Classroom Challenge: Handling Wrong Answers

It's a common challenge: A student answers a question in class. But the answer is wrong. How do you respond?

When there are definite right and wrong answers, it's important that instructors provide clear feedback on student responses so that the class knows which answers are right, which are wrong, and which are somewhere in between. Often, a wrong answer gives some insight into how students are thinking about the question, and provides an opportunity to lead the students to a better answer. Of course, you also want to communicate that the student's answer is appreciated, and maintain a safe space for students to contribute answers in the future. 

We've located some resources from teaching centers around the country with suggestions for how to handle wrong answers. Some of the best suggestions include: Read more »

Submitted by mbakewel on Tue, 11/06/2012 - 4:23pm
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Good Reads

In this space, we will occasionally highlight articles from around the Web that offer interesting perspectives on college teaching and higher education. Here are some short, thought-provoking pieces that caught the eye of CRLT staff during the past week:

  • An article from the Faculty Focus newsletter on the relation between grading and student learning.  Why not give all of your students A's?
  • A Tomorrow's Professor blog post that offers helpful suggestions for inspiring students to set challenging goals for themselves.  What if not all of your students come to class eager to be challenged?

Do you have other recommendations you'd like to share with U-M teachers? Include them in the Comments section below. 

Submitted by tbraun on Fri, 11/02/2012 - 11:37am
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Hot Off the Presses: CRLT Occasional Paper on "Teaching in the Cloud"

CRLT's latest Occasional Paper, "Teaching in the Cloud: Leveraging Online Collaboration Tools to Enhance Student Engagement," has just been released. A collaborative effort by CRLT Assistant Director Chad Hershock and U-M Political Science and Philosophy Professor Mika LaVaque-Manty, the paper describes how a wide range of instructors at Michigan use online collaboration tools to enhance student engagement and course management. 

Here's how the authors explain the research behind this new publication: Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 2:15pm
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Friday Profile: Thurnau Professor Michael Haithcock

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Michael Haithcock is well-known beyond U-M as a great conductor. He has garnered widespread acclaim for directing the world-class University of Michigan bands, he has commissioned and recorded numerous new musical works, and he is much in demand as a guest conductor.  Given this high profile, it might be easy to lose track of the fact that he's also an outstanding teacher of student musicians right here at the University of Michigan. As a teacher of conducting and director of student ensembles at U-M since 2001, Haithcock has gained a reputation as a professor who devotes extraordinary amounts of time to his individual students. He meets one-on-one with every member of the Symphony Band each semester, attends the senior recital of every band student, and writes scores of recommendation letters annually. Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 2:52pm
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Are You Productive, or Just Busy?

As one participant at the recent Preparing Future Faculty conference had heard from her faculty mentor, "Everyone is busy. Not everyone is productive." What can you do to make sure you fall into the latter category? The conference session on Strategies, Tools and Resources for Productivity focused on developing habits while in graduate school that will lead to greater success as a faculty member.  

At the session, I presented research showing that success in most endeavors begins with creating the right habits so that you are consistently making progress toward your goals. For college faculty, one crucial habit to develop is regular writing. But knowing this fact does not always mean acting upon it. Developing a new habit requires creating the right environment for it to grow (a regular trigger, engaging in the desired behavior, and a "reward" or sense of accountability for completing the behavior), and much of the discussion at the conference session was about how to nurture the environment for regular writing.
 
If you read on, you can see the Prezi presentation from the session and learn more about resources for productivity. 
Read more »
Submitted by rkniemer on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 4:26pm
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