GSI Online Library
Award-Winning GSI Teaching Ideas
The essays linked below were all written by recipients of the Teaching Effectiveness Award (TEA), a very competitive award given each year by the Graduate Council’s Faculty Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs. Each essay identifies a problem the GSI encountered in teaching, explains the GSI’s strategy and rationale in devising a solution, and assesses the effectiveness of the solution.
For more about the TEA and other GSI award programs, please visit our Awards page.
There are several ways you can search or browse this group of over 200 essays:
- By frequently asked question: see TEA Essays Addressing Frequently Asked Questions below.
- By teaching topic: please use the Topical Index to TEA Essays.
- By recipient name, department, academic area, or year of award: please see the Past Recipients of the Teaching Effectiveness Award page.
In addition, both the TEA essays and pages in the Teaching Guide can be accessed by topic using the tag cloud.
TEA Essays Addressing Frequently Asked Questions
Click to expand each question and see the essays in each section.
- The Tipping Point: Encouraging Inclusive Participation through Productive Failure in a Highly Diverse Student Setting, Sandile Hlatshwayo, Economics
- Attending to Attendance, Tobias Smith, Jurisprudence and Social Policy
- Interdisciplinary Team Peer-to-Peer Learning with Guided Inquiry, Dwight Springthorpe, Integrative Biology
- Help Them Help Themselves! Nicholas Knight, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
- Breaking Down the Barriers Inhibiting Effective Learning Environments, Yekaterina Miroshnikova, Molecular and Cell Biology (Home Department: Bioengineering)
- Policy Consulting Simulations as a Tool for Understanding and Applying Economic Concepts, Anna Rubin, Public Policy
- X-Axis, Y-Axis, and Zzzz’s: Plotting Narrative at 8 a.m., Wendy Xin, English
- A Solution for Inclusion: Keeping Advanced Students Stimulated Without Leaving Others Behind, Nadia Kurd, Molecular and Cell Biology
- The Challenges of Teaching in the Summer Session, Conrad Hengesbach, Mathematics
- Going Public: Designing Writing Assignments with Social Impact, Skylar Wang, Sociology
- Translating from Shakespeare to Modernism: An Experiment in How Form Affects Meaning, Marianne Kaletzky, Comparative Literature
- A Clinical Approach to Human Anatomy, Britney Kitamata-Wong, Integrative Biology (Home Department: Optometry)
- Bridging Mathematical Models and Managerial Decisions, Auyon Siddiq, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
- Integrating Sociology into Students’ Lives through Twitter, Shelly Steward, Sociology
- Empowering Learning: History, Collaboratively, Jesse Cordes Selbin, English
- Starting with Art for the First Time, Elaine Yau, Art History
- Elusive Allusions: Discovering Kafka in Coetzee, Sarah Mangin, English
- Providing Skills, Not Summaries: Improving Reading Comprehension in Political Theory, Mark Fisher, Political Science
- To Err Is Divine: Constructive Failure and Its Place in Language Learning, Christopher Jelen, Classics
- The Tipping Point: Encouraging Inclusive Participation through Productive Failure in a Highly Diverse Student Setting, Sandile Hlatshwayo, Economics
- Attending to Attendance, Tobias Smith, Jurisprudence and Social Policy
- Consensus Techniques for Learning Together, Genevieve Painter, Jurisprudence and Social Policy
- Encouraging Full Participation in Section, Suzanne Scoggins, International and Area Studies (Home Department: Political Science)
- Problem Solving and the Random Number Generator, Justin Hollenback, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Confidence and the Character of Discussion: Attending to Framing Effects, Lindsay Crawford, Philosophy
- A Clinical Approach to Human Anatomy, Britney Kitamata-Wong, Integrative Biology (Home Department: Optometry)
