Teaching Strategies

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning requires students to use positive interdependence, individual accountability, interpersonal skills, promotive interaction, and cognitive processing, such as reflection as part of an enriched group learning experience.  The Cooperative Learning Center is a research and training center providing a wealth of cooperative learning resources.

Collaborative Learning

This National Institute of Science Education site provides things to consider as you contemplate incorporating collaborative learning structures into your course.

Team-Based Learning

The tremendous power of team-based learning is derived from a single

factor: the high level of cohesiveness that can be developed within student

learning groups.  This University of Oklahoma site introduces users to team-based learning concepts and strategies.

Facilitating Discussion

These frequently asked questions compiled by the Indiana University explore facilitating discussion, from planning to evaluation.

Twenty Ways to Make Lectures More Participatory

Lectures play a vital role in teaching. There will always be a place for lectures in the curriculum. At the same time, it often enhances both your presentation of the material and students’ learning when students are able to participate in some way. This Harvard site explores ways to actively engage students with material, so they understand it better and remember it longer.

Improving Lecturing Skills: Some Insights From Speech Communication

Most college teachers lecture. Even those who embrace a modern view of participatory learning still turn to the lecture from time to time. As a teaching method, the lecture has been used for hundreds of years, and this Indiana University site contents, may be improved by considering the public speaking literature to learn more about how to improve our lecturing skills.

A Survival Handbook for Teaching Large Classes

There is no one way to teach a large class. We have to take into account our teaching style, the characteristics of our students, and the goals and objectives of our course. This University of North Carolina handbook is a cafeteria of ideas of how faculty members all over the country have tried to solve many of the problems related to teaching large classes. Decide which one or ones are most likely to work for you, and try them.

Teaching for Inclusion

With the United States' changing demographics and an ever more inclusive university system, students of diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds are making American education both more exciting and more complex. This University of North Carolina handbook provides college teachers with an easy-to-use source of ideas and teaching techniques to help create an inclusive classroom atmosphere.

Games and Simulations

Simulations and games are teaching and learning methods in which participants are directly involved in making decisions and learning from the outcomes of these. Their active, student-centered nature means that they are memorable and highly motivating. They enable the exploration of the complex nature of the real world and interdisciplinary, interacting subjects as well as the more basic needs of understanding, doing and skills practice.

101 Ideas for the First Three Weeks of Class

Beginnings are important. Whether the class is a large introductory course for freshmen or an advanced course in students' major field, it makes good sense to start the semester off well. Students will decide very early - some say the first day of class - whether they will like the course, its contents, the teacher, and their fellow students.  Consider the suggestions this University of Nebraska site provides for starting your class.