Index of Teaching and Learning Resources

• This document (MSWord format) from Baker College contains models, challenges and tips for classroom management.

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• Jan 20, 2010 - Accessible Course Materials Presentation by Clark Cipryck
• Feb 3 - Classroom (In)Civility Developing Strategies by Zipoto Marini
• Feb 24 - Student Engagement and Active Learning by Sandra Colavecchia
• May 19 - Motivating Students by Dr. Teal McAteer
• June 16 - Better resources, better research! Integrating the Library into your course by Olga Perkovic & Susan Shepley
  • Article Linking Exercise

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• The CLL Partners page houses information and links pertaining to a range of units and departments that - like CLL - support teaching and learning on campus.

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• The Online Library link will take you to a page from which you can search CLL’s extensive library of teaching and learning books and journals.

• Collaborative Writing. An online tool allowing groups to collaboratively write a document. Create, edit, publish, blog and revise, with multiple collaborators. This tool is a wiki-free for everyone.

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• The Conflict Research Consortium, at the University of Colorado has developed a knowledge base dealing with constructive approaches to dealing with conflict. The site includes papers, exercises, and practical suggestions for dealing with conflict for both instructors and students, policymakers and other stakeholders.

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• The Copyright FAQs section provides answers to an extensive set of questions about copyright in various teaching contexts.

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• The University of Oklahoma has some excellence articles on Course Design including:
• A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning
  Discusses good course design and steps through the process of course design.
• Since an estimated 12.5% of Canadians have a disability, we have included links to help design courses that are more accessible.
  
• Universal Instructional Design (UID) From the Univeristy of Guelph.
  Practical ways to make learning more accessible to all students while designing your course.
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• For a quick, one-page checklist, try the Course Design Tip Sheet from Harvard's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning

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• Practical Discussion Techniques for Instructors, by Ray V. Rasmussen is a useful guide to designing questions that will promote student response.
• What Questions Engage Students? is a one-page summary of Ray Rasmussen's article.
• How do you Encourage Effective On-Line Student Discussion?

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• Human Rights and Equity Service, McMaster University


• Diversity, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.


• Frequently Asked Questions for Instructors:  Centre for Student Development, McMaster University. Practical suggestions and ideas for instructors to consider, that will help students with disabilities and benefit all students.


• Diversity Making Research Education Accessible. Includes resources for students, supervisors and staff.

• TIP is a database containing brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction. Handy. Check it out to find out more about Constructivism? Experiential Learning? Social Learning theory and many more.

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• First Day of Classes
• From the University of British Columbia
  First Day of Class
• From Penn State Teacher (.pdf file. Go to page 23.)

Getting Started for TA

Getting a good start as a teaching assistant (TA) is important. Here are some resources to help. If you have any questions, please drop by or contact us.

New to McMaster Campus?

About McMaster and About the Campus
These pages provide some information about McMaster including some helpful maps.

City of Hamilton has useful local information.

Starting as a TA?

  TA Guide by Erin Aspenlieder
Teaching Assistants are essential to undergraduate education at McMaster. Working as a teaching assistant also offers you unique opportunities and experiences.

Five Points to Discuss in a TA/Instructor Introductory Meeting
A list of questions to help start a good discussion with the instructor, and to help you avoid problems later in the year.

Avenue to Learn@Mac for TA's
Suggestions and help for TA's who are working with Avenue to Learn.

McMaster Academic Policies
Administrative essentials for someone teaching at McMaster, particularly policies about Examinations, Teaching, Ethics, and Academic Integrity.

Help For Your Students
A list of the most critical McMaster services that you should know about to help direct your students when they are in need of additional help.

TA Survival Guide
A handbook from the University of Guelph with some excellent resources.

McMaster University has been involved in teaching Inquiry - a largely question driven form of Self-Directed Learning - for over twenty years

McMaster University has been involved in teaching Inquiry - a largely question driven form of Self-Directed Learning - for over twenty years

• Staying Afloat in a Sea of Faces: Tips for Handling Large Classes
  A summary of discussions from a CLL seminar presented by Dick Day.
• Learning Gains in Large Class

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• See "Active Learning" above.
• See "Collaborative Learning" above.
• See "Self Directed Learning" (PBL, Inquiry) (as below)

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• International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (home)
• Tutorial on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Resources from McMaster Institute (.pdf files)

• Workshop Bibliography
• Publication Outlets for Writing on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
• Research on College Teaching and Learning: Applying What We Know
• Changing Teaching Practice: Strategies and Barriers
• Research Planning Checklist
• Reviewing Papers Checklist
• Three Kinds of Qualitative Data

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Harvard's Derek Bok Center has two online videos, two documents and several hints about lecturing.

• The Act of Teaching. Video available online from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. In this video, Nancy Houfek, Head of Voice and Speech for the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, directs a workshop that stresses the importance of communication with the whole self in order to reach an audience more effectively.
• How to Speak: Lecture Tips from Patrick Winston. Video available online from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. Tips on how to give an effective talk, including how to start a lecture, cycling in on the material, using verbal punctuation to indicate transitions, describing "near misses" that strengthen the intended concept, and asking questions. Also includes tips on using the blackboard, overhead projections, props, and "how to stop."

You might be considering using PowerPoint for your lectures. Need to learn Powerpoint? These links provide tutorials to step you through the basics:

• University of Texas
• Oregon State University

Poster Presentations have become an important tool in teaching and learning. These sites give guidance in design principles and construction.

