Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd Edition

by Linda B. Nilson

• ISBN13: 9781882982646
• ISBN10: 1882982649
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

This best-selling handbook is an essential toolboxa compilation of hundreds of practical teaching techniques, formats, classroom activities, and exercisesmeant to give classroom instructors a go-to guide for help teaching any subject matter. It is for those who teach in traditional contexts as well as those who teach adult and diverse student populations; it is for those who use considerable technology and multimedia resources as well as those who rely on conventional classroom methods.Newly revised and expanded, this edition covers more on the topics relevant to today's classroom such as technology and the Internet, simulations and games, diversity, service learning, and faculty evaluation systems. It also includes entirely new sections on teaching with laptops, course portfolios, three new sections on teaching problem solving, and a new chapter on getting your students to do readings. Other new sections include adult learning, the learning-centered syllabus, the cognitive profile learning styles model, and newly written chapters on classroom management, academic honesty, and grading.Rich with quick tips on a wide range of current issues, this is a guide that all teachers will continuously refer to for development and support of their teaching.Contents include 31 chapters on relevant topics such as Understanding your students The complete syllabus Your first day of class Making the most of office hours Motivating your students Teaching to different learning styles Getting your students to do the readings Writing-to-learn activities and assignments Teaching students to think and write in the disciplines Science in the laboratory Assessing students' learning in progress Test construction/preparing students for tests Evaluating and documenting teaching effectiveness

