Practical tips from 13 innovative profs to improve classroom engagement | Top Hat

Photo: Philip Preville

Check out this useful new e-book by the higher education journalist Philip Preville, award-winning journalist and a former Canadian Journalism Fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto. 

Download your copy

Building on his last handbook, How to Reach Distracted Students, Preville interviewed professors from across North America about how they’re tackling the epidemic of student disengagement. Each has found innovative ways to get students to invest more of themselves in their work.

The 13 case studies, told in the professor’s own words, explain how to:

• Institute surprisingly simple tactics, easily adapted for any course, to engage students.
• Make simple changes at the beginning of a course that can have lasting—and rewarding—impact.
• Adopt a variety of strategies to keep students focused throughout the semester and to make the most of class time.
• Assess whether students have come to comprehend and master a course’s subject matter.

Philip Preville says in the introduction, "At the start of every semester,  students arrive in class with high hopes. They’ve chosen their slate of courses based upon what they want to learn, after all, and they are eager to learn it. But, as every instructor knows, any given group of students will fall prey to distraction and disinterest as the weeks pass. The 21,000 faculty members who responded to the 2016 Professor Pulse Survey agreed that their biggest teaching challenge is “students not paying attention or participating in class.”"

This e-book assembles stories from 13 instructors from across North America explaining, in their own words, the challenges they faced, the solutions they
devised and the lasting impact their changes have had on their classrooms. Faculty everywhere can learn from each other’s experience. 
Download your copy

Source: Top Hat