This book offers faculty practical strategies to engage students that
are research-grounded and endorsed by students themselves. Through
student stories, a signature feature of this book, readers will discover
why professor actions result in changed attitudes, stronger connections
to others and the course material, and increased learning.
Structured to cover the key moments and opportunities to increase
student engagement, Christine Harrington covers the all-important first
day of class where first impressions can determine students' attitudes
for the duration of the course, through to insights for
rethinkingassignments and enlivening teaching strategies, to ways of
providing feedback that build students' confidence and spur them to
greater immersion in their studies, providing the underlying rationale
for the strategies she presents. The student narratives not only
validate these practices, offering their perspectives as learners, but
constitute a trove of ideas and practices that readers will be inspired
to adapt for their particular needs.
Conscious of the changing demographics of today's undergraduate and
graduate students - racially more diverse, older, and many employed -
Harrington highlights the need to engage all students and shares
numerous strategies on how to do so. While many of the ideas presented
were used by faculty teaching face to face classes, a number were
developed by faculty teaching online, and the majority can be adapted to
virtually any teaching environment.
Based on student-centered active learning principles, structured to
allow readers to quickly identify practices that they may need in
particular instances or to infuse in a course as a whole, and presented
without jargon, this book is a springboard for all faculty looking for
ideas that will engage their students at any level and in any course.
