The article highlights the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a technique for encouraging students to direct inquiry in the classroom, engage with each other and develop critical thinking skills. A teacher whose students are under-engaged in the classroom would do well by her students to study the QFT technique and begin testing elements of it. If nothing else, QFT shows that “Any questions?” following a lecture will not provoke many questions. To engage students, questions must be engaging, too.

Though effective, QFT is only half the equation. Students need to ask questions, yes. But they need to answer them, too. The teacher plays the role of guide, facilitator, and provocateur.

Most teachers I had operated under the transactional method of teaching, which is similar to a bank transaction between teller and customer. The teller (teacher) holds the money (knowledge), while the customer (student) is in demand of it. A one-way transaction occurs to process the knowledge from teacher to student.

The transactional method can be characterized as organized and linear. An ideal classroom operating under this method of teaching may look something like this:

More often, though, the transactional method classroom looks something like this:

That’s me in the front (left), teaching English to a group of 20-something students in the jungles of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Students obediently scribbled information as I imparted my knowledge, them craned to see my notes on the board. My original plan was to lecture on different conceptualizations of courage, sourcing JFK’s Profiles in Courage. That was until I arrived, asked “how are you?” and was met by largely blank stares.

One of the problems of the transactional method is that it is highly assumptive. I assumed that my “English” class was closer to “English Literature” than “English 101,” and that the 16-22 year-olds would be able to speak at an advanced level in English.

I was wrong on both fronts. Even if I had delivered a magnificent lecture (I didn’t), I was clearly way off the mark in terms of content. In the transactional method of teaching, the teacher must make a series of educated guesses daily as to the level of preparation of his students.

An alternative method of teaching is to empower students to drive their education forward by teaching them to ask questions and to respond insightfully. This organic method can be unpredictable, and highly effectively.

In spite of my JFK gaffe, my students gave me another opportunity to mold their minds and returned every other day over the next two weeks for Mr. Kevin’s class. With the honor of teaching again afforded to me, I decided to turn the teacher-focused classroom into a learning circle. Literally. 

I pinpointed the most advanced English-language learners and goaded them to help lead activities and discussion. I provided a framework for learning, and students reinforced the material by asking questions and interacting with me and, even more importantly, with each other.

To teach effectively, I learned to be a student and encouraged my students to teach, too. I learned a lot, including a very effective method for teaching English to students who speak a language like Khmer, in which verbs do not inflect (more on this in a future blog post). I learned the power of non-transactional teaching. 

And my students taught me a lot about courage, even if they were just learning the words to express it.

BetterGrads College News & Views is an ongoing collection of college-themed posts around the web. Our social media team, partners and guest contributors take part in providing this service to you.

This week, we came across several articles about how to negotiate your student loan package, relative poverty levels for college-age students and non-students, plus a fun way to look at college clubs. Enjoy reading!

College Life:

10 Bizarre But Real College Clubs (Zen College Life)

Did you always want to be a highly-skilled assassin? Or just have an excuse to stare at people on campus? We’ve all got strange interests, but these institutions of higher learning have taken the next step by offering up a club for that craving.

What to do if you’re failing a class in college (Helium)

The agony and defeat of a failing grade may first pop up in college. Maybe you never worried about failing a class before, but with the hectic pace and responsibility of college, you’re looking at a “fail.” Don’t panic! Read on to find out how to mitigate and resolve the problem without losing your mind.

The Value of College:

Tips for Negotiating a Better College Financial Aid Package (Ask the Money Coach)

Did you even know you could negotiate your financial aid? This author gives a list of tips for asking for a better rate and terms that could save you thousands. Never hurts to ask!

What the Lost Decade of Wages Means for Colleges and Their Graduates (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Yes, tuition is expensive. But what will it mean for your long-term earning potential? This article details the relative poverty level for college-age students and non-students.

The rankings are an infamously controversial guide for comparing America’s colleges nationally, regionally, and across subject areas and other special interests. This year Harvard University and Princeton University are tied for first place among national stature universities, followed by a list of other Ivy League or Ivy-like universities. But you know that’s not particularly useful.

