Happy New Year!! Welcome 2011!

The new year is off to a great start. We are two weeks into the Winter quarter at Ohio State. I am teaching one course in Research Methods (graduate level) and another in Adolescent Development. The adolescence course is the largest I’ve ever taught–55 students enrolled. It’s a new experience that is truly stretching me out of my teaching comfort zone. I have never been a big fan of lecture as a student and my expertise in learning and instruction tells me that it is not truly the best way to learn. When I began teaching in 1999, I realized that I didn’t like lecture as a teacher either. Soooooooo, how do you avoid using a lot of lecture with such a large class?

Well, I’ve been using smaller groups a lot and giving the students lots of opportunities to take on leadership roles in class. That really helps a lot–puts learning in the students’ hands. I still use discussion a lot–I just have to work it a little differently to keep it manageable. I use an Internet-based audience polling program called PollEverywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com/) to promote interaction in the class. I have invited guest speakers and I’m exploring different enrichment activities to add variety. It’ going very well indeed and I am enjoying it. As I said, the year is off to a great start!