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Note to readers: The Teaching Professor is on break for the remainder of the year and will resume regular publication on Monday, January 6. In the meantime, here’s a round-up of ten of our most-viewed articles of the year, which we hope you enjoy revisiting—or reading for the first time. |
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On Not Chatting with Students before Class |
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Nichole DeWall
It is a truth universally acknowledged that good professors show up early to talk with students before class. And that even better ones play clips of goat yoga and evoke wonder. But is it time to reconsider these pre-class rituals? Perhaps—for both our students’ sakes and our own. Read More |
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Michael Rota
One of the biggest problems with homework is that students who make a mistake or get stuck have no resources to correct their misimpressions or help them through the obstacle. Personify, an AI-powered tutoring program, can guide students through such assignment problems. Read More |
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Stephen L. Chew
What makes a teacher great? The outpouring of student tributes to a late journalism professor offers some insight. The qualities might not be the ones you expect. Read More |
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Heather A. Wilson-Ashworth
How should we best use that precious first day of class? Should we dive straight into the material, set the tone for class etiquette, or establish a sense of community? While the options seem endless, the solution might be more straightforward than we think: a syllabus worksheet. Read More |
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John Orlando
A common faculty complaint is that students do not read their feedback. This is usually chalked up to laziness or disinterest in learning. But what if the problem is that the feedback is just not helpful to them? Read More |
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Regan A. R. Gurung
After initial panic about how students can use AI to cheat, higher education is finally focusing on more important questions. For example: Does AI use actually support learning? A recent meta-analysis of research on chatbots provides some early answers. Read More |
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Mays Imad
Especially in content-dense disciplines, faculty can feel lots of pressure to pack a huge amount of material into their courses—all of it seemingly vital. But a heavy content load can overwhelm students and hamper their learning. This reflection confronts the challenge—and necessity—of scaling back. Read More |
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Pete Burkholder
As colleges scramble to attract students from a fast-evaporating demographic pool, the institutional calls for faculty to inject excitement, engagement, and fun into the classroom proliferate. Boring would seem to have no place here. But it really should. Read More |
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Stephen L. Chew
While there are myriad answers to this seemingly simple question, the principal one is that we simply don’t know the exact circumstances in which learning takes place. Read More |
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Mays Imad
Learning should not only inform but also challenge and stretch our boundaries. For students to experience discomfort with subject matter can lead them to major insights about the world and themselves. Read More |
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Write for The Teaching Professor |
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The Teaching Professor welcomes submissions on a variety of teaching and learning topics. These can take a diversity of forms—for example, pragmatic, advice-driven articles; opinion pieces; thoughtful personal narratives; and essays that explore controversial issues or raise questions about current practices. See our submission guidelines for details. |
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Share Your Thoughts |
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Did a recent article strike you as especially noteworthy or useful? Is there a topic or type of article (book review, interview, etc.) you’d like to see more of? Did we get something wrong? Send your comments, questions, and suggestions to the editor at jon.crylen@magnapubs.com. |
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