How to really use College Rankings
While I enjoy the festive competition of college rankings as much as the next guy, what students need to know from the rankings is not where a school stacks up nationally, or even regionally. It’s about all the underlying data and context.

“What is the best college?” is, and should be, a very subjective question. Seniors in high school should be thinking about what majors they want to study, whether they want to live in big cities or small college towns, and how far they want to be from home. Great colleges are scattered all over the country and all over the Best Colleges rankings.

To understand and explore what factors are most important to you about finding a good fit, I encourage all students, parents, and administrators to register for U.S. News College Compass before September 16 (while it’s free!):

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/college_compass_google_deal.htm

While we here at BetterGrads haven’t had a chance to check out the College Compass yet, hopefully (in addition to the full rankings) there will be some great tools inside for those that are college hunting this admissions season.

Perhaps someday U.S. News will even ask our BetterGrads mentors to weigh in on the rankings (like high school counselors). I would love to know what our mentors have to say!

The presentation is titled +1 Matters: Social Networks and Education.

We want to talk about what we have been trying to do with BetterGrads so far and what every educational initiative should know about social networks. Every year, high schools lose their most valuable resources when alumni leave for college. With online social networking, this doesn’t have to happen. Our presentation is about the importance of social capital for education. Most people know social capital from the book Bowling Alone: it’s the stuff that drives civic life. But it can drive many other things, like a student’s success in college or career.

As you know, at BetterGrads we connect recent graduates back to their public high schools as mentors, regardless of distance, because unlike their private school peers, public school students lack strong connections to successful alumni. This is basic social networking, made possible by tools we take for granted, like email and video chat. We want to make sure the value of social networking for social capital is not taken for granted by educators and entrepreneurs. We’ll talk about research informing our point of view, and program and technology decisions we’ve made to put social capital at the fore.

So BetterGrads supporters (that’s you!), register for SXSW’s website, give us a +1 and add a comment about what you would like to learn from a such a presentation. Voting ends on Friday (Sept. 2).

Thank you!

BetterGrads College News & Views is a weekly collection of college-themed posts around the web. Our social media team, partners and guest contributors take part in providing this service to you.

This week, we came across several articles related to being ready for college, what students think of the price tag for a degree, and some tips students can use when gearing up for the semester.

College Preparation:

ACT Scores show 1 in 4 high school grads are unprepared for college (TIME)

Standardized tests are questioned by many as a legitimate measuring system for a student’s success, but this year’s ACT results are out, regardless. Nearly 30 percent fell below the college-level standards in English, math, science and reading. Is this reflective of a larger problem? Or are there other ways we can effectively test students’ college preparedness?

Getting ready for college (Freelance Writer Network)

This author provides a comprehensive rundown of basic–and super important–things to keep in mind when prepping to leave home for college. From the basics of money managing to avoiding getting your laptop stolen, this is a good checklist to keep in mind when preparing for a new semester.

The Value of College:

Women get more value out of college than men do (Reuters)

Of more than 2,000 people surveyed by the Pew Research Center, 77 percent said women need a college degree to have a successful career. Comparatively, only 68 percent of the group predicted the same for men. Perhaps an 11 percent discrepancy is not glaring, but is it reflective of the general perception of gender an the value of a college degree? The survey went on to say that half of women thought a hefty tuition is worth the slumping debt, while only 37 percent of males agreed.

Beating the odds (STRYVE Magazine)

Some students don’t have an easy road to college, and this inspirational story will uplift you if you’re feeling unsure about what you can get out of the college experience. There can often be more opportunities for you than you think… You just have to look.

College Tips:

The best college admissions Twitter accounts you aren’t following (Student Advisor)

Still looking to apply for college? Want to transfer? Then find your dream school’s admissions office social media networks. This article lists the top college admissions Twitter accounts that are eager for students to engage with them online.

Study habits for college (Junhax)

Tired of boring, generic advice? This article gives some super-specific suggestions on how to make the most of your study time! A good opportunity to prepare before you get slammed at crunch time during midterms in a couple months.

