News & Blogs
Overcoming Anxieties of Learning Quantitative Methodology and Gaining the Confidence to Teach it
Martín Jacinto, Department of Sociology In a farewell piece as editor of Teaching Sociology, Stephen Sweet writes that teaching sociologically, “requires understanding teaching as a social act that is conducive to study, vigilante empathy to understand the...
The Benefits of Multirole In-Class Critiques for Students
Ivy Guild, MFA, Department of Art Typically used in design or art-oriented courses, a critique is a collaborative feedback technique for providing students with oral formative and summative assessments from their instructor and peers. In most educational settings,...
High Impact Teaching Strategies for Large Undergraduate Classes in Public Health
Sara Goodman, Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention What are high impact course activities? Having ten-week quarters challenges faculty members and teaching assistants to get the most out of their students in a short amount of time. High impact...
Incorporation of Collaborative Learning in Classroom Teaching
Jawad Fayaz, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering For centuries, classroom teaching has been mainly based on the conventional approach of lecturing by faculty members and learning being evaluated by traditional examinations. This approach does not...
There’s More to Diversity Than a Diversity Statement: Diversity, Inclusion and You
Emory James Edwards, Department of Informatics Diversity is the buzzword of the hour in American higher education. More and more academic positions are requiring diversity statements. Diversity and Inclusion initiatives are sweeping college campuses. The pool of...
Instructing Mathematics to Students With Wide Ranges in Prior Knowledge
David Clausen, Department of Mathematics When teaching introductory college math courses, one finds a wide variety of students. In a calculus class, you might have people majoring in mathematics who need a conceptual understanding of “why” as well as facility with...
Two Misconceptions about Group Work/Collaborative Learning
Matthew Cheung, Department of Mathematics There are two misconceptions about group work and collaborative learning that need to be addressed. Group Work and Collaborative Learning May Not Always be Ideal As a teaching assistant at UC Irvine, I question other...
The Case for Meta-Integration Collaborative Activities (MICAs)
Mayan K. Castro, M.A., Department of Psychological Science What is a MICA? This is a call for a new type of assignment: a Meta-Integration Collaborative Activity (MICA). The goal of a MICA is to present an explicit opportunity for students to connect the dots among...
An Assignment to Promote the Achievements of Diverse Scholars
Amanda R. Brown Tortorici, MS, RD, CSCS, PhD Candidate in Public Health Diversity in the 1980’s I remember being in elementary school in the late 80’s in suburban Pennsylvania, and I had a project to create a poster of female leaders of my choice. We were in the...