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Effective Practices in Teaching & Learning

CTL Recommendations

The best time to set expectations is at the start of the course as you and the students are getting to know each other. Consider the following strategies¹:

• Make behavioral and academic expectations clear in your syllabus.
• Use positive, constructive language, not threats of reprisal.
• Ask your students to work in groups on the first day to develop classroom rules.
• Talk about yourself and let the students know what you value.
• Learn your students' names and learn more about them.
• Encourage students to see learning as a process.
• Be alert for possible mismatched expectations.
• Complete formative assessments to determine how the students think the class is going. As a result the students will often feel a sense of ownership and this will often assist them in improving their behavior. It will also tell you what, in their opinion, might improve the class atmosphere.
• If a student does not follow the rules of decorum, speak to him/her privately, not in front of the class.

Attendance and Participation

Are there attendance and participation issues in your classes? If so, what do you do to insure that you have an accurate picture? To address the issue of “attendance and participation” grade make sure that the assessment policy is carefully spelled out on the class syllabus. You may also consider the following recommendations that are based on discussions from CTL luncheons:

• The first day, ask students to complete cards with their names. During group work sessions, the instructor circulates among the groups and records the absences on these cards.
• Students can be given very short writing assignments (“quick writes”) at the beginning or end of class, assignments that would assist them to focus upon the topic for the lecture, ask them to summarize a text or lecture, or ask for comment on a reading. Assignments could be collected and roll taken.
• Faculty who use Blackboard or another classroom management tool can relate the participation grade to the number of responses students make to discussions on line.

Student Groups²

When assigning group work, the instructor can assist the student improve the ways in which group work is conducted:

• Set goals—immediate, intermediate, and long-term—but don’t be afraid to change them as you progress.
• Allocate tasks to be done. Be sure that each person knows what he or she is to do and what the deadlines are.
• Be sure that everyone contributes to the discussions and tasks. If appropriate, assign students different roles (e.g., chair, scribe, authority) and vary these roles at each group meeting.
• When carrying on a discussion, don’t assume that consensus has been reached because no one has opposed an idea or offered an alternative.
• Check agreement with each group member verbally. Before ending a meeting, evaluate your group process. What might you do differently next time?
• Be sure that before you adjourn, you have agreed on the time and place for the next meeting.

Teaching Tips for Instructional Strategies

"Think, write, pair, share."

One of the most common activities in active classrooms is called "think, write, pair, share." It can be used in any classroom with any number of students and it doesn't add to the paper load. Here, for example, is a an approach from Rebecca Moore from the College of Arts & Letters:

• THINK: Ask students to think about what they would like to gain from your class this semester.
• WRITE: Give the students 5 minutes to list these objectives.
• PAIR: In pairs, the students compare their objectives, determining what is shared between them, if anything.
• SHARE: Selected groups of students (depending upon class size) are asked to share their common objectives with the entire class.

The results of his activity can then be listed on the board and classified into categories, e.g., content, skills, affective factors, etc. The students are very pleased if these objectives appear in the classroom in other guises, e.g. "Many of you said that you wanted to ..."

1. Richards, S.M. (March, 2000). Restoring Civility, The NEA Higher Education Advocate, 17(5).

2. McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Encyclopedia of
Educational Technology

Edited by past CTL Fellow Bob Hoffman and written by SDSU Educational Technology students, EET offers short, prescriptive articles on cognition and learning and instructional design and development.

EET Table of Contents

EET Bibliography

Ethical Principles in University Teaching

SDSU Senate Policy File 
Professional Responsibilities 2.0

The faculty of San Diego State University shall subscribe to the 1987 Statement on Professional Ethics (1987) by the American Association of University Professors.
 

THE 1987 AAUP STATEMENT

1. Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancement of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them. Their primary responsibility to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end professors devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty. Although professors may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.
2. As teachers, professors encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students. They hold before them the best scholarly and ethical standards of their discipline. Professors demonstrate respect for students as individuals and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and counselors. Professors make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their evaluations of students reflect each student’s true merit. They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between professor and student. They avoid any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students. They acknowledge significant academic or scholarly assistance from them. They protect their academic freedom.
3. As colleagues, professors have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars. Professors do not discriminate against or harass colleagues. They respect and defend the free inquiry of associates. In the exchange of criticism and ideas professors show due respect for the opinions of others. Professors acknowledge academic debt and strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues. Professors accept their share of faculty responsibilities for the governance of their institution.
4. As members of an academic institution, professors seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. Although professors observe the stated regulations of the institution, provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision. Professors give due regard to their paramount responsibilities within their institution in determining the amount and character of work done outside it. When considering the interruption or termination of their service, professors recognize the effect of their decision upon the program of the institution and give due notice of their intentions.
5. As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as private persons, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.

Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

The AAUP Statement focuses primarily on academic freedom and participation in academic communities.  An approach more rooted in teaching and learning issues has been proposed by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.  These principles are suggested as "general guidelines, ideals, or expectations that need to be taken into account" rather than as "a list of ironclad rules or a systematic code of conduct." 

• Preamble
• Principle 1: Content Competence
• Principle 2: Pedagogical Competence
• Principle 3: Dealing with Sensitive Topics
• Principle 4: Student Development
• Principle 5: Dual Relationships with Students
• Principle 6: Confidentiality
• Principle 7: Respect for Colleagues
• Principle 8: Valid Assessment of Students
• Principle 9: Respect for Institution

The UC Berkeley Compendium

First released in the early 1980's, A Berkeley Compendium: Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence is a classic compilation of prescriptions for effective teaching.  Over 150 faculty members at the University of California Berkley, including more than a third of then-past recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award, participated in the development of the compendium through a data-driven process. 