Photo courtesy woodleywonderworks via Flickr.

Learning an additional language is a lot like learning how to paint with colors after a lifetime of using grayscale.

I took Spanish and French in high school, and then Russian at university. Each one has helped me re-experience a world that was only ever monolingual. When I was given the opportunity to practice my Spanish skills, I took it.

That opportunity was going to Mexico. Although I had just graduated from college and had several years’ worth of studying the language, I still only spoke Spanish like a grade-schooler.

Being humbled was the best learning experience of my life. It was as if I was given a second chance to learn how to walk and talk. Many people say that if they could go back in time that they would not change a thing; when I learned Spanish from the ground up, I can say that I relived a part of my childhood, but was more receptive to everything this time around.

I remember not being able to express myself properly, and the frustration and embarrassment that came with it. I tripped so often with the language that I practically fell over when I spoke it. But as time passed, the falls became fewer and fewer until they became mere stumbles along the way. I still remember the morning when I woke up after having had a dream in Spanish: from that day hence I found myself thinking in Spanish as well.

Learning an additional language is important for your own personal growth. By learning a new language, you learn more things about your mother tongue, and also about yourself. Being able to describe yourself and the things around you in more than one language gives you more than one perspective on an issue, which widens your worldview.

The best way to learn an additional language is to immerse yourself in the target country or find native speakers. In Mexico, for example, there are many language schools dedicated to teaching foreigners Spanish. These are very helpful institutions. For me, however, I learn like a sponge: I absorbed the language on the fly while buying tacos on the street, hanging out with friends, and teaching English classes.

Being multilingual opens up new doors of opportunity for you because some doors are written in other languages, and being able to read which door leads to what is an invaluable skill in a globalized world. In high school, when my friends asked why I wanted to study so many languages, I did not really have an answer. I just told them I studied them because I liked them. Now, I can say that I studied languages to understand the world from someone else’s point of view, which is an invaluable skill in college, the workplace, and life.

Joshua B. Canty
West Gardiner, Maine

The author received a master of arts degree in international relations from Alliant International University in 2010 and a bachelor of arts degree in political science with a minor in economics from the University of Maine at Farmington in 2007. He is currently living in Mexico, where he is teaching English.

This article is part of a counterpoint series between Keith Kaplan of BookRenter.com and Matt Gagnon of the BetterGrads social media team. This is Matt’s response to Keith’s article about the benefits of renting college textbooks.

Photo courtesty fayettevilleflyer via Flickr.

Everyone knows college textbooks are expensive. During my four years in college, I spent hundreds of dollars per quarter. That really adds up with three quarters per year for four whole years.

There are a variety of alternatives to buying books from your school’s campus bookstore, and renting books is generally very affordable.

But… before you rent all of your textbooks, here are some things to consider:

• You may end up wanting to keep your books. While some rental outlets offer an option for renters to buy their books, there is often an additional fee. This is important to keep in mind when renting to save money in the first place.
• Used books are very cheap too. While rented books are generally the lowest price, used books can be very cheap as well. Prices are very competitive with the glut of sellers for used books. It was typical to see used copies available for $3 or less when I bought used books for my history classes.
• You may need your textbook immediately. Some professors don’t release the required textbook list until the first day of class with the syllabus, and then they demand you complete the reading by the next day of class. In these cases, you really need to have the textbook in your hand that day. In order to do that, you are limited to buying from your campus bookstore, or an off-campus bookseller.
• No worry about sending your book back. When you reach the end of your quarter or semester, final exams should be your chief concern—not having to return your textbooks on time. Some book renters want your book back during the week of finals, and sometimes even before your finals are over. The last thing you may want are e-mail reminders to return your textbooks while you’re still studying for those final exams.
• When you buy your books, you have the option of selling them back. While the market on some books is flooded, many books can be sold for equal or higher value. In my experience, I bought some books from the campus bookstore and sold them on Amazon for more than I paid for.

