getting to know students' names
(notes submitted by Chris Waters for his group's discussion)
Tammy, Hannah, Doug, and I came up with the following strategies, in
case you are collecting them:
For a lecture, it might help for a lecturer to ask a student's name,
major, hometown, or the like to get to know the student a bit when
the
student asks a question.
In section, instructors could have an ice-breaking session, where
students introduce themselves and state some "interesting" fact about
themselves. Or, students can introduce themselves in counter-rotating
circles, much like a cocktail party introduction game. Then the
circles introduce themselves in a group to their own circle.
A
picture makes this much clearer.
Using names to take attendance and in assigning groupwork helps to
familiarize instructors with students' names.
In the Social Work department, classes routinely have class parties,
or provide food if the class falls near a meal time or a snack time.
Their classes are quite cohesive, in my opinion. I think that
providing food for classmates says: I care enough to be responsible
for you in this way. I have found this to be a good way to build
class cooperation and trust.
______________________________________________________________________
on-line discussion area scenario (real!)
Dimitriy's informal description:
...here's something else to think about -- bboards.
This quarter in 143, there've been some discussions about people
building their own windows managers, about c vs c++ vs objective
c
vs java, and so on. And then there was this post by one
of the
students:
"One thing I wonder about is I am taking the class that full
of
experienced programmers. "
I'm sure he isn't the only one thinking about this...
So should this be a concern? If so, is there something
we
(instructors) could do about things like this?
Thoughts?
......................................................................
For each solution proposed in 590ET discussion, pros and cons raised
during discussion are listed.
separate discussion areas (e.g., "on topic" and "open forum")
(+) could combat student perception that overachievement is
prerequisite or equivalent to success
in CSE
(-) relies on students being able to choose appropriate discussion
area for posting their mess
(-) if "open forum" is not named carefully (e.g., "advanced"),
could
be perceived as official recognition
of overachievement by some
students (reverse of effect described
above)
(-) could damage cohesiveness of student community within class
by
separating groups of students
instructor moderation
(+) assured effectiveness at eliminating unwanted posting
(-) could be too restrictive, reducing student-initiated discussion
and diminishing students' sense of ownership
of discussion area
instructor sending message to author of unwanted message privately
(+) avoids potential humiliation of publicly reprimanding author
(-) doesn't communicate to other students that message was
inappropriate or consistent with normal
faculty expectations of
students
instructor announcing ground rules for discussion, including
expectations of students and goals/purpose of discussion area
(-) relies on students to enforce for themselves
(+) relies on students to enforce for themselves, strengthening
students' sense of ownership of discussion
area
eliminate discussion areas altogether
(+) discourages procrastination where student waits until difficult
issues are discussed and resolved in
the discussion area before
starting work on an assignment
(+) assured effectiveness at eliminating unwanted posting...and
everything else!
(-) fails to address core issue; unwanted communication (e.g.,
posturing) likely to continue in other
social contexts, other
forms of communication
(-) sacrifices potential for discussion areas to foster communities,
engage in legitimate collaboration,
encourage non-spoken
participation (esp. critical for large
lecture courses); i.e.,
"throws out the baby with the bath water"
officially recognize certain postings as "key," "official" with a
stamp of approval.
(-) no real effect; students already capable of distinguishing
important postings from posturing and
other unwanted postings