The Get Engaged: Tips for Student Engagement series is a weekly e-mail message that describes an instructional strategy that faculty might find helpful in promoting active learning and student engagement. The Get Engaged tips are based on the scholarly literature on teaching and suggestions from faculty who have successfully used the strategy in their teaching.

Do you have an instructional strategy that improves student learning or promotes student engagement with your class? Send a 200 word (or less) description of your teaching tip to Claudia Stanny at the Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (cstanny@uwf.edu) for posting in a future Get Engaged mailing.

If you do not currently receive the Get Engaged e-mail but would like to receive future postings, contact Connie Works (cworks@uwf.edu), who will add you to the distribution list.

---

Fall Semester

November 17, 2009

Minimizing distractions in the classroom that interfere with student learning

Instructors may use a handout in class and begin talking about the content of the handout at the same time that they distribute it. This also creates a multi-tasking situation, since students must pass the handout down the rows and they may need some time to read the material before the instructor begins discussing or elaborating. This problem also occurs at faculty meetings, when documents are distributed for discussion at a meeting, rather than in advance of the meeting. People need time to read and think about the content of the document before they can engage in meaningful discussion of its content.

Based on:
Matlin, M. (2007). How cognitive psychology can enhance your students’ learning. In S. A. Meyers & J. R. Stowell (Eds.), Essays from E-xcellence in Teaching (Chapter 9), Volume 7.
E-book retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site:
http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/eit2007/eit2007.php

November 9, 2009

Improving project management: Deadlines as the solution to overconfidence in estimating time to complete a project

One characteristic of the cognitive problem of overconfidence is the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a project. This overconfidence may be fueled in part by a phenomenon known as confirmation bias, the tendency to selectively retrieve and attend to information that is consistent with a preferred hypothesis (rather than searching for evidence that the hypothesis might be wrong). When estimating time to complete a project, people tend to prefer the hypothesis that the project is manageable, resources will be readily available, and no unexpected events will occur that will create obstacles to progress or otherwise delay project completion. Of course, resources are frequently more difficult to obtain than anticipated and various events (increased work load in other courses, changes in off-campus employment demands, family emergencies, illnesses, auto accidents, weather events, etc.) can produce delays that push back initial deadlines.

The solution to this problem is to create multiple deadlines (“milestone” deadlines) throughout the term for a large-scale project that is due at the end of the term. Although this strategy might strike some as “hand holding,” this suggestion is consistent with “real world” practices for managing procrastination. Wistrich (2008) examined the effect of procrastination and the problem of failing to meet deadlines associated with filing legal claims within the statute of limitation. Wistrich notes that imposing a deadline improves task completion. Setting long-term deadlines not only fails to improve task completion, allowing a long time for task completion makes the task resemble a task that has no specific deadline. Tasks with self-imposed deadlines or no clear deadline are least likely to be completed. Thus, short deadlines increase the likelihood that tasks will be completed on time and multiple, spaced deadlines for a large project are more likely to result in successful task completion than a single long-term deadline. 

Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994) Exploring the “planning fallacy”: Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 366-381.

Newby-Clark, I. R., Ross, M., Buehler, R., Koehler, D. J., & Griffin, D. (2000). People focus on optimistic scenarios and disregard pessimistic scenarios while predicting task completion times. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 171-182.

Wistrich, A. J. (2008). Procrastination, deadlines, and statutes of limitations. William and Mary Law Review, 50, 607-666.

October 27, 2009

Improve student learning by encouraging distributed practice

Distributed learning is more effective than massed learning. This observation is one of the oldest and best-documented characteristics of learning. Massed practice can be effective for improving performance on an immediate retention task, but distributed practice produces learning that endures over longer retention intervals. Unfortunately, testing material immediately following completion of a module of instruction rewards students for cramming and other massed-practice study strategies. Create situations in which students must retrieve and use newly-learned material repeatedly and following multiple intervals of time. These distributed experiences with the material will produce more enduring learning.

An added advantage of distributed practice is that the context of successive practice sessions is likely to vary over time. Use of material in a variety of contexts improves the chances that students will recall and be able to use this material in a future novel context. If the goal is to produce learning that transfers beyond the classroom to new situations, creating distributed learning and varied practice contexts will improve the success of this type of transfer.