Ultimately, there is no silver bullet medium for acquiring your textbooks. To find the best deal, you need to take the time to search and compare the campus bookstore, off-campus vendors, online renters and online sellers. It comes down to what your preferences are for book conditions, your desire to keep it, and timeliness in receiving it. Try out different methods, and find what works best for you.

This article is part of a counterpoint series between Keith Kaplan of BookRenter.com and Matt Gagnon of the BetterGrads social media team. Check back for Matt’s response to Keith’s support for renting college textbooks!

College textbooks, courtesy of Pesky Library.

When it comes time to buy textbooks for your class, we all know it can empty your wallet. Every year when I start classes it always seems like I’m throwing a few hundred dollars in one click of a button.

I’ve always thought: Why buy a textbook for $200+ when you’re probably going to return it at the end of the semester for less than half the price? Most times, bookstores and online stores won’t buy back a book because it’s an outdated edition.

How do we stop this phenomenon? Well, you may have heard of textbook rentals.

Within the past few years, textbook rentals have sky rocketed. Instead of buying your textbooks, you rent and return them after your class is finished.

After asking many students, it seems that many don’t know that renting textbooks can keep a lot of money in your wallet. To give you a better understanding of how textbook rentals work, here’s a breakdown of the advantages of renting textbooks:

• Renting textbooks is cheaper than buying textbooks. For example, the retail price for the textbook, “Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis” is $221.33. Renting this textbook could cost as low as $44.27. You save $177.06 by renting (that’s 80% of the price!)
• Some textbook rental sites offer free shipping. Textbook rental sites like BookRenter.com offer free shipping both ways: when you rent them, and then when you return them.
• Return books you didn’t need (for free). Some textbook rental sites offer a grace period for when returning books you don’t need.
• Great selection is just as great as buying a book. Every textbook rental site I have search has had all my textbooks available.
• Textbook rental lengths are flexible. Most rental sites offer time periods that range in length. They can begin at 30 days and go all the way to a full semester rental.
• Take notes in a rental textbook! Some site allow you to write notes, highlight and mark up their books. Of course, make sure to check the site’s policy first.
• Want to buy the book? You can! If you end up wanting to keep your rented textbooks, many sites will let you buy it at the end of the rental period.

When it comes down to it, textbook rentals are a great alternative to buying textbooks. They provide the student with a way to save money, and in this day and age, that’s not a bad idea.

Keith Kaplan
San Mateo, Calif.

Keith Kaplan is a recent Albion College graduate who plans to attend Teachers College, Columbia University to study instructional technology and media. This summer, he has worked as a social media intern with BookRenter.com.

How will you get around in your college town? (Photo courtesy MSPdude via Flickr)

A few weeks ago, Annemarie wrote about some tips for visiting colleges during the summer.  After you’ve decided where you go to school, figuring out how to get there and get around becomes much more of an issue.  Transportation is an inevitable cost in college – whether it’s the cost of getting to and from college every semester, or the cost of getting to and from classes, it can all add up pretty quickly. There are smarter ways to travel that will put a lighter load on your bank account, as well as the environment!

Planning is the name of the game – getting your trips on the calendar now will put you in a better position to reduce your transportation costs. University academic calendars are key! (They’re usually accessible through a link on the school’s homepage).

A travel budget will include expected costs of flights, gas and other transportation, like subways and buses. Book travel as soon as possible to avoid any surprises.

Flying

As you may have experienced, paying for flights at the last minute is the worst thing you can do. Keep in mind that transportation from the airport can be costly. Find out how much taxis and shuttles cost to and from your lodging. College towns tend to offer shuttle services that will drive you from the airport to your dorm room -  find these! Here are some sites to check out for resources: Kayak.com, Hipmunk.com and STA Travel.

Driving

If you live close enough to drive, you may have friends who also plan to check out the college.  Carpooling makes a lot of sense!  If you’re moving to campus this fall, consider sharing a giant U-Haul for your stuff.  And your carpool buddy doesn’t have to be someone you were great friends with in high school – college marks a new beginning, and this is a great way to start meeting new people. Before I had a car at college, I often reached out to people I went to high school with for ride shares, especially when I was going home during short breaks like Thanksgiving when I didn’t really have anything to bring home.  One ride sharing etiquette tip – ALWAYS offer to pitch in for gas, or you probably won’t be sharing rides with that person anymore.

