Resources

Two alternative paradigms for undergraduate education are compared; one holds teaching as its purpose, the other learning. The natures of the two paradigms are examined on the following dimensions: mission and purposes, criteria for success, teaching and learning structures, underlying learning theory, concepts of productivity and methods of funding, and faculty and staff roles in instruction and governance.

Reviews 20 principles or steps in an effective faculty evaluation system, arguing that while most institutions’ claim that the purpose of their fculty evaluation system is the improvement of teaching, the primary purpose is actually almost always to make personnel decisions. Idea Paper no. 33, from the series developed by the Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development, Kansas State University.

Reviews scholarly literature to recommend how to use student evaluations effectively to improve teaching. Idea Paper no. 22, from the series developed by the Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development, Kansas State University.

Exhaustive and annotated review of the literature on student evaluation of teaching. Idea Paper no. 32, from the series developed by the Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development, Kansas State University.

Parker Palmer insists that there is a "capricious chemistry" to good teaching that is ultimately irreducible to a simple technical formula. He advises against making the student a spectator simply watching the teacher as he or she lays out a catalog of "objective" facts. Instead, the subject under study must get inside the student as the teacher facilitate the linking of the subject's insights with the student's own biography. Palmer cautions against the tendency to try to cover every fact in a field of study and suggests alternative methods of evaluating students that facilitates learning. Palmer believes that fear of conflict is one of the most significant obstacles to teachers creating hospitable space for shared discourse. Good teaching, Palmer claims, requires unusual courage as teachers must expose their ignorance along with their insight, remain open to contradiction as well as invite consent and relinquish some measure of control to a class so that the students are empowered.

Presents some maxims and an exhortation on leading discussion in a lecture course. Loneliness of lecturing; Discussion can feel light-weight and loose jointed; Different formats; Using discussion to break up lectures; Many excellent lecturers fear discussion; No real discussion occurs without some level of conflict or difference of ideas; Lecturers making the transition into discussion-leaders; Details.

The challenge is to reconcile the recommendations of the experts for involved learning with the reality of passivity that plagues large classes.

Techniques for initiating good discussion in class include: examining goals and values, noting concrete images in text, generating questions among students, finding illustrative quotations, small group discussion, generating truth statements, forced debates, role playing, non-structured scene-setting, and eliciting opinoins of the text.