Three Steps to Improve Your Teaching
You can plan now to make your course even better. Research conducted here at the Center for Teaching and Learning indicates that instructors can take a few simple steps to make their classroom experiences more effective for student learning. Presented here are three things that you can do as you plan for future courses.
- Encourage active and practical learning.
- Provide for meaningful teacher-student interactions.
- Make course expectations clear and based on learning outcomes.
The First Day of Class
The first day of class is a new beginning for learners and teachers alike. New beginnings invite excitement and anticipation but also some anxieties for all those involved. However, implementing a few simple activities on the first day can establish a climate that reduces anxiety, expands excitement, and channels learner enthusiasm to real learning gains throughout the semester. As you prepare for a new term, consider using some of the “First Day” strategies suggested in this tip of the month. After class, reflect on how well the implemented strategies worked.
Making a Difference: Effective Course Design
What exactly, is “course design,” and what makes it “effective”? It is the intentional planning of a course to help students achieve significant learning. It begins with a teacher creating essential learning goals (or expected learning outcomes) around which the course is built; it is designing assignments/assessments that can demonstrate students’ achievement of those goals; and then it is planning engaged learning activities that help students attain learning that lasts. Fink calls course design “the most significant [factor]” in improving teaching and learning in higher education.
When it’s over, it’s over–right?
One of the aims of a BYU education is “life-long learning.” Our hope is that students will want to continue to learn; we must operate on the assumption that they want to remain in contact with our subject matter. We can encourage our students to keep learning after the end of a course by remaining in contact with them. This month’s tip offers some suggestions from Chris Crowe, Professor of English, on how to do just that.