• Effective Poster Design.
• Creating Effective Poster Presentations: An Effective Poster

• Developing a Mentoring Program
  Includes models for planning and implementing a program and tools for mentors.
• Mentor Teacher
  Advice for beginning mentors.
• The Thin Chalk Line discusses too much or too little mentoring.
• The Mentoring Leadership & Resource Network has links to many articles on aspects of mentoring as well as structuring mentoring.

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Click to view the How to Write Effective Multiple Choice Questionnaires

Teaching narratively calls forth images of storytelling, simulation gaming, dramatization and ritual reenactments. But teaching narratively is more than a set of techniques that can be thrown into an eclectic bag of tricks. Narrative is a significant mode of human communication, a bearer of culture, and a potentially profound and far-reaching educational methodology." from Moore's Narrative Teaching: An Organic Methodology

Using narrative and clinical approaches to teach ethics

• Indiana University (School of Education) has useful examples and offers an excellent interactive quiz and test to help students with the "gray" areas of plagiarism. Very nice to use as a tutorial for students.

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• One hint is to acknowledge your nervousness. Denying it or trying to suppress it can cause panic in the part of your mind that is frantically trying to warn you of danger. A deep breath and saying to yourself, "I am nervous" can actually help.
• Another hint for dealing with nervousness is to redefine it as a form of energy---not our favourite form, though! Once you conceive of it as energy, you can often transform it into good energy to put enthusiasm in your voice or even a spring in your step.
• Seven ways to handle nervousness (.pdf, go to page 19) from Stanford University. These are excellent suggestions for dealing with presentation and lecturing jitters.
• Suggestions from the University of Guelph are aimed at students making presentations, but cover important issues.
• Speaking with Confidence

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• Ask Them: Assessing What Students Already Know
  An approach to teaching which starts with students conceptions and mis-conceptions about the course topic.

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The Professional Organizations page lists a range of associations that serve, support and connect instructors in higher education.

The Professional Organizations page lists a range of associations that serve, support and connect instructors in higher education.

GSAS Guide for Teaching Fellows on Writing Letters of Recommendation:
From Harvard's Derek Bok Center

Letters of Recommendation: From Harvard's Derek Bok Center

Self-Directed Learning (Inquiry, Problem Based Learning)

The diagram below uses a dichotomy to conceptualize a range of teaching options---who takes the initiative for learning, the teacher or the learner.

Who takes the initiative for learning?   Lecture Classes The instructor decides what students need to learn, organizes, sequences and transmites this. Instructors set standards and evaluate students. Self-Paced Course The instructor builds the course and assessment, but students choose their pace and in some cases, the sequence. Simulation Role Play The instructor decides what students need to know then sets up a framework in which students can learn through their own actions. Inquiry Course Prob. Based Learning The instructor provides skills support and aids in identifying resources to help students learn the negotiated content. True Self-directed Learning The instructor builds a good learning climate, builds procedures as needed and helps students to determine what to learn, to find resources and to assess results.

Move your mouse over the terms for a fuller explanation. Some link to resources about the topic. (Diagram adapted from Self Directed Learning, Roy, D. 2002)

• Simulation and role play have been successfully used at McMaster for years to involve students in their learning as well as to give them insight into their beliefs and values. Using a modification of the simulation, Bafa Bafa, (available at the CLL office) McMaster Social Sciences faculty have published their experience and results of using this method.
  
• Inquiry has been used and researched extensively at McMaster.
  
• McMaster has been a leader in the area of Problem Based Learning (PBL) for decades.

SoTL Web Resources by topic:
                                    About Research on Teaching & Learning
                                    SoTL Bibliographies
                                    Ethics in Classroom Research
                                    Grant writing
                                    Research methods
                                    Writing & Publishing

These notes are generated during an informal luncheon series for newer faculty members as part of McMaster University's New Faculty Orientation program.

Here is another set of summary notes taken from a workshop.

• Click here for the PDF

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• Developing a Teaching Dossier

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• The Teaching Goals Inventory (TGI) developed by Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross allows you to identify and prioritize your teaching goals for a course.Take the inventory to help identify your course goals and identify techniques you can use to help you meet your goals. Their book, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers is bursting with short useful techniques is available in the CLL library.

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• Teaching At Stanford: An introductory handbook (revised 2007). An excellent handbook with checklists, tips and brief suggestions on a variety of topics from the first day of class, to grading.
• Teaching Handbook from Brown University
• Honolulu CC has an online faculty guidebook
• Iowa State University has an online handbook for TAs.
• Ohio State has a handbook on teaching.
• UC San Diego also has an online handbook for TAs.
• The Nine and a Half Commandments of Good Teaching from University of Chicago

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• The Teaching Perspectives Inventory can help you clarify your ideas about teaching. It can be helpful in examining your own approach to teaching as well as helping clarify the teaching views of other people. The site provides a printout of results with explanatory information. The inventory was developed by professors at the University of British Columbia.

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• Grasha's Teaching Style Inventory provides you with some insight into your preferred style of teaching.

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• The Teaching Tips collection showcases advice and suggestions related to teaching, written and contributed by instructors from across McMaster’s six faculties.

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• Here is a brief, interesting look at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of selecting a text. Chatman, Steven P. and Goetz, Ernest T.(1985)'Improving Textbook Selection',Teaching of Psychology,12:3,150 - 152

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• Jan 20, 2010 - Accessible Course Materials Presentation by Clark Cipryck
• Feb 3 - Classroom (In)Civility Developing Strategies by Zipoto Marini
• Feb 24 - Student Engagement and Active Learning by Sandra Colavecchia
• May 19 - Motivating Students by Dr. Teal McAteer
• June 16 - Better resources, better research! Integrating the Library into your course by Olga Perkovic & Susan Shepley
  • Article Linking Exercise