Tenure-track Positions Continue to Feel the Pinch
As college teachers, most of us know that the profession is changing, but we aren’t always as up on the details as we should be.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
August 20, 2009
A FREE PUBLICATION FROM THE CREATORS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSOR
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Why Students Don’t Ask for Help, and What You Can Do About It
Academic advisers, be they professionals who do advising full-time or faculty, can do much to enhance a student’s experience in college. But students never benefit unless they seek out advisers. In surveys, students acknowledge the importance of receiving advice, but many do not receive it—34 percent in one survey reported that never during their academic careers had they met with an adviser. As seniors, only 19 percent reported that they had met three or more times with an adviser.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
August 13, 2009
Problem-solving Exercises that Promote Intellectual Development
In a Journal of Engineering Education article (referenced below), Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent propose an instructional model that promotes the intellectual development of science
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
July 21, 2009
Effective Teaching Strategies: Six Keys to Classroom Excellence
What are makes an effective teacher?
This particular list of characteristics appears in an excellent book that is all but unknown in the states, Learning to Teach in Higher Education, by noted scholar Paul Ramsden.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
July 20, 2009
Mentoring Undergraduates in Research and Scholarship
Interested in a good example of how teaching, student scholarship, and service can be integrated into a single activity? Cecilia Shore [reference below] suggests that mentorship of undergraduates doing scholarship (be it research in labs or bibliographic searches) may just be that example.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
July 16, 2009
Reflective Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Autonomy
The two nurse educators who authored the article referenced below begin with a quote from the first page of Stephen Brookfield’s book Becoming a Critical Reflective Teacher. “One of the hardest things teachers have to learn is that the sincerity of their intentions does not guarantee the purity of their practice.”
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
July 2, 2009
Students Agree Cell Phones in Class Are Distracting
In case you ever had any doubts, research verifies that both students and teachers find cell phones ringing in class distracting. The results also document strong support from students and faculty for policies against ringing cell phones. Although there was strong support against cell phones going off in class, the strength of that support was mediated by age. The younger cohort in the study was more tolerant of cell phones than the older cohort.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
June 16, 2009
Retirement Reflections: Things I Will and Won’t Miss After 33 Years of Teaching
I am just about to retire from Penn State and leave my faculty position teaching undergraduates. I’ll still be working; there’s this newsletter to edit and a world of faculty who still need advice, ideas, and encouragement to do their very best in the classroom. But you don’t end 33 years of college teaching without thinking about those things that will and won’t be missed on campus.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
June 1, 2009
Those Students Who Participate Too Much
Do you have any students who participate too much? The ones who would answer every question and happily dominate every classroom discussion if we let them?
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
May 8, 2009
Why Students Procrastinate and What You Can Do About It
It’s easy to lay the procrastination problem on students and certainly they must own a big part of it. But this research indicates that professors are not powerless. There are ways assignments can be designed and courses structured that can decrease the amount of procrastination.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
May 7, 2009
