learning in the college science laboratory."
"Novice instructors and student-centered instruction: identifying and addressing obstacles to learning in the college science laboratory." The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(1). Winter, D., Lemons, P., Bookman, J., Hoese, W. (2001) Two biologists and two mathematicians collected data through clinical observations of 40 laboratory sections. Identifies and analyzes some problems with the implementation of student-centered instruction in introductory college science and mathematics laboratory courses. Potential problems include those associated with interactions between the instructor and individual students, interactions between the instructor and small groups of students, and the instructor's ability to monitor the learning environment. Provides practical suggestions for dealing with each category of problems.
http://www.iupui.edu/%7Ejosotl/VOL_2/NO_1/winters_vol_2_no_1.htm
101 Ideas for Combining Service and Learning
101 Ideas for Combining Service and Learning--a list of discipline-specific ideas for incorporating service-learning into your course.
http://www.fiu.edu/~time4chg/Library/ideas.html
A Sampler of Effective Practices
Authors Diane M. Emerson, Kathryn M. Plank, and R. Neill Johnson offer "A Sampler of Effective Practices" for obtaining effective student feedback. These techniques have been tried and tested in Penn State University classrooms. The authors have found that feedback instruments are most useful when used early in the semester.
http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/pdf/PennStateTeacherII.pdf
Center for the Study of College Student Retention
An A to Z retention/attrition reference list for those interested in finding information about student retention.
http://www.cscsr.org/
Classroom Assessment Techniques
Southern Illinois University's Undergraduate Assessment and Program Review website provides a definition of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), popularized by authors Angelo and Cross [Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques, a handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
http://tinyurl.com/luhaky
Classroom Assessment Techniques
An overview of Classroom Assessment Techniques is provided along with the characteristics of CATs, assumptions, how to begin, and suggestions for success.
http://tinyurl.com/2tlo36
Critical Issue: Working Toward Student Self-Direction and Personal Efficacy as Educational Goals
Critical Issue: Working Toward Student Self-Direction and Personal Efficacy as Educational Goals explains that in order for student-centered teaching to work well, teachers must create certain opportunities in which students. Related concepts: goal setting, success, metacognition, questioning, cognitive mapping, planning, efficacy
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr200.htm
Example Service-Learning Contract
This Faculty Handbook for Service Learning provides an introduction to service-learning as well as information and tools to help faculty incorporate service-learning within existing courses or create new service-learning courses. It also provides practical suggestions for implementation.
http://www.csl.umd.edu/faculty_staff/ServiceLearning.pdf
Exploring (and possibly changing) Faculty Attitudes Toward Teaching and Student-Centered Learning
Exploring (and possibly changing) Faculty Attitudes Toward Teaching and Student-Centered Learning proposes that the instructor's perception of teaching determines his/her choice of methodologies. Similarly, students' conception of both teaching and learning contribute to the instructor's choices
http://www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/2002/proposals/85.html
Going Cycling with Learning Styles
"Teaching Around the Cycle" is one way of describing instruction that accommodates multiple learning styles in an attempt to motivate and engage all students and to encourage them to expand their skills and abilities as widely as possible. Lisa Lim's article, "Going Cycling with Learning Styles" diagrams how a learner might start at the style within Kolb's cycle that he or she is most comfortable with and progress through the rest of the cycle. She offers helpful advice for students who need to develop their capacity to learn in other modes--questions they can ask themselves as they cycle through the stages, as well as concrete suggestions for developing each style.
http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/success/sl27.htm
Guide To College and University Service-Learning Programs
Including Links to Online Course Lists and Syllabi, by Robin J. Crews. Contains 383 program listings--125 with online course lists and 31 with online syllabi.
http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~rcrews/sl/academic.html
Implementing Service Learning in Higher Education
Implementing Service Learning in Higher Education--by Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher. From the Journal of Higher Education, April 1996. Includes a Comprehensive Action Plan for Service-Learning (CAPSL) developed by Campus Compact as a model for institutional change and renewal focusing on four core constituencies: the college, the students, the faculty, and the community.
