Transcript Document 7749462

Thinking About Teaching & Learning
I believe that people who teach college want to be as
effective as possible. For something as complex and
unpredictable as teaching, we would do well to think about
teaching, read about teaching, and talk about teaching
reflectively, honestly, and seriously.
Thinking About Teaching & Learning (1999), Robert Leamnson
To Build a Better Teacher
Education has been susceptible to waves of goofy ideas
down through the years, but it has been my observation that
teachers do not originate these fads.
To Build a Better Teacher (2004), Roger Gray Holland
If I Wanted To Study . . .
“Bottom line,” the student said, “is that I like your old way of
teaching much better, when you explained everything in
detail for us. If I’d wanted to study, I would have gone to a
real college, not a two-year school like this.” His four
companions all nodded in agreement.
“If I Wanted to Study, I Would Have Gone to a Real College”
Thought & Action (Winter 2004), Tony R. Kuphaldt
Discussion Questions
1) Do you agree with the author that teaching first-year students is
becoming more difficult?
2) Discuss the following: “most first-year students do not know how to
listen well, or make notes on what they hear, to read with
comprehension, or to write referentially about the real world.”
3) Discuss the following: “[That] the students are the best arbiters of their
academic needs is highly questionable. Most students have goals,
but these are usually long-term and nebulous, and are better
described as wishes for the future.”
4) Discuss the following: “Teaching first-year students is so different from
teaching the more experienced, that we need to develop an explicit
philosophy or set of beliefs for teaching the first-year student.”