George R. La Noue, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor, Public Policy and Political Science, UMBC, will deliver a lunchtime lecture on "Social Sciences as a Contact Sport: Memoirs of a Trial Expert."
Featuring Prof. Tim Brennan and Policy Fellow Dr. Peter Henderson
This event is part of the Economics and Public Policy Spring 2019 Research Seminar series supported by the Office of the Dean of CAHSS, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Center for Social Science Scholarship at UMBC
The Centre for Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia (UEA) in conjunction with UEA Summer Abroad is now inviting applications for an intensive three-week postgraduate level Summer School in Japanese Arts and Cultural Heritage (27 July - 19 August 2019).
With the support of the Ishibashi Foundation we offer full bursaries to all successful applicants accepted on to the course. The bursary covers tuition, accommodation, breakfast and lunch on working days, study trips and a contribution towards travel costs. Applications are invited from any country from advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students with a demonstrable interest in the field.
The course will be taught in English. Classes will take place on the UEA campus, home to the renowned Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, and at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in the historic centre of the city of Norwich. Taught by leading specialists in the field, this Summer School offers an exceptional opportunity for students to develop an in-depth appreciation and understanding of Japanese arts and cultural heritage and their global impact.
The closing date for applications is 31 March 2019.
Further information including the course outline is provided at
www.uea.ac.uk/summerstudyabroad/ishibashi
GATHERING MID-TERM FEEDBACK
One way to find out how students are experiencing your class before your end-of-semester course evaluations is to gather feedback from them during the semester. There are two important categories of student feedback: what are they learning and how are they perceiving the class? Another FDC tip-sheet describes ways to collect informal information about actual student learning throughout the semester by using classroom assessment techniques. This tip-sheet describes how to gather early feedback on students’ perceptions of their learning by administering some form of mid-term evaluation. These formative assessments provide targeted information to you about student perspectives of the class that you can use to confirm or change your teaching choices.
Mid-term feedback forms differ from end-of-semester evaluations in two important ways. First, their purpose is to provide some insights for you, the instructor, about student perceptions of their learning in the class, and they are seen only by you. Second, the questions asked on the form are usually more open-ended than formal class evaluations, though you may ask specific questions that you rate with a numerical scale. Some common questions to ask students on mid-term feedback forms are:
The last question above is important because it reinforces the idea that your students, too, need to take responsibility for their learning.
You can also ask students how specific aspects of the course are affecting their learning and collect their perceptions on a rating form. For example, you can ask students about particular readings or labs, or how a certain class exercise worked for them. You can generate your own questions or select from some sample questions for different class formats that the FDC can provide.
Some faculty ask students to complete the questionnaire outside of class, or they provide it as a survey on Blackboard or on Google Forms. These approaches save class time, but they may result in a lower response rate. It may be worth a few minutes of class time to get broader participation.
In the digital age, faculty are exploring new ways to collect this information. Some faculty pose questions and have students respond using a classroom response system such as clicker technology or various smartphone apps. Not too long ago a faculty member who writes a blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education described using Google Docs to allow students to answer anonymously and edit their fellow student responses:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/make-your-midterm-evaluations-public-with-google-docs/38680
The final steps in gathering mid-term feedback are to compile the responses and talk with your students about what you learned. Which of their suggestions can you incorporate into the class now? Which ones are not appropriate to incorporate and why? Showing students that you care about and are responsive to their perceived needs can be a powerful motivator for them. And in the process you receive feedback that can help you make mid-term changes to create a more positive class environment for student learning.