I was interested in the conclusions of a study done in Great Britain that asked students about their perceptions of and experiences with feedback provided by teachers. The researchers wanted to learn more about how students defined feedback and what feedback they had found useful. Students in the study, most of whom were upper division, understood feedback more broadly than it tends to be defined in the literature. They saw it “as a complex, holistic process involving multiple ongoing feedback channels and did not focus primarily on written feedback.” (p. 27) In their focus groups, students commented on the verbal feedback teachers offered—in response to questions they asked the teachers, about the answers they offered in response to teacher questions, about a completed assignment, performance on an exam, or overall progress in the course. Given the content of the comments, many of them seem like remarks teachers made in passing—that they weren’t planned feedback activities but responses that grew out of an interaction with the student. In some cases, teachers may not have even been aware that they were providing feedback.
Read more ›CURRENT ARTICLE • June 03
OTHER RECENT ARTICLES
Internships are integral parts of many professional degree programs. Potentially, they make significant contributions to an educational experience. “Well-organized and carefully supervised programs enhance the student’s ability to integrate academic knowledge with practical application, improve job/career opportunities after graduation, create relevance for past and future classroom learning, develop work place social and human relations skills, and provide the opportunity for students to apply communication and problem-solving skills.” (p. 208) Deborah F. Beard identifies these contributions in an article on assessing internship experiences in the field of accounting.
Read More ›A parent calls you to ask how her son is doing in your class. Her son, a first-year student, began the semester well but recently started missing class and turning in assignments late. The mother says she’s worried about him and wants to know if he’s showing up for class, how his grades are, and if he will pass your class.
Read More ›Online discussions are sometimes difficult to get going, and often the students (at least at first) seem to respond too superficially, punctuated by an occasional treatise by an overeager student. Here’s how I jumpstart discussions in my family relations online course.
Read More ›I work in a department that regularly enrolls 250 students in first-year classes, as do many other departments in colleges and universities. In my case, the situation is complicated by a small graduate program, too few teaching assistants, and an inability to break the larger classes into smaller sections for discussion. This makes for a very challenging teaching situation. I use groups in the large class one day per week, using activities I described previously in The Teaching Professor (March 2003). Since then, I have worked on solving the staff problem with senior undergraduate students. I call them classroom assistants (CAs).
Read More ›College Students Unplugged: 24 Hours without Media Brings Feelings of Boredom, Isolation, Anxiety
College students who abstained from using media for 24 hours describe their feelings in terms more commonly associated with drug and alcohol addictions: Withdrawal, Frantically craving, Very anxious, Extremely antsy, Miserable, Jittery, Crazy.
Read More ›Most academics consider Wikipedia the enemy and so forbid their students from using Wikipedia for research. But here’s a secret that they don’t want you to know—we all use Wikipedia, including those academics.
Read More ›“One can still be committed to one’s discipline, one can still be scholarly, studious and literate ... and SMILE while you are doing it.” That was the message early in John Huss’ session on humor at The Teaching Professor Conference this past weekend.
Read More ›An increasing part of any academic dean’s week is fielding calls (and sometimes unannounced visits) from concerned parents. These so-called “helicopter parents” are well-known to student life professionals. In the past, they’ve called to try and influence the admissions process, to negotiate improved housing assignments, and to manage the personal lives of their children.
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