After receiving notification from administration that faculty could enroll in six semester hours cost-free, Tiffany F. Culver began to consider taking classes. Once she had enrolled in a master's-level counseling course, she soon discovered that she was totally lacking in the student experience as she navigated through frustrating advances in…

Understanding fear, its causes, and its impact on students can be important for educators who seek ways to help students manage their fears. This paper explores common types of student fears such as performance-based anxiety, fear of failure, fear of being laughed at, and cultural components of fear that impact learning. The cognitive, emotional,…

This article describes the subject of "grade inflation," a reference to educators giving higher grades to student work than their expectations for student achievement warrant. Of the many reasons why this practice happens, Hodges specifically discusses inflating grades as "a natural consequence" when the faculty really…

This article advances the discussion about "Going paperless," how it will save ink and paper, perhaps even a tree over the course of a semester. The author mentions that the sustainability task force on campus may present an award, while eco-conscious students may applaud the willingness of faculty to "go green." Still other…

The concept of smart phone apps forms a mnemonic device and checklist for students who are learning critical thinking and reading skills. "Use your apps" reminds students to consider the importance of Author, Audience, Assumptions, Point of View, Perspective, and Scale when reading any text. "APPS" also lends itself to class…

When John Hilton was pursuing a master's in education, he took a very influential class from Eleanor Duckworth. She frequently taught and reinforced a concept to the class: "It is very important for teachers to have a chance to watch themselves learn." So when Hilton was hired to teach literature as a college professor, he thought…

Asking students to write at the end of class is a familiar strategy (Angelo and Cross 1993), and it can be done in many ways. Students might focus on the day's lecture--What key idea(s) did they learn? What was confusing? What questions remain unanswered? Or they might look ahead--What are their preconceptions of the next topic? Those…

As a former teacher of face-to-face classes now assigned to teach only online classes, Nancy Reese Durham found herself challenged to change to accommodate online learners. She was determined to provide an environment in the online class where the high level of discussion she had provided in face-to-face classes could flourish as well. Here she…

In fall 2012, an interdisciplinary team of science, English, and library faculty embedded reading, writing, and information literacy strategies in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula as a first step in improving student learning and retention in science courses and aligning them with the Next Generation Science and…

In the past, Ryall Carroll struggled to get students to arrive on time, read the material in advance of the class, and to start class on topic. In an attempt to address these issues, he started implementing an extra-credit two-question quiz at the beginning of every class, hoping it would provide a small incentive for students to at least come on…

Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2013 is "selfie" (Oxford University Press, 2013). At its essence, the selfie is simply a digital self-portrait shared on the internet. As with all tech trends, the selfie suffers from much hype and even more criticism. In the authors' experiments with the medium, they have found that…

Ph.D. programs train students to perform quality research but not necessarily to deliver quality undergraduate instruction. For students who want to develop such skills, and for universities interested in creating programs to combine broad disciplinary instruction with specialization in effective pedagogical practices, there is a Ph.D.…

We used Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a new pedagogy in an intermediate composition course. Our course design was based in constructivist pedagogical practices, which suggest that knowledge is co-created through social interactions. Although professors have much to offer students, students can also learn important lessons through interactions…

In this article, the author offers a discussion technique: the twice-around. A variant on the circular response discussion, the twice-around engages students by beginning with students' questions, ensuring equal time for all participants and inviting discussants to build on previous contributions. In the twice-around, participants sit in a circle,…

Recent college graduates are entering a competitive workforce that demands strong communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. However, many recent surveys and reports describe college graduates as deficient in these skills. For two courses at separate institutions, we each framed a course as a job, playing the role of a supervisor or…