Faculty Q&A

Abstract

<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" width="550"> <tbody><tr> <td><p></p><h3>Send in your questions for Faculty Q&A!</h3> <p>We want your questions not only about issues related to how to teach and instructional strategies, but also about other issues faced by faculty (both new and established). Here’s an example: </p> <p>“I was shocked to have a student accuse me of sexism. The student is male and says there is an inherent bias against male students, as I have answered questions posed to me by female students when we were in the change room preparing for a clinical shift. How can I guard against this type of unintentional problem in the future?” </p> <p><b>Here’s what you need to know: </b></p> <ol> <li> Questions need to be short and, preferably, include a specific scenario or examples.</li> <li>Submit questions that address practical issues faced by faculty and can be answered in a few paragraphs (see example above).</li><li>E-mail your questions, along with your full name and credentials, to Karen G. Stanwood, ELS, Executive Editor, at <a href="mailto:kstanwood@slackinc.com">kstanwood@slackinc.com</a>.</li></ol></br></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <h4>EXCERPT</h4> <P>Our entire faculty allows the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in the clinical setting, but we cannot agree on how much to let the students use them. Several faculty members are concerned that PDAs are being used so much that students no longer seem to know anything. Are there general guidelines about how much material we should let students access from their PDAs in the clinical setting?</P> <P>One of our classrooms recently became wireless. Students are now using their laptops to take notes and access Web sites related to the content they are studying. However, my teaching assistant has reported that several students are surfing the Internet or checking e-mail instead. How can I control this behavior and still make use of this technology?</P> <P>To improve learning outcomes, some of our faculty members adjust their teaching methods on the basis of student learning style inventories. Does the research support this?</P> <P>I teach an undergraduate nursing research course that usually has 54 to 60 students. Recently, I have been trying to engage the students more with various kinds of group work. So far, this has not been going very well. I am wondering whether the size of the groups may be an issue. Is there an optimal size for group work in classrooms?</P>