By Marcy Sutherland and Ted Galanthay
Marcy Sutherland is an instructor in the Department of Education offering courses focusing on diverse learners and learning environments in public schools. Ted Galanthay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and specializes in mathematical ecology, mathematical modeling and dynamical systems.
We participated in the 2018-2019 Early Career Excellence Institute, sponsored by the Center for Faculty Excellence. For our final project, we were interviewed by Judith Ross-Bernstein about including student journaling in our classes. Although we implemented student journaling in different ways, we learned that we were motivated by the same universal goals, to foster students’ learning about themselves and the course material. We sought what L. Dee Fink calls significant learning [1], which is learning that results in a lasting change in the learner.
We invite you to listen to our conversations about student journaling and include your voice by commenting on what you hear. Furthermore, we encourage you to adopt journaling in your classes. Be bold! Take steps towards promoting significant learning experiences for your students in your classes.
The conversation has been split into 5 different podcast and “Lessons Learned on Structuring Journal Writing” is the third!
Podcast #3: Lessons learned on structuring journal writing
This podcast describes the logistics and journal scheduling; describes future changes.
Quotes from Ted Galanthay and Marcy Sutherland:
“I can’t see doing this course without journaling. It really has given me a lot of insight as to students’ experiences in the field.”
“I would definitely use journals again. I got to see inside my students’ heads.”
Contact us with questions.
Marcy Sutherland, Department of Education: msutherland1@ithaca.edu
Ted Galanthay, Department of Mathematics: tgalanthay@ithaca.edu
[1] L. Dee Fink. Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013.
