In case you missed last week’s round-up, here again are 10 of The Teaching Professor’s most-read articles from 2022. We will resume publishing new writing next Monday.

Foster Inspiring Teaching in Higher Ed! Beyond Student Evaluations

By Regan A. R. Gurung

Most discussions in higher education seem to revolve around the use of student evaluations of teaching. To fully capture the hard work that is teaching, we need to change how we evaluate and reward teaching. Read More

On the First Day of Class, Begin with Intrigue

By Paul Hanstedt

The first day of class presents a great opportunity to grip your students with the sorts of big questions and compelling contradictions that drew you and your colleagues to your field in the first place. Read More

Getting Students to Stop Cramming for Exams

By Maryellen Weimer

Students should be studying just before tests, but it should not be their first time seriously looking at course materials. Multiple research findings make clear that one frenzied period of study right before the exam generally results in lower scores than regular study sessions. Read More

Nine Beliefs of Highly Ineffective Teachers

By Stephen L. Chew

Normally, we focus on what the most effective teachers think and do, but it is equally important to identify and avoid harmful beliefs that undermine teaching success. Here are nine common beliefs shared by teachers who regularly get poor student evaluations. Read More

Getting Realistic about Group Work

By Amy B. Mulnix

Part of the difficulty of group work comes from misguided assumptions. Students bring these assumptions because they haven’t yet learned differently. Many faculty also operate with these assumptions because they haven’t always thought critically about the collaboration process. Read More

Memory (Still) Matters: What Teachers Need to Know about Building Knowledge in a Technological World

By Michelle D. Miller

To effectively make course material memorable, teachers need to tap into the mind’s mechanisms for accomplishing the core purpose of memory: retaining information that is relevant to our goals and our survival and retrieving it when it’s useful. But how do we account for digital technology’s influence on how memory works? Read More

Want Students to Do the Reading? Assign Tasks, Not Texts

By Norman Eng

A lot of professors assign readings like so: students read a piece of text, respond to it in some way, and come prepared to discuss it in class. Yet over half of students don’t do the assigned readings. So maybe it’s time we stop assigning readings. Perhaps we should instead start assigning tasks.
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A Quiz on Quizzing for Faculty

By Angela Lyrette

Part of our March exploration of quizzes and quizzing, here’s a short quiz for our readers, including a downloadable, editable Word copy you can share with your colleagues. (Check out the full article series.)

How to Welcome Students to an Online Class

By John Orlando

The online format will be new for many students—in particular, adult students who are returning to school after a long absence—and they may be uncertain of their ability to perform in the course. Opening the course with a welcome video and a carefully designed icebreaker can help students feel comfortable and motivated. Read more

Farewell from under the Oak Tree

By Maryellen Weimer

After 35 years of writing for The Teaching Professor, Maryellen Weimer says goodbye in her final column. Read more

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