Sawade
American University’s Center for Teaching Excellence
WORKSHOP HANDOUT
INSPIRING STUDENTS TO BECOME
ENTHUSIASTIC AND MOTIVATED LEARNERS
By Professor Chris Palmer, School of Communication palmer@american.edu 202-885-3408
To develop a vibrant, productive and memorable course, professors must continually work on inspiring students to become enthusiastic and motivated learners. Such students are engaged, active participants in their own learning.
Below, you’ll find suggestions in the following six categories:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Syllabus
First Classes
Classroom Atmosphere
Classroom Specifics
Classroom Interactions
Beyond the Classroom.
Some of the suggestions may not work for you because of the size or content of your class. Classroom management strategies must be shaped around the maturity and expectations of the class and the individual teaching style of the professor.
By the end of the workshop, participants should have tangible ideas on how to engage their students. To evaluate this learning outcome, we will discuss these techniques as a group. Each participant should be able to state a technique from this handout and explain how they will incorporate it into their course next semester.
I. Syllabus
1. Devise Specific Learning Outcomes: In the syllabus, make the learning outcomes as specific and clear as possible, and relate these to the assignments and to your grading metrics. Prof. Lyn Stallings recommends stating outcomes with a comment about how you propose to assess each outcome. For example, in Prof.
Stallings’ math class, one of her outcomes is, “By the end of this course, you should be able to communicate (written and spoken) mathematically using appropriate terminology and notation.” Her methods of assessing this outcome are
“corrections, test communication questions, board work, reading journal.”
2
2. Describe Class Format: Describe in your syllabus the class format. For example:
“We will strive for class
WORKSHOP HANDOUT
INSPIRING STUDENTS TO BECOME
ENTHUSIASTIC AND MOTIVATED LEARNERS
By Professor Chris Palmer, School of Communication palmer@american.edu 202-885-3408
To develop a vibrant, productive and memorable course, professors must continually work on inspiring students to become enthusiastic and motivated learners. Such students are engaged, active participants in their own learning.
Below, you’ll find suggestions in the following six categories:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Syllabus
First Classes
Classroom Atmosphere
Classroom Specifics
Classroom Interactions
Beyond the Classroom.
Some of the suggestions may not work for you because of the size or content of your class. Classroom management strategies must be shaped around the maturity and expectations of the class and the individual teaching style of the professor.
By the end of the workshop, participants should have tangible ideas on how to engage their students. To evaluate this learning outcome, we will discuss these techniques as a group. Each participant should be able to state a technique from this handout and explain how they will incorporate it into their course next semester.
I. Syllabus
1. Devise Specific Learning Outcomes: In the syllabus, make the learning outcomes as specific and clear as possible, and relate these to the assignments and to your grading metrics. Prof. Lyn Stallings recommends stating outcomes with a comment about how you propose to assess each outcome. For example, in Prof.
Stallings’ math class, one of her outcomes is, “By the end of this course, you should be able to communicate (written and spoken) mathematically using appropriate terminology and notation.” Her methods of assessing this outcome are
“corrections, test communication questions, board work, reading journal.”
2
2. Describe Class Format: Describe in your syllabus the class format. For example:
“We will strive for class