Center for Learning & Teaching

Nihil Nimus is a unique and essential guide to the start of a successful academic career. As its title suggests (nothing in excess), it advocates moderation in ways of working, based on the single-most reliable difference between new faculty who thrive and those who struggle. By following its practical, easy-to-use rules, novice faculty can learn to teach with the highest levels of student approval, involvement, and comprehension, with only modest preparation times and a greater reliance on spontaneity and student participation.

Takes new instructors through the planning, preparation, and execution of their first class, whether it is in person or online. Like any good mentor, this book provides clear, simple instructions and makes best-practice recommendations. Provides a step-by-step guide to writing a syllabus, a simple explanation for how to calculate grades, and many additional suggestions about how to run a class. Chronologically arranged from conceptualizing the class through putting together the syllabus, planning in-class time, running the class, and assigning grades, this book will answer any new instructors’ questions.

Included are many techniques to improve instruction beyond delivering a more spirited lecture, such as, planning for instruction, applying knowledge of learning processes, questioning during discussions, methods of meeting different learning styles, and student assessment. Also important to note is the section on assessment of one's performance by students and other faculty members. Gives a comprehensive picture of the challenges faced by any part time or full time faculty member.

Gathering concepts and techniques from outstanding college professors, this book provides helpful guidance for those developing and teaching their first college courses. The author proposes that teaching should not be like a baseball game in which the instructor pitches ideas to students to see whether they hit or strike out. Instead, teaching should resemble a game of Frisbee in which the teacher invites students to catch ideas and pass them on.

This vital tool for the new lecturer aims to encourage and support inquiry into university teaching and academic life. Teaching is one of many activities integrated in academic work, and is directly affected by administrative concerns such as timetabling and workload demands, departmental culture, disciplinary research expectations and how we think about the purposes and values of higher education.

A resource for early-career academics preparing to teach in universities. Examines four critical areas - teaching, curriculum, students, and quality/leadership - and offers university teachers a straightforward approach to effective student learning. The book helps university teachers develop teaching skills and strategies, while linking theory to practice. Written in a clear and accessible style by internationally acclaimed experts, topics include: learning theories, assessment, discipline-based teaching, curriculum design, problem-based and work-integrated learning, effective classroom teaching, and flexible modes of delivery.

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators. The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand.

This guide to finding, choosing, and using "what's out there" demonstrates the best tools, resources, and techniques for discovering, selecting, and integrating interactive open educational resourcees (OERs) into the teaching and learning process. Examines many of the best resources for high quality materials, and explains the best practices for effectively searching these repositories and how to evaluate, select, and integrate the resources into the curriculum and course, as well as your institution's learning management system.

This expanded and updated edition of the best-selling handbook is full of hundreds of practical teaching techniques, classroom activities and exercises, for the new or experienced college instructor. Includes entirely new chapters on matching teaching methods with learning outcomes, inquiry-guide learning, using visuals to teach, and more.

Offers a broad look at the connections between college teaching and social class. Includes twenty essays originally published in Radical Teacher, a journal that has been a leader in the field of critical pedagogy since 1975. This wide-ranging and insightful volume addresses the interests, concerns, and pedagogical needs of teachers committed to social justice and provides them with new tools for thinking and teaching about class.

"The goal of the monograph is to synthesize literature on why intercultural skills matter, what they look like in practice, and how they can be developed by instructors regardless of the courses they teach."

I am once again struck by bell hooks's never-ending, unquiet intellectual energy, an energy that makes her radical and loving." -- Paulo Freire In Teaching to Transgress,bell hooks--writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual--writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal. bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom? Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings.

Contemplative pedagogy is a way for instructors to empower students to integrate their own experience into the theoretical material they are being taught, help students develop sophisticated problem-solving skills, and support students’ sense of connection to and compassion for others. This book presents background information and ideas for the practical application of contemplative practices across the academic curriculum from the physical sciences to the humanities and arts.

Changing student profiles and the increasing availability of mainstream and specialized learning technologies are stretching the traditional face-to-face models of teaching and learning in higher education. Institutions are also facing systemic changes which strain existing resources. Research provides strong evidence of the potential for technologies to facilitate not only cognition and learning but also to become integral components in the redesign of current curriculum models.

This indispensable handbook provides helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday challenges of university teaching and those that arise in efforts to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and adaptable to specific classroom situations. Rather than suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically, the book gives instructors the tools they need to deal with the ever-changing dynamics of teaching and learning.

"As scholarly as [it] is . . . this book about education happens to double as an optimistic, even thrilling, summer read." --The New York Times A brilliant combination of science and its real-world application, Now You See It sheds light on one of the greatest problems of our historical moment: our schools and businesses are designed for the last century, not for a world in which technology has reshaped the way we think and learn. In this informed and optimistic work, Cathy N. Davidson takes us on a tour of the future of work and education, introducing us to visionaries whose groundbreaking ideas will soon affect every arena of our lives, from schools with curriculums built around video games to workplaces that use virtual environments to train employees.

Presents the key principles of a cultural historical approach to teaching. Addresses issues of effective teaching of large classes, providing support for struggling writers or for students with disabilities, creating opportunities for students from historically underserved communities, preparing students for the professions, and building bridges between higher education and the wider community.

Research into how we learn has opened the door for utilizing cognitive theory to facilitate better student learning. But that's easier said than done. Many books about cognitive theory introduce radical but impractical theories, failing to make the connection to the classroom. In Small Teaching, James Lang presents a strategy for improving student learning with a series of modest but powerful changes that make a big difference. These strategies are designed to bridge the chasm between primary research and the classroom environment in a way that can be implemented by any faculty in any discipline, and even integrated into pre-existing teaching techniques. Small teaching techniques include brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or communication with students.

The classic teaching toolbox, updated with new research and ideas Teaching at Its Best is the bestselling, research-based toolbox for college instructors at any level, in any higher education setting. Packed with practical guidance, proven techniques, and expert perspectives, this book helps instructors improve student learning both face-to-face and online. This new fourth edition features five new chapters on building critical thinking into course design, creating a welcoming classroom environment, helping students learn how to learn, giving and receiving feedback, and teaching in multiple modes, along with the latest research and new questions to facilitate faculty discussion. Topics include new coverage of the flipped classroom, cutting-edge technologies, self-regulated learning, the mental processes involved in learning and memory, and more, in the accessible format and easy-to-understand style that has made this book a much-valued resource among college faculty.

The development of students is a fundamental purpose of higher education and requires for its success effective advising, teaching, leadership, and management. This annual volume offers examples and resources for the enrichment of all educational developers.