Weekly Teaching Tips

Making the Most of the Final Weeks Somehow there are only two weeks of regular classes remaining in the term. When we feel time running short, we may be tempted to speed up in a scramble to fit in as much content as possible before we part ways with our students. But this time of […]

Mental Health Awareness & Resources Even under normal conditions, student stress levels tend to rise at this time of the semester. Fall 2024 has been unusual, with multiple hurricanes and a tense election, and colleagues have reported hearing from students who are struggling to manage their coursework or their mental health. Although rates of depression […]

Starting Class with a Recap When we’re designing our courses, most of us sequence the topics, assignments, and activities to build on one another. This approach tends to work well because our courses are also a series of experiences through which students construct knowledge and develop skills over time. Between class meetings, though, students take […]

Planning for Participation Many of us use some form of class discussion in our teaching, likely with varying results. Sometimes class discussion is invigorating, with many students participating, making substantive contributions, and building on one another’s ideas. Other times, getting students to participate at all feels like pulling teeth, or we notice that although a lively […]

Influencing Students’ Motivation to Learn Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon insisted that “learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.” This is why motivation is essential for learning; it “influences the […]

Checking In With Students Hurricane season is making Florida a stressful place to live and study this semester. Although our campus has been fortunate, some of our students’ families have been devastated, and even those who were spared have likely been grappling with anxiety. As we mentioned last week, we all have limited cognitive resources […]

Accounting for Cognitive Load If you were going to teach someone how to drive, would you rather start in a large, empty parking lot or on a busy interstate? The answer is obvious, but the reasoning is worth exploring because of the implications for teaching other things. Experienced drivers know that driving on a busy […]

Wrapping an Exam or Assignment Students in many courses have just taken their first exam, or just turned in (and maybe already received a grade on) their first major piece of work. When students’ scores are lower than they expected, the results can come as a bit of a shock. It’s easy for students to […]

Checking on Students’ Progress Sometimes faculty feel pressure to cover as much content as we can in the amount of time we have. This pressure is often referred to as the “tyranny of content.” But when we’re racing to cover every topic, we may unintentionally create conditions in which it’s difficult for students to really […]

Can You Remember Students’ Names? Through our Thank-a-Professor Program, student panels, focus groups, and everyday conversations, we are fortunate to hear from students about their best learning experiences at FSU. One undergraduate told us a story about how much she appreciated an instructor who made a point of learning the names of all fifty students […]

Beyond Tradition: Taking a Learning-Centered Approach to Teaching Many of us began our teaching careers convinced that good teaching primarily involved accurate, clear, and maybe even entertaining delivery of content. We may have understood course design as assembling a reading list or deciding which textbook chapter to cover each week. Generations of tradition, and often […]

Elements of a Great First Day Thousands of new students will be starting at FSU on Monday. Your class may be their first experience in a college classroom. What kind of first impression do you want to make? What would help them feel excited to learn and welcomed into our community? These new students (as […]