Teaching

A ceramics teacher once split her students into two groups.

A practical tip about how to teach this stuff.

“On Writing” is a video podcast hosted by Jim Groom and Team Reclaim and for this episode we are thrilled to welcome Dr Catherine Cronin. Catherine is an ind...

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).

Open educational resources hosted by California Education Learning Lab

"Why not be kind?" In this episode of Centering Centers, we talk with Cate Denial from Knox College about how kindness shows up in teaching, leadership, and everyday interactions, and how it can shape the ways we respond to challenges and change. She reflects on kindness not only as a pedagogy, but also as a practice and a discipline, and reminds us that kindness isn’t just for students, but for all of us working and learning together in higher education.Transcript

"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

Curious about teaching curiosity? Here's my talk from U of Waterloo on curiosity as a practice we can develop.

In this second bite-sized episode of PodBites, Adam Barger talks with Betsy Barre from Wake Forest University about how educational developers can “build a bigger tent.” In just a few minutes, Betsy offers five thoughtful and practical insights, from avoiding the word “training” to designing for disagreement, that invite educators to reimagine how we welcome diverse perspectives, foster inquiry, and create spaces where genuine dialogue about teaching can flourish.This episode was edited and produced by Roy W. Petersen.Transcript

In this post I share how I discovered a peer-reviewed article on postplagiarism that includes fake references, including attributed work that I never wrote. I summarize legitimate contributions to …

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.

The not-so-hidden features of learning that we receive from long-form writing (i.e., books).

This morning, our six-year old first grader - a kid who has no experience with or conceptual understanding of school grades - showed us a "neat trick." On a piece of paper next to some of his writing (we'd been playing Boggle last night), he drew a lower case "f" next to a minus sign (-) and told us that "f minus is a bad grade." Oh, OK, we said. However, he slyly continued, "Look at this!" And then he drew a curved-ish line down, turning his lower case "f" into an upper case "A." With a finishing flourish, he also struck through the minus, turning that symbol into a plus (+). "It's an A plus," he exclaimed. "What does that mean?" we asked. He didn't know. And we have no idea where he picked up this knowledge of grading, perhaps from a chapter book because his first-grade teacher does not assign grades to the many projects he creates in class. He has never received a grade from an educator in his life, yet he's approximating the act of assigning a grade to himself and believes it's best to avoid an F- and aspire toward an A+. The logics of conventional schooling and success are so pervasive, are odd at face value, and are frankly incomprehensible to children unless they are first trained into a culture of what "counts" as rewarded achievement.

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

A statistical case against points-based grading

Four ways to nurture academic well-being in these uniquely challenging times.

Or lack thereof

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?

September 2025 Professional Learning Opportunities for Instructors Last updated by Tolu Noah on September 2, 2025 Date Time (PT) Title & Registration Link September 3 7:00-7:30 a.m., 9:00-9:30 a.m., or 4:00-4:30 p.m. Padlet's New Features in September (Padlet) September 4 October 2 No...

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…