I have to admit, I don’t understand test anxiety. I have students that tell me they have test anxiety, and that when they sit down to take a test they go blank. I do believe these students, but I don’t understand it. I don’t understand it because I seldom get stressed...
The jigsaw technique is a collaborative learning strategy that was developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson, a well-known psychologist and co-author with Carol Tavris of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me). The jigsaw technique divides the class into groups—often...
When I began teaching in 2002, I was surprised to find so many students coming to class without completing (often, without even starting) their reading assignments. Why didn't they read? How could they expect to succeed? Further, what should I do? Were my expectations...
At the November Faculty Friday Forum sponsored by NMC’s Center for Instructional Excellence, four questions about competency-based learning were posted. As I struggled to organize responses to this hot topic into a meaningful context, Mark DeLonge suggested Jimmy...
There's been a commercial on TV recently about glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking. It's an advertisement for a new Google tablet, which does seem pretty cool, but the message about overcoming speech anxiety is even cooler. Watch it now: Google Nexus 7...
Ever look at your workload and think, where to start? Then, as you pull out materials related to the task at hand, you discover stuff that you forgot you had, or you forgot to do, or... and the list goes on, and the project still isn't done to your satisfaction....
I find myself struggling with the technology question, how much is too much. Or, more realistically, how much is the right amount. I am a stickler for working out a problem yourself, but there are some problems I like to assign that are too time consuming, or the...
Lately I've been studying Agile Programming. One idea new to me is the concept of "technology debt." The gist is this: if developers choose to release a version of software with fewer features or more bugs than planned and desired, they accumulate a debt that must be...
One strategy to elicit critical thinking is to omit important facts when presenting scenarios to students for classroom discussion. Often instructors take considerable care in class to articulate each important fact within a particular scenario that students will...