Here are some of the key figures for me, as I write about AI, process-focused teaching, and education.

You spent three weeks on that compliance module. Got the objectives perfectly clear. Slide two, exactly where Gagne said they should be. Your instructional design was textbook. Then you watched wha…

I have an honest question.

Annotation—the seemingly simple act of marking a text—is often diminished as a marginal practice. It is prohibited in physical objects and considered irr...

What the Best College Teachers Do is perhaps the most important book I’ve ever read.

A ceramics teacher once split her students into two groups.

A practical tip about how to teach this stuff.

I had the good fortune to meet her in a UDL course for higher Ed educators and her final project dazzled me and left me wanting to know more about her use of conversational quizzes in her course. I also wanted to get the word out to others who may see this as a useful tool in their teaching toolbox.

The quality of student-instructor relationships is an important factor in students’ academic engagement, achievement, and motivation (1–4). Instructors may attempt to build these relationships through their use of language beyond course content. Instructor talk, defined as “language used by an instructor that is not directly related to the concepts under study but instead focuses on creating the learning environment,” includes efforts to build rapport, explain pedagogical choices, share personal experiences, and unmask science (5, 6). Instructor talk may shape students’ perceptions of instructor immediacy, or the sense of closeness between instructors and students (7). Instructor immediacy behaviors, such as smiling, making eye contact, using students’ names, and incorporating humor, have been associated with students’ motivational beliefs, classroom participation, learning, and academic engagement (8–14).

"And perhaps that’s the thread connecting critical thinking, citizenship, and democracy: they all depend on an uneasy kind of freedom. The freedom to make mistakes, to challenge others, and to remain in disagreement – without anyone being lectured on what the 'right' way to think is." https://theeconomyofmeaning.com/2025/10/28/do-you-really-want-students-to-think-critically/ #PKMastery

Simply grading the final group output is insufficient, Lauren Vicker and Tim Franz write.

Recommendations, reflections, and tips on teaching, learning, and being human from psychology, pedagogy, and literature.

Their professor thinks that when students make choices in their course, it helps them invest in it.

By Cecilia Ellis, Callie Lees, Mirta Momo Mochi, et al., Published on 05/20/25

By Katharina De Vita, Guido Conaldi, Sara Gorgoni, et al., Published on 05/20/25

How might we reframe assignments as opportunities for meaning and well being in students' lives?

I’ve been teaching—with kids and adults, in schools and online—since 2005. But not this academic year. As the new year starts, ten provocations about education are on my mind. Perhaps one wil…

What teaching writing and defeating nascent fascism have in common.

responding to individual student challenges early in the school year

Designing courses for success in the year to come

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text message. We’re back with another Take It or Leave It panel. I invited three colleagues whose work and thinking I admire very much to come on the show and to compress their complex and nuanced thoughts on teaching and learning into artificial binaries! The panelists for this edition of Take It or Leave It are… Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the Univer…

Professor Sam Illingworth is a Professor of Creative Pedagogies at Edinburgh Napier University in the UK. His work and research focus on using poetry and games to develop dialogue between different audiences.