Secrets from the Teaching Professor
Conference: Active Learning
Strategies to Educate, Engage, and
Inspire Your Students
MAJ Lee Evans
Dr. Hilary Fletcher
MAJ Jeremy Riehl
What is the Teaching Professor?
“There is always something new to learn about
teaching and learning. The best way to expand
your teaching and learning knowledge and
expertise is by interacting with top teaching and
learning experts and colleagues from a wide
variety of institutions and academic subject
areas. This is what The Teaching Professor
Conference is all about.”
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Activity
“Activities makes students feel vulnerable.”
-Dr. Donna Qualters, Suffolk University
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Ideas and Strategies for Developing
Lifelong Learning Skills in Students
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Introducing students to a problem solving
process
Activities to illustrate
Develop discipline-specific problem solving
process
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History Example
Understand the Problem:
Define Key Terms- Defining key terms in the problem statement allows students to
understand what is being asked.
Search for Sources- Starting with secondary literature will lead students to primary
sources. This will assist in developing a plan for answering the problem posed.

Devise a Plan:
Evaluate Sources- Be skeptical of both primary and secondary sources and look for
bias. Consider the authority of each source.
Read Sources- Adjust evaluations of sources. Where appropriate, make calculations
from numerical data.

Carry Out the Plan:
Develop Hypotheses- Support each hypothesis with evidence gathered from sources.
Select Strongest Hypothesis- Eliminate hypotheses that lack support and search for
those with the strongest evidence.

Look Back:
Communicate Clearly- Explain why alternate hypotheses are weak and provide
evidence and analysis to support the chosen hypothesis.

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Ticket to Retention 2
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Kent Divoll and Sandra Browning,
University of Houston - Clear Lake
3-5 questions, structured around lesson
End of class, discuss and refine answers
Pros

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Students feel accountable
Forces students to explain the lesson
Clears up misunderstanding
Cons

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Takes time to create
Students focus only on what is on sheet
Must reserve the last 10 minutes of class
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Your Student as the TA…
…in using our students as Teaching & Learning
Assistants (TLAs) we expect them to bring
what they already know from other courses
into our course, and we use that knowledge
to make our job easier (in operating day to
day) and other students’ experience richer.
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Your Student as the TA…
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Inventory of Skills

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Leverage specific skill sets of your students to
assist in the course
Teaching and Learning Assistant (TLA)
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Students apply their knowledge of the discipline in
a “service learning” project
Serve as a peer tutor
Ad hoc TLA assignment

Students learn/present “more” on the material
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How Can Students Help you?
The chart below can be used for initial brainstorming of possible TLA
assignments and student involvement in the classroom.
Preparation for Class
Assessments
During Class Time
Course Management
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And now, for something different

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“Developing Positive Interventions that
Improve Learning”
“Finding Joy in Teaching”
“Why Don’t My Students Think I’m Groovy?
Engaging Millennial Learners”
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WWKD?
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Positive Psychology: Character Strengths
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MA XYZ
LESSON
INSTRUCTOR:
DATE:
SUMMARY
CONCEPTS GRASPED
CONCEPTS NOT GRASPED WELL
SELF REFLECTION
A
A
A
B
B
B
D
D
D
ENDING POINTS/OTHER NOTES
A
B
D
J.O.Y.
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“Joy robbers” vs. “Joy boosters”
Renewal activities
Create a vision for your teaching
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Millennial Students
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“How Groovy am I?” Checklist
Not just a generational gap
Technology
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iPad uses
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Electronic Reference
Course Notes
Exchange Information
Organize Learning
Computations
Rate how well the iPad helps you learn or
understand the course material (25 Aug)
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
3%
3%
19%
38%
31%
very
unhelpful
slightly
unhelpful
neutral
slightly
helpful
very helpful
Rate how well the iPad helps you learn or
understand the course material (18 NOV)
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
6%
6%
38%
38%
13%
very
unhelpful
slightly
unhelpful
neutral
slightly
helpful
very helpful
Some cadet comments:

“Being able to make in-text annotations in
iAnnotate and quickly reference them for
studying has proven to be very helpful. Numbers
and SpaceTime have greatly helped in
completing assignments in a timely manner
without sacrificing concept comprehension.”

“The iPad is an amazingly efficient tool for
learning and completing coursework in MA103.”
Some other comments:
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“While having the textbook compressed to the
iPad is certainly a nice feature, the iPad isn't
entirely conducive to doing math homework and
causes me to spend more time finishing my
math than I would otherwise.”

“The textbook is very helpful to have on there,
but sometimes crashes. Notetaking and
homework is a bit more difficult because you
can't look at the textbook/board sheet and use
the note taking apps at the same time.”
Teaching with the iPad
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Presentation of material
Technology overload
Effective leveraging of capabilities
Maintaining initial excitement
Conclusion
"Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not
learn much just by sitting in class listening to
teachers, memorizing repackaged assignments,
and spitting out answers. They must talk about
what they are learning, write about it, relate it to
past experiences, apply it to their daily lives.
They must make what they learn part of
themselves.” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)
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