Drive-Thru Pedagogy
Pick up something practical.
SafeAssign as a Tool for Learning
Teaching the ethical use of sources in academic writing is a challenge. Some faculty address this issue by using SafeAssign, the “plagiarism prevention tool” integrated into Blackboard. When used with care, SafeAssign can (in its own words), “create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources.” In that sense, it can facilitate learning. However, when used strictly to monitor citation habits, SafeAssign can impede learning by raising student anxiety. …
Keeping up with Social Changes in Second Language Acquisition
Despite the existence of excellent study abroad programs, traveling to another country is a privilege, at times, unaffordable. Consequently, the classroom becomes the only space for students to be exposed to socio-cultural issues. Nevertheless, traditional learning materials and pedagogical approaches in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) often struggle to reflect the latest changes of the target culture in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)….
Embrace Doubt, Enhance Teaching
The start of a new semester is a great time to examine your teaching practices. However, the temptation to fall back on what worked in the past represents both the need for efficiency and the power of habit. What if we approached our teaching with a healthy sense of doubt? What if we embraced our own cycles of learning as a pathway to refreshed teaching approaches?…
Students as Partners in Teaching & Learning
Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …
Improve Student Writing with Peer Feedback
Peer feedback makes assignments more social and collaborative, creating opportunities for students to learn from one another. In conversations about shared assignments, students can make connections to lectures, readings, and other course elements. They can also use time in feedback groups to clarify the goals of the assignment and discover varied methods for fulfilling those goals. Collaborative learning helps mitigate the isolation some students feel when working independently. …
The Power of a Good Story
Many of us rightly emphasize “critical reading” in our courses, helping students hone the tools they need to unpack and evaluate the storylines they encounter, whether in historical or contemporary texts, written or visual sources, scientists’ data or politicians’ campaigns. It’s also important, though, to get students thinking about what’s involved in producing the best possible stories, and this is something I’ve begun devoting more attention to in the COLL 100 course I regularly teach, “Things: Objects and Their (Hi)Stories.” The better a storyline, the greater an author’s chances of getting what s/he’s after, but it’s important to be clear about what we are—or should be—aiming for when we attempt to produce a good story….
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