Let's Talk Teaching

Hit the road with Meg Gregory, who just completed her Ph.D. while teaching at several institutions, including Illinois State, this semester. Meg shares her perspectives on the diverse students she encounters while teaching across Illinois and reflects on how she's had to adapt her teaching to meet the needs of these different populations.

ReggieNet, Illinois State University's customized learning management system, received a significant upgrade over the spring break of 2017. CTLT's Charles Bristow, one of the instructional designers who helps faculty use ReggieNet, joins us to talk about new features.

It’s mid-semester, and some students may be having an “ah-ha” (or an “uh-oh”) moment in regards to their grades. There’s help for struggling students through the Julia N. Visor Center, part of Illinois State’s University College. We talk with Pamm Ambrose, an associate director with the College, who highlights their foundational approach to helping students achieve. We also talk about some common misconceptions about the services the Center offers (the Visor Center is not about "advisement"), and the importance of coaching students to cultivate learning skills and move beyond ineffective study habits. We also showcase how faculty members can help students take advantage of the Visor Center’s many services.

We sit down with Tracy Mainieri, Asst. Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation and recent Teaching Initiative Award winner. Tracy discusses her experience creating a teaching portfolio and the process changed her take on teaching. We also explore ways to encourage students to reach for that "wow" factor in their projects and how summer camp taught her valuable lessons about teaching.

Communicating high expectations to students requires both clarity and empathy. It can sometimes be a difficult juggling act. We explore ways to incorporate one of the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education into your teaching. Discover some of the pitfalls and the great promise in rethinking how you challenge students to excel in their learning. Claire and Jim also discuss ways to help students get back on track when they don’t meet your expectations.

We start off 2017 with a return to Claire's bookshelf. This time, Claire and Jim explore three "handbooks" that can help you plan for teaching and easily respond to new questions or challenges that may arise during the semester. These research-based perspectives can help you assess various aspects of your teaching, including how much students actually care about course content, and illustrate ways to keep them engaged in their learning. Claire and Jim also explore the merits... and the occasional frustrations... of "ice breaker" exercises as a way of building community.

It's that time of year, when students turn the proverbial tables on their instructors and evaluate us. But student evaluations of our teaching are neither something we should dread, nor something we should read too much into. How do you strike a balance that let's you use those end-of-term feedback surveys as a positive tool for reflection? Claire and Jim explore what you should and shouldn't worry about, the virtue of the "long view," and more.

Surveys show our students spend more time learning outside the classroom than we think… but it is enough? Explore the concept of “time on task” and how we can help our students engage with meaningful learning. We’ll look at the age-old vicious cycle of lecture and reading assignments, other ways to encourage students to come to class prepared, and how and why you might hold students accountable for their learning.

You might experience more hot moments—times when passionate class discussion flares into something ugly and undesirable—thanks to the political and social earthquake centered on the 2016 election. We build upon our last episode and explore more ways to structure your class so students feel safe when talking about controversial issues. CTLT’s Dana Karraker highlights strategies for dealing with hurtful speech when unexpected hot moments occur: what to say, how to move forward, and why doing something is almost always better than not reacting at all.

This political season, and particularly the race for the White House, has injected an unprecedented amount of uncivil language and behavior to the national discussion. No matter who wins the November elections, it is unlikely to change anytime soon. How do you encourage students to discuss such shocking incivility in a civil way? This week, we sit down with Dr. Steve Hunt, director of the School of Communication, to discuss strategies for exploring these important topics in class while avoiding hostility and ill will. We also explore how these discussions might impact your end-of-semester student feedback.