Episode 11: The Why and How of Inclusive Teaching with Tracie Addy
Dr. Tracie Marcella Addy, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning at Lafayette College discusses her 2021 book “What Inclusive Instructors Do. Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching”. In this episode, we discuss why instructors and institutions should embrace inclusive practices. We also discuss practices that improve engagement, persistence, and success. Wherever you are on your journey of providing the best learning environments for all your students, listen to this episode for new perspectives, support, motivation, ideas, and possibly a new book to add to your book club or journal club.
Episode 10: Helping Students Adopt Retrieval Practice with Robert Ariel
Dr. Robert Ariel, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Virginia Wesleyan University discusses his research on a simple approach that may help students adopt a proven study method - retrieval practice - that improves long term student learning and student success. If you are unfamiliar with retrieval based learning, please listen to my interview with Dr. Jeffrey Karpicke in episode 4. Helping students adopt evidence-based study practices, breaking years of experience with less effective and possible useless study habits, isn’t easy - but it can be a very important piece in helping students succeed! If you are looking for a simple way to help your students study more effectively and more efficiently, then please listen to this episode.
Episode 9: Deep Teaching with Bryan Dewsbury
Enjoy a conversation with Dr. Bryan Dewsbury about an approach to inclusive instruction that goes beneath the mechanics of your courses. We don’t talk about what your syllabus looks like, how you engage students in your learning environments, or how you assess students. Instead we discuss an approach to inclusive instruction that first and foremost focusses on the criticality of developing an enriched and enhanced understanding of your students. The ideas we discuss in this episode have the power to change your relationship with your students allowing you to develop an inclusive classroom that enriches the personal development of all your students. In this episode, we do not discuss what your students need to learn, we do not discuss what your students need to be able to do. We talk about issues that address the question “Who do you want your students to be”.
Episode 8: Group Work with Peggy Brickman
If you are interested in using group work in your courses but might be a bit intimidated, if you are using group work but are frustrated by it, if you have used group work but have sworn it off, I encourage any and all to listen to this two part series on the problems of group work and possible solutions.
In this episode I have a conversation with Dr. Peggy Brickman of the University of Georgia about group work but from an unusual perspective. Instead of discussing the evidence demonstrating the positive impacts of well-designed group work on student success, we discuss the problems of group work. These discussions may provide the encouragement you need to finally implement group, or may provide a solution to reduce your frustration with group work, or may convince you that group work is worth another try.
Listen and see.
Episode 7: Learning is a Skill with Mark McDaniel
Dr. Mark McDaniel of Washington University, author of “Make It Stick”, discusses learning and the importance of recognizing that learning is a skill. A skill that can and should be learned, a skill that can and should be taught.
A variety of researchers study how people learn. There are reams of data about the effectiveness of various learning strategies. We have evidence about which strategies are more effective than others. We certainly don’t know everything there is to know about learning, but we know quite a bit and this knowledge can and should help students succeed.
Yet We enroll students in schools and we expect students to learn without ever teaching them effective strategies for learning.
Why are we keeping these strategies a secret? Why do we expect our students, our children, to discover effective strategies for learning on their own?
In this episode, Dr. McDaniel will discuss a new proposal, a new framework for how we might teach students to learn and how to apply this knowledge about learning, giving our students, all students, our children, all children, the skills they need to learn efficiently and effectively.
If you are interested in how you can really help your students succeed, how you can help your students become life-long learners, how you can help your students learn the SKILLS needed for learning, then please, listen to this episode.
Episode 6: Ungrading: Renaissance Humanism and the Challenges of Assessment with Susan D. Blum
Dr. Susan Blum (University of Notre Dame), a Renaissance Humanist (look it up) discusses her recent book, UNGRADING: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and what to do instead). In this episode, Dr. Blum discusses problems associated with the long established system of grades and grading and discusses a recent movement, UNGRADING, which is a call to arms to provide learning environments that motivate student learning by changing the way students are evaluated. If you have never heard of the concept of Ungrading this interview is likely to be disturbing, raising issues about our educational system that may challenge educators who have not questioned our model of student evaluation. If you have some familiarity with Ungrading but have yet to incorporate some of these principles in your courses, we hope that this discussion might provide the support you need to dip your toes metaphorically in the “Ungrading waters”. Lastly, if you are an expert in Ungrading please sit back and enjoy the discussion. Perhaps you can pass this episode on to colleagues that might be ready to take the plunge.
Episode 5: Connected Teaching: The Importance of Relationships with Harriet Schwartz
Dr. Harriet Schwartz of Antioch University discusses her recent book, “Connected Teaching: Relationship, Power, and Mattering in Higher Education”. Most faculty spend a significant part of their lives interacting with students. Dr. Schwartz’s book reminds us that so much of teaching is about moments with students. These moments can be brief or extended, but these moments, whatever the duration, can be transformative for students. Dr. Schwartz discusses the importance of these relationships and how to attend to these relationships so that students can be heard, seen, and most importantly, successful. Listen for an inspiring and helpful discussion that really is at the heart of why many of us teach.
