Teaching College Science

The journal article by Markwell and Courntey on Cognitive Development and the Complexities of the Undergraduate Learner in the Science Classroom gave some insight on the undergraduate learner.   While reading this article, I was thinking back to my days as an undergraduate.  I remember going through the Multiplicity and Pluralism complex encounters.  The descriptions of the cognitive development in the articles are well established and these descriptions will aid teachers in modifying the science classroom to benefit the student and teacher both.

From the reading Science Teaching Reconsidered in Chapter 8, several interesting points were made. For me in specific, learning a student’s name makes the student feels less like a number and more like a human being.  I liked the suggestions about different ways in learning the students’ names.  As mentioned in the paper about science and math anxiety, I have notice that as I have worked with undergraduates through the years this anxiety tends to be true. It is very important to address this anxiety early on and find ways for the student to manage the stress. Overall, I found this article enlightening and useful.  The article gave some great suggestions and I plan on using them within the classroom.