Teaching and Evaluating All at Once: Asking Students to Write Their Own Questions
Jul. 23, 2010—This is a guest post by Isabel Gauthier, professor of psychology specialized in cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Thanks to Isabel for sharing this insight into her teaching. We welcome contributions to the CFT blog by others in the Vanderbilt teaching community! It is difficult to write meaningful and discriminative multiple-choice questions that students find clear...
The NSF’s Broader Impact Criterion and Educational Initiatives
Jul. 23, 2010—Nature recently published an article titled “Science for the Masses” that considered some of the problems with the National Science Foundation’s requirement that NSF grant proposal address a “broader impact” criterion. NSF director Arden Bement is quoted as saying, “The criterion was established to get scientists out of their ivory towers and connect them to...
New Resources for Teaching Sociology, Economics
Jul. 23, 2010—Two new websites feature resources for teaching in particular disciplines. The American Sociological Association (ASA) has launched Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology (TRAILS), a peer-reviewed site for sharing teaching syllabi, class activities, student assignments, bibliographies, and other teaching innovations. Submissions go through two rounds of peer review before being shared on the site. The...
The Perils of Terminology: Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered Pedagogy
Jul. 23, 2010—ProfHacker contributor Billie Hara wrote a post titled “Learning-Centered Pedagogy” last week that surfaces some of the dangers of educational jargon, particularly the terms teacher-centered pedagogy and student-centered pedagogy. Those in higher education who advocate student-centered pedagogy are often perceived as bashing teacher-centered pedagogy, which causes problems when the term teacher-center pedagogy isn’t well-defined. Here’s...
A&S Course on the Iraq War Features Professors Who Were There
Jul. 23, 2010—The Spring 2010 College of Arts & Science magazine features a story titled “War in the Classroom” about a fall 2009 humanities course exploring the Iraq War. The course was team-taught by Katherine Carroll, assistant professor of political science, and Michael Newton, professor of the practice of law at the Law School. Carroll served in...
Call for Proposals – NSF STEM Talent Expansion Program Centers (STEP Centers) – Due August 4, 2010
Jul. 23, 2010—From the National Science Foundation, a call for proposals for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program Centers (STEP Centers): The STEP Centers competition allows a group of faculty representing a cross section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics...
Sixteen Suggestions for Teaching with Clickers
Jul. 23, 2010—An excerpt from CFT assistant director Derek Bruff’s book, Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments, was published on the Tomorrow’s Professor listserv this week. In the excerpt, Derek shares sixteen tips for teaching with clickers, including this one: “7. Have students respond to clicker questions several time throughout a class session. Although...
The Ethics of Personalized Medicine as a First-Year Common Experience
Jul. 23, 2010—Recently, the University of California at Berkeley announced a change to their usual practice of having incoming first-year undergraduates read a common book. This fall, they were asking new students “to return a cotton swab covered in cells collected from their inner cheeks in an effort to introduce them to the emerging field of personalized...
Motivating Students with Application Projects and Poster Sessions
Jul. 23, 2010—CFT assistant director Derek Bruff has another guest post on ProfHacker today: “Motivating Students with Application Projects and Poster Sessions.” In the post, Derek describes an assignment he typically gives in his more “applied” math courses, an application project that gives students a chance to apply the math they have learned in the course to...
CFT Staff Can Help You Review and Recreate Over the Summer
Jul. 23, 2010—Summer time is here, and many faculty members have a break from their usual schedules, a chance to slow down a bit and recreate. If you’ve got a breather, you may find this an opportune time to review and refresh your teaching plans and practices. The Center for Teaching is open all summer, with consultants...