Teaching and Learning Questions Asked By Students
- How much do you consider student’s majors when teaching a course mostly for students who are majoring outside your field? David Annable
- What has surprised you most about teaching college students? David Annable
- Can you make sure the students understand exactly what you are talking about? The instructor/professor needs to make sure the student gets the message. Donald Becker
- Can you encourage those backward or shy students to ask questions? Those that really need to ask the questions usually hesitate for they feel as though they might make themselves look silly or they perceive their question as being “dumb.” Donald Becker
- How do you respond when a majority of your students do poorly on a test, project, etc.? Sarah Butke
- How do you feel about the necessity to reformat in conjunction with technological advances and more specifically about pod casting lectures and other formats that take out the personal connection to learning? Sarah Butke
- Asides from active participation, how else can students maximize their learning in the classroom? William Crist
- Is there any polite way of contacting faculty who make themselves very difficult to contact? William Crist
- How do you motivate a student who has no incentive to learn? Jamie Johnson
- What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Jamie Johnson
- What is the value of using the Socratic method? Bryn Lathrop
- How do you see increasing use of Blackboard and other electronic resources changing the way you teach? Bryn Lathrop
- What would you suggest as motivation for students to take action themselves? Cecilia Miller
- Do you view technology as a true help or hindrance to personal communication? Cecilia Miller
- Does learning how to teach (literally, how to get something across to a student—not just classroom management skills) in school really matter in an actual teaching environment? Brian Ranes
- How do you adapt to the different speeds at which students seem to learn when we are all biologically capable of learning the same amount at the same time? Brian Ranes
Metaphors for Teaching Suggested By Students
- Teaching is like explaining, a map giving directions. The learner must know how to get to the destination, but they must make the journey themselves in the end. David Annable
- Teachers are like a box of chocolates, when you sign up for a class and go to the room, you never know what you are going to get. There may be a nut in this one. Donald Becker
- Teaching is a journey leading to independence, but without guidance independence can never be reached. Sarah Butke
- Inspiring others to reach their full potential. Jamie Johnson
- Teaching is translating the “foreign language” of a subject to a learner in unfamiliar territory. But like all translations some information is emphasized while leaving some out entirely. Each translator creates her own translation from the material and the listener only hears one meaning out of many possible meanings. Bryn Lathrop
- To teach is to birth eternity. Cecilia Miller
- The balancing act. Brian Ranes
Teaching and Learning Questions Raised By Faculty
- Is there anything that can be done to change distorted perceptions among students? Ricardo Averbach
- What is your suggestion to make students perform more musically and less mechanically? Ricardo Averbach
- What two key things are necessary for you to learn? Gary Drigel
- What type of environment is most effective for you to learn? Gary Drigel
- What one quality do you value most in an instructor? Julia Guichard
- Where is the line between challenging and overwhelming? Julia Guichard
- Do students generally have access to prior semester assignments (projects, exams, etc.)? Antoinette Lynch
- Think of your favorite professors, and name one or two things that you enjoyed most about the professor and the class. Antoinette Lynch
- What is the worst thing a faculty member can do at the beginning of the course? Karl Schilling
- What is the worst thing a faculty member can do coming to the end of the course? Karl Schilling
- Are power points helpful if you print them out right before class? LeAnn Schlamb
- Do pictures help retain knowledge? LeAnn Schlamb
- How do I get students to focus less on grades and more on learning? David Shriberg
- What do you feel is the most appropriate balance between learning “traditional content” and engaging in discussion/experiential activities? David Shriberg
- Think about the best teacher(s) you ever had: What made her/him so? Gregg Wentzell
- What one thing about the way we teach and learn would you most like to see changed, and why? Gregg Wentzell
Metaphors for Teaching Suggested By Faculty
- Master/disciple relationship in the oriental sense (example: TV series “Kung-fu”) Ricardo Averbach
- Your abilities to think and learn are the keys to your future. Gary Drigel
- Knowledge is one of the few things in life that no one can take from you. Gary Drigel
- Parker Palmer’s “community of truth” – where I am not the expert. We all relate directly to the subject that is in the middle of this circle, this community of learning. Julia Guichard
- I am not the holder of all knowledge. Variables are constantly adjusted in my field, thus the only factors that separate me from the students are education, experience, and wisdom. Antoinette Lynch
- A (hopefully) Joyous Dance. Karl Schilling
- Need to laugh or smile every hour; if not, they’re dead. LeAnn Schlamb
- A good teacher is like a good improvisational actor. Improvisational actors need to be very knowledgeable across a wide spectrum of topics in order to be effective, yet they are able to think on their feet and are not tied to preexisting scripts that may or may not connect well with the audience. David Shriberg
- A musical composition & performance. Gregg Wentzell
This project has been supported in part by a grants from the US
Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education
(FIPSE) and the Ohio
Board of Regents.
