Speaker: Dr. Cristina Cosma
Share a piece of advice for a new, adjunct faculty member at Wentworth.
Dr. Cristina Cosma: Uh general advice, try to avoid talking for a long time. Um Make your lecture 15 minutes or so and engage the students in conversation in discussion in analysis. Sometimes you can even start by asking questions first to see what they know how familiar they are with the subject and then complete that, that subject with uh your lecture. Uh Avoid this typical question. Do you have any questions? That's the worst question a professor can ask. Need to be precise. So what do you think that the crane does or what do you think that it's epsilon or uh what is this equation uh being used for? And try to give practical examples? Might be difficult in math but not impossible.
Give us your protips for managing conflict in the classroom.
Dr. Cristina Cosma: Managing conflict in the classroom. I didn't have that too often but I had one time, uh, three roommates, two of them being a little bit, uh, too aggressive to the third one, even if they were friends. So you need to step in and separate them and definitely you need to invite them later to a conversation and explain to them why, uh, a certain behavior is not acceptable in class. So, um, that's what I did and I, uh, they, they stopped, uh, fooling around during a class. I do find that, um, if you give students something to do in class they will not have time to have a bad behavior. So, experiential learning, uh, helps a lot, uh, in, uh, minimizing conflicts.
Describe any successful strategies for responding to student disruption.
Dr. Cristina Cosma: Uh student disruption. I don't know if chewing tobacco and spitting is a disruption, but I experienced that years ago and I found it disgusting and I told to the student that either, um, they stop and, or I leave the, the classroom, uh, need to be firm, need to be precise, always refer to the safety uh and to the feelings of other students as well and, uh need to, to do something about it immediately. Uh Also it's good if, um, at the beginning of the class, when you present, uh the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, um, you set the, the limits and the expectations in terms of behavior.
Provide some tips for unpacking unexpected assessment results with students.
Dr. Cristina Cosma: Unexpected assessment results. Um I prefer to talk with the students, one on one in my office and that's what I do. I take the initiative, email the students that have uh poor grades and invite them to my office to discuss their performance in class. Uh I try not to engage with large groups of students because then the result can become a little bit uncomfortable for you as a professor. So, um the keyword is one on one in your office um during the office hours or after class.
