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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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Setting Policies for a Large Introductory CourseBy Natasha Tokowicz, Psychology
After teaching a large Introductory Psychology course in the fall of 2004, my first semester teaching at Pitt, I was disappointed that my teaching evaluations did not reflect the effort that I had put into my teaching. A major concern was that the students did not seem to be respectful in the classroom and would not honor the classroom behavior policies I had established. After deciding to teach the same class again the following fall, I sought assistance from CIDDE. As a result, while modifying the course, I worked with a CIDDE instructional designer. Using her suggestions, I made some relatively minor but crucial changes in the course and my syllabus. One main change that I made was to explain my policies clearly to my students. Because it is a large class, I found it necessary to delineate explicit expectations regarding deadlines, assignments, and classroom behavior. These changes, implemented in fall of 2005, resulted in a drastic improvement in my evaluations. Students seem to respond very well to the policies when they are clearly given in advance and are accompanied by explanations, perhaps because they can take ownership of the reasons for the policies.
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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