Posts Tagged Audience engagement

Classwork and homework in a seminar class

Before the (spring 2010) term started, I talked with some alumni about their experiences in the undergraduate seminar classes at M.I.T., and they suggested that I add more structure to my class (Seminar in Number Theory) than just student talks. In particular, some of the alumni felt that they only managed to establish a solid grasp of the subjects of their own talks, and that some kind of exercises after each talk might help solidify things. I think the format I chose has some room for improvement, but the students did seem to be on top of all of the

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Engaging the audience

The audience is most likely to be engaged if they have a reason to pay attention and if the presenter makes the presentation interesting. Giving the audience a reason to pay attention Homework and quizzes encourage students to pay attention to each other’s presentations. In student-taught classes, homework and quizzes may seem inappropriate because students are supposed to be self-motivated learners working together to learn the material. A possible middle ground in these classes is for the students to write questions for each other: Examples of strategies Student-supplied homework–Scott Carnahan Student-supplied quizzes–Sami Assaf Peer critique–Steven Kleiman Strategies for giving engaging

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