Phil Finch

Discussion Comment

Hello Kristin, Thank you for sharing management strategy for cohorts. Indeed, the mixing is good. I am on both ends of understanding cohorts . . . as an instructor and as a student. In my current class as a student, I am called a "drop-in." A drop-in student did not begin with the cohort, nor does that person follow the cohort to its completion. Acceptance into the cohort may vary with openness, maturity, diversity, and other factors. Our cohorts in the program where I instruct bond (or isolate students) early on, in the General Ed. courses. By the time they… >>>

Phil Finch

Discussion Comment

Challenging Students

Hello Katrina,

Your method of in-depth student evaluation seems very good. In my limited experience with multiple-instructor evaluations, we looked at inter-rater reliability. Our study was rather close, with negative and positive comments matching from instructor to instructor. This process got me reading about the Inter-rater reliability concept. Education is a fascinating combination of science and art.

Phil Finch

Blog Comment

Acquiring more knowledge in better teaching is addicting

Learning how to teach is indeed a lifelong project . . . in my case. Over 25 years of teaching did not totally prepare me for my work. I have taken courses along the way, but this process our Career College requires of each of us is very good. My present Program Director (Equivalent to a Department Chair) has taught me grading methods, organization tactics, etc. This is fun for an older instructor. Yes, learning may become a positive practice which is best described as habituating.

Phil Finch

Discussion Comment

Inheriting the class culture

I read with interest about cohorts establishing in-depth knowledge of each other, much deeper than a new instructor can know from a first class meeting. Working with multiple cohorts, I now can see the "under-the-surface" knowledge brought into a new class by an established cohort. Have others in our group seen this phenomenon before?