Week 5: Instructional Strategies and Techniques

Required readings:

• Nilson, Linda B. 2016. Teaching at its Best. Excerpts.
• Jenks, Angela. 2022. “Reshaping General Education as the Practice of Freedom.” In Applying Anthropology to General Education, edited by Jennifer R. Wies and Hillary J. Haldane, 61-79. [Annotate in Perusall]
• Wightman, Abigail. 2019. “Diversity, Difference, and Safety: Adapting Service-Learning for Diverse Students.” Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal 2 (2).
• Ruth, Alissa et al. 2022. “Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation.” Teaching Anthropology  11 (2): 59-72.
• Rice, Patricia, David McCurdy, and Scott Lukas, eds. 2011. Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, 6th Edition. Skim Some Selections. [Full download also available: Instructions here.]

Assignment: For EACH of the courses you are designing:

1. Identify the major teaching methods and instructional strategies your courses will use (i.e., lectures, discussions, problem-based learning, fieldwork, group projects, social media activity, etc.). Some of these may overlap with the course assignments.
2. Begin outlining the weekly topics and course content (assigned readings and other materials). (Note: We will continue this over the next several weeks. You are not expected to have a completed schedule at this point.)

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Recommended Resources:

• General overviews of instructional strategies
  • Slavich and Zimbardo. 2012. “Transformational Teaching: Theoretical Underpinnings, Basic Principles, and Core Methods.” Educ Psychol Rev. 24(4): 569–608.
  • “Instructional Strategies.” Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Lang, James. 2016. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. [Listen to an interview with the author here.]
• Approaches in Anthropology
  • Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal
  • Teaching Anthropology
  • Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology
  • Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2004 special volume on Service Learning and Anthropology.
  • Dumit, Joseph. 2014. “Writing the Implosion: Teaching the World One Thing at a Time.” Cultural Anthropology 29(2): 344–362.
  • Wesch, Michael. “Anth 101.” [Look around the course, especially “Start,” “10 Lessons,” and “10 Challenges.”]
• Anthropologists Using Digital Assignments & Tools
  • Cheuk, K. 2021. “Teaching Ethnographic Research Methods in the Time of COVID-19: Virtual Field Trips, a Web Symposium, and Public Engagement with Asian American Communities in Houston, Texas.” Teaching and Learning Anthropology, 4(1).
  • Ricke, A. 2021. “Pivoting to Virtual Reality, Fostering Holistic Perspectives How to Create Anthropological 360° Video Exercises and Lectures.” Teaching and Learning Anthropology, 4(1).
  • McGranahan, Carole. Using Social Media to Teach Theory to Undergraduate Students.
  • Cook, Katherine. Four Hacks to Digitize your Anthropology Classroom. [Coding, Twitter, Timelines, Gamification]
  • Cook, Katherine. Four More (Advanced) Hacks to Digitize your Anthropology Classroom. [GitHub for blogging, Podcasts and vlogs, Mapping platforms, Open data for student researchers]
  • Martin, Carla. Digital Ethnography assignment. [Uses mapping, Zotero, and Wikipedia]
  • Carter, Ben. Iron Lives. [Ongoing project by students in Senior Seminar in Anthropology at Muhlenberg College]
  • Cultural Anthropology, Teaching Tools series Teaching with Digital Technology: An Introduction, Online Classes, and In-Class Applications.
• Textbooks and readings
  • Antrosio, Jason. “Anthropology Course Textbooks.” Living Anthropologically.
  • Jenks, Angela. “Why Don’t Students Read?” Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, August 19, 2016.
  • Nelson, Katie. 2018. “Opening Access to Anthropology Textbooks.” Anthropology News, July 17.
• First day of class
  • Jenks, Angela. 2016. “First Day Activity: Ten Things You Believe to be True.“ Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, April 13.
  • McGuire, Erin. 2016. “Talking Timbits and Double Doubles: First Day Conversations in Anthropology 100.” Teaching Culture, August 22.
  • Hermann, Anthony D. and David A. Foster. 2008. “Fostering approachability and classroom participation during the first day of class.” Active Learning in Higher Education 9(2): 139-151.
•  Lecturing
  • Harrington, Christine, Todd Zakrajsek, and Jose Antonio Bowen. 2017. Dynamic Lecturing: Research-Based Strategies to Enhance Lecture Effectiveness. [Listen to an interview with one of the authors here.]
  • Fandrey, Ann. 2017. Academic Slide Design: Visual Communication for Teaching and Learning.
• Large Classes
  • Wilsman, Adam. “Teaching Large Classes.” Vanderbilt Center for Teaching.
• Active Learning
  • Jenks & Cox, Menu of Active Teaching and Learning Strategies
• Digital Pedagogy
  • Watters, Audrey. “An Ed-Tech Guide: What Should Educators Know about Technology?” Hack Education
  • Morris, Sean Michael and Jesse Stommel. 2018. An Urgency of Teachers: The Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy.
  • Gonzales, Amy L., Jessica McCrory Calarco, Teresa Lynch. 2018. “Technology Problems and Student Achievement Gaps: A Validation of the Technology Maintenance Construct.” Communication Research 1-21.