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‘Student Motivation’

Strategies for Grading Workshop: Additional Resources

Sep. 13, 2012—CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow, Beth Koontz, offers additional resources on grading and assessing student work. The CFT recently hosted a teaching workshop on Effective and Efficient Grading focusing on the purposes of grading and how to grade in ways that help students learn more deeply and save time for the instructor. This post provides some...

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Episode 30 – Student Learning on Display: Spinach-Powered Solar Cells

May. 4, 2012—In an effort to better understand student learning, particularly deep learning, as it occurs at Vanderbilt, the CFT is producing a special series of podcasts highlighting student projects across a variety of disciplines. In this episode we join CFT Director Derek Bruff as he reports on-location from the floor of the poster session at the...

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Fostering Student Engagement- NSSE Annual Results 2011

Nov. 18, 2011—Last spring, about 2.1 million students at more than 750 colleges and universities were invited to report on their in- and out-of-class learning experiences by completing the NSSE survey. The near-record number of participating institutions signifies continued interest in student engagement as a useful and informative way for institutional leaders, faculty, and others to gain...

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Teaching Outside the Classroom – Part Two

May. 4, 2011—by John Morrell Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT On April 5, 2011, the Center for Teaching hosted a “Conversation on Teaching” on the topic of “Teaching Outside the Classroom.” This is the second installment of a two-part blog post covering the observations made by two panelists – Steve Baskauf from Biology and David Furbish from Earth...

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Teaching Outside the Classroom – Part One

Apr. 29, 2011—by John Morrell Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT On April 5, 2011, the Center for Teaching hosted a “Conversation on Teaching” on the topic of “Teaching Outside the Classroom.”  This is the first installment of a two-part blog post covering the observations made by two panelists – Steve Baskauf from Biology and David Furbish from Earth...

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From a Student’s View: Freedom and Structure within a Course

Feb. 21, 2011—This is a guest post by Mara Truslow, Vanderbilt Class of 2013 and Ingram Scholar. The post is part of our spring “From a Student’s View” blog series. We occasionally feature guest posts here on the blog as part of our efforts to cultivate dialogue about teaching and learning among Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff....

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Ideas for Motivating Students

Nov. 30, 2010—By Lily Claiborne, CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow In the “Motivating Students” workshop on October 26, 2010, a group of grad students and postdocs discussed what, as teachers, we wished motivated students and what actually motivates them in practice.  We established that, while extrinsic motivators (such as grades, parental approval, potential earnings of a career) are...

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Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty

Oct. 21, 2010—Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth F. Barkley (Jossey-Bass, 2010) From the publisher… Keeping students involved, motivated, and actively learning is challenging educators across the country,yet good advice on how to accomplish this has not been readily available. Student Engagement Techniques is a comprehensive resource that offers college teachers a dynamic...

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10/26 Workshop: Motivating Students

Oct. 19, 2010—Time & Date: 4:10—5:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 26 Facilitator: Graduate Teaching Fellow, CFT Audience: Graduate and Professional Students and Post-docs Motivating students to engage in learning requires a “learner-centered” experience, in which the instructor facilitates learners’ interactive engagement with course content and activities.  To foster this learning environment, we must understand both intrinsic and extrinsic...

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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...

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