This document provides an overview of strategies for effective college teaching, including facilitating discussions, delivering lectures, assessing student comprehension through testing, and incorporating educational technologies. A variety of specific techniques are presented for each teaching method, with examples and suggestions for implementation. The goal is to help educators engage students and promote learning.

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College Teaching 102:
Discussion, Lecture,
Testing, and Technology…
E lle n S t e v e n s & J o n i D u n la p
C e n t e r f o r F a c u lt y D e v e lo p m e n t
U n iv e r s it y o f C o lo r a d o D e n v e r

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P e o p l e d o n ’t p a y a t t e n t i o n t o
b r in g t h in g s .
o
Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.
 Audiences check out after 10 minutes, but you can keep
grabbing them back by telling narratives or creating events
rich in emotion.
~ John Medina (2008), Brain Rules, pg. 94

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What are your concerns,
questions, and ideas about
facilitating discussions?

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Community
 Expectations
 Trust
 Relevance
 Modeling
 Practice
 Shared responsibilities
 Balanced voices

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“Maybe if I sit in the back
she won’t call on me…”

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Ensuring prereading
 Setting expectations
 Garnering enthusiasm
 Establishing relevance
 Assigning readings carefully
 Framing with questions, structure

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Ensuring prereading
 Setting expectations
 Garnering enthusiasm
 Establishing relevance
 Assigning readings carefully
 F r a m i n g w i t h q u e s t i o n s , structure

9. +Using thought-provoking prompts
Neil Postman once wrote, “Computers
Neil Postman once wrote, “Computers
are merely ingenious devices to fulfill
are merely ingenious devices to fulfill
unimportant functions. The computer
unimportant functions. The computer
revolution is an explosion of
revolution is an explosion of
nonsense.”
nonsense.”
Why do you think Postman wrote this?
Do you agree or disagree with
What evidence do you believe he
Postman?
would reference to support his
perspective? What would you say to
change his mind, or at least present an
alternative perspective? What is your
viewpoint, and why?

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Ensuring prereading
 Setting expectations
 Garnering enthusiasm
 Establishing relevance
 Assigning readings carefully
 F r a m i n g w i t h questions, s t r u c t u r e

11. +Prompting discussion prep
 Responding to prompts in advance
 Reviewing discussion expectations in advance

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“If I’m lucky, the same people who
always answer the questions
will do so again today…”

13. +Structuring discussions, part 1
B a s ic f o r m a t
 Physical space
 Group size
 Length of time
 Modeling
 Extension questions
 Time-outs

14. +Structuring discussions, part 2
R o le a s s ig n m e n t
 Time manager
 Summarizer
 Recorder
 Devil’s Advocate
 Provocateur
 Fact checker

15. +Structuring discussions, part 3
D is c u s s io n p r o t o c o ls
 Provides structure
 Defines roles and level of
participation
 Balances voices and time

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“The Final Word”

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“How many times do I
need to talk to meet
the participation requirement?”

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Assessing discussions
 Shared responsibility
 One-minute papers
 Discussion rubric/assessment tool

19. + Discussion assessments, part 1
S h a r e d r e s p o n s ib ilit ie s

20. + Discussion assessments, part 2
 O n e -m in u t e p a p e r s

21. + Discussion assessments, part 3
D is c u s s io n
r u b r i c /a s s e s s m e n t t o o l

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One of our challenges…

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What are your concerns,
questions, and ideas about
lecturing?

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Purpose of lecture
 Arouse interest, gain attention
 Clarify content, present content in a different way
 Demonstrate skills, actions
 Provide link between theory/readings and practice
 Attend to questions, challenges, perspectives, ideas
 Assess readiness to proceed with new content

26. +Students-do-something-now
strategies

27. + Low & high tech

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYrKPoVFwg

29. +Think ~ Pair ~ Share

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Interview

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Point-counterpoint

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Fishbowl

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Once upon a time…

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Mini lectures, Pecha Kucha & Ignite

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People’s choice lecture

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A break in the action

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One-minute papers & quizzes

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What about PowerPoint?

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Change it up

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What are your concerns,
questions, and ideas about
testing?

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Test Anxiety

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Loopholes

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“Creative” responses

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"Its curvy, with a higher bit at the end and a rather aesthetically
pleasing slope downwards towards a pretty flat strait bit. The
actual graph itself consists of 2 straight lines meeting at the lower
left hand corner of the graph and moving away at a 90 anger
each line has an arrow head on the end."

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Cheating & plagiarizing

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Collaborative exams

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Student exam construction

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Got-it-’til-you-get-it exam

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The People’s Choice exam

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On-the-spot quiz construction

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Quiz-plus-one

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Voting a question off the island

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Stump the professor

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Phone a friend

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Name that answer
 The word cat is found under this letter in the alphabet.
 Colors that end in u r p l e .
 The sound a doggie makes.

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Quizzes on collaborative projects

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Write the best test question
for today’s workshop…

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Introducing technologies & fun!
 Re-connect
 Re-assess
 Re-invent
 Re-minisce

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Reconnect: 5 minute phone call

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Reconnect: Virtual Paper Bag
Flickr.com
Prezi.com
Wordle.net
Songza.org
Picnik.com

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Virtual paper bag:
Five images
Via
« http://www.flickr.com/photos/23416171@N05/
« http://www.flickr.com/photos/47120078@N05/
« http://www.flickr.com/photos/47272513@N07/
« http://www.flickr.com/photos/dungfang/sets/72157623331524824/

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Virtual paper bag: 350-word story
Far away from where she
lives now is a place that she
holds dearly in her heart. It is
where she returns for solace
when times turn a little
stressful. It still has the
power to comfort her and
reassure her. No wonder her
favorite vacation spots are
still by the water’s edge.
C H IL D H O O D

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Via http://prezi.com/fz1foidonrdu/

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Virtual paper bag:
Word cloud

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Reassessing: Surveys

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Reassessing: What are we
learning?
Via http://tinyurl.com/275xfvc

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Reinventing: Guest lectures

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Reinventing: Story galleries

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Reinvent: Students take charge
Via http://commonvalues.weebly.com/index.html

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Reinvent: Alternative approaches
 Music video
 Pecha kucha/Ignite
 CD cover w/liner notes
 Comic book
 Movie poster
 Digital story
 Radio program
 Game
 Interpretive dance!
Via
http://www.vcasmo.com/video/SuzieRose/8202
http://csuth.org/ignite
http://tinyurl.com/2brz5gp
http://tinyurl.com/2fbkgy7

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Reminisce: Lessons Learned
Via http://www.flickr.com/groups/it6710spring2010/

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Reminisce: Zoltar

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Reminisce: Superhero powers

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Reminisce: Celebrate!

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Center for Faculty Development
 Website -
http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-developmen
 Contact information – ellen.stevens@ucdenver.edu
joni.dunlap@ucdenver.edu