RETHINKING TEACHING
HOW HHS PROFESSORS ARE USING NEW TOOLS AND CLASSROOM STRATEGIES TO DELIVER HIGHER EDUCATION
FALL 2012
By William Meiners
Teachers are called to transfer knowledge and engage students in critical thinking. That transfer may not have changed all that much since Socrates taught Plato, who schooled Aristotle, whose tutelage may have helped spawn Alexander's greatness. But new learning strategies are altering the academic landscape at Purdue. From active memory retrieval methods to increased use of online and social media tools both in and out of the classroom, professors in the College of Health and Human Sciences are staying ahead of the learning curve by reshaping it.
For a cognitive psychologist like Jeff Karpicke, there's an opportunity to find a better way to actively train our brains to recall material better, more precisely. George Hollich, associate professor of psychological sciences, and Cleveland Shields, associate professor of human development and family studies, use multimedia tools to help raise the voices of students in large lecture halls. And whether they're introducing their students to the concepts of hospitality tourism or the nuances of insulin, professors Jonathon Day and Janet Thorlton believe an online environment enhances the educational experience.
Trailblazers, trendsetters or simply teachers looking to pass along knowledge more efficiently, these five have embraced change in their classroom delivery for the sake of improving the educational exchange.
