PREVENTING BULIMIC LEARNING HABITS
We do not see things as they are or hear things as they are said. Instead, we catch bits and pieces, work them over, and reassemble what registers on our senses. To use the metaphors that currently dominate discussion of learning, we process information and construct meaning, and apparently we do so in stages (Erickson, Peters, & Strommer, 2006). We store this information in our short-term memory, which has limited capacity (seven plus or minus two bits of information), and cannot be stored there for long. Which brings us to long-term memory. If the new information is meaningful, it can be transferred to long-term memory, which is like a filing system. So how do we make the new information meaningful so that it will connect to one of the long-term files in our student's brains? There is another factor that comes into play. Students, especially first-year students, use a surface processing approach to learning. Frequently they memorize and then purge once they use it. To discourage this, we need to remind our students why the information is important now and how they will need to use it in the future. The deeper learning that we want is a product of active learning: reading, writing, talking, thinking, and applying the new information.

MAKING LARGE CLASSES ACTIVE
Since I have received a few requests for dealing with larger classes, I wanted to share some new information I found. Of course you can take a look at my previous posts on the subject. Deb Wingert and Tom Molitor with the University of Minnesota feel that "the difficulties of involving students in large classes can be overcome." They suggest a few approaches including interactive lectures, cooperative learning groups, jigsaws, games, constructive controversies, and group tests in their article Actively Engaging Large Classes in the Sciences. Daniel J. Klionsky with the University of California-Davis offers some ideas of his own in the article Tips for using Questioning in Large Classes. He suggests "setting the tone seems to be critical. In a general sense, I find that students will accept almost any rules for how I run a class, as long as I make them clear at the outset and am consistent in their application. This includes how I want the class to interact with me as an instructor. I want the students to be an active part of the class, to be thinking while they are sitting there and not simply writing down every word I say. On the very first day I make it clear that I want them to ask questions and interact with me during lecture.

WORKSHOP PLANNED FOR FEB 5
"Do You Know Who I Am? Creating a Culture of Engagement in Your Classes" is the title of the next professional development workshop to be held on Thursday, February 5 at 1:00 pm. We will discuss why engagement is important for student success. We will also be discussing what engagement looks like, the standard, pedagogies, and tools of engagement, and some of the methods you can use in your classes. This interactive workshop requires that you bring your questions and ideas so that we as a community of scholars can increase the overall level of student-faculty engagement. You can register now. The workshop is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center and will be held in 311 Magnolia Building (Mid City Campus). For more information, feel free to contact me (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu).

NEW SEMESTER BRING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
The first week of class is always filled with possibilities. Motivating students to create the life that they wish for begins during the initial class sessions, whether it be face-to-face or online. The aim during this time is to create that engaged relationship that will pay dividends throughout the semester. Dr. Mary Clement, who visited BRCC in the past and shared her best practices, suggests that we find out what type of high school experience our students had before we explain our expectations. Sharing the major differences between high school and college is vital for our first-time students. She notes, "How do we change this mindset going from high school into college? The number one way is to put your policy in writing in the syllabus. If the paper is due Monday, and the student is not in class that day, will the paper be accepted after Monday? Will it be accepted after Monday at all? If the answer is yes, until when and with what penalty?” Further, because there’s so much variation across different high schools in terms of homework, attendance requirements and making up for missed work, and grading practices, Clement recommends creating an interest inventory to give students during the first week of class. If it is anonymous, students may feel more comfortable answering the questions. You can find more suggestions here.

USING PEER REVIEW IN YOUR CLASS

Are you looking to increase the amount of peer-review experiences in your courses but are afraid that some of your students may not be ready? Here is an interesting learning experience you can use that will provide good feedback to students, allow students to practice this skill, and alleviate some of the worry you may have. Dr. Trent Batson shares the following, "I used the following technique that worked well in my writing classes:  the writer and the peer reviewer both have a copy of the paper in print. They are both sitting at computers and communicating via chat or some other real-time tool. As the reviewer reads the paper, starting with the first paragraph, she types her immediate reactions and thoughts -- almost like a think-aloud protocol -- thereby providing a strong sense of what any reader might be wondering or reacting to as the reader goes through the paper. I found that using chat made the communication more neutral and helped the reviewing student "speak" (through typing) more freely and off-the-cuff.  The writer of the paper gets a strong lesson in reader-based writing and also gets good advice about where confusion arises or where good points are made. I didn't ask the reviewer to evaluate the paper, just provide that think-aloud response." Dr. Robert Danberg recommends the book Beat Not the Poor Desk by Marie Ponsot as a useful resource for this active learning technique.

FACULTY LEARNING COMMUNITY STARTS ON FEB. 6
As you look over the professional development opportunities listed on the spring 2015 calendar that we distributed at the kickoff event last Wednesday, please note that the first Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is set to begin on February 6 at noon. We still have a few slots open for the FLC which will be using the common reader Inspired College Teaching by Dr. Maryellen Weimer. The book has been praised by new teachers and those with lots of experience. Some of the topics to be covered include maintaining instructional vitality (the midcareer challenge), feedback for teachers that improves learning for students, and reflection for growth and change. If you would like to join the FLC, please send an email to pourciaut@mybrcc.edu.

