Students invited to give professors some teaching advice
Utah State University professors and faculty were given advice by a student panel Wednesday afternoon on how students can become more engaged in university classrooms. Todd Campbell and Kimberly Lott from the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services presented the faculty development and diversity workshop with teaching effectively as the general theme.
Campbell and Lott hosted a workshop in November of last year where they invited faculty to share stories and experiences on how to engage students. This time, Campbell and Lott wanted the opinion of students for a better chance to improve their teaching.
The student panel consisted of Heather Duke, senior in composite biological teaching, Nathan Zilles, senior in human resource management and entrepreneurship, Benjamin Allred, senior in composite physical science teaching, Lance Peterson, sophomore in physics, and Melissa Braithwaite, senior in marketing and art. The students had been nominated by their professors to share their opinions on what helps them learn best.
Campbell encouraged the panel at the beginning of the workshop to express what they felt in order for professors to know what teaching tools they should change to make class more effective.
“This is a chance to really shape teaching at USU in the undergraduate departments, so say what you mean,” he said.
Campbell and Lott asked the students three questions before the workshop to give them time to prepare their answers.
The first question was which elementary school, middle school, high school or undergraduate school teacher had influenced them the most and why.
Zilles said he had a 2-year college professor that taught a class on leadership and influenced him the most by teaching through example.
“She was the perfect example of how a leader should be. She was on top of things and she allowed us the opportunity to take charge,” he said. “She didn’t micromanage, which was really nice for us because it gave us the opportunity to take the skills that we had and use those in a leadership position.”
Allred said the most influential teacher he had was an eleventh grade English teacher who made the curriculum applicable to life.
“I really learned a lot about myself that year as well as the curriculum,” Allred said. “He was able to help us become who we wanted to be based on what we were learning in class.”
The panel was also asked which things enable students to learn most deeply in their classes.
Duke said she had an eighth grade English teacher who had the class keep a reflective journal log.
Duke said, “That was just so great to me because I had never really thought what I thought was important and how I could apply it to my own life.”
Braithwaite said she likes when a teacher, especially in art, will give opportunities to attempt her own ideas even though they may not work.
“Sometimes our painting or drawings would fail and wouldn’t be very good but he still let us carry through and he let us run with our ideas,” Braithwaite said.
Things that hinder students in the classroom was the third topic discussed by the panel. Peterson said he is hindered when a classroom becomes monotonous. He suggested breaking up the class with activities, discussions and humor.
Lott said she hopes teachers will be able to improve in their teaching and classrooms.
“Hopefully they’ll take some of these tips and ideas and integrate them into their classrooms,” Lott said. “I know it’s not easy, especially in big classes where you can’t do a lot of group discussions and things like that, but hopefully they can pull something out of this and engage their students better.”
–mackenzie.love@aggiemail.usu.edu