Author Biography

LINDA B. NILSON has been the founding Director of Clemson University’s Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation since 1998. She came to Clemson from Vanderbilt University, where she directed the Center for Teaching for five and half years. In addition to managing OTEI and its staff, she holds individual consultations with faculty, consult on instructional and assessment issues on grants and to committees and departments, and designs and conducts faculty development workshops at Clemson and other universities across the country.
Dr. Nilson’s workshop repertoire includes comprehensive course design by student-learning objectives, interpreting student evaluations, peer assessment of teaching for promotion and tenure, interactive lecturing, learning styles, getting students to do the readings, case study design and debriefing, problem-based learning, cooperative learning, discussion management, questioning techniques, student-peer feedback instruments, developing a graphic syllabus, techniques for grading writing, and designing tests and assignments. In 1998, Anker Publishing released the first edition of Teaching at Its best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors and has just released the second. It is the most up-to-date and comprehensive teaching methods book on the market.
In addition to Teaching at its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors. Dr. Nilson has written three book-length instructional handbooks for her employing universities. She has also published articles and book chapters on the graphic syllabus, improving student-peer feedback, teaching large social science courses, mentoring graduate students. TA training, critical thinking, and designing and publishing research on teaching. As a sociologist, she conducted research in the area of occupations and work, social stratification, political sociology, and disaster behavior.
Dr. Nilson’s career also included several years in the business world as a technical and commercial writer, a training workshop facilitator, and business editor of a Southern California magazine.
A native of Chicago, Dr. Nilson was a national Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received her Ph.D. and M.S degrees in sociology. She completed her undergraduate work in three years at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part I: Sound Preparations	1	(46)
Instructional Support Services and Resources	3	(6)
Understanding Your Students	9	(8)
Your Undergraduate Student Body Profile
How People Learn
The Adult Learner
Inclusive Instructing
The Cognitive Development of Undergraduates
Encouraging Cognitive Growth
In the Beginning: Course Design by Objectives	17	(10)
Why Course Design by Objectives?
What Is an Objective?
Before Writing Learning Objectives
Writing Learning Objectives
Types of Learning Objectives
A Cognitive Hierarchy of Objectives
Course Design by Objectives
Course Development by Objectives
The Complete Syllabus	27	(8)
Appropriate Syllabus Items
Graphics to Append for Clarity
The ``Learning-Centered Syllabus''
Getting Students to Read Your Syllabus
Course Coordination Between Faculty and TAs	35	(6)
Before the Term: Course Review and Role Specifications
During the Term: Regular Meetings and Teaching Feedback
Extending Managing to Mentoring
Copyright Guidelines for Instructors	41	(6)
Free Use: Fair Use, Facts, and Public Domain
Copying Print Media
Copying and Recording Music
Videotaping Broadcast Programming
Multimedia and the Internet
Permissions to Reprint and Licenses
Common Copyright Misconceptions
How Copyright Violations Are Actually Handled
Part II: Good Beginnings	47	(30)
Your First Day of Class	49	(6)
First Impressions
Exchanging Information
Social Icebreakers: ``Getting to Know You''
Subject-Matter Icebreakers
Drawing Class to a Close
Preventing and Responding to Classroom Incivility	55	(10)
What Is Incivility?
Why the Increase?
Preventing Incivility: Balancing Authority and Approachability
Preventing Incivility: Setting Ground Rules
Preventing Incivility: Modeling Correct Behavior
Preventing Incivility: Commanding Class Attention
Responding to Incivility
Seek Assistance
Preserving Academic Honesty	65	(4)
How Prevalent Is Cheating?
Who Cheats and Why?
Detecting Cheating
Preventing Cheating
Honor Codes
Making the Most of Office Hours	69	(4)
Getting Students to See You
Making the Time Productive
Student-Active Tutoring
Students in Academic or Emotional Trouble
Motivating Your Students	73	(4)
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivators
Strategies for Motivating Students
Equity in the Classroom
Part III: Varieties of Learning and Teaching Strategies	77	(90)
Teaching to Different Learning Styles	79	(8)
Kolb's Cycle of Learning Modes
Kolb's Derived Learning Styles
Teaching to Kolb's Types
Fleming and Mills' Sensory-Based Learning Style Typology
Krause's Cognitive Profile Model
Parallels Across Models
Multi-Sensory, Multi-Method Teaching: Most Effective for All
An Introduction to Student-Active Teaching: The Discovery Method	87	(6)
Recreating Historical Discoveries
Discovering Naive Misconceptions
Discovering Our Ignorance
Discovering Alternative Explanations
Discovery by the Socratic Method
Discovery in Other Student-Active Formats
The Key to Discovery
Making the Lecture A Learning Experience	93	(12)
The Effectiveness of Lecture: Learning, Motivation, and the Lecturer
The Effectiveness of Lecture: Time and Attention Spans
To Lecture Or Not to Lecture?
Preparing an Effective Lecture
Options for Student-Active Breaks
Helping Students Take Notes
29 Lecture Note-Taking Tips for Students
Leading Effective Discussions	105	(8)
The Times for Discussion
A Discussion Primer: Starting Out
Improving Participation Through Skillful Discussion Management
Questioning Techniques for Discussion and Assessment	113	(6)
Questioning as a Process of Inquiry
Types of Well Constructed Questions
Types of Poorly Constructed Questions
Turning the Tables
Experiential Learning Activities	119	(8)
Student Presentation Formats
Role Playing
Simulations and Games
Service Learning (SL): The Real Thing
Learning in Groups	127	(10)
Cooperative vs. Collaborative vs. Team Learning
The Case for Cooperative Learning
Changing Methods, Changing Roles
Crucial Elements of Cooperative Learning
Management Tips
Tried and True Cooperative Learning Strategies
Preparing Students for Life
Getting Your Students to Do the Readings	137	(4)
Why Students Don't Do the Readings
Inducing Students to Read
Specific Tools for Holding Students Accountable
Managing Your Workload
Writing-To-Learn Activities and Assignments	141	(6)
Free Writes
The One-Minute Paper
Journals
One-Sentence Summaries
Learning Logs
Dialectical Notes
Directed Paraphrasing
Letters Home
Other Letters, Memos, Notes, and Electronic Posts
Mock Tests
Drafts for Peer Feedback
Multiple Purposes
Teaching Your Students to Think and Write in the Disciplines	147	(6)
Crossdisciplinary Commonalities
Teaching Critical Thinking Through the Discipline's Metacognitive Model
Metacognitive Differences Among Disciplines
Making Students Better Thinkers and Writers
Teaching Students to Write for Their Futures
The Many Worlds of Writing
Tools of the Trade: Making the Most of Instructional Aids and Technology	153	(14)
The Ubiquitous Board
The Flip Chart
The Overhead Projector
The Slide Projector
When to Consider High-Tech Alternatives
Presentation Software
Course Management Software
Electronic Discussion and Collaboration
Web-Based Courses and Resources
Instructional Software
Using Laptops in the Classroom
Looking Ahead
Part IV: Teaching Problem Solving for Today's World	167	(22)
Teaching Problem Solving I: The Case Method	169	(4)
The Effectiveness of the Case Method
The Appropriate Subject Matter
What Makes a Good Case
Extended Cases
Debriefing Cases
A Postscript for Pioneers
Teaching Problem Solving II: Problem-Based Learning	173	(4)
What PBL Is and How It Works
PBL's Effectiveness
What Students Think
Good PBL Problems and Where to Find Them
Kudos for Creativity
Teaching Problem Solving III: Quantitative Reasoning	177	(6)
The Problem With Most Problems
A Systematic Approach to Teaching Problem Solving
An Effective, Innovative Teaching Strategy: Cooperative Groups Solving Real Problems
Identifying and Correcting Problem Solving Pitfalls
Making Traditional Settings Accommodate These Teaching Methods
Teaching Problem Solving IV: Science in the Laboratory	183	(6)
Where Science Education Falls Short
Making the Lab a Meaningful Learning Experience
The Essentials of Lab Safety and Management
The Importance of Science Education
Part V: Assessment / Measuring Outcomes	189	(42)
Assessing Students' Learning in Progress	191	(8)
Four-Dimensional Assessment
Characteristics of Classroom Assessment Techniques
Getting Started With Classroom Assessment
Some Tried and True CATs
Student Portfolios
Extending Classroom Assessment to Classroom Research and the Scholarship of Teaching
Test Construction	199	(8)
Thinking about Testing
General Testing Guidelines
Types of Test Questions
Composing Test Questions: Multiple Choice, True/False, Matching, Completion (Fill-in-the-Blank), Short Answer, Essay
Tests: The Ultimate Teaching Evaluation
Preparing Students for Tests	207	(4)
Preparation Techniques
Combating Test Anxiety
What the Effort is Worth
Grading: Tests, Assignments, and Course Performance	211	(10)
The Meaning of Grades
Summative Assessments and Grading Systems
Formative Assessments and Feedback Guidelines
Accuracy, Consistency, and Learning Value
Grading Constructed Responses and Papers
Grading Lab Reports
General Cautions for Grading Constructed Responses and Papers
Returning Students' Work
The Real Meaning and Limits of Grades
Evaluating and Documenting Teaching Effectiveness	221	(10)
Peer, Administrative, and Self-Evaluations
Student Evaluations: How Reliable?
Student Evaluations: How Valid?
Improving Your Student Ratings
Documenting Your Effectiveness
Comprehensive Approaches to Faculty Evaluation
References	231	(10)
Index	241