Based on:
Matlin, M. (2007). How cognitive psychology can enhance your students’ learning. In S. A. Meyers & J. R. Stowell (Eds.), Essays from E-xcellence in Teaching (Chapter 9), Volume 7.
E-book retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site:
http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/eit2007/eit2007.php

October 20, 2009

Encourage students to evaluate the quality of information sources

One strategy to use to encourage students to evaluate the quality of sources located in a data base search for an annotated bibliography is to require that students locate a larger number of potential scholarly sources for their annotated bibliography than will be required as the “minimum” number of scholarly sources cited in the final paper. Additionally, you might require that each student identify 2-3 sources that they initially thought would be useful sources for the project but later decided that the sources were not relevant or were not useful. Ask students to explain in their annotated bibliography why the rejected source looked promising at first and then explain why the source was ultimately rejected as a suitable source.

When students identify and examine more materials than they are required to include in the final submission, they can break away from the habit of including every source they locate to meet minimum resource requirements for an assignment. Students can then begin to evaluate the merit of including these materials as cited sources. These decisions are an important component of the scholarly evaluation of source material.

October 14, 2009

Improve student learning by calibrating metacognition: The price of overconfidence

Students are typically overconfident about the level of knowledge or understanding they have achieved. This overconfidence is produced in part by the fact that students usually evaluate their knowledge or understanding immediately after completing a reading, hearing presentation of material in lecture, or at the conclusion of a bout of study (usually the night before an exam!) when representations of new information in immediate memory are quite strong. Student confidence in their learning will be inflated because they have easy access to information in immediate memory as well as long-term representations. The ease of retrieving relevant information from immediate memory distorts our confidence in our ability to recall this information at a later time. However, after a short interval of time passes without thinking about new material, the representations in immediate memory are replaced with current thoughts and concerns. All a student has left is the quality of long-term representations. Encourage students to evaluate their learning after some time has passed to get more accurate information about the adequacy of their studying.

October 6, 2009

Human factors in the classroom: Minimizing problems created by inadvertent multitasking associated with Power Point

In spite of popular media depictions and their own proclaimed competence, students are not as adept at multitasking as they believe. Divided attention has costs for the quality of student learning. Classroom situations can create unintended divided attention conditions that interfere with student learning. For example, Power Point presentations can create a variety of challenges to effective note-taking:

• When instructors use Power Point instead of using a blackboard to write key concepts for students, they no longer pause during lectures while they write notes on a blackboard (an activity that slows lecture presentations and creates down time for students to write). As a result, the presentation of content may be accelerated and students might not have adequate time to make appropriate notes.

• When an instructor presents a complex Power Point slide and lectures about content not present on the slide, students are required to multitask to process slide and lecture content. If students do not have access to the slides in advance of class, they must divide their attention between reading the presentation slides and making notes on their content, listening to the instructor talk about the slides, and making notes on this additional content. If students have the Power Point bullets in a handout or electronic copy of the presentation slides at the time the slides are used in class, they need not write down the bullet items and can focus entirely on taking notes on the new information provided during class.

Instructors can help students manage the task of taking effective notes on Power Point presentations by providing a minimalist version of their slides before class.  Posting a minimalist version of slides rather than the detailed slides used during class also creates an incentive for students to attend class. Remember to provide enough time during the lecture to allow students to complete their notes on one topic before moving on to the next.

Based on:
Matlin, M. (2007). How cognitive psychology can enhance your students’ learning. In S. A. Meyers & J. R. Stowell (Eds.), Essays from E-xcellence in Teaching (Chapter 9), Volume 7.
E-book retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site:
http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/eit2007/eit2007.php

Return to Top

September 29, 2009

Promote Academic Integrity by Leading by Example

Citation practices vary considerably from discipline to discipline. Remember that students may be encountering the scholarship practices in your discipline for the first time when they are enrolled in your course. Moreover, they may bring a variety of scholarship and citation practices from other disciplines (with different traditions and expectations) when they enter your course.

Help students learn discipline-specific scholarship and citation skills by providing explicit examples of these practices in your handouts and other course materials. Follow the editorial guidelines for citation of sources when you identify reading materials in your syllabus. Similarly, use appropriate citations and publication formats in your class handouts. These materials will serve as models for your students when they are preparing their work for you.

September 22, 2009

Teach students to write by teaching them to use feedback about writing quality

Faculty mentoring upper level students and graduate students may be disappointed in the quality of students writing. How can we develop student skill with writing?

