Being a Hispanic female faculty member in South Texas can be a challenge. This chapter discusses three pedagogical tools (caring, challenging, and consulting) that we use to create a classroom climate that enhances Hispanic students' success by engaging and motivating them to succeed in one of the poorest areas of the country.

To manage classroom conflict effectively, college faculty need to be able to identify and analyze the problem and find solutions. Problem identification addresses who is involved; nature of the conflict; when it happened; where it happened; resolution attempts; and consequences. Solution identification includes developing a positive attitude;…

Experiences with the evolution of a University of Maryland, College Park, faculty development program focusing on diversity and classroom climate provide insights into appropriate responses to student diversity. Attention must be given to program rationale, theoretical framework, program content, pedagogical approach, format, scheduling, and…

When the instructor violates the norms of teaching, there is an impact on student learning.

Feminist teaching practices, by questioning traditional epistemology and distribution of power, offer special advantages in the culturally diverse classroom, where the valuing of different perspectives is essential. A study of two feminist teachers demonstrates how they attempt to create new kinds of classroom cultures through mastery, voice,…

Professors need to learn to work with Muslim students, now a significant proportion of the student population, and particularly those for whom English is a second language. Interviews with Muslim students revealed four classroom problem areas: teachers' misrepresentation of Islamic practices; instructional materials misrepresenting Islam; lack of…

A discussion of group dynamics in collaborative learning describes use of this approach in an experimental biology course. Three approaches to group dynamics are outlined (personality and learning style, cognitive style, and group life). Identified are variables that teachers either have little power to affect, can address in course design, or can…

College faculty and students play important roles in maintaining a tension-free, democratic, and effective learning environment for a diverse student body. Although many instructors feel unprepared to manage disruptive or harmful behaviors, they must receive training to learn to negotiate difficult dialogs, especially as the student population…

A college teacher can anticipate discomfort when topics such as human sexuality are in the course syllabus and can take creative steps to promote open and civil discourse. One teacher's experiences have resulted in incorporation of a sensitive-issues statement in the course syllabus, advance preparation for special events and visitors, and…

This chapter reports the results of research into how frequently students perceive faculty to engage in classroom improprieties and what they tend to do about it. (Contains 1 table.)

A model of classroom characteristics and interaction is used to examine the roles of group size, problem types, and student behaviors, central concerns in problem-based learning, in medical education. The model incorporates six classroom dimensions, including four process variables (classroom organization, learning task, teacher's instruction,…

This article examines the role of social context in teaching and learning at the college level and reviews principles of six research and conceptual approaches which address social context: the transactional perspective; student-centered instruction; cooperative learning; communication theory; group-process theory; and curricular/structural…

The instructor of a university organic chemistry course describes how he has incorporated ideas about student motivation and self-regulated learning into his instruction. Specific strategies for active and Socratic learning and instruction are outlined, from modeling and classroom interaction to use of instructional materials, testing, and…