Trains

Trains are a less common form of transportation these days, but at the right price point, taking the train can make a lot of sense.  If you’re traveling home and have a lot of studying, the train is a great place to get that done so you can spend more time at home hanging out with friends and family.  Like with flying, you can find some very reasonable train fares if you book tickets well ahead of time.

Bus/Subway

This is one of the cheapest and least convenient ways to travel – it is definitely worth a look if you’re exploring all of your options.  Busses are most often used for getting around campus, but they’re also an option for getting to and from home (find your way to the nearest Greyhound station and you can get just about anywhere).   It may or may not be cost-effective to buy a monthly bus pass, and many large campuses provide free busses that loop around campus, so you’ll likely be able to count on that for local travel.

These are just a few tips for making transportation easier on you – as with most financial aspects of college, planning is key!  Know what you’re going to be spending and organize your travel plans as early as possible and you’ll find yourself with more spending money at the end of the year than if you procrastinated.  Happy travels!

Photo courtesy Chicago Man via Flickr.

You’ve probably heard rumors about the school I attended. The school named the “Top Party School” in the U.S. by Playboy in 2002 and remains in the top 10. The school that had a sex scandal involving the student body vice president. The school that’s easy driving distance to both Las Vegas and Rocky Point, Mexico. Arizona State University. I wasn’t a partier in high school, yet I ended up at an infamous party school. Before starting, I got a lot of “Hey, isn’t that a huge party school?” from friends and family. After classes began, it didn’t change much.

My answer then (and still is): “Any college can be a party school. You make it what it is.”

Sure, at ASU you could find a frat party pretty much any night of the week. The bar scene on Mill Avenue and further north in Old Town Scottsdale is a happening place. Hookups with party-crazy freshmen were common in my dorm, Manzanita Hall (known affectionately by upperclassmen as “15 Floors of Whores”). As a whole, drugs, sex and alcohol were easy to come by.

However, maybe attributable to being a bit of a goody-goody, I kept a 3.8 grade average and graduated in three and a half years. Oh, I had fun, believe me. (Mom, Dad, if you’re reading this… if I wasn’t at the library, I was drinking milk at the cafeteria and getting eight solid hours of sleep each night!) Ok, yeah, I did partake in some underage spirits. I’m a firm believer in having fun. But I was also not about to throw away my education. I knew I was paying an exorbitant amount of out-of-state tuition, and I wasn’t about to waste the money my grandparents and parents had carefully saved. Plus, I really wanted a college degree. Have fun, yes… but study? Yup to that, too.

Things have definitely cooled down for ASU since I was there, mostly attributed to the new president’s desire to get the school in the top tiers of research universities and out of the top tiers of boobie magazine polls. As an ASU alumna, I’m glad. They’ve spent a lot of money and resources to improve education across the various colleges. This crack-down might put a damper on on-campus keg parties, but I guarantee someone will still be having a party every Friday night, and there’s always the opportunity to meet like-minded freshmen looking for a casual hook-up. If that’s literally all you want, why spend the thousands of dollars to attend college? Hit up your local college campus-adjacent bar.

The reputation ASU had as a party school didn’t come out of nowhere. I will concede it was probably (definitely) easier to find a party or drugs or whatever you wanted than at, say, Brigham Young University. Not saying the LDS community doesn’t have fun, but again, their college campuses have cleaner reputations. But again, you make it what it is. Whether or not you go to parties, also go to class, study and be able to enjoy non-alcoholic beverages, too (milk!). You’ll still have a blast, and you’ll have the added benefit of walking away at the end of it with tangible evidence of your experience: a college degree.

This article is part of the BetterGrads special series “BetterGrads Q&A.” Contributors are asked to pick one big question they had about college and tell how they found (or didn’t find) the answer. If you’d like to submit an article for this series, please read our editorial guidelines and let us know here.