Discussion Questions for Sept 8

• What types of technologies are best for teaching in an intro psychology class? Should all teachers use powerpoint, or are overheads and the blackboard the way to go?

• It seems like power point style lecturing is becoming the "trend". While it seems convenient and "cool" do you think that it sort of "removes" the teacher from active teaching?

• Is it appropriate to make changes to your goals or objectives if you find they are not working out as the semester progresses?

• Is it important to know ahead of time how much you can allow the schedule of topics to change? Is it more important to cover everything or cover somethings really well?

• How do you think the technological sophistication of freshman will affect the classroom when we are professors?

• McKeachie recommends taht teachers plan for out-of-class learning that involves more than just reading. How can you address this issue in huge intro classes where planning, coordinating, and grading assignments and engaging activities would be time- and resource-prohibitive?

• When writing your syllabus, I started to think about how to lay it out for the students. Should you have a long and extensive breakdown, or is it better to have a rough outline by week or topic, and then fill details in as you go along? Both would seem to have advantages and disadvantages.
  
  Also, when choosing a text book, is it better to just choose 1 book and go with its pros and cons, or would it be better to have 2 books and use the best areas of each? Cost would be an issue there...

• How responsible should teachers really be for the out-of-class learning students do? Is it realistic for a teacher to expect whatever they do in the classroom to stimulate a student into taking initiative outside of class, and if so, what would be some effective ways to pique outside involvement in the subject at hand?

• I was wondering about textboks. In some of my classes, I barely open the book, and the professor even says the tests will be based on the notes. In others, the tests can throw in the most obsure thing from the text. What is a good level of text use for an introductory class?

• At the end of Chapter 2, the author suggests sending an emailing welcoming the students to your class.  Are "welcome emails" common, or do they rarely exist.