Compendium researchers surveyed students on their perceptions of "what works," conducting follow-up interviews with faculty on specific approaches and techniques.  They distilled the results into a set of of 212 succinct suggestions based on a prescriptive, "IF-THEN"  approach.  Thus, the compendium is organized around desired results--what the instructor wants to accomplish--which then point the way to methods.

One of 212 suggestions from A Berkeley Compendium: Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence. 

The Compendium's suggestions are organized into 25 sections.

1. Discussing Points of View Other Than Your Own
2. Discussing Recent Developments
3. Giving References
4. Emphasizing Conceptual Understanding
5. Explaining Clearly
6. Being Well Prepared
7. Giving Lectures That Are Easy to Outline
8. Summarizing Major Points
9. Identifying What You Consider Important
10. Encouraging Class Discussion
11. Inviting Students to Share their Knowledge and Experiences
12. Inviting Criticism of Your Own Ideas
13. Knowing If the Class Is Understanding You
14. Having Students Apply Concepts
15. Giving Personal Help to Students
16. Relating to Students
17. Being Accessible Outside of Class
18. Having an Interesting Presentation Style
19. Varying Speed and Tone of Voice
20. Motivating Students' Best Work
21. Giving Interesting Assignments
22. Giving Exams Demonstrating Student Understanding
23. Keeping Students Informed of Their Progress
24. Making the Most Effective Use of Teaching Assistants
25. Developing an Impressive Introductory Large Lecture Course

The content of the compendium was developed into a book, Tools for Teaching, by Barbara Gross Davis, available from Jossey-Bass. 

Eastern Kentucky University Index to Teaching Tips

The Teaching and Learning Center at EKU lists hundreds of tips from universities and colleges around the nation in the most wide ranging index identified by CTL—from "Active Learning" to "Writing Learning Outcomes." EKU Tips

Harvard Teaching Tips

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University offers a number of suggestions relating to cultural and logistical challenges in contemporary classrooms.

• Different Worlds in the Same Classroom
• Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom
• "Muddiest Point in the Lecture" as a Feedback Device
• Peer Response to Student Papers
• Race in the Classroom
• Responding to Response Papers
• Self-Assessment of Student Papers
• Self-Assessment of Writing (long form)
• Self-Assessment of Writing (short form)
• Twenty Ways To Make Lectures More Participatory
• Women and Men in the Classroom: Inequality and Its Remedies
• Women in the Classroom
• Working in Groups

From the Derek Bok Center for Teaching & Learning.

Copyright © 2002, 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
 

 

Kearsley's Theory Into Practice Database

Most websites offering "teaching tips" focus teaching methods, techniques, and craft.  Greg Kearsley's TIP database offers pithy overviews of influential educational theories accompanied by relevant principles and examples.

• ACT* (J. Anderson)
• Adult Learning Theory (P. Cross)
• Algo-Heuristic Theory (L. Landa)
• Andragogy (M. Knowles)
• Anchored Instruction (J. Bransford & the CTGV)
• Aptitude-Treatment Interaction (L. Cronbach & R. Snow)
• Attribution Theory (B. Weiner)
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (L. Festinger)
• Cognitive Flexibility Theory (R. Spiro)
• Cognitive Load Theory (J. Sweller)
• Component Display Theory (M.D. Merrill)
• Conditions of Learning (R. Gagne)
• Connectionism (E. Thorndike)
• Constructivist Theory (J. Bruner)
• Contiguity Theory (E. Guthrie)
• Conversation Theory (G. Pask)
• Criterion Referenced Instruction (R. Mager)
• Double Loop Learning (C. Argyris)
• Drive Reduction Theory (C. Hull)
• Dual Coding Theory (A. Paivio)
• Elaboration Theory (C. Reigeluth)
• Experiential Learning (C. Rogers)
• Functional Context Theory (T. Sticht)
• Genetic Epistemology (J. Piaget)
• Gestalt Theory (M. Wertheimer)
• GOMS (Card, Moran & Newell)
• GPS (A. Newell & H. Simon)
• Information Pickup Theory (J.J. Gibson)
• Information Processing Theory (G.A. Miller)
• Lateral Thinking (E. DeBono)
• Levels of Processing (Craik & Lockhart)
• Mathematical Learning Theory (R.C. Atkinson)
• Mathematical Problem Solving (A. Schoenfeld)
• Minimalism (J. M. Carroll)
• Model Centered Instruction and Design Layering (A.Gibbons)
• Modes of Learning (D. Rumelhart & D. Norman)
• Multiple Intelligences (H. Gardner)
• Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
• Originality (I. Maltzman)
• Phenomenonography (F. Marton & N. Entwistle)
• Repair Theory (K. VanLehn)
• Script Theory (R. Schank)
• Sign Theory (E. Tolman)
• Situated Learning (J. Lave)
• Soar (A. Newell et al.)
• Social Development (L. Vygotsky)
• Social Learning Theory (A. Bandura)
• Stimulus Sampling Theory (W. Estes)
• Structural Learning Theory (J. Scandura)
• Structure of Intellect (J. Guilford)
• Subsumption Theory (D. Ausubel)
• Symbol Systems (G. Salomon)
• Triarchic Theory (R. Sternberg)

© 1994-2004, Greg Kearsley.
Permission granted to use these materials
for any educational, scholarly, or non-commercial purpose.

Sloan Consortium on Effective Practices
in Online Education

The consortium's database focuses on six major themes:

• Learning Effectiveness The provider demonstrates that the quality of learning online is comparable to the quality of its traditional programs.
• Cost Effectiveness Institutions continuously improve services while reducing cost.
• Access All learners who wish to learn online have the opportunity and can achieve success.
• Faculty Satisfaction Faculty achieves success with teaching online, citing appreciation and happiness.
• Student Satisfaction Students are successful in learning online and are typically pleased with their experience.