Last week I facilitated a faculty workshop titled “Assessment of Student Learning: Grading Effectively and Efficiently,” just in time for the start of classes. Below are my slides from the workshop, and if you head over to the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching blog, you can find a few thoughts from participants about the challenges of [...]
ProfHacker contributor Billie Hara wrote a post titled “Learning-Centered Pedagogy” last week that surfaces some of the dangers of educational jargon, particularly the terms teacher-centered pedagogy and student-centered pedagogy. Those in higher education who advocate student-centered pedagogy are often perceived as bashing teacher-centered pedagogy, which causes problems when the term teacher-center pedagogy isn’t well-defined. Here’s [...]
An excerpt from CFT assistant director Derek Bruff’s book, Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments, was published on the Tomorrow’s Professor listserv this week. In the excerpt, Derek shares sixteen tips for teaching with clickers, including this one:
“7. Have students respond to clicker questions several time throughout a class session. Although [...]
The Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment at the University of Texas-Austin has recently produced a very information 12-minute video on Team-Based Learning (TBL). A core component of TBL is that class time is spent having students work through problems or case studies in permanent teams, usually consisting of six students each. [...]
As part of the CFT’s Celebration of Teaching two weeks ago, we put together a slideshow highlighting aspects of the year in teaching and the work of the CFT and our collaborators. The slideshow is now available online via Slideshare. Enjo…
You may have heard of the micro-blogging service Twitter as a way to share what you had for breakfast or to hear the latest news from celebrities like Ashton Kutcher. Those kinds of things happen on Twitter, but Twitter is also a great way to expand your personal [...]
Leveraging resources collected for a March 2010 workshop on visual thinking, the CFT has put together a guide on integrating visual thinking tools in your teaching. The guide describes ways to use images as metaphors and as stories, resources on digital storytelling and visual literacy, uses of schematic diagrams like timelines and concept maps, tools [...]
From our colleagues at the CIRTL Network and CFT assistant director Derek Bruff:
May 12: Classroom Reconsidered: Engaging Students with Clickers
Wed May 12, 1 PM CT, Derek Bruff – 2p ET / 1p CT / 12p MT
Classroom response systems (“clickers�) are technologies that enable teachers to rapidly collect and analyze student responses to [...]
Leveraging resources collected for a spring 2010 workshop on engaging students in large lecture courses, the CFT has expanded its teaching guide on lecturing to include advice on the “basics” of effective learning, suggestions for PowerPoint slides and other visual elements of lectures, and strategies for fostering student engagement and interaction during lectures.
Here’s an except:
When [...]
This week’s Chronicle of Higher Education features an article on efforts around the country to improve the course evaluation forms students complete at the end of each semester. Ideas for improvement mentioned in the article inclue:
Mechanisms by which departments and instructors can customized the standard forms used in their schools, such as those provided by [...]
Welcome to my home page. I’m Derek Bruff, author of Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments (Jossey-Bass, 2009). I’m also acting director at the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and a senior lecturer in the Vanderbilt University Department of Mathematics. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of Vanderbilt University.
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