

I sidestepped the question for years.

A hot moment is one of those classroom situations where you can feel the temperature shift. Someone makes a comment that lands wrong. Discussion gets charged. A student reacts—verbally or visibly—and suddenly the room isn’t about the lesson anymore. It’s about safety, power, and whether

We’ve all faced it—that moment when a meticulously planned lesson falls flat. You set the stage with clear objectives, a captivating PowerPoint, a class activity, discussion, and an in-class assignment. But during the activity, you notice blank stares and disengaged students. Then comes the dreaded

Do people learn in the same way or different ways? According to cognitive science, the answer is the former. There are general principles of learning that apply to everyone, such as the importance of attention and the value of good learning strategies like spacing and

What’s the cringiest word in higher ed? Lecture? Nuh-uh. Engagement? Nah. Assessment? Nope.

Do you remember where you were when the masks finally came off in your classroom? We do! Something was different. For the past two years, we had floundered in a swirling cauldron of new teaching technology as we were asked to sink or swim in

During a keynote address at the 2022 Teaching Professor Conference, I spoke about challenges that exist in higher education, specifically students and instructors who do not have the freedom to bring their authentic selves to their learning or teaching environments. In such scenarios, students might

The new academic year is fast approaching, and course preparations are either underway or on everyone’s mind. We begin every semester, every year, wanting all our courses to go well. Even more importantly, we want our students engaged and learning. And they begin each new

Good teaching requires a special blend of the personal and the professional. Although there’s a fine line between revealing a piece of oneself to build rapport and sharing too much information, sharing past experiences—telling personal stories —is completely justified when it furthers learning and fosters

In August 2017, Inside Higher Ed featured an article describing a controversial “stress reduction policy” that was part of a professor’s course syllabus at the University of Georgia. The policy was intended to prevent the “profound consequences” of emotional reactions to