http://www.compact.org/advancedtoolkit/pdf/bringle-all.pdf
Learning Better Together: The Impact of Learning Communities on Student Success
Tinto, Vincent. "Learning Better Together: The Impact of Learning Communities on Student Success." Promoting Student Success in College
http://soeweb.syr.edu/academics/grad/higher_education/Copy%20of%20Vtinto/Files/LearningBetterTogether.pdf
National Survey of Student Engagement 2001
This report discusses the factors that are key to student learning: reading and writing, preparing for class, interacting with instructors, collaborating with peers, doing community service, etc
http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm
Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction
In their very helpful article "Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction," Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent explore the change from a lecture-based classroom to a more student-centered learning environment
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Resist.html
On Student-Centered Learning and Active Participation
In their article "On Student-Centered Learning and Active Participation," Kim Haynes Korn and Gay Lynn Crossley describe the role of the teacher in a student-centered classroom. The teacher's role is flexible, at times requiring more control and direction, at others fostering student independence and decision-making. This site presents an enlightening discussion encompassing everything from having to "complicate [the students'] ideas" to "trusting the students' sense of purpose," to "setting high expectations."
http://writing.fsu.edu/?q=node/587
Reflection Activities for Use with Service Learning
"Reflection Activities for Use with Service Learning" is based on the work of Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher (1999) as well as examples from community college faculty around the country. The activities presented here have been adapted by Diane
Sloan, Miami-Dade College, and Toni S. Hartsfield, formerly of Bellevue Community College.
http://tinyurl.com/2jnxlk
Service Learning in Community Colleges: 2003 National Survey Results
Many interesting statistics about institutional and programmatic involvement in service learning can be found in this report on the study commissioned by AACC.
http://tinyurl.com/2ruofj
Some Ideas for Motivating Students
Robert Harris provides a list of practical ideas for motivating students. Then he compares classroom learning with playing a sport. Sports are highly motivating for the players. What do sports and classroom learning have in common? What aspects of sports can we adapt to our classrooms?
http://www.virtualsalt.com/motivate.htm
Some Thoughts About WebQuests
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from resources on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The model was developed in early 1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge with Tom March, and was outlined then in "Some Thoughts About WebQuests." The article describes short-term and long-term WebQuest activities as well as the critical and non-critical attributes, thinking skills involved, and design process associated with WebQuests.
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html
Supplemental Material
"If students are going to feel that discussion invites them to develop and express their ideas in an unpressured way, then the discussion leader must find a way to teach that is neither too dominant nor too reserved." Chapter 10 from Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms by Brookfield, Stephen and Stephen Preskill. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999) discusses at length the roles, responsibilities and actions of a discussion leader. It also provides a checklist of questions that a teacher can use to maintain the balance between "saying too much" and "saying too little."
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/suppmat/83brook.htm
Taking Student Retention Seriously: Rethinking the First Year of College
Tinto, Vincent. Taking Student Retention Seriously: Rethinking the First Year of College. Speech presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers, April 15, 2002, Minneapolis, MN. "Learning communities, in their most basic form, begin with a kind of co-registration or block scheduling that enables students to take courses together, rather than apart. In some cases, learning communities will link students by tying two courses together, typically a course in writing with a course in selected literature or current social problems (Linked Courses)."
http://academicadvising.studentservices.dal.ca/Files/Taking%20Student%20Retention%20Seriously.pdf
Teaching Effectiveness Program
University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program offers a collection of Frequently Asked Questions regarding student motivation. Some examples of questions include: How do I encourage students to be active and interested? How do I deal with apathetic students? How do I deal with groups that are not functioning well together? How do I empower students?
http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/faqs/motivatingstudents/motivating.html
The Theory and Practice of Transformative Learning: A Critical Review
Transformative learning, according to Mezirow, is a theory that is "partly a developmental process, but more...the process of using a priori interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action." See "The Theory and Practice of Transformative Learning: A Critical Review."
http://www.cete.org/acve/mp_taylor_01.asp
Transcending Disciplines, Reinforcing Curricula: Why Faculty Teach with Service-Learning
A report based on the 2004 AACC study to identify factors that motivate faculty to include service learning in their courses.
http://tinyurl.com/2l39nr
Urgings and Cautions in Student-Centered Teaching
Urgings and Cautions in Student-Centered Teaching by James Rhem shares a more general series of requirements for effective student-centered teaching. It stresses the importance of forethought, the importance of letting go, and the active creation of a social community of students.
http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9605/article1.htm
WebQuest.org
WebQuest News provides information about the webquest model--a type of constructivist lesson format.Examples of webquests can be found at this website under the categories "Top," "Middling," and "New."
http://webquest.org/
What Constitutes a Good Lecture?
This article, "What Constitutes a Good Lecture?" offers an inside look at how students view lectures. By Jann Lacoss, Faculty Consultant, UVA Teaching Resource Center and Jennifer Chylack, Graduate Student Associate
http://tinyurl.com/2wv7qj
