Great Ideas Symposium – Signature Pedagogies
Boise State University, January 10, 2012
Center for Teaching and Learning
Course(s): upper division Interpersonal Communications Course
Context
Our place in society is determined by many factors: age, interests, tastes, etc. We explore who we are and who we want to be throughout life – but especially in the formative teen years – extending into the early 20s. We communicate our interests and express ourselves both verbally and nonverbally – though most students in communication tend to think about oral communication rather than non-verbal.
Application and Reflection
One assignment in this course is to come to class dressed in a costume. The costume need not be something like a sailor, a fireman, a nurse, etc., rather it should express who you are nonverbally. The costume must be worn all day and it should dictate your verbal communication as well as other non-verbal communication.
The point of the assignment is to help students experience and reflect on the power of nonverbal communication and how it pervades each aspect of daily life. This assignment also reveals the power of peer pressure on how we dress, act, with whom we choose to associate, etc. Additionally, it reveals parts of ourselves that we may not know exist. Why do we choose to wear the clothes we wear? What, besides our peers, exerts pressure on the choices we make and how hard is it to resist that pressure?
Reflection and group discussion are the means for assessment for this assignment. Prior to a group discussion, students are to write a reflection that addresses the questions above (why do we dress the way we do, what influences our choices, how easy it is to resist those influences, etc.). The reflection is in the form of a blog and other students in the course are able to see and respond to each posting. Reflections and blog postings are a common aspect of this course but for this assignment, students must respond to someone they A) have never posted a response to in this course before or B) post on someone’s blog that they typically don’t interact with in or out of class. These responses must challenge their peers to dig down/unpack the choices they make in life and highlight aspects of the blog that the responder had not considered.
Discussion
- What do you see as the strengths of this type of assignment?
- What are the weaknesses of this approach to assignments?
- How might these ideas/practices be incorporated into your teaching?
- What kinds of practices do you use to foster student engagement and success?
- What do you do to support student learning of content through active learning that goes beyond the classroom?
- How might an assignment like this measure ways of thinking rather than content knowledge?
Great Ideas Symposium – Signature Pedagogies
Boise State University, January 10, 2012
Center for Teaching and Learning
Course: upper division Comparative Philosophy
Context
While there are commonalities that span philosophy as a discipline, we find differences in approaches to philosophy when comparing the East to the West. This course is dedicated to understanding those differences by exploring the foundations on which philosophy was built in e ach hemisphere.
Application and Reflection
Students learn of Confucius and Socrates and their influence on Eastern and Western philosophy. In this course there are many readings and most class periods are devoted to discussing differences in the readings. Outside of class, students write a series of papers that help them express their understanding of the differences between Eastern and Western philosophy (underpinnings of each). To do this, each paper has a question or questions that help unpack the differences between the two approaches to philosophy. Students are to use the knowledge gained from the readings and class discussions to build arguments as to why their understanding of each of the philosophies are accurate. Papers are graded by the professor and returned to the students prior to the time for the next assignment.
Discussion
- What do you see as the strengths of this type of assignment?
- What are the weaknesses of this approach to assignments?
- How might these ideas/practices be incorporated into your teaching?
- What kinds of practices do you use to foster student engagement and success?
- What do you do to support student learning of content through active learning that goes beyond the classroom?
- How might an assignment like this measure ways of thinking rather than content knowledge?