Resource for Students and Teachers

 

How do I encourage students to be active/interested?

From the first day, demonstrate and talk about your own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it effects you personally. Look for ways to connect the material to the lives of your students. For example: if you are teaching an environmental studies class, bring in examples of environmental issues going on in the area where your students live (Eugene, Oregon is perfect for this...). Use current event articles, editorials from local newspapers, or examples from your own life that illustrate your points. Solicit these examples from your students.

  • Think of questions you can ask about the material that make students think about the subject matter, even if they have not read the material. While students may not have read the biography of Frederick Douglas, they can talk about what life must have been like for an African American living at that time in history. Then, during class, attach statements that come out of their mouths to the reading, so they want to go back and read about their own ideas.

  • Cover course material with effective Discussion Facilitation Techniques.
  • Create a "need to know." As you are preparing your lesson plans, ask yourself - why would a student need to know this? This helps you think about material in terms of its relevance to students' lives.

    How do I empower students in the classroom?

    Give them lots of opportunities to succeed in the course. Encourage all students to participate in classroom discussions and appreciate all contributions. If students are struggling in your class, give them additional instruction or help them find someone who can help them. At the University of Oregon, Academic Learning Services provides individual, group, and drop-in tutoring in many areas. Encourage your students to work in groups and to help each other with the material. Students become empowered when they feel some ownership of the material which they learning. Help them gain a theoretical and working understanding of the material which you present to them.


Student Learning

Are my Students Learning
There are certainly many ways to assess learning. The most obvious of them are tests. One nonthreatening way to test knowledge, is to give a 10 or 15 minute quiz each week over the material recently covered. This will provide you with some idea of whether or not your students are "getting it" and will give your students opportunities to receive feedback from you. A couple of midterms and a final will also tell you if your students are learning, however they won't give you as many opportunities to assess their progress and perhaps make changes to the lesson plans or your teaching style. Class discussions can also provide opportunities for students to demonstrate learning and understanding. However, it can be difficult to get all students to participate in discussions and therefore difficult to gauge everyone's understanding. Finally, class assignments and projects can be a very valuable way for your students to demonstrate gained skills and knowledge. Vary the formats of assignments so that different styles of learning and performing can be accommodated.

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Should Class Be Fun

If you can make learning fun, then by all means do it! If your class is uninteresting to students, they are unlikely to work to their potential, and even less likely to pursue further studies in the area. Make the material exciting and share your enthusiasm with students.

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