Category: Tips on 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

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center Instructor-student interaction is often regarded as “the most important factor in student motivation and involvement” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987, p. 3). This interaction occurs inside and outside of the classroom, in face-to-face and virtual teaching situations, through various learning activities, formal advising meetings, and informal mentoring conversations. Instructor-student… Continue reading Mentoring Undergraduate Students

by Gina Merys, Associate Director, Reinert Center This past week, the Reinert Center facilitated the 2017 Culturally Responsive Teaching Institute. As part of that institute, participants began to grapple with what it means to live and learn through another culture and language. Because even the ways we think are structured through the filter of culture,… Continue reading Common Rhetorical Patterns of Writing

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center A few years ago, I designed and facilitated an independent study course for an undergraduate student in my department. She needed a more focused, self-directed study of qualitative research methods before beginning her senior thesis project the following semester. I was impressed by her ability to articulate goals… Continue reading Designing Independent Study Courses

by Yang (Emily) Li, Graduate Assistant, Reinert Center Transformational learning is a reflection process to rethink life changes and events and gain new meaning out of our classroom, community and society (Alexander, 2007). For teachers who are designing courses for higher educational institutions, one transformational learning strategy is including multicultural reading material in classroom discussion.… Continue reading Using This Summer to Transform Your Teaching and Learning

by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center From March to November 2017, the freestanding blog “Conditionally Accepted” will feature a series of weekly posts about sexual violence and higher education. Published first on the Inside Higher Ed website, authors are invited to contribute intersectional perspectives and personal accounts of sexual violence across institutional contexts (e.g.,… Continue reading Teaching on/and Sexual Violence

by Gina Merys, Associate Director, Reinert Center Using rubrics to aid in the assessment of written assignments can be an inclusive teaching practice, when students have access to that rubric before beginning a project. Including students in the creation of that rubric can increase students’ agency in their learning as well as enhance the rubric’s… Continue reading Resource Guide: Two Paths to Student-Created Rubrics