Navel Gazing

Navel OrangeAt the Edutopia parent partnership blog, Terry Heick has posted a list of nineteen questions parents should ask their children’s K-12 teachers. The list inspired me to think of ten questions that university students should ask themselves at the start of any new course:

    1. What do I want to get out of this course, and what do I need to do to achieve that?
    2. How will my academic strengths and weaknesses affect my ability to achieve my goal?
    3. What can I do to improve my understanding of the subject beyond the minimum that is required?
    4. How will I respond if I start to struggle in this course?
    5. How are the different ways that I will be evaluated in this course connected to what and how I can learn?
    6. What are the available resources for learning that I can use to my advantage? What must I do to use these resources?
    7. What are the barriers I often create that diminish my learning, and how can I change these behaviors?
    8. How can I shape my interactions with fellow students to increase my (and their) learning?
    9. What is the role of the instructor in my learning process?
    10. What am I not asking but should be?

It might be worthwhile to give students a list like this on the first day or two of class, and then give it to them again at the end of the course as a prompt for writing the quality of failure essay.

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