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Resources Too

Some Resources for Cultivating Learning in Large Classes (and maybe some small ones too)
Large Introductory Courses:  Resources Teaching Large Courses Project funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC), a national body aimed at improving teaching and learning in Australian universities

University of Maryland Center for Teaching Excellence site, Teaching Large Classes, has resources, a newsletter and links.

Richard J. Anderson, Ruth Anderson, Tammy Vandegrift, Steven Wolfman, Ken Yasuhara. Promoting Interaction In Large Classes With Computer-Mediated Feedback (PDF).

Teaching Large Classes, produced by the Office of Instructional Development and Technology at Dalhousie University.  15-minute video.  You will need RealPlayer

Teaching Writing in Large Classes  from the Center for Writing Excellence and Writing Across the Curriculum at Ohio University.

Successful Writing in Large Classes from California State University, Sacramento


Student-Centered Teaching
Donald L. Finkel and G. Stephen Monk, "Teachers and learning groups: Dissolution of the Atlas Complex." (PDF) — Finkel and Monk define the Atlas complex as a "state of mind that keeps teachers fixed in the center of their classroom, supporting the entire burden of responsibility for the course on their own shoulders. This state of mind is hardened by the expectations that surround teachers and by the impact of the experience that results from them."

From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education. One of the most influential articles on higher education written in the last twenty-five years. A new way of thinking about our enterprise of teaching and learning.

Capturing the Particulars of Classroom Practice A self-reflective exercise on classroom practice from Ken Bain, former Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, NYU; current Director, Research Academy for University Learning, Montclair State University

Designing a Better Syllabus
The Promising Syllabus. A model for a syllabus suggested by both the research on human learning and motivation and the practices of highly successful college teachers.

Lectures and Oral Presentations
Transforming Lectures, from Ken Bain.

Delivering a Lecture, Tools for Teaching (Jossey Bass 1993), has a long list of tips and tools.

How Do I Improve My Lectures?, advice from the Montclair State Research Academy for University Learning

Twenty ways to make lectures more participatory is provided by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.
Interactive Lectures, offered by the Office of Instructional Consulation at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is a good listing of tips.

Discussion

An article on seminar teaching by Richard Gale from the Carnegie Foundation "Perspectives" Series..

Writing
A Student Writing Guide" (PDF) from the University of Minnesota

Encouraging Student Writing: A Guide for Instructors (PDF), Office of Instructional Development, University of California, Berkeley

The Little Red Schoolhouse material from the University of Chicago. Parts of the Little Red Schoolhouse materials on writing (probably the best guide to writing in the English language) are posted here as Word files AFTER they have been given in class. They will remain posted for only three sessions, so follow the postings during a semester and pick them up quickly. At no time is the entire set posted at one time.

Case-based or problem-based methods
Problem-Based Learning (PDF). Speaking of Teaching: Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching 11 (1), 2001, contains background on this approach, methods, advice on how to start and bibliography.


Collaborative learning
Roger T. and David W. Johnson, "Cooperative learning: Two heads learn better than one." Transforming Education (IC#18) Winter 1988, Page 34.

Collaborative Learning: Small Group Learning Page, devoted especially to the sciences, explores ideas, techniques, bibliographies and other resources about small group collaborative learning, and stories by faculty who use these techniques.

Collaborative Learning: Group Work and Study Teams. From Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis.

The Research Academy for University Learning at Montclair State University - Montclair, New Jersey, 07043, USA
| 973-65-LEARN (655-3276) | Teach-Learn@mail.montclair.edu | Ken Bain, Director