Those of you familiar with The Teaching Professor newsletter know that we publish, monthly during the academic year with combined June-July and August September issues. We average about 35 unsolicited submissions per month, publishing between two and six of those. This summer we had more than 75 submissions! Despite the extra work of reviewing all [...]

Here’s a definition for classroom management: “the provisions and procedures necessary to establish and maintain an environment in which instruction and learning can occur.” The definition is attributed to W. Doyle, in a source I wasn’t able to locate online. I’ve never really thought about a definition for classroom management. I’ve always considered it a [...]

Not everything I read in the pedagogical literature is wonderful. A lot of it is just kind ho-hum; a bit really raises the hair on the back of my neck.
I have numerous of quarrels with a recently published piece that sets forth lots of problems and issues with student ratings, starting with the attitude displayed [...]

“I’d like to share a really low-point in my teaching.” Wow! Most faculty don’t admit teaching errors in public venues, but this faculty member was participating in a lunchtime discussion with about 12 of her colleagues. She’s a biologist and the course was microbiology for nurses. The low point involved a comment made by a [...]

I’m busy doing reading for the October issue of The Teaching Professor newsletter, sitting lakeside at our summer place in upstate New York. I got three mosquito bites while reading an article by Jerry Farber on presence. Yes, I was so enamored with the article I never felt the bites! I’ll summarize in the newsletter [...]

I had an interesting accident of technology yesterday. I was trying to read the most recent issue of Innovative Higher Education. I entered the year correctly but then listed the volume number as 1 when that was the issue I wanted. I didn’t note the error and began reviewing the table of contents as it [...]

I’ve been thinking a bit about deep and surface learning. The terms, primarily associated with the work of Ference Marton completed in the 80s, are now commonplace and mostly understood . . . or are they?
Surface learning is equated with memorization and rote learning as opposed to deep learning generally laid alongside understanding. [...]

“College teaching is the strangest of jobs. At the end of a class session, we may not know how it went, or we may think we know exactly how it went. Yet there remains the possibility to wildly misdiagnose the brainwave and heartbeat of that day’s class.” (p. 96)
This quote is from a new book, [...]