Compiled
by Dr. Richard W. Slatta
Professor of History, North Carolina State University, winner of the
2000 CHASS Lonnie
and Carol Poole Award for Excellence in Teaching AND
Dr. Maxine P. Atkinson Director of First Year Inquiry Program and Associate Professor of Sociology, North Carolina State University, winner of the 2001 CHASS Lonnie and Carol Poole Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Drs. Slatta and Atkinson are available to conduct teaching and learning workshops on a variety of topics:
Some students are satisfied to take a course at face value and to perform
the tasks required. Other students wish to know more about the "whys"
of a course. Why do we do what we do? What value is it to you? What
theory or assumptions lie behind the course design and assignments?
The links below explore many of the pedadogical issues important to
good course design. Many of the links will also help you know yourself
and your special learning needs and challenges better. Many of the
tools will help teachers teach better.
All Kinds of Minds Dr.
Mel Levine's excellent institute (in Chapel Hill, NC) for undestanding
differences in learning. "It's harder to be a kid than an adult. Kids
are asked to be generalists in school, to do eerything fairly well.
We adult don't ask that of ourselves."
Definitions
of Critical Thinking (CT) Many of the essays you write are designed
to hone critical thinking skills. Explore some of the many definitions
of CT.
Index
of Learning Styles Questionnaire by NCSU's Rich Felder and Barbara
Soloman effort. Take this brief inventory to learn more about your
learning style. A good course offers challenges to a wide range of
learning styles. What's your predominant style? Knowing it can help
you better match your mind and your course work.
Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI) Identifies the four dimensions underlying
the MTBI and describes several teaching approaches that will appeal
to different MBTI profiles. I have reservations about this reductionist
scale, but the whole world seems to love it, so check it out. Again,
the more you know about yourself, the better.
Teaching
Goals Inventory Take this very helpful 53-item online inventory
to assess your classroom goals. (C) 1993 Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia
Cross. Source: Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College
Teachers
Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) is a pedagogy that promotes student learning through guided and, increasingly independent investigation of complex questions and problems. Rather than teaching the results of others’ investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself.
North Carolina State University is at the forefront of the development and implementation of IGL both at the course level and as part of a successful faculty-led process of reform of undergraduate education.
This book documents and explores how faculty arrived at their current understanding of inquiry-guided learning and how they have interpreted it at various levels -- the individual course, the major, the college, the university-wide program, and the undergraduate curriculum as a whole -- and how they have assessed its impact.
The book has been written with three audiences in mind: instructors who want to use inquiry-guided learning in their classrooms, faculty developers considering supporting comparable efforts on their campuses, and administrators interested in managing similar undergraduate reform efforts.
Virginia S. Lee served as Associate Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, North Carolina State University. She has played a leadership role in the Inquiry-guided Learning Initiative as well as other campus-wide initiatives related to teaching and learning.
Students must have the responsibility for their own learning.
The problem simulations used in problem-based learning must be
ill-structured and allow for free inquiry.
Learning should be integrated from a wide range of disciplines
or subjects
Collaboration is essential
What students learn during their self-directed learning must be
applied back to the problem with reanalysis and resolution.
A closing analysis of what has been learned from work with the
problem and a discussion of what concepts and principles have been
learned is essential.
Self and peer assessment should be carried out at the completion
of each problem and at the end of every curricular unit.
The activities carried out in problem-based learning must be those
valued in the real world.
Student examinations must measure student progress towards the
goals of problem-based learning.
Problem-based learning must be the pedagogical base in the curriculum
and not part of a didactic curriculum.
A more accurate title might be "student-centered, problem-based,
inquiry-based, integrated, collaborative, reiterative, learning."
Wittingly or unwittingly, we all teach values. What should those values be?
Plagiarism
Page by Sherman Dorn Computers and the Internet make plagiarism
quick and easy. Student are tempted. Thus academic honesty is a core
value that should be taught in every course.
Plagiarism
and Anti-Plagiarism Rutgers University. Excellent tips on how to
identify e-plagiarism, such as papers copied from the Internet.
Character
Counts trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring,
citizenship
Great Books and other resources online
Full-text primary sources, ideal for student projects. Students, these
sources are fully searchable, making them excellent research tools.
Faculty, you can add these sources to your course reading list, and
it doesn't cost students a dime. A BIG variety, including, Du Bois,
W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk; Frost, Robert, lots
of poems; Wollencraft, Mary. 1792. Vindication of the Rights of
Woman; Woolf, Virginia. 1921. Monday or Tuesday. You get
the idea!
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. First published
in 1918, it remains an excellent guide to good writing. Some NCSU students
very resistant to "writing across the curriculum," indeed, to writing
at all. Strunk shows that my "radical" new writing demands--clarity,
active voice, correct grammar --are very old, well established, and
still worth applying.
Service Learning
Thanks to Janey Musgrave, NC State University, Center for Student Leadership,
Ethics and Public Service, for assistance in compiling these links.
Campus Compact Higher education
in service to the nation: Service-learning agency
National Society for Experiential Education
(NCEE) Service is the rent we pay for living. ~Marian Wright Edelman,
president, Children's Defense Fund Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. ~Martin Luther
King, Jr. The true meaning of leadership is service. ~Carter Woodson,
educator