EP FORUM

The CTE holds regular forums for EP faculty to discuss issues arising from teaching EP courses.
Last updated: October 2009
Updated by Dr. Toulouse.

George Drance (Theater), Maureen O'Connell (Theology), Roger Panetta (History), Harold Takooshian (Psychology), Fred Wertz (Psychology), Anne Mannion (History), Anne Fernald (English), Chris Toulouse (International Studies).

Writing
- They're okay at giving references but not so good at citations (where they show you which references they used).
- I think I have to start using rubrics and spelling out to myself what I want to see in a good essay.
- There's no substitute for showing them one another's writing.

Speaking
- How do we get the silent ones to speak up?
- Everyone knows they need to write well, and we have rules for that, but what counts as speaking well? We have to figure that out.
- Ask them a question, give them time to think and take notes, then get them to speak from the notes, that builds confidence.
- I have them present forum postings OR present notes from essays they're writing.
- Ask simple questions. Go around the room and give them a chance to let the class know what they noticed.
- Another way to practice speaking is to have them conduct interviews and reflect on the art of interviewing.
- It's hard because while they can reflect they can't yet wield all their skills together.

- Confidence comes in increments, with practice. The key is to keep practicing. Then we'll see improvement and codify it for ourselves so that we can spell out what we want (just like we do with written assignments).
- How do we get them to pay attention to one another? One way is to acknowledge helpful contributions by putting them on the board and making sure other students write them down.
- In theater, we get them to play with sound, and fathom where rhetorical devices come from. Not sure how much scope there is to do that in other disciplines. But at the same time, speaking can be taught.
- There's a question of our role. How do we act? How do we have a presence that acts as a model for them?

Critical Thinking
- Above all we need to emphasize the importance of asking questions.
- I find myself in better need of understanding logical forms.
- I'm not sure we're always clear when shifting modalities - ie. from reflection to analysis to application to synthesis.
- The assessment speaker Eder pointed out that the explanation is low down on Bloom's Taxonomy of Thought, and yet the most common injunction in essay questions is to "explain".

First Year Factors
- The 9/11 generation. They were 11 and 12 years old at the time and the experience defines their horizons.
- I'm afraid we too often overlook the fact that we have two distinct kinds of students in the same classroom: those who live in the dorms and those who commute. They have very different kinds of lives.
- What's a good grade? They're used to coasting to an A in High School. Now suddenly we need to adjust their mentality to the idea that B+ is actually a very good grade and the majority of them are supposed to get Cs (!)
- We have to wean them off their corruscating instrumentalism. Juniors and seniors are much better at behaving in the classroom because they realize it's up to them. They know they shouldn't be playing with their phones. First years are used to getting away with what they can. They don't yet realize why they shouldn't be playing with their phones. So that for eg. when they're absent they'll ask "Did I miss anything important?" [As if you might reply "Oh no, it was just the usual people talking, and what do they know? It was hardly worth coming."]
- Too few of them take notes, let alone good notes. There's an art form to taking notes. And they are not practiced in it.
- At the same time, we must realize they have so many more distractions (esp. digital distractions) than we did in college.
- It's a matter of building up an ethos against the distractions.