Professional Growth

Want to Be a Better Instructor? Teach Something You Don’t Know

A few months after I received my university’s undergraduate teaching award in 2009, my classroom anxiety dreams went from merely hairy to absolutely hair-raising. For years, I’d dreamed about my classes erupting in chaos: rebellious students flipping over desks, watching pornography while I lectured, or—most

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Gauge with needle pointing to "very bad," indicating poor student evaluations

My Worst Student Ratings Ever

A year ago I received the worst student ratings of instruction (SRIs) in my 28 years of teaching. On the Likert scale I am normally between 4 and 5 for quality of instructor and quality of the course. Last year, however, my fall term ratings

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Two female professors, one older and one younger, review material on a computer screen

Mentoring New Faculty: Five Strategies

Whether for a newly minted PhD or a subject-matter expert plucked from outside academia, starting a college teaching career can be daunting. A new faculty member needs a guide, a role model, and a trusted friend to jump-start their success in the classroom. A mentor

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lessons from a retiring professor

Seven Big Lessons from a Retiring Professor

It is time to bid farewell to a career I have loved for so long that it now seems entirely too short. Reflecting on 42 years of teaching and some of my missteps, I share here a few of the major lessons I’ve learned.

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teaching to your strengths

Energize Your Teaching by Playing to Your Strengths

Think of the last time you had a masterfully planned class session fall completely flat. If you have been teaching for more than a week, you’ve been there. How did you react? Did you blame the students, the time of day the class meets, or

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motivation to improve teaching

The Motivation to Improve

“All teachers can improve; most should.” Did someone tell me this or did I make it up? I’ll put it in quotes because I’m not sure, but it’s a one-liner I like. To improve means to get better. It’s about ongoing efforts to teach in

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what's holding back good teaching

What’s Holding Back Good Teaching?

Has teaching improved? It’s a question I’ve been putting to myself here on the backside of a long career. Without beginning benchmarks it’s hard to say for sure, maybe a bit, but not as much as it could or should. My feelings were reinforced by

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surviving negative course evaluations

Surviving Student (dis)Satisfaction Surveys

Just in time to thwart any attempts at starting to unwind and enjoy a well-deserved break from another brutal academic year, automated results of the Student Course Satisfaction Surveys (aka evaluations) arrive in my inbox demanding attention.

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getting students to do the reading

Students Aren’t Doing the Reading

That’s not going to come as a big surprise. What leaves most of us a bit breathless and depressed are the numbers. The study referenced below cites four other studies in which more than 70 percent of the students reported not doing assigned reading. In

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