Arlene Vinion Dubiel, Ph.D.

Written By Kathy Almy
Arlene Vinion Dubiel, Ph.D.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel, Ph.D.

Northern Illinois University

Email • Website

Specialization: Science, Assessment, Active Instruction

Arlene Dubiel is a teacher-educator with expertise in science, assessment, and active instructional strategies. Her experience as a biomedical researcher reinforced her belief that students must engage in the practices of science to become scientifically literate. She has 15 years of college teaching experience in science, education, and assessment and provides professional development for in-service teachers. Arlene has also served as an instructional designer, grant writer, and project manager. Samples of her work can be found at tmath.niu.edu and published in Science & Children and Science Scope.

Arlene’s Articles

Blog
How is your teaching?
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
How is your teaching?
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

Teaching is my passion. It can be frustrating, it can be lonely, it can be challenging, and it can be pure joy. Because it is my passion, I want to know that I’m teaching as best as I can and supporting my students’ learning. But how do I know if I’m teaching well?

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Building a Classroom Community
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Building a Classroom Community
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

From the first day of class, whether in person or online, we can take steps to foster community. The benefits of building community are numerous. Students can hold each other accountable for attending class and engaging in class activities. They can engage in group learning more effectively by knowing each others’ strengths and weaknesses. They can also engage in respectful classroom discussions involving multiple perspectives that could otherwise lead to controversy.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Remote vs. In-person Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Remote vs. In-person Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

When Covid-19 got its foothold in the United States, and schools left for spring break never to return, we had to scramble to switch to fully remote learning. Now that we're resurfacing from the pandemic, many stakeholders are pushing for remote learning to continue. There are advantages to remote learning, and it does need to be utilized. Still, there are situations where being physically together in the same room can offer exceptional learning opportunities.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Where have all the good men gone?
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Where have all the good men gone?
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey in October 2020, men accounted for 71% of the decline in enrollment numbers compared with five years ago. While enrollment overall has been dropping, the loss of males has occurred at a higher rate than females. It appears that is simply due to fewer men applying for college. Leaving many to wonder, where are men going?

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Building Relationships with Students
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Building Relationships with Students
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

It can be challenging to get to know your individual students at the college level as you do not see them frequently and likely have no prior connection. Building positive, personal relationships with your college students takes time and effort, but putting in that little extra work is well worth the results.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Personalized Learning for the College Math Classroom
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Personalized Learning for the College Math Classroom
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

With the anticipated learning loss due to the pandemic, forced remote learning, and the ubiquitous use of technology for the classroom, there has been considerable talk about personalized learning. What exactly is personalized learning? What are the advantages and disadvantages of other strategies? And, most importantly, how do you implement personalized learning in the college math classroom?


Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Stopped by Math
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Stopped by Math
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

Why does math stop interest in science? There is a need for more STEM graduates to fill the projected growth in STEM occupations. What can we do to support and encourage those students who are interested in STEM, but then get stopped by challenges?

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Project-Based Assessments
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Project-Based Assessments
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

In this blog, Arlene Vinion Dubiel shares what makes an exemplary project-based assessment with the intent of helping others to identify, modify, and/or create high-quality project-based assessments.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
What have we learned?
Kathleen Almy
What have we learned?
Kathleen Almy

Most of us will be going back to in-person learning in the fall, but we can’t go back to exactly how things were before the pandemic started. What are these lessons we have learned, and how do we use them when we see our students in person again?

Kathleen Almy
Grading to Promote Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Grading to Promote Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

As you complete your grading for the academic year, consider whether your course grading system promotes a learning orientation or a task-completion orientation. Changing a course grading system to focus almost entirely on summative projects produced final grades that rewarded quality over participation and effort.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Assessing PBL
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Assessing PBL
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

When students are engaged in project-based learning, the classroom becomes an active community.. Students are using mathematics practices, talking, and working together to solve problems and complete complex tasks. Students often think of PBL as fun, unaware of the intense learning that’s taking place. It’s necessary to purposely assess this learning during PBL instead of using traditional testing. By doing so, evidence can be evaluated by rubrics through PBL.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Talking in Math
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Talking in Math
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

Talking in the mathematics classroom is an essential skill for students. But HOW do we get students to talk math with one another? What steps can we take to support discussion in the mathematics classroom?


Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Project-based learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Project-based learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

In this blog, we explore some of the benefits of engaging students in PBL and provide practical advice for how to implement PBL successfully. We will focus on PBL in relation to mathematics teaching and learning and address transitional math.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Feedback for Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Feedback for Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

Formative assessments take many different forms: exit tickets, quizzes, rough drafts of written assignments, prototypes for projects, and more. Whenever you have evidence of students learning, it can be used as a formative assessment. Even the summative test results can be used to see areas of strengths and weaknesses to inform the teaching of future classes.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Exit Tickets for Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Exit Tickets for Learning
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

The concept of the exit ticket is that students must turn in a ticket before exiting the class. They are quick to administer, only requiring the last two to three minutes of class and they can provide good information on where students are in terms of next steps. In this blog, we talk about these four main purposes and how these exit tickets benefit you or your students.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Futures of Education
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Futures of Education
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

As we prepare for schools to reopen in the near future, we need to ask if we truly want to go back to exactly how things were before the pandemic started. We have an opportunity to make changes for the better for our whole nation. What lessons have we learned and what do we want our educational system to look like?

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Motivating Students to Learn
Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Motivating Students to Learn
Arlene Vinion Dubiel

We know too well that if students are not engaged, they will not learn. In this blog post we discuss goal orientation; ego-involved, task-completion, and learning, and how this impacts student success.

Arlene Vinion Dubiel
Kathy Almy
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