These texts present you with evidence-based instructional approaches you can implement in a variety of courses whether you teach large enrollment lectures or small graduate seminars, undergraduates or professional program students, face-to-face or online.
Staff Picks
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Middendorf, J. K., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline.
Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors.
Steele, Claude M. (2010). Whistling vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Energizing learning: The instructional power of conflict; Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (January 01, 2009). Educational Researcher.
Ten (updated) principles of academic integrity: How faculty can foster student honesty; McCabe, D., & Pavela, G. (May 01, 2004). Change: the Magazine of Higher Learning.
Active learning strategies in face-to-face courses; Millis, B. J., & IDEA Center. (2012).
Facilitating group discussions: Understanding group development and dynamics; Takayama, K. (2009-10). Essays on teaching excellence: Toward the best in the academy.
Books
Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
This revised and greatly expanded edition of the 1988 handbook offers teachers at all levels of experience detailed, how-to advice on classroom assessment from what it is and how it works to planning, implementing, and analyzing assessment projects. The authors illustrate their approach through twelve case studies that detail the real-life classroom experiences of teachers carrying out successful classroom assessment projects.
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Student Engagement Techniques is a comprehensive resource that offers college teachers a dynamic model for engaging students and includes over one hundred tips, strategies, and techniques that have been proven to help teachers from a wide variety of disciplines and institutions motivate and connect with their students. The ready-to-use format shows how to apply each of the book's techniques in the classroom and includes purpose, preparation, procedures, examples, online implementation, variations and extensions, observations and advice, and key resources.
Fiksdal, S.R. (2014). A guide to teaching effective seminars: Conversation, identity and power. New York, NY: Routledge.
Susan Fiksdal, a linguistics professor at The Evergreen State College, utilizes her training as a sociolinguist to analyze seminars and provide best practices for instructors use in seminars. Her work considers how students find their voices in seminar spaces; she explores both how students develop their own academic voices as well as how students literally enter their voices into discussion-style seminars.
Lang, J.M. (2013). Cheating lessons: Learning from academic dishonesty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
James Lang, English professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, geared this book to academic faculty as well as administrators who support teaching faculty. His research focuses on academic dishonesty as an inappropriate response to a specific learning environment, rather than a tendency of some individual students.
Lee, A., et. al. (2017). Teaching interculturally: A framework for integrating disciplinary knowledge and intercultural development. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Amy Lee, Robert Poch, Mary Katherine O'Brien and Catherine Solheim wrote this book to lay out a pedagogical framework for allowing a diversity of voices and experiences to emerge in the classroom. The basis of their intercultural pedagogy holds that all students bring specific experiences and backgrounds to the class that informs their work and their learning. By implementing certain practices in the classroom, instructors can draw on these diverse perspectives to create an inclusive, student-centered learning environment.
Middendorf, J. K., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline.
Decoding the Disciplines is a widely-used and proven methodology that prompts teachers to identify the bottlenecks – the places where students get stuck – that impede learners' paths to expert thinking in a discipline. The process is based on recognizing the gap between novice learning and expert thinking, and uncovering tacit knowledge that may not be made manifest in teaching. Through "decoding," implicit expert knowledge can be turned into explicit mental tasks, and made available to students. This book presents a seven-step process for uncovering bottlenecks and determining the most effective way to enable students to surmount them.
Miller, Michelle D. (2014). Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Michelle D. Miller, Co-Director of the First Year Learning Initiative and Professor of Psychology at Northern Arizona University, provides strategic ways for university faculty and instructors to align classroom technology with key principles of human cognition, namely attention, memory and thinking. Minds Online, written in a conversational and accessible tone, begins with a discussion of the impact of technology in contemporary higher education settings. Miller then dedicates specific chapters to attention, memory and thinking.
Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors.
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.
Stanley, Christine A. & M. Erin Porter. (2002). Engaging large classes: Strategies and techniques for college faculty. Boston, MA: Anker Pub Co.
Christine A. Stanley and M. Erin Porter explain that with many universities forming larger classroom sizes, instructors may find themselves teaching classes of between 100-500 students, depending on their institutional size. Their volume aims to provide research-based methods as well as instructor advice about how to effectively teach and promote learning in a large classroom setting. Stanley and Porter, respectively a professor of Higher Education and a professor of Speech Communication, edited the volume and curated articles from instructors in over seventeen disciplines to provide a broad range of examples about managing large classes.
Steele, Claude M. (2010). Whistling vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
In Whistling Vivaldi, Claude M. Steele, a social psychologist, explores how the concept of stereotype threat relates to minority performance in university settings. For Steele, stereotype threat is the ways in which people are internally guided and restricted by stereotypes about their particular demographics and identities.
Walvoord, B.E.F., & Anderson, V. J. (2010). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment in college.
The second edition of Effective Grading — the book that has become a classic in the field — provides a proven hands-on guide for evaluating student work and offers an in-depth examination of the link between teaching and grading. Authors Barbara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson explain that grades are not isolated artifacts but part of a process that, when integrated with course objectives, provides rich information about student learning, as well as being a tool for learning itself. The authors show how the grading process can be used for broader assessment objectives, such as curriculum and institutional assessment.
