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 lead...
Course design
How to Increase Student Reading in the English Classroom
Nathan Dean Allison, Department of English In one of her numerous Faculty Focus articles, Maryellen Weimer notes, “On any given day only 20 to 30 percent of the students arrive at class having done the reading.” This data would be somewhat unsettling in classrooms...
Flipped Classrooms and Second Language Acquisition
Alejandra Castellanos, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Tell me and I will forget; teach me and I will remember; involve me and I will learn Chinese proverb At the end of a first week in intermediate Spanish, a student emailed me complaining that she wasn’t...
Learning Outside the Classroom Adds Value to College Courses
Hew Yeng (Betty) Lai, Department of Biological Chemistry Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) is fairly common in elementary and secondary education. For example, most of us can remember going on a field trip or to a museum and say, "That was fun" and learned a lot...
Flipped Classrooms and Active Learning for Students Success in Language Acquisition
Gilberto Nuñez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Nowadays the way of teaching has changed due to new technology. Whereas in the past decades accessing information required more time, now everything is immediate, which has made the work of the educator different....
The Changing Role of University STEM Teaching in the Internet Era
Chris Persichilli, PhD, Department of Physics & Astronomy The Problem These are unstable times. The insurgence of the Internet into all facets of modern life has had a transformative impact on every industry, whether they like it or not. Education is no exception,...
Can You Explain That 3 More Times? Advice for Universal Instruction
Daniel J. Ruiz, Department of Earth System Science After asking someone to repeat themselves multiple times and still not hear what they’ve said on the 3rd iteration, I’m the type to give up, smile and nod, and be overcome with embarrassment of the whole exchange. Too...
Online Courses: Some Common Mistakes and Recommended Practices
Ángeles Torres Méndez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese The impact of the Internet on education over the last twenty years cannot be underestimated. The availability and accessibility of the Internet continues to transform teaching and new forms of student...
Student-Centered Course Design Improves Learning Outcomes in Biology
Andra Ionescu Tucker, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior Biology courses, particularly for first year college students, are taught in a traditional lecture format at most research universities. As a teaching assistant for such a class, I have observed how easy it...
Learning and Teaching as Complementary Practices: Examples from Freshmen Experience Courses
Jessica Guerrero, Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy Some instructors are naturals when it comes to teaching, but like everything, teaching has evolved over the years. Pedagogy practices also highlight ways of how studying learning has changed. Research...