Erica M. Leung, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering “People grow best where they continuously experience an ingenious blend of support and challenge.” -Robert Kegan1 Cognitive Development of College Students Most students enter college with the notion...
Active learning
Implementing Flipped Classrooms into Law School Pedagogy
Conor Gómez, School of Law Welcome to Law School. All your hard work wooing professors to write encouraging letters of recommendation and studying for a standardized test that supposedly predicts performance in the first year of law school is finally over. Now the...
Increasing Student Autonomy and Engagement in Biology Education at the Undergraduate and Graduate Level
Lianna Fung, Developmental and Cell Biology A typical traditional biology course at the undergraduate level is primarily lecture and a few exams. Lecture time is often only broken up periodically by a few iClicker questions or a few brave students who dare to ask...
Phone-a-Friend: Tips for Designing Meaningful Collaborative Exams
Jaclyn Beck, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior Wait a minute. You want to test how much your students learned! Why would you want to give them a group exam? Perhaps a shift in perspective can answer that: Aside from scoring a student’s performance, exams...
Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) 2020 Conference
Matthew Mahavongtrakul, PhD, Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation I attended the AAC&U 2020 conference this January in Washington, DC, which focused on three topics: Inclusive education using equitable, innovative, and cost-effective models. Public trust...
Improving Student Engagement
Jonathan Ware, Department of Sociology In my Social Psychology class, we had just finished an in-class activity where my students were applying theories of power and how group structures play a role in interpersonal power relations. My students were segmented into...
Improving Students’ Writing Abilities Through Peer Review
Alma P. Olaguez, M.S., Department of Psychological Science What Makes a Good Paper? Most students can differentiate a good writing sample from a bad writing sample. However, most students have difficulty producing concrete reasons why a paper is bad beyond “It just...
Three Tips for Promoting Student Motivation
Yangyang Liu, School of Education Students play an active role in their own learning. However, as an instructor, you may have noticed that some students are more motivated than others in your classroom. According to educational research, optimal learning happens when...
Learning through Writing Assignments
Jinna Kim, Department of Sociology Instructors often use writing assignments to assess students’ learning. There are many ways that writing assignments can be a form of active learning, especially when considering it as a writing process. Below are suggestions for...
Using Science to Inform Evidence-Based Practices – The Role of Flipped Classrooms
Emily Kan, Department of Psychological Science At universities across the world, student researchers work for hours to uncover new scientific discoveries. After months and years of hard work, they finally see the fruits of their labor – successfully publishing an...