Notes on Teaching and Learning

As instructors, we play critical roles in promoting a supportive and motivational learning environment for our students.  Below is a survey of strategies suggested by recent research for promoting a positive classroom environment:   Building rapport with students In a study of students’ perceptions of their rapport with their instructors, the strength of this perceived […]

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In our Faculty Feature series, the Kaneb Center interviews teachers around campus to learn about what motivates them, discuss techniques they use in their classrooms, and share bits of wisdom with others in the Notre Dame community and beyond! This edition, we feature Amanda Hummon from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Tell us a little […]

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Collaborative and cooperative learning, often commonly known as “group work,” is growing in favor among professors as an effective active learning tool. Aside from the benefits of getting students involved in the education process, another reason for the expanded role for group work in the classroom is the demand from students (and their future employers) […]

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In anticipation of the upcoming book talk being hosted by the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning (James Lang, discussing his book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, on April 7th, 2017), this spring break we challenge you to plan one “small teaching” activity for a course you are teaching or plan […]

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Have students reflect on the work they have done thus far in the semester  You can solicit this information in a survey format at the end of class or allocate time to have a class discussion (or both!) This is an efficient way to gauge what students feel they have learned, what lessons or activities […]

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In our Faculty Feature series, the Kaneb Center interviews teachers around campus to learn about what motivates them, discuss techniques they use in their classrooms, and share bits of wisdom with others in the Notre Dame community and beyond! This edition, we feature Joyelle McSweeney from the English Department.   Tell us a little about yourself. […]

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Beginning and sustaining an engaged class discussion is a notoriously difficult enterprise for new teachers and if you are teaching a contentious topic, passionate outbursts and heated debates can create even more challenges. Like many other aspects of teaching, preparation is critical for establishing a welcoming but ordered environment for students to participate in debate […]

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Most people enter graduate school with very little (if any) teaching experience. One major component of learning to be an effective teacher is the chance to serve as a teaching assistant (TA). TAships are supposed to be an opportunity to observe a professional teacher in action and get hands-on experience with certain aspects of teaching […]

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There are many studies, some linked at the end of this post, which argue for the benefits of eliminating (or at least limiting) laptop use in the classroom, advocate for old-fashioned hand-writing as a superior note taking practice to that of electronic transcription of lectures, and argue that college students are just too prone to […]

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This post was written by Catherine Sims Kuiper, Graduate Associate of the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning. ————————————————————————————————————– As new instructors it can be particularly difficult to establish appropriate boundaries in the help we give our students. This happens for a variety of reasons, but most often because graduate students who are new to teaching […]

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