Teaching Tips & Strategies
Below, find tips and strategies for designing your course or syllabus, addressing student concerns and diversity, and incorporating technology into your teaching.
Addressing instructional goals - Here is a good set of short articles providing ideas for addressing elements of good teaching often found on course evaluation forms such as "Explained the reasons for criticisms of students' academic performance," or "Explained course material clearly and concisely." - from The IDEA Center
Addressing learning goals for students - Here is a good set of short articles, similar to the above entry, providing ideas for promoting student learning, with titles such as “Learning fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories,” “Acquiring skills in working with others as a member of a team,” and “Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view.” - from the IDEA Center
Solve a teaching problem - a unique site that identifies a number of common teaching problems (e.g., students do poorly on an exam, students don't come to lecture), helps you diagnose the likely cause(s), and suggests strategies for addressing the problem
Content tyranny - "Does the content tyrant rule your classroom? If you say, "I can't do that; I have to cover the content," every time a colleague offers a suggestion about how to improve your teaching, there's a good chance it does." This brief essay suggests some signs to look for and strategies to address content tyranny.
Samples of academic dishonesty/plagiarism statements on syllabi - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Berkeley
Course Design
INTRODUCTION: Overview of an effective approach to course design -- This is a good place to start in thinking about designing a new course or redesigning an old one. It is based on the Understanding by Design model.
Fink Taxonomy for course design - this is a popular model for designing or rethinking a course, and this article provides a good step-by-step overview.
Design and teach a course - a lot of good suggestions for most aspects of course design - from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
Course design tutorial - developed by Barbara Tewksbury and R. Heather Macdonald
Planning a course - good advice from an expert teacher
Course design - from the Center for Instructional Development and Research at the University of Washington
Teaching for Learning - a good, hour-long talk by a Stanford English faculty member describing how she shifted the focus of her course from "what she should teach" to "what students should learn." She uses her experiences with a Literary History course to illustrate the process she went through and the challenges she encountered and overcame.
Syllabus development
"Components of a comprehensive course syllabus" - A good list of common syllabus components
Syllabus development - a good, detailed tutorial
What is an effective syllabus? - Takes you through each component
Learning-centered syllabi - good, detailed advice from the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University
Top 10 tips for first day - from The Center for Teaching and Faculty Development at San Francisco State University
More strategies for the first days/weeks of class
More advice on the first day of class - from the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University
Eight objectives for the first day of class - from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
First day of class - more advice from Dakin Burdick
Learning student names - 27(!) techniques from Joan Middendorf
Internationalizing your course - a good, detailed tutorial
Last day of class - a nice set of ideas from Dakin Burdick
INTRODUCTION: Writing learning objectives - very good, detailed description of how to create learning objectives for your courses - from The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State University
Determining learning objectives - from the Handbook of instruction from Florida State University
Rubric for assessing course objectives
"Establishing rapport: Personal interaction and learning" - IDEA Paper 39 - from The IDEA Center
Student information sheet - description of how an instructor uses information gathered from students on the first day to build rapport throughout the course -- two examples are given of the questions asked of students
"Know your copy rights" - Excellent guide on what you can and cannot do with materials you want to use for your classes
INTRODUCTION: Promoting positive student motivation - Good overview of theory and research on student motivation with some suggestions - IDEA Paper 41 - from The IDEA Center
"Capturing and directing the motivation to learn"
"Getting students to read: 14 tips" - IDEA Paper 40 - from The IDEA Center
Teaching critical reading - from the Graduate Student Instructor Teaching and Resource Center at Berkeley
Diversity Web - "An interactive resource hub for higher education" - from the Association of American Colleges and Universities
Diversity and inclusive excellence - publications from the Association of American Colleges and Universities
Variety of resources and suggestions - from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State University
Creating inclusive college classrooms - from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan
Inclusive teaching - strategies and resources from the Center for Instructional Development and Research at the Univ. of Washington
Teaching students with disabilities - a variety of suggestions for a number of specific disabilities (e.g., ADHD, visual disabilities)
Multicultural teaching - information and strategies from the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning at the Univ of Michigan
Universal Design for Learning - "is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs."
