A recent analysis of teaching award winners in Australia found that the majority were active researchers. That finding may contradict other research that has consistently failed to establish links between teaching effectiveness and research productivity. I wrote about this in a Feb 20th blog note. I’d say the weight of the evidence is still on [...]

My favorite article in the April issue of The Teaching Professor is written by two faculty members at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. One of the two, an engineer, decided to take a history class from the other. It doesn’t sound like they knew each other prior to this time. They write back and [...]

I never quite believe how long and how hard my husband is willing to work on pieces of junk—old relics that have long given up the ghost. One time it was an old milk truck without brakes and multiple loose parts that flew­­ off when it careened around corners the few times it actually ran. [...]

Recently I worked with a group of faculty who teach cohort groups. Students start this professional program as a group and they move, lockstep, through the curriculum. So, the same students are together for every class. We talked some about the assets and liabilities of this kind of cohort association for teachers.
On the asset side, [...]

I am busily preparing for my online interview with adult educator Patricia Cranton. (See http://www.magnapubs.com/calendar/192.html for information about this March 25 Magna Online Seminar.) We’re going to be talking about transformative learning, but I’m trying to make sure that I’m conversant with all of her current research interests. She is into so many interesting areas! [...]

I love reading pedagogical literature. You never know what you will happen onto next. This afternoon I found an article in Pedagogy (it’s a pedagogical periodical in the field of English) written by a group of graduate students describing their experiences in a required professional development seminar on teaching literature. The article is full of [...]

As usual, I’m working on a book. At the present moment I’m trying to write a positive and constructive chapter on those institutionally mandated student ratings. Believe me, it’s a struggle. Ratings are so misused and so misunderstood. Institutions use instruments created by political processes. Frequently they contain items unrelated to the research identified components [...]

Robert Tauber and Cathy Mester say in their book, Acting Lessons for Teachers, that if you do an ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) search on the word “enthusiasm” and combine it with “teaching” 716,000 citations come up. I didn’t try it so I can’t verify the claim, but as they note that’s a “staggering” number [...]