Discussions

Rosemary Logan, Ph.D, is a lecturer for the First Year Seminar Program and the Sustainable Communities Masters Program.

 

Discussion is a key component of collaborative learning, one of the “pedagogies of engagement” (Edgerton, 1997, p. 32), and yet lively discussions are a common challenge in the higher education classroom. While there are some great resources that go into depth about how to engage students in classroom discussions (Nilsen, 2010; McKeachie, 2011; Brookfield and Preskill, 2005; Burbule, 2003), I’d love to offer… Read more

It’s that time of year when many of us have looked at our student evaluations (or opinion surveys, as they’re now called), to see whether there are comments that might point to aspects regarding our teaching methods, syllabi construction, or course content that we would do best to revisit, revise, and improve.  We certainly can’t please all students in our classes, no matter whether we choose to revise our techniques or ignore the students’ comments altogether; nor is “pleasing… Read more