Articles
Corrigan, H., & Craciun, G. (June 06, 2013). Asking the right questions: Using student-written exams as an innovative approach to learning and evaluation. Marketing Education Review, 23, 1, 31-35.
"Most students are concerned about grades and often have negative attitudes toward testing. Students perceive traditional instructor-written exams as irrelevant and autocratic, leading to lower trust in teaching and evaluation methods and decreased motivation to learn. This paper discusses a new approach, the student-written exam, which is a take-home assessment where each student writes and answers his or her own exam questions."
Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results
Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (September 01, 2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American Journal of Physics, 69, 9, 970-77.
"Presents data from 10 years of teaching using Peer Instruction (PI) in calculus- and algebra-based introductory physics courses for non-majors. Results indicate increased mastery of both conceptual reasoning and quantitative problem solving upon implementing PI. Discusses ways to improve the implementation of PI."
Student perceptions of classroom engagement and learning using iPads
Diemer, T., Fernandez, E., & Streepey, J. (2013). Student perceptions of classroom engagement and learning using iPads. Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 1(2), 13-25.
"This paper reports on a multidisciplinary assessment of student perceptions of engagement and learning using iPads. Student reactions following single and multiple classroom activities using iPads were measured via a survey asking them to rate their learning and engagement using a 5-point Likert scale. Responses to the questions were grouped into thematic categories of Perceived Learning and Perceived Engagement. Students who reported a high level of engagement while using iPads reported a high level of learning as well."
Energizing learning: The instructional power of conflict
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (January 01, 2009). Energizing learning: The instructional power of conflict. Educational Researcher, 38, 3.
"Although intellectual conflict may be an important instructional tool (because of its potential constructive outcomes), conflict is rarely structured in instructional situations (because of its potential destructive outcomes). Many educators may be apprehensive about instigating intellectual conflict among students because of the lack of operational procedures to guide them. Ideally, operational procedures should be based on social science theory that is validated by research. Constructive controversy is an instructional procedure that is designed to create intellectual conflict among students and that meets these criteria. The authors of this article summarize the theory underlying constructive controversy and review the results of their meta-analysis of the validating research. The positive outcomes indicate that intellectual conflict can have important and positive effects on student learning and well-being."
Ten (updated) principles of academic integrity: How faculty can foster student honesty
McCabe, D., & Pavela, G. (May 01, 2004). Ten (updated) principles of academic integrity: How faculty can foster student honesty. Change: the Magazine of Higher Learning, 36, 3, 10-15.
"The writers present an updated version of their original 'Principles of Academic Integrity for Faculty' that builds on the many things they have learned over the past five years in conversations with students and faculty on dozens of campuses and that recasts the original guidelines in a way that makes more sense for the Internet Age."
Active learning strategies in face-to-face courses
Millis, B. J., & IDEA Center. (2012). Active learning strategies in face-to-face courses. IDEA Paper #53. IDEA Center, Inc. 301 South Fourth Street Suite 200, Manhattan, KS 66502. Tel: 800-255-2757; Tel: 785-320-2400; e-mail: info@IDEAedu.org; Web site: http://ideaedu.org.
"As numerous research studies suggest, teachers who desire increased student learning should adopt active learning. This article explores the research, defines active learning, discusses its value, offers suggestions for implementing it, and provides six concrete examples of active learning approaches: Thinking-Aloud Pair Problem-Solving; Three-Step Interview; Think-Pair-Share; Visible Quiz; Value Line; and Send/Pass-a-Problem."
Facilitating group discussions: Understanding group development and dynamics
Takayama, K. (2009-10). Facilitating group discussions: understanding group development and dynamics. Essays on Teaching Excellence: Toward the best in the Academy, 21, 1.
"Facilitating discussions requires the ability to engage different perspectives and skills in response to the needs of the group. How well a group works together depends upon the dynamics among participants and the ability of the facilitator to gauge and respond to these dynamics. An effective facilitator works to create an inclusive learning environment while being prepared to set boundaries and rules when necessary."
Self-regulation and achievement goals in the college classroom
Zusho, A., & Edwards, K. (May 30, 2011). Self-regulation and achievement goals in the college classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 126, 21-31.
"A review of the existing literature on self-regulation of learning and motivation at the college level and offers practical tips to educators who struggle with disinterested learners."
Faculty do matter: The role of college faculty in student learning and engagement
Umbach, P. D., & Wawrzynski, M. R. (March 01, 2005). Faculty do matter: The role of college faculty in student learning and engagement. Research in Higher Education: Journal of the Association for Institutional Research, 46, 2, 153-184.
"This study uses two national data sets to explore the relationship between faculty practices and student engagement. Our findings suggest that students report higher levels of engagement and learning at institutions where faculty members use active and collaborative learning techniques, engage students in experiences, emphasize higher-order cognitive activities in the classroom, interact with students, challenge students academically, and value enriching educational experiences."
