‘Teaching Guide’
CFT Offers New Guide: “Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities”
Oct. 21, 2013—In August, the CFT announced a theme for much of our programming this year: Students as Producers. A new guide written by CFT Assistant Director Nancy Chick applies this theme to the disciplines in the humanities. “Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities” explores assignments that fulfill three goals: making student knowledge...
CFT Offers New Guide: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Oct. 14, 2013—The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL, pronounced “sō-tul” in the US) is a synthesis of teaching, learning, and research in higher education that aims to bring a scholarly lens—the curiosity, the inquiry, the rigor, the disciplinary variety—to what happens in the classroom (brick-and-mortar, virtual, co-curricular, et al.). SoTL involves asking meaningful questions about student...
CFT Offers New Guide: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Sep. 24, 2013—The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL, pronounced “sō-tul” in the US) is a synthesis of teaching, learning, and research in higher education that aims to bring a scholarly lens—the curiosity, the inquiry, the rigor, the disciplinary variety—to what happens in the classroom (brick-and-mortar, virtual, co-curricular, et al.). SoTL involves asking meaningful questions about student...
New Teaching Guide: Just-in-Time Teaching
Jun. 27, 2013—Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is a teaching and learning strategy designed to promote the use of class time for more active learning. Developed by Gregor Novak and colleagues, JiTT relies on a feedback loop between web-based learning materials and the classroom (Novak et al., 1999). Students prepare for class by reading from the textbook or using...
New Teaching Guide on Metacognition
Jun. 24, 2013—Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner. This new teaching guide, written by CFT Assistant Director Nancy Chick, defines...
New Teaching Guide for Statistics Instructors
Jun. 19, 2013—Statistical analysis is a critical tool in many fields, and as such, it is taught in courses across many disciplines. This new teaching guide, written by CFT Assistant Director, Cynthia Brame, provides an overview of techniques and strategies that have been shown to improve student learning in statistics courses. It also provides links to resources...
New Teaching Guide: Team-Based Learning
Jun. 10, 2013—Team-based learning is one version of a flipped classroom, which is supported by a 1998 study by Richard Hake. Hake gathered data on 2084 students in 14 introductory physics courses taught by traditional methods (defined by the instructor as relying primarily on passive student lectures and algorithmic problem exams), allowing him to define an average...
Making Student Thinking Visible: Metacognitive Practices in the Classroom
Mar. 11, 2013—by Nancy Chick (CFT Assistant Director) and Katie Headrick Taylor (CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow) Every Friday, the four CFT Graduate Teaching Fellows and Assistant Director Nancy Chick meet to discuss the week’s activities and then explore something substantive, either through readings or guests. We recently discussed the “Top 12 Teaching and Learning Articles of 2012”...
Vanderbilt’s Newest Digital Learning Initiative
Sep. 19, 2012—By Derek Bruff, CFT Director This morning Vanderbilt announced a new partnership with the digital learning consortium Coursera. Coursera is an online platform for open-access, non-credit classes, available at no cost to participants. Such courses have been dubbed “MOOCs,” or massive open online courses, and Vanderbilt faculty will offer five such courses via Coursera this...
New Teaching Guide: Difficult Dialogues
Aug. 15, 2011—For most teachers, leading classroom discussion on difficult topics is a perennial challenge. Part of the challenge lies in the fact that we never fully know which issues will be “hot buttons” for our students. Conversations can become heated very quickly, and before long, it can feel like the class is careening out of control....