Psychometrics is the field of designing tests and assessments to measure certain psychological concepts. It is chiefly concerned with two fundamental properties: reliability and validity. These properties are often influenced by confounding variables: other things that can influence performance but are not what you are trying to measure. Here, I…

Recent years have witnessed the spread of purpose-built active learning classrooms throughout the higher education sector. While these innovative learning spaces are well-suited for a variety of active learning strategies, their lack of a single focal point means they are inconvenient spaces for lecturing. While educational developers often…

Over the past several years I have taught a career orientation course at St. John Fisher College. This course was designed to increase student awareness of potential careers following their undergraduate studies in our Biology program. Additionally, the course has also been used as a model for similar experiences in our Psychology, Chemistry,…

Facilitating productive class discussions is one of the most challenging tasks facing college educators, especially when potentially divisive issues are discussed. The author shares ten recommendations derived from teaching a course on current and controversial managerial issues via conversational learning. Excerpts from student comments are…

Explored student characteristics and course characteristics influencing why college students skip class. Found that attendance behavior cannot be easily explained and that the decision to attend is influenced by multiple factors. (EV)

A study of 15 Messiah College (Pennsylvania) courses that students rated exemplary for testing looked at external and internal characteristics that distinguished them. External characteristics included class size, grading patterns, course type, and teacher experience. Internal factors included teaching and evaluation strategies. Lack of peer…

A well-designed college course syllabus can serve a variety of purposes: as an agreement between teacher and student; as a device for communicating intent, seriousness, and expectations; as an overall plan of action for the course; and as a cognitive map of the course to share with students. This article identifies the major components of a good…

Describes the authors' experience team teaching a graduate school clinical research course for students concentrating in secondary teaching. Examines the team planning process, actual team teaching, and team grading and evaluation. Most students responded positively to the approach. Each instructor also wrote a reflective piece on the experience.…

The mnemonic device "ATOMIC" refers to course and lesson design elements that can help make college teaching more effective. It highlights the importance of these design components: audience, arena, ambience, topic, theme, title, objectives, message, methods, materials, involvement, close, and check-up. (MSE)

A University of Idaho introductory course in political science describes basic concepts, institutions, and processes of politics and relate their importance to students' daily lives. The course is comparative in organization and structured to promote critical and analytical thinking about politics. (MSE)

A University of Redlands (California) calculus course was redesigned to include computer demonstrations and homework assignments in which the computer could play an important role. Comparison of results of this instruction with that using traditional methods suggest the approach using computers has merit. (MSE)

A required one-credit discussion course in research ethics for graduate students in biology is described. The course has four parts: (1) overview of major issues; (2) practical issues in scholarly work; (3) ownership of research results; and (4) graduate student training and personal decisions. A list of weekly topics and related readings is also…

An advanced college-level composition course highlighting differences in writing intended for different cultural groups was designed to teach American students how to communicate thoughts and feelings effectively to various international audiences. (MSE)

A discussion of techniques for closing college class sessions and courses, often problematic for both teachers and students, first looks at the social dynamics between faculty and students, examines ways to improve student-student interaction at the end of class, and considers problems in ending courses. A number of classroom activities providing…

A model for teaching proof writing to college mathematics students is presented. The model has six phases: (1) open (understanding the theorem by reading it, listing, and writing it out); (2) brainstorm; (3) instantiate (perception of the chain of inferences linking hypothesis to conclusion); (4) convince; (5) reflect; and (6) extend. Strategies…