Creating a Positive Learning Environment

The University of Saskatchewan has a set of webpages on building a positive learning environment.  The page on Effective Communication has several pointers on fostering student input, including waiting at least 15 seconds for an answer when asking a question.  I do leave several seconds to give students time to formulate their thoughts, however if there is no answer after a short time, I will give the answer or rephrase the question.  I am going to try to leave the full 15 seconds and see if I get more student responses.

In the video on this page on Fostering Student Engagement, one of the professors discusses the fact that she has cut out a lot of material in her course in order to be able to really discuss topics, and have the students involved (~6:30 of the video).  I found that interesting in that it linked back to my second journal assignment in which I said that I was planning on finding ways to decrease course material to hopefully increase student input and ultimately increase understanding of the material presented.