Thoughts on group work and presentation

Today I went to see an upper division class thought by a renowned teacher in my department. Students we having group presentations, regarding some independent research project they carried out. I was there to get hints on class management and teaching style, and I got a couple of interesting tips.

The most significant were ways to keep students engaged during these final presentations:

- presentation topics are interesting, expand the class material and make students think outside of the box;

- have groups arranged so that each group is assigned to ask questions to another;

- the material presented is useful for the final exam;

- each group created a 2-page hand-out summarizing their project, to distribute in class. The collection of hand-out constitutes a reference booklet that students can consult later on.

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Hello world!

this is a discussion space about university level teaching, for folks that are figuring out how to teach, want to get better at it, or want to share their experiences.

This blog was created in the US, thus the default educational system of reference is the US one, but comments and experiences from other systems are more than welcome.

One goal of the blog is to be aware and discuss how findings of cognitive psychology and pedagogy research and practice transfer to the college classroom.

Hope you'll find the exchange interesting and stimulating!