Problem Students and Disruptive Behavior
Managing conflict - a good, detailed tutorial
Suggestions for handling problem students and disruptive behaviors
"Managing hot moments in the classroom" - some good advice for dealing with conflicts and emotional moments
Incivility in the college classroom - a variety of strategies and resources
Establishing class rules - This activity asks students to identify the qualities of a "good" instructor, then identify the qualities of a "good" student, and then mutually agree to exhibit those qualities.
"Top ten tips for addressing sensitive topics and maintaining civility in the classroom" - from the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development at San Francisco State University
Difficult students: Four case studies
Strategies and tools for preventing/addressing academic dishonesty - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Berkeley
Academic Integrity - links for instructors and students - particularly recommended is list of suggestions for encouraging academic integrity
A variety of good resources on academic integrity in the classroom - from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan
"Promoting academic integrity in the classroom" - good essay describing the issues as well as best practices
Promoting Study and Learning Skills
Summarizing and notetaking - brief but good research-based advice
EXAMPLE: Using cell phones to summarize complex text
In-class note-taking skills - good list of advice for students
Metacognition (awareness of and thinking about one's thinking)
"Helping students link effort and performance" - Here's a good article in the APS Observer about how teachers can assist students who believe they put a lot of effort into a task but do not end up with good performance. Here is an article the first one reminded me of that I use often and has a great title: "Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence." It summarizes research finding that our weaker students not only are weak, but also can't identify when their performance is weak. Unfortunately, those same students are often the ones who don't know how to fix their performance even if it is pointed out to them that it is weak. The first article gives some good suggestions about helping such students.
Using Technology in Instruction
Using technology and collaboration to engage students - an experienced teacher "discusses how he revised a course to increase student motivation and engagement using project-based learning and technology tools, such as blogs and wikis."
Ten instructional technology tools - This article provides a brief overview of some newer technologies instructors are using such as blogs, wikis, and classroom response systems (clickers). Here are links to more information on some of these tools.
Accessible Technology (Using technology in such a way that all students, including those with disabilities, can take advantage of it)
Improving accessibility of documents and media - excellent video tutorials and other resources on how to make Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF documents more accessible - from The California State Universities
Making instructional materials accessible - from CSU-Long Beach
Creating accessible web pages - from The California State Universities
Accessibility and Usability Guide - extensive resources from Penn State University
PowerPoint
Active learning with PowerPoint - a good, detailed tutorial
Drawing on PowerPoint slides - from Sue Frantz
Pros and cons of PowerPoint - Four essays on the uses and misuses of PowerPoint
Is it really necessary?
Examining PowerPointlessness
A case for PowerPoint as a faculty authoring system
PowerPoint: Not your grandmother's presentations, but is it evil?
Lecture Capture
What is it? Lecture capture is the process of videotaping or audiotaping a lecture from class or creating a mini-lecture to be shared online with students before or after a class. Such online lectures can serve as review for students, or serve as additional lecture material, or serve as the primary lecture material so class time can be used for more interactive experiences.
Lecture capture: A guide for effective use -- A good description of lecture capture, uses of it, issues to consider, and suggestions for implementation
Instructional Blogging
Best practices and case studies on using blogs in your courses
Several uses of blogging in courses - for example, students post drafts of work on blog to receive student feedback before turning in the final copy - from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of California, Davis
Setting up a blog for your course - This good description uses WordPress as the blog platform - from Dakin Burdick
Classroom Responses Systems (Clickers)
Overview of clickers - what they are and how they are used, and some additional reading
Use of clickers - good description of how clickers can be used in the classroom
Online discussions
Crafting questions for online discussions
Have a link to good resources on teaching? Please e-mail the Center.