Comics in the Classroom is a learning module from North Carolina’s LearnNC collection that illustrates the growing interest in using comics and graphic novels as teaching tools. There is also now a National Association of Comics Art Educators devoted to the teaching of comics and visual storytelling that has begun to collect lesson plans. Seems like an area we should look into more often 
, don’t you think? gt9iwrkdbe
We all know that classroom conflict is part of the teaching and learning process, but it is not often that we can find a window into the classrooms of others and get a sense of their experience. An article entitled “How Do Faculty Experience and Respond to Classroom Conflict?” in the open access International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2006, Volume 18, Number 3, 180-187) provides some insight.
The article (available as a pdf) was written by Steven A. Meyers, James Bender and Shantha Y. Thomas from Roosevelt University and their colleague Erin K. Hill from the Harvard Medical School. The authors present descriptive data about the nature and correlates of classroom conflict using a national sample of 226 psychology faculty members. They differentiated two different types of conflict, inattentive versus hostile, in the survey. Levels of conflict were not associated with instructors’ demographic traits or characteristics of their courses, but were related to professors’ choice of teaching methods, their demeanor, and how they responded to challenging situations. They also found that those conflict management techniques that address the relationship between faculty and students were most effective in reducing conflict.
Co-author Steven Meyers, Illinois Professor of the Year for 2007-2008, has also discussed some of his own approaches to managing classroom conflict in an earlier article in College Teaching. See: Meyers, S. A. (2003). Strategies to prevent and reduce conflict in college classrooms. College Teaching, 51, 94-98.
I recently found these resources. They might be of interest to some.
Teaching the Chinese Learner, Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives, Watkins, D.A. and Biggs, J.G. (2001) Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Center.
Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education (2001), Kaplan, R.
Non-Western Educational Traditions: Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practices, 3rd Edition, Timothy Reason, (2005)
Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing, Sharan B. Merriam and Associates, (2007), Kreiger Publishing Company. there are chapters on Islam, Hinduism, Maori, Buddhist, Confucian, African, Native American and Lain American perspectives on learning and knowing.
Educause Learning Initiative highlighted a technique called Google Jockeying (http://moourl.com/qjj0m). A student is assigned the role of the class “googler”. The information is then presented simultaneously on a separate screen and would supplement the lecture presentation. It is suggested that this might be a way to positively harness the need for consulting additional information. The role could be assigned to a different person during each lecture. If separate screens are not available, the lecturer might pause and let the google jockey give a synopsis of information searches and let participants add any new searches that might help them in understanding or clarifying the presentation. Incorporating this role is a good way to quickly assess understanding and it is an opportunity to coach the students on using the internet and on evaluating internet resources.
A great collection of writing about wikis in the higher education context is available online as a wiki (no surprise there, eh?). It is entitled The Wild Wild Wiki/Wiki Writing: Collaborative Learning in the College Classroom. Perhaps more interesting is the news that the University of Michigan press will be turning the collection into a book. Here’s the contents you can read online.
Volume Introduction “WhatWas a Wiki, and Why Do I Care? A Short and Usable History of Wikis”
Wikis and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- “Wikis in the Classroom: A Taxonomy”
- “Wiki Justice, Social Ergonomics, and Ethical Collaborations”
- “Building Learning Communities with Wikis”
- “Content and Commentary: Parallel Structures of Organization and Interaction on Wikis”
Wikis in Composition and Communication
- “Disrupting Intellectual Property: Collaboration and Resistance in Wikis”
- “Wiki Lore and Politics in the Classroom”
- “An (Old) First-Timer’s Learning Curve: Curiosity, Trial, Resistance, and Accommodation”
- “Above and Below the Double Line: Refactoring and that Old-Time Revision”
- “Success Through Simplicity: On Developmental Writing and Community of Inquiry.”
- “Wiki as Textshop: Constructing Knowledge in the Electronic Classroom”
Wikis and the Higher Education Classroom
- “Is there a Wiki in this Class? Wikibooks and the Future of Higher Education”
- “Agency and Accountability: The Paradoxes of Wiki Discourse”
- “One Wiki, Two Classrooms”
- “Glossa Technologia: Anatomy of a Wiki-Based Annotated Bibliography”
This is a document that contains a table of best practices, tools and uses for building critical thinking skills while teaching online. It is based on a document called: Designing Online Instruction that Develops Critical and Creative Thinking Skills, Paula Jones, ABD, MaryAnn Kolloff, Ed D Fred Kolloff, Ph D; With additions and suggestions from: Office for Teaching and Learning, WSU
Clearly the trend within higher education is a move toward larger class sizes. A recent article in the Association for Psychological Science magazine Observer presents some tips for managing larger classes. They report that faculty often first have to deal with their own feelings about the change:
Faculty responses to increased class sizes often resemble Kubler-Ross’s (1969) stages of grief and loss: denial (”There is no way to increase the size of this class and maintain academic integrity!”); anger (”I can’t believe they did this, administrators don’t care about students or faculty!”); bargaining (”If I teach 20 percent more students without additional compensation, what do I get in return?”); depression (”How am I ever going to teach this class in a meaningful way again?”); and finally acceptance (”OK, my class is larger. How do I deal with the hordes?”).
If this sounds familiar to you, you’ll appreciate Todd Zakrajsek’s presentation of some very pragmatic tips for staying connected as your class size grows. Check it out here.
The U.S. Professors of the Year Award Program was created in 1981 by the Carnegie Foundation to increase awareness of the importance of undergraduate instruction at all types of higher education institutions. The program recognizes faculty members for their achievement as undergraduate professors. This short podcast from Inside Higher Ed interviews the 2007 winners to learn some of the things they do to make their teaching a success.
Spreadsheets in Education is an open-access journal hosted by Bond University in Australia that explores the role that spreadsheets can play in education. Three years of content are now available. Of particular interest to many faculty will be the regular features focusing on using spreadsheets in the classroom. A recent example is an article entitled Quick Correct: A Method to Automatically Evaluate Student Work in MS Excel Spreadsheets by Laura R. Wetzel and Peter J. Whicker. Worth a look…
Hi everyone! I came across a good article on the web titled, “A Brief Summary of the Best Practices in College Teaching.” It’s a nice little summary of ideas, including practices for making your lectures more effective, improving group discussions, motivating students, and much more (click the title of the article above to access it online).
I hope you find it helpful!
Kristi
