assignment strategies

students working on their content reviews

Previews, Reviews, and Summaries

Do these learning devices deserve a bigger space in our instructional tool boxes? They’re sort of taken-for-granted aspects of teaching and learning. We know where they belong: at the end or beginning of a session, a topic, a unit/module, a chapter, a set of related

Read More »
assignment details - too many

Assignment Details: What if You Provide Too Many?

In an era of hyper-focus on students’ academic performance, is it possible that schoolwork is actually too easy? I recognize that this might seem a strange question, given how much we hear of stressed-out students, slogging through hours of homework and blizzards of standardized tests.

Read More »
assignment details - too few

Assignment Details: What if You Provide Too Few?

I am thankful for Jennifer Trainor’s insightful “Assignment Details: What if You Provide Too Many?” She raises what should be a real concern for teaching professors: Am I doing too much for my students? In other words, are teachers compromising student learning when we compose

Read More »
students confused over assignment

What Happens When an Assignment Is Unclear?

This installment of our continuing series on assignments is devoted to assignment clarity. We believe that many good assignments fall short of achieving what faculty expect because students struggle to understand what they are to do and why they are doing it. The assignment description

Read More »
I don't understand what you want in this assignment

“I Don’t Understand What You Want in This Assignment”

We’re interested in assignments. To us, they seem like a vital aspect of instruction that goes largely unexamined. What sparked our interest was the way students so often respond to written assignments: “What do you want?” or “I don’t understand what you want in this

Read More »
using assignments effectively

Assignments: A Theme for the Coming Semester

One of the luxuries of this online format that we didn’t have when The Teaching Professor was a print publication is the ability to pursue topics more thoroughly, to come at them from different directions, and to assemble collections of resources related to them. We

Read More »
assignments students hate

Giving Students Assignments They Hate

When I meet with faculty, I often talk about the importance of moving our conversations about teaching beyond the “tips and tricks” to the kind of thought-provoking discussions that help promote, motivate, and sustain our growth as teachers.

Why this article is worth discussing: Student

Read More »
building transparency into assignments

Building Transparency into Our Assignments

In education, transparency is typically described as making teaching and learning visible. “Transparent teaching involves making the implicit explicit for students so they understand why they are engaged in certain tasks and what role the course plays in their learning journey,” according to a recent

Read More »
Archives
2026 Teaching Professor Conference

Get the Latest Updates

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

2026 Health Professions Educators Conference