Teaching Time-Out

What would you lose if students received a deadline extension on their assignments? It turns out that instructors really don’t lose much, but students gain a whole lot under flexible deadline arrangements with their work. In this episode we’ll explore some data and perceptions related to students who received deadline extensions for their assignments as we reflect on what might actually happen if instructors didn’t penalize late wo...

How long do your students spend seated in your classrooms? It has become clear that prolonged sitting can have some rather detrimental effects on our health. And it seems that even a regular regiment of exercise may not be enough to combat prolonged sitting - our classrooms are a prime space to break that up, and research shows that students and faculty alike are benefitting from this creative way to offer active breaks in class. 

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Why do students attend, or avoid, office hours?

Like many professors, I feel like students don’t really come to office hours, but I don’t totally understand why. In this episode I explore some data about who does and does not come to office hours, and why, along with some fun suggestions for modifying the traditional office hours experience. 

Griffen et al, 2014: https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2014.896777

Hsu, et al, 2022: ht...

Teaching Time Out kicks off season two taking a look at the course syllabus. Is there a right way to organize a course syllabus? In this episode, we will discuss some ways that simple syllabus language modification and appearance can result in better retention of information, better course impressions, and how a syllabus quiz may indicate final course performance. 

Yarosh, 2021: https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X21996784

Kerrigan &...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

Inspired by the premise of Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do, I wanted to talk to students about their best college teachers. The goal is to reflect on their experiences in a variety of college classrooms to find key actions that a college teacher displayed toward them or for them, so that we can learn how students believe they are best supported for learning. 

In this format, I sit down with a college student to ask a f...

We end this academic year with an episode focused on the end of a class - what are some ways to meaningfully wrap a semester long course? I did not find a lot of great research on this topic, but certainly some valuable proposals and ideas in the literature - nothing that was measured or lead to changes empirically. Many of these ideas for the last class center on the shared humanity across teachers and students - what can we think...

Have you ever thought about how much time and energy kids pour into their video games, and thought “if only they cared half as much about their learning” they would be so successful? Many scholars and educators have shared that thought too - and they have turned to gamification to close that gap. Gamification in college classrooms involves using key tenets of games for learning. The research is also showing some trends that it help...

If we want students to understand what and how they are learning, beyond simply recalling content, then it seems imperative that we explicitly include meta-cognitive and self-regulated learning strategies. Asking students to report on their plans and goals, reflect on their time management and progress, and then think back to what they did that helped them or didn’t help them are all important steps to encourage self-regulated lear...

A central theme across these impactful teaching tactics we’ve explored in these time-outs is the value of focusing on relationships in our classrooms. For this episode, I wanted to focus exclusively on the value of a strong mentoring relationship between advisors and graduate students; this is teaching also, sometimes in a classroom, sometimes in a lab, and sometimes over coffee or on a walk around campus. The way we mentor and tea...

We can make simple and straightforward adjustments to help students really feel like they matter. Mattering is a psychological concept. When we feel like we matter is a specific context, we feel like people are paying attention us, that we are important, and that others depend on us in that setting. Researchers have explored mattering with faculty and students, and the findings highlight that the best college teachers really think ...

We’re taking a time out today to reflect on learning through reflection - how can we learn what and how our students are absorbing the information in our carefully designed courses? Dr. Blanton will highlight two studies in the journal Teaching of Psychology that have implications and suggestions for instructors across the humanities and sciences. 

Two articles anchor the discussion for this time-out:

Dr. Conrad’s paper on self-ref...

Our time-out today is focused on “rapport” and the minimum tactics needed to see significant outcomes with students. Dr. Blanton will highlight some key findings from the works of Dr. Rebecca Glazier and share some simple adjustments college instructors can make to increase the sense of rapport students perceive with their instructors. 

Here is a link to the paper I reviewed, along with Dr. Glazier’s book:

Glazier & Harris 2020