Teaching

This page is intended to summarize research about the best approached to teach (classes or anything). We do not own the material, it is intended to summarize this knowledge with an academic purposes:

Some bibliography:

How Learning Works

This book distills the research on cognition, translating decades of scientific literature into practical advice for university faculty and introducing seven general principles of how people learn. The authors draw on research from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, as well as educational research, anthropology, etc. The discussion spans issues from memory to motivation, integrating theory with real-classroom examples in practice. Participants will develop strategies for strengthening their own teaching through the application of these principles of cognitive psychology.

Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning

How do I get my students’ attention? How do I help my students to go deeper, expand their ability to analyze and feel empowered by their own learning? James Lang’s newest book explores the science of learning and shares with us small changes we can make that will have a powerful influence on our students’ learning. Join us as we learn the tools and techniques to help us answer these and other teaching and learning questions.

What the Best College Teachers Do

Ken Bain wanted to know how some faculty manage to “make a sustained, substantial, and positive influence on how their students think, act, and feel.” How do some faculty consistently provoke deep learning, while the rest of us merely have good intentions? Bain conducted a fifteen-year study of a hundred extraordinarily effective teachers, to see how they help their students learn. The book traces how these exceptional teachers approach their subjects, their students, and the process of learning.

What Universities Can Be: A New Model for Preparing Students for Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership

Robert Sternberg thinks that universities can do a better job teaching things like wisdom, compassion, creativity, and practical thinking. If we’re preparing students to be leaders for the future, they’ll need all of these skills, and opportunities to practice making ethical decisions. This group will discuss strategies for realizing Sternberg’s ideas in our own classrooms.

How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching

Teaching is a challenging profession. One way to make it easier is to know more about the ways students learn. How Humans Learn surveys research in fields as diverse as developmental psychology, anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience for insight into the science behind learning. Joshua R. Eyler guides the reader through a story that ranges from investigations of the evolutionary record to studies of infants discovering the world for the first time, and from a look into how our brains respond to fear to a reckoning with the importance of gestures and language. In this reading group, we will explore five broad themes—curiosity, sociality, emotion, authenticity, and failure—and discuss practical takeaways for busy teachers.

Learner-Centered Teaching: Putting the Research on Learning Into Practice

Recent decades have brought a wealth of research on learning and cognition; these developments are gradually making their way into work on best practices for the college classroom. Doyle’s Learner-Centered Teaching: Putting the Research on Learning into Practice is a practical guide to strategies for making effective use of the research. When we adjust our classroom focus from teaching to learning, we make our own work more gratifying, and we can enhance our students’ learning experience as well as their mastery of material. The group will generate specific strategies and activities for enriching our own classrooms.

The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion

Most of our preparation for teaching (both our training and our planning) focuses on the content, and the thinking students need to do, but Sarah Rose Cavanagh reminds us that learning is a highly emotional process. Anxiety and fear hamper learning, while powerful positive emotions can enhance it. Cavanagh offers concrete strategies for harnessing the power of emotion to galvanize learning.

Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

In this entertaining and informative book, Daniel Willingham shares highlights from his research into the brain basis of learning and memory, and describes the application of cognitive psychology to education. His book can help us enhance our teaching by explaining how we (as experts) and our students (as novices) think and learn. Willingham discusses the importance of story, emotion, memory, context, and routine in building knowledge and creating lasting learning. Participants will generate concrete ideas for their own classrooms.

Discussion in the College Classroom

Whether you have been teaching through class discussion for years, or you’d like to begin incorporating discussion into a course for the first time, this wonderful book is for faculty of all disciplines and experience levels. In Discussion in the College Classroom, Jay R. Howard, a professor of sociology, summarizes findings from an extensive body of research on discussion as a pedagogical technique, and shares practical approaches to keeping classroom discussions fresh, productive, and serving the learning goals, both in person and online. Participants will explore the findings and strategies in the book, and share their own plans for structuring thought-provoking class discussions.

Improving How Universities Teach Science: Lessons from the Science Education Initiative

Nobel-winning physicist Carl Wieman is also an outspoken proponent of education research, and has spent decades studying the effects of scholarly approaches to teaching. His most recent book presents the results of an extensive science education initiative, and advocates substantial changes in the structure and strategies of college classes, to achieve far greater student learning. He also provides concrete strategies for improving teaching without imposing undue demands on faculty time.

The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World In Flux

Davidson argues that our current educational system was designed for an industrializing economy, and no longer offers students the type of preparation they require for a globalized and digital future. If universities are to remain relevant in our rapidly changing world, we’ll have to become more nimble. Davidson studies innovative faculty and institutions that have found ways to help students hone their creative, collaborative, and adaptive skills.

Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race

Faculty often feel unprepared for the difficult dialogues or inter-group conflicts that may arise in class, but navigating these discussions is important for students’ learning and for maintaining a productive classroom environment. Derald Wing Sue’s book unites quantitative and qualitative research, providing numerous examples and analyses of complex and challenging conversations.

Teaching To Transgress

Hooks challenges the “banking” model of learning, where education is envisioned as an accumulation of received wisdom. She argues that instead, education must be a process of empowerment and liberation, in which students learn to question, to resist, and to find their own place in a larger conversation. She asks us as educators to examine our own assumptions, biases, and privileges, so that we can better reach our students, and offer them a truly transformational education. Participants will develop strategies for putting these ideas into practice.

Creating the Path to Success in the Classroom: Teaching to Close the Graduation Gap for Minority, First-Generation, and Academically Unprepared Students

Over the past few decades, extensive research has shown that we can significantly reduce achievement gaps and enhance student learning by adjusting our teaching practices and the ways we structure our courses. But where do we start? Kathleen Gabriel’s book provides practical strategies for building our courses to ensure that more students learn more and more deeply. Gabriel offers concrete steps we can take to enhance student motivation, structure class time effectively, prompt critical thinking, design effective assignments, and create classroom climates that promote learning.

Specifications Grading

Linda Nilson argues that "our current grading system is broken. It doesn’t work well for faculty, students, post-secondary institutions, or prospective employers of our graduates." In Specifications Grading, she offers "an alternative system that restores rigor, motivates students, and saves you grading time." We'll use her text as the foundation for a broader discussion about grading, and how to improve our practices, so that our courses, exams, and assignments are measuring what we want to be measuring.

In the Name of Identity

It can be difficult to reach students when their assumptions and even their core beliefs are challenged by our material. Maalouf’s book will provide a starting place for discussion of how group identity plays a role in learning, and how we may be able to defuse the threats to identity that can inhibit learning, in order to create a better climate for the intellectual risk and growth we want to cultivate.