Upcoming Themes and Deadlines

April 2024: Teaching and learning with technology

Potential topics

What the teaching and learning research says about educational technologies’ effectiveness
Appreciations or reconsiderations of old or obsolete classroom technologies
Equity/accessibility and ed tech
Unusual or against-the-grain uses of familiar technology tools
Avenues of learning both opened up and foreclosed by educational technologies

May 2024: Ending a course (deadline March 22)

Potential topics

Last-day-of-class activities
Planning/designing the home stretch of a course
Managing end-of-term stress, fatigue, etc. (your own and students’)
Strategies for keeping students engaged and interested as summer (or graduation) approaches
Bringing closure to an unsuccessful course

June 2024: Professional growth (deadline April 19)

Potential topics

How generative AI has shaped how you approach teaching
Teaching failures and how to grow from them
The challenge of unlearning ineffective teaching practices
Overcoming the expert blind spot
New perspectives on student evaluations of teaching
Your own learning experiences (in school or otherwise) and how these inform your understanding of your students’ learning

July 2024: Why we teach (deadline May 17)

We invite personal reflections on what keeps you committed to the work of teaching in the face of both professional and personal challenges and big-picture issues that may leave you questioning the value of that work. Some possible considerations:

The purpose of a college education at this historical juncture (e.g., in the face of the climate crisis, ongoing wars, rising authoritarianism, political attacks on and declining public support for higher education, the general state of the world)
Professional purpose—how it’s changed over your career, how you’ve renewed it when it has waned
Teaching challenges in the wake of the pandemic (e.g., decreased student preparedness and motivation to learn)
Sources of inspiration, whether familiar or unexpected

August 2024: Preparing to teach (deadline June 14)

Potential topics

Crafting an effective syllabus
Redesigning assignments, assessments, and other components of a course you’ve previously taught
Building relationships/rapport early in the term
First-day-of-class activities that set the tone for learning
Preparing to teach a course that’s new, not your favorite, or outside your comfort zone

September 2024: Group work (deadline July 15)

Details forthcoming.

October 2024: Grading and feedback (deadline August 16)

Details forthcoming.

November 2024: Student Success (deadline September 16)

Details forthcoming.

Please carefully review our submission guidelines if you’re considering writing on an upcoming theme. Should you have questions about themes or suitable topics, contact The Teaching Professor‘s managing editor, Jon Crylen (jon.crylen@magnapubs.com)