Reimagining the Syllabus

Faculty can be very particular (even precious) about a course syllabus, but sometimes in all the wrong ways. Many view the syllabus as a firm contract and a laundry list of every particular variation and question that might ever occur to a student during the course of a semester. This was the rationale behind the […]

Prensky on Pedagogy

The talk of assessment of student learning outcomes has well established the important connection between student learning outcomes and coursework. It is essential that coursework prepare students for and ultimately give them an opportunity to demonstrate and master. What has been overlooked has been the connection to outcomes and objectives—that is, how we teach what […]

Big Learning

James Lang, the author of four books and a regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education, has just published a remarkable new book on teaching and learning, called Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Lang, professor of English and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, takes his […]

Lasting Lectures

Research consistently shows how a focus on students and learning is better than focusing on instructors and teaching. Here is an opinion piece from the New York Times on how learning is improved by a more engaged teaching style. The impact is true overall, but it’s more pronounced for women and minorities. What has always surprised me […]