Resources

Although listening has been shown to be the most frequent communication activity, and students desperately need listening training, the educational system usually ignores listening. After citing 10 bad listening habits which interfere with good aural communication and describing the characteristics of effective listeners, this paper offers 12 listening exercises that can be used by instructors in a wide variety of academic fields. Finally, the paper briefly describes a successful listening course taught at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, and its impact over the last 10 years. Thirteen references are attached.

(Text not available on web.) This paper focuses on methods to improve the reading abilities of college students. A list of five elements college instructors (who are not reading specialists) should establish in a content reading agenda is offered; (1) an instructional basis for the reading process which will work for them; (2) content literacy environments; (3) insights into the skill level characteristics of readers; (4) working relationships with the campus reading program; and (5) inclusion of reading strategies in their content instruction. Stating that students must know the purpose of the course and understand what is to be done with the information provided through lectures and textbook reading assignments to successfully interact with the text, the paper offers methods of establishing the five elements suggested. Also addressed are the unique challenges of social science, mathematical, and scientific reading instruction. The paper concludes with a brief summary and suggestions for collaboration between the content specialist and the reading staff.

Experiential methods--that is, methods that rely on students' own life experiences and often involve a high degree of self-disclosure--are becoming increasingly common in sociology courses that deal with difficult and controversial subjects such as gender, race, and sexuality. Yet these methods may be inappropriate and unethical, especially when students are expected to revel very personal, even painful, information about themselves. The benefits and risks involved in using such methods are presented in this paper in a dialogue between an instructor and a student.

Makes suggestions regarding questioning techniques that are appropriate for lecture classes as well as for discussion groups. Idea Paper no. 31, from the series developed by the Center for faculty Evaluation and development, Kansas State University.