Category: Tips on Teaching

by Sandy Gambill, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center This past semester you may have read about SLU Professor Simone Bregni’s use of video games in the classroom. You can see him talk about his experience teaching Intensive Italian for Gamers as a Reinert Center Innovative Teaching fellow in this video: https://vimeo.com/214052615 We know that most of… Continue reading Gamification in the Classroom

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center Theatre can be a powerful tool for learning. I have used a variety of performance-based activities in my own teaching to help engage students in understanding and applying course concepts. Often, these activities take the form of impromptu scenarios where students are asked to think (and act) critically… Continue reading Theatre Activities to Support Student Learning

by Lindsey Joyce MSN, RN, CNL, CNOR, Adjunct Instructor School of Nursing With technology all around us, it can be difficult to grasp student’s attention during times of learning. So, what can we do to enhance learning and engage students? Story has been used as a pedagogy for many years in various subjects, for a variety… Continue reading Using Story as a Tool for Teaching

by Gina Merys, Associate Director, Reinert Center The August/September 2017 issue of The Teaching Professor Newsletter reviewed two recent studies that looked at the most important teacher characteristics as identified by students. While the studies do not reveal solid evidence about any characteristic’s direct bearing on student learning, one of the studies (Gerhard, 2016) does… Continue reading Reviewing the Characteristics of Effective Teachers

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center Back in June, I wrote a blog post about designing independent study courses that listed several strategies for working with students to help create a course to support their goals for learning. With the start of fall semester quickly approaching, I wanted to share a few tips and… Continue reading Facilitating Independent Study Courses

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center I was 23 years old when I taught my first undergraduate course at the University of Utah. My age, I feared, would prevent me from being taken seriously by my students and potentially undermine my credibility as a teacher and scholar. In an attempt to thwart such ageism,… Continue reading Embodiment and Teaching

by Chris Grabau, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center At the 2017 STEM FIT Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis, Mark McDaniel, PhD, Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences, co-director of CIRCLE, and co-author of Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (2014), presented a plenary address on how research in cognitive psychology can support effective teaching… Continue reading Incorporating Principles in Cognitive Psychology to Improve Student Learning