Maryellen Weimer

Teaching on Solid Ground: Using Scholarship to Improve Practice

1. Using Scholarship to Improve Practice(Maryellen Weimer). Part One: Students and Learning. 2. Teaching and Todays College Students(M. Lee Upcraft). 3. Making the Transition to College(Patrick T. Terenzini, Laura I. Randoan, Susan B. Millar, M. Lee Upcraft, Patricia Gregg, Romero Jalomo, Kevin W. Allison). 4. Student Motivation from a Teaching Perspective(Raymond P. Perry, Verena H. Menec, C. Ward Struthers). 5. Collaborative Learning: Creating Knowledge with Students(Roberta S. Matthews). 6. Assessing Student Involvement in Learning(Robert Froh, Mark Hawkes). Part Two: Teachers and Teaching. 7. Teaching Todays Students Requires a New Role for Faculty(Susan B. Millar). 8. Research on Learning: A Means to Enhance Instruction(Marilla D. Svinivki, Anastasia S. Hagen, Debra K. Meyer). 9. Planning and Developing Effective Courses(George L. Geis). 10. Assignments That Promote and Integrate Learning(Joe Lowman). 11. Feedback That Enhances Teaching and Learning(Robert J. Menges, William C. Rando). Part Three: Issues and Contexts: Higher Education Today. 12. What College Teachers Need to Know(Sarah M. Dinham). 13. Instructor Vitality: Some Provocative Implications of Theory and Research on Human Motivation(Charles James Walker, Jennifer Woods Quinn). 14. Diversity in Academe: Cultural Strategies for Change(William G. Tierney, Estala M. Bensimon). 15. Improving Programs Through Assessing Student Outcomes(Trudy Banta).

Improving college teaching : strategies for developing instructional effectiveness

This book shows college administrators, deans, department heads, and faculty development professionals how to improve the instructional performance of faculty members. It offers strategies for overcoming resistance and motivating faculty members to improve their teaching--and identifies the resources, activities, and services that will help them to succeed.

Assumptions that devalue university teaching

Abstract Teaching continues to be devalued ‐ the question is why? It is argued here that the devaluing is the result of five assumptions held about teaching: teaching excellence is nothing more than a matter of technique; teaching requires no training or ongoing professional development; pedagogical practice and scholarship can exist without standards; the wisdom of practice contains no real knowledge of importance; and content (not students or learning) should drive instructional decisionmaking. Characteristic of North American perspectives, these assumptions may be held intuitively, but are manifest in the practice of instruction. They are inaccurate and, in order to redress fundamental instructional inequities, they must be changed.

Instructional observation: Caveats, concerns, and ways to compensate

ABSTRACT Use of colleague instructional observation is on the rise. This paper looks at the advantages and problems present when colleagues enter each others classrooms for the purpose of evaluating instruction. Ten caveats are identified. The discussion of each focuses on practical ways to compensate for and overcome the potential problems so that the benefits of this unique form of instructional evaluation can be achieved.