As professionals in our disciplines, we have learned to revise our writing in response to the comments and requests for revision provided by editors and reviewers. In contrast, students seldom get much practice revising their writing in response to feedback. It is easy to forget that we once needed guidance about this aspect of writing. Students need to learn how to use the feedback provided by a reviewer (in this case, their instructor). Moreover, too much feedback at once (related to spelling, punctuation, grammar, organization, supporting ideas with evidence, and other issues) can leave a student feeling overwhelmed.

An effective way to improve student skill with revision of their writing is to provide feedback on only one type of problem at a time. For example, early feedback might ignore technical problems and focus on a single large issue such as organizing ideas in a logical sequence or supporting assertions with evidence. When providing limited feedback, clearly indicate that the feedback deliberately focuses on only one type of problem and that other writing or content issues will be addressed in later drafts. For detailed feedback on mechanics (e.g., grammar, editorial style, spelling), limit feedback to only one or two pages of a draft. This strategy eliminates the temptation for students to treat comments on mechanics as copy editing and will encourage them to use the feedback to correct the entire draft and guide future writing.

This technique is most effective when working with a single student on a large project like a thesis, in which the student expects to submit multiple drafts before completing the project.  However, a variation of this technique can be used in classes in which students write several short essays. On the first assignment, students receive feedback on a writing issue without penalty. Subsequent writing assignments should reflect learning from this feedback and will be penalized for errors related to this writing issue. Grading across a series of essays might take the following form:

• Identify a problem on Essay #1 but don't take points off for the issue on this essay. Take points off if that issue appears as a problem again in subsequent essays. 
• Comment on a different problem in Essay #2 but don't take points off for that issue.  Take points off if writing on subsequent essays includes problems with either of the issues addressed in the first two essays.
• Students are held responsible for all components of writing in the final essay.

In this system students are given feedback in doses that don't overwhelm them. Although initial feedback carries no penalties for the student, the instructor attaches consequences to the feedback on future assignments so that the student will attend to the feedback in future writing.

Thanks to Dr. Ken Steele, Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University for this suggestion.

September 15, 2009

Create Activities that Encourage Deep Processing and Improve Student Learning

Deep processing tasks produce memories for new information that are more enduring than does shallow or surface learning. This effect is well-documented in the cognitive research literature (Roediger, Gallo, & Geraci, 2002). Instructors can encourage students to engage in deep processing by creating learning tasks that can be completed only if students engage in deeper processing.

Examples of tasks that induce deeper processing include the following:

• Students describe how a concept or other material in the course might apply to them, a member of their family, their friends, or some real-life setting.
• Require students to write a paraphrase of the content of reading material or a section of lecture using their own words. This can be done by assigning a minute paper or other short writing exercise in class following a discussion of this material. This assignment also gives students immediate feedback on the quality of their understanding of the material and helps calibrate self-evaluations of learning.
• Students generate a novel example of a concept presented in text or lecture.
• Ask students to describe how concepts in the current class are related to material or concepts discussed in other classes in the discipline.

Roediger, H. L., III, Gallo, D. A., & Geraci, L. (2002). Processing approaches to cognition: The impetus from the levels-of-processing framework. Memory, 10, 319-332.

September 8, 2009

Who are these new students?

Every August, Ron Nief and Tom McBride compile and publish the Beloit College Mindset List, in which they identify key cultural experiences and current events that characterize the life experiences and “mindset” of students we will meet in our classes as entering students this fall. As Nief and McBride note on their web site, this list is a helpful reminder of the sometimes dramatic differences between the life experience and cultural expectations of entering students and faculty. Advances in technology and popular culture can create divisions between generations that can impair effective communication. Knowing about these generational differences can help faculty better understand why some examples and cultural references that worked perfectly well a few years ago now draw puzzled looks or glazed expressions.

Access the current Beloit College Mindset List at the following URL:
http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

Note: The topic of the October 16 Faculty Friday will be Generations in the Classroom: Characteristics of New Students and Strategies to Promote Classroom Civility. Join colleagues for lunch and a discussion of strategies for coping with generational differences in the classroom.

September 1, 2009

Improving teaching through peer mentoring: Teaching Partners Program

An effective practice to improve teaching is to engage in informed reflection on one’s teaching practices. Faculty can obtain useful information about practices that work well in their classrooms and suggestions about areas that might need attention by asking a peer to visit their classroom and observe their teaching.

