A few words about real learning:

In my classes, I expect you to be actively engaged with the course material and to demonstrate your active intellectual and personal involvement in the coursework. This is what makes for real learning!

Read this: Expectations in a nutshell

How we learn: A Hindu priest once told a student of mine that there are four ways to gain knowledge:

• Only one quarter of our knowledge comes from teachers (lectures)

• Another quarter comes from self-reflection (reflection on and processing our learning - metacognition)

• One quarter comes from discussion with others (our fellow learners: group discussion)

• One quarter comes from behavior modification (practicing new skills)

Thus in my classes I try to "mix it up" with a variety of teaching and learning strategies. I tend to avoid formal lectures and focus on discussion - between myself and my students as well as students in small groups. I also ask my students to reflect more personally on what they are learning (journaling).

Learning is not a passive reception of information, it is the processing of that information by the student. In the teaching-learning paradigm, the emphasis is on learning - how the student perceives, changes, and benefits through the learning experience. Real learning moves beyond rote memorization of facts toward higher order thinking and deeper understanding. "Higher order" thinking skills include:

• Comprehension: demonstrates the ability to grasp meaning, explain, and restate ideas

• Application: demonstrates the ability to use learned material in new situations

• Analysis: demonstrates the ability to separate material into component parts and show relationships between parts

• Synthesis: demonstrates the ability to put together the separate ideas to form a new whole, to establish new relationships

• Evaluation: demonstrates the ability to judge the worth of material against stated criteria 

Learning comes from within, deep within. Taking in information from outside sources - a book, teacher, Website, video, field experience - is not real learning. Real learning takes place as you process the information in your own unique way through higher order thinking skills such as comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Your performance in my classes will be based on your demonstration of your learning. You do not demonstrate your learning by simply spitting back basic facts. Your knowledge of the facts will become clear as you demonstrate higher order thinking skills. You cannot comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate without knowing the facts. However, you can discuss basic facts without using higher order thinking skills. In all you do in my classes, you should always remember to use higher order thinking skills, not merely absorb information and spit it back.

A successful learning outcome is the generation of transformative knowledge. Transformative learning is that which creates a change (transformation) in the learner. As you work your way through any course, you should consider how you are growing and changing as a learner and as a person through your involvement in the course. Explore the material being studied not just from an academic standpoint but through the personal meaning you derive from it. 

A few words about grades:

How to get an A? Don't worry about it. Smart students treat each class like an individual challenge. Your goal should be to find the most efficient possible way to really learn the material. You might not always get this right. Sometimes, you’ll make stupid mistakes on a test or bet on the wrong thesis, but that’s okay. So long as you’re getting better at being a student, over time, most (not all) of your grades will be great. You are not in school to get grades. You are here to learn! Accomplish that and the grades will take care of themselves.

Do not expect your grade in my class to be based solely on exams! If you are a "bad test taker" you can still pass my courses if you do well on your other assignments. You may find that I give my students more graded assignments than other teachers. The benefit here is that your course grade does not hang on a single assignment. Most of my assignments range from 5% - 15% of your course grade. If you mess up on one assignment or exam, this will not necessarily affect your final grade in the course.

The "Fair F" - I give at least half credit for doing any assignment or exam, no matter how late, no matter how poorly. While half credit is still failing, it is far better than a zero for not doing the work at all. In the end one zero can make a difference of a full letter grade (or more if the assignment is worth more than 10% of your grade). 

Effort counts! I believe that students learn from doing and thus I encourage my students to do the assignments, even if it is late (a late penalty will, however, apply so the "sooner the better" but "better late than never") 

Learning Strategies:

• Avoid Procrastination:
  
  

• Time Management:
  
  Use this Time management scheduling chart to help you plan your weekly time for work, classes, study, personal time, etc. This way you can see just how much you have to do, plan when to do it, and see if you may have too much to do and decide where you can cut back.

• My Study Plan What and how do you do the things you need to do to be a successful student? What can you do differently to be more successful? Use this chart to take stock of your student success strategies.

• Principles for success as a student: Successful students 

  accept responsibility discover self-motivation master self-management employ interdependence gain self-awareness adopt life-long learning develop emotional intelligence believe in themselves

  Take this self-assessment to see how you measure up to these principles

• Study Guides and Strategies Website: provides advice for students on a number of learning strategies, including preparing to learn, study skills, classroom participation, learning with others, project management, reading and writing skills, test preparation and test taking skills, using the Web, math and science skills.

• Learn how to learn: What's your learning style? What are your intellectual strengths? How do these affect the way you learn? How can you help yourself learn more productively? Follow this link to explore learning styles and multiple intelligences.

• Active Learning Strategies: Once you know your learning style and intellectual strengths, see if you can make use of any of these active learning strategies (specially designed for learning about religion)

Reading and note taking:

• How to read a book a practical method to make time to read and how to absorb what you are reading

• Prepare for discussion on your reading

• How to take notes

Thinking and Writing:

• Critical thinking skills: use this checklist to fine tune the way you express your ideas in writing

• Deep thinking skills: use this checklist of thinking skills to diversify and deepen your thinking

• How to maintain a neutral Point of View

• How to write a paper: organizing your composition

• Using rhetorical strategies in essay writing: write a more effective narrative

• Writing for Religious Studies (from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

• Proof Reading: always do this first, before finalizing your paper for submission

• What is Plagiarism and how can you avoid it? Check out this site. Humorous movie on a serious subject

Presentations:

• Creating effective PowerPoint presentations

• Tips for making an oral presentation

Online learning & research:

• Orientation and guidelines

• Using the Web for research? Check out the guidance at this site

• "Evaluating information from the World Wide Web": an on-line tutorial from Montgomery College (MD) Libraries. If you'll be using Internet resources you'll want to make sure they are reliable. How can you know the difference between a good Web site and a not so good site? This on-line tutorial can help guide you.

• Here's a video presentation that walks you though what to look for when evaluating websites you might use for research:
  

• More guidance for evaluating information on the Web

• What about Wikipedia? There are appropriate uses of Wikipedia but in general it should not be cited as a direct source in your research. Check out this video demo for suggestions on how to make use of Wikipedia.
  

General grading rubric charts (also note specific criteria for given assignments):

• For essays, papers, reviews, reports, etc. (standard written work)

• For portfolios, scrapbooks, journals, etc. (non-traditional assignments)

• For online discussion

• Critical thinking skills levels