teaching at regional state universities

[reg]

I was wondering if anyone has any good pedagogical tips or resources for those of us teaching at regional state universities where the student body is largely first generation, non-traditional, and generally not very good in the traditional sense of the word (grades/study habits/etc)?

A lot of the pedagogy literature (flipped classrooms, clickers, etc) seems to focus on engaging and motivating bright, traditional, full time students (i.e., getting students who are highly capable but not necessarily highly engaged to participate). And I have tried a lot of those strategies in my classes with very little success. The causes for that lack of success range from lack of time/resources on the students' part (students who are working full time and who come to class unprepared making "flipped classrooms" impossible), lack of interest in anything they see as fluff (such as discussion groups, group presentations, field trips, videos, etc. - the prevailing attitude seems to be "tell me what is going to be on the test and dont waste my time making me go through the motions with classmates"), and a very narrow focus on what they want out of class.

I don't mean to generalize, but it is clear that the student body is very different from what most of the traditional pedagogical texts aim at.

[you know my students well]

I have found required, rigorously graded commentaries on the week's readings and group co-teaching/research presentations on a weekly topic (with my guidance of course) throughout the semester workd for my upper division courses. In my lower division courses, I a still experimenting, but found a book review assignment with weekly required chapter summaries and group discussion/class assignments worked pretty well. I used Ain't No Makin' It by McLeod for my Social Problems class. These were the primary engagement tools - other assignments were also required.

[yoda]

I also teach at a regional state college that has a lot of the qualities the first post mentions. I think quizzes (unfortunately) help keep students on track and make sure that they are doing the material. They do need to be given a reason to do the work. I think also making abstract theories and concepts grounded in real life situation also helps. Also I think activities "active learning" is essential - an hour 15 minute lecture is not going to cut it. You need to get them doing stuff. Connecting the material to events and things that are relevant to their own life is essential. Asking them what they think also helps.

All that being said I love teaching this population of students. I have found a lot of students who really do want to learn and who are willing to think critically and see the world in a new way. For some of them it is the first generation of students and they appreciate that fact. There are of course challenges, as with any collection of young people I imagine. But students at my university are not entitled, do not complain about A minuses, share an interest in the social world, have a really varied set of experiences to draw from and share with others. All things being equal, I would chose teaching at my university over a small private expensive liberal arts college any day of the week.

[agree]

I agree that teaching this population of students is more rewarding. You actually get to mentor and open doors for students, as opposed to being the person who is supposed to give easy As because the students really want to get into med/law school. One thing that I've found works is to use something like poll everywhere (or clickers if you are lucky enough to work at a school that can afford them) to get students involved in large classroom situations.

[Class based]

Make readings relevant to their lives-- articles about educational imposterism, class mobility , and code switching. I like the work by Wendy Lutrell and ain't no making it