The Teaching Partners Program allows faculty to identify a peer partner to engage in mutual classroom observations. The process benefits the person doing the observation, who might observe and learn about a new classroom strategy, and the person whose teaching is observed.

For more information about peer observation and the Teaching Partners Program, visit the following URL:
http://www.uwf.edu/cas/partners/

Now in its second year, the Teaching Partners Program is open to faculty in all three colleges. Participants in the first year were pleased with the experience and collegial discussions of teaching. If you are interested in participating in the Teaching Partners Program this year, please plan to attend the organizational meeting at noon on Thursday, September 3, 2009 in the University Commons, Nautilus Chamber, Room 255.

Return to Top

August 25, 2009

Setting the tone for your class: Guiding students toward effective study strategies

Use class time during the first week of the term to provide students with guidelines and suggestions for successful study strategies. Examples of study discussion topics included the following:

• How to take notes effectively while reading the required text or during class meetings
• The importance of supplementing bullet headings in class Power Point slides with additional information provided during class or found in relevant assigned readings
• How to form an effective study group – rules for cooperation (focus on study, not socializing, quizzing one another, comparing notes from lecture, reading, peer review, etc.)
• How to prepare for exams. Karpicke, Butler, & Roedgier (2009) report that students hold false beliefs about the effectiveness of various study strategies. Many students believe that reading the chapter several times is a good study strategy, but in actuality, this strategy is ineffective. Students will make better use of their study time if they use it for more effective study activities such as developing and answering questions they can expect to see on the exam, writing paraphrases of concepts in their own words and checking these against the reading or to another student’s interpretation to ensure that the paraphrase captures the intended meaning correctly. Encourage students to use more effective strategies when they study.

Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, III, H. L. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practice retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17, 471-479.

August 20, 2009

Developing information literacy skills

Are you planning to include an assignment in your class that requires a search for relevant resources in the scholarly literature? When students have a large writing assignment or research-based project, they frequently make the error of procrastinating and begin their search for relevant sources too late in the term. In their rush to find suitable materials, students may cut corners and use inappropriate materials or, worse, use materials inappropriately. In addition, many students tend to carry out a search in Google (and the “wiser” students search using Google Scholar).

Consider scheduling a classroom workshop with a Reference Librarian in your discipline to develop student skills searching relevant data bases for disciplinary scholarly resources, identify appropriate scholarly sources, and evaluate the quality of information located on web sites. Create an assignment connected to the workshop such as developing an annotated bibliography on the assignment topic as a prompt to begin a large research/writing project early in the term. Creating a series of preliminary assignments related to these projects also serves as a deterrent to problems such as submitting a literature review paper found on a web site.

August 11, 2009

Planning a course syllabus to adapt to emergencies

Hurricane season reaches its peak during the first half of the fall term. Many instructors on the Gulf Coast plan their course calendars to accommodate a potential “hurricane day” much as instructors in other regions make contingency plans for “snow days.” Another incentive to make contingency plans for emergencies is the current concern over the emergence of a contagious illness that might limit face-to-face interactions (such as the H1N1 virus).

The UWF emergency planning team has created guidelines for contingency plan in the event of a campus closure or limited operation associated with inclement weather or a pandemic. Consult these guidelines (http://uwfemergency.org/) for planning information that could be included in your syllabus.

The Syllabus Construction page (http://uwf.edu/cutla/frs-syllabus.cfm) provides suggested language for the syllabus that refers students to sources of official information and describes various contingency plans that faculty might implement for ensuring continuity of courses following an emergency.

The following language can be added to a syllabus to inform students about how information about campus emergencies will be disseminated:

Official Emergency Information

• WUWF-FM (88.1 MHz) is the official information source for the university. Any pertinent information regarding closings, cancellations, and the re-opening of campus will be broadcast.
• In the event that hurricane preparation procedures are initiated, the UWF Home Web Page and Argus will both provide current information regarding hurricane preparations procedures, the status of classes and the closing of the university.

Information about hurricane preparedness plans is available on the UWF web site:
http://uwfemergency.org/hurricaneprep.cfm

Information about other emergency procedures is available on the UWF web site:
http://uwfemergency.org/

 

Return to Top

 

Updated 10/27/09