JE SUIS CHARLIE
The world is definitely flat, as Dr. Thomas Friedman so famously declared in his book of the same name a decade ago (can it be that 10 years have passed). The events in Paris that occurred last week demonstrated that in a tragic and vivid way. I hope that you join me in using this terrible occurrence as a teachable lesson with your students. Inserting the lesson into your class may be easier for some of us (history, political science, CSSK, art) than others (chemistry, math, welding, nursing) but there are ways to make it happen. If you decide to incorporate it into your class, maybe as part of the larger human rights project being led by Dr. Val Holliday in Philosophy, please share your experience with me so that I can post it here.

LOOK AT ME
Are you having problems capturing and keeping your students attention in class? Mary Loyd, with the journal Prism, has written an interesting column about this issue. She writes, "Ask instructors to name their biggest challenge, and classroom distractions very likely would top most lists. Even experienced engineering educators must compete for students' attention against social media and texting. Classroom management has become so vexing that ASEE's 2014 annual conference devoted several sessions to the topic, including Shepard's panel presentation, I Did Not Anticipate This: Experiences From the Early Years. Research has documented an increase in disruptive behavior and cheating by students over the past 20 years. And it's not just among weaker students." Take a look at the rest of the post here.

USING STARTERS AND WRAPPERS EFFECTIVELY
Faculty Focus provides a great article at the right time addressing effective ways to structure discussions in the online environment. The good news is that you can use Dr. Maryellen Weimer's suggestions for your face-to-face classes as well. She writes, "The use of online discussion in both blended and fully online courses has made clear that those exchanges are more productive if they are structured, if there’s a protocol that guides the interaction. This kind of structure is more important in the online environment because those discussions are usually asynchronous and minus all the nonverbal cues that facilitate face-to-face exchanges. But I’m wondering if more structure might benefit our in-class discussions as well. Students struggle with academic discourse. They have conversations (or is it chats?) with each other, but not discussions like those we aspire to have in our courses. And although students understand there’s a difference between the two, they don’t always know exactly how they’re supposed to talk about academic content when discussing it with teachers and classmates. Would providing more structure provide that clarity and make the value of discussions more obvious to students?" Read more here.

LOOKING FOWARD TO 2015
Welcome to the year 2015. I hope that you had an enjoyable holiday break. I spent part of mine reading Dean Man Walking by Sr. Helen Prejean and am looking forward to her visit to the Black Box Theatre at noon on January 16. The bi-annual faculty development workshop that kicks off each semester will be held on Wednesday, January 14 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Louisiana Building's boardroom. We will spend some time on purely pedagogical and assessment issues but you will also hear from the Academic Learning Center, as well as the eLearning and Innovative Learning programs. Looking forward to seeing you next Wednesday. I will be sharing the spring schedule of professional development opportunities with you on that day as well. Since they have proved to be so popular, we will again offer two faculty learning communities. One will use the classic What the Best College Teachers Do which we have used in three previous instances at BRCC. Check with your colleagues if you need to hear personal testimonials but I can tell you that the FLC format is a wonderful way to deeply explore teaching and learning and Dr. Ken Bain's book (which we will provide) is a great compass. In addition, I will offer a FLC using Inspired College Teaching: a Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth by Dr. Maryellen Weimer. This will be the first time I use this book but I also spent part of my break reading it and I have found it be very useful. You can sign up for either or both FLCs next Wednesday. Another new program that has proved popular is the Mid Day Musings held on the second and fourth Wednesdays at noon of each month. We meet in the faculty and staff lounge in the Bienvenue Building which makes it easy for you to grab lunch before joining the discussion. The topic for each session will be announced on the Monday preceding the gathering. If you have ideas for topics you would like to have discussed, feel free to send them to me (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu).

TEACHING WITHOUT WALLS
Even though distance ed, online or eLearning classes have been part of the educational landscape for quite a while, there are still some that have not fully embraced the delivery method. Michelle Pacansky-Brock has posted an interesting piece about what she describes as teaching without walls. She describes how faculty attitudes can be improved when it comes to online teaching. She writes, "Given the correlation between attitudes and behavior, we should be pondering the impact that skeptical faculty have on the future of high quality online learning.  Institutions should be making an effort to explore ways to improve faculty attitudes about online teaching and learning. To change a person's attitude, one must be engaged at both a cognitive and emotional level.  For example, if you wish to convince me that I need to exercise every day, you'll need to provide me with information, as well as engage me emotionally by making connections between this new behavior and the things that are important to me.  Just telling me to exercise because it is good for me will not be enough to sustain a change in my attitude." Read more here.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE FARM SYSTEM
I encourage yo to take a look at Dr. Matt Reid's community college-related column. He writes, "Western Governors’ University is sending applicants who aren’t quite academically ready to enroll to StraighterLine to get themselves up to speed before coming back to WGU. I won’t speak to that arrangement specifically, because I don’t know the details well enough. But the concept strikes me as making all kinds of sense. It’s setting up a farm system, like minor league baseball. In a farm system, players who aren’t yet ready for the big leagues aren’t just turned away; they’re sent to the minors to develop and prove themselves. The ones who succeed at the minor league level eventually make it to the bigs." Once you have read the column, give him some feedback int he comment section.