- Staging the Exchange: Learning to Read and Write Beyond Similarity and Opposition, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Rhetoric
- The Hip Bone is Connected to the Thigh Bone: Fostering Higher-Order Learning by Not Answering Students’ Questions, Julie Wesp, Anthropology
- “Is This Right?” Building Confidence in Scientific Reasoning, Francesca Fornasini, Astronomy
- Maximizing the Impact of GSI Feedback through Reflections on Writing, Rebecca Elliott, Sociology
- Sketching Social Theory Collectively, Chris Herring, Sociology
- Translating from Shakespeare to Modernism: An Experiment in How Form Affects Meaning, Marianne Kaletzky, Comparative Literature
- Bridging Mathematical Models and Managerial Decisions, Auyon Siddiq, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
- Integrating Sociology into Students’ Lives through Twitter, Shelly Steward, Sociology
- Bringing Archaeological Theory “Down to Earth,” Anna Harkey, Anthropology
- The Importance of Implicit Feature Awareness for Problem Solving in Organic Chemistry, Jordan Axelson, Chemistry
- Elusive Allusions: Discovering Kafka in Coetzee, Sarah Mangin, English
- Making and Supporting an Argument, Margot Szarke, French
- Beyond Bean Counting: A New Laboratory to Teach the Concepts of Microevolution, Sonja Schwartz, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
- The End of Romance: Teaching Students to Rethink “Wild” Africa, Amy Wolfson, African American Studies
- “Is This Right?” Building Confidence in Scientific Reasoning, Francesca Fornasini, Astronomy
- Providing Skills, Not Summaries: Improving Reading Comprehension in Political Theory, Mark Fisher, Political Science
- What Is It to Truly “See” and How to Deal with the Unseen, Alexandra Courtois de Vicose, History of Art
- To Risk an Argument: Tweeting towards Independent Theses in English R1B, Kathryn Fleishman, English
- Staging the Exchange: Learning to Read and Write Beyond Similarity and Opposition, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Rhetoric
- The Semester-Long Research Project Reimagined, Tammy Stark, Linguistics
- Achieving Higher Efficiency in Chemistry Labs Using Electronic Scheduling, Rong “Rocky” Ye, Chemistry
- Intuition Is What You Need to Take Home! Caroline Delaire, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Consensus Techniques for Learning Together, Genevieve Painter, Jurisprudence and Social Policy
- Moving Beyond Plot Summary: Doing Things with Words, Laurence Coderre, East Asian Languages and Cultures
- A Solution for Inclusion: Keeping Advanced Students Stimulated Without Leaving Others Behind, Nadia Kurd, Molecular and Cell Biology
- Starting with Art for the First Time, Elaine Yau, Art History
- Queering Anthropology: A Lived Experience of Critical Knowledge Production, Raphaëlle Rabanes, Anthropology
- Breaking Down the Barriers Inhibiting Effective Learning Environments, Yekaterina Miroshnikova, Molecular and Cell Biology (Home Department: Bioengineering)
- Expanding the Classroom: Using bSpace to Encourage Student-Driven Discussion, Ashley Leyba, History
- Making and Supporting an Argument, Margot Szarke, French
- Engaging with the Thesis Statement: Developing Metacognitive Skills in the Classroom through Peer Sharing, Peer Review, and Self Review, Jennifer Johnson, Linguistics (Home Department: Education)
- Beyond Bean Counting: A New Laboratory to Teach the Concepts of Microevolution, Sonja Schwartz, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
- Incorporating Active Learning and Technology into Teaching Economics, Marquise McGraw, Economics
- Providing Skills, Not Summaries: Improving Reading Comprehension in Political Theory, Mark Fisher, Political Science
- Sketching Social Theory Collectively, Chris Herring, Sociology
- Bridging Mathematical Models and Managerial Decisions, Auyon Siddiq, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
- Interdisciplinary Team Peer-to-Peer Learning with Guided Inquiry, Dwight Springthorpe, Integrative Biology
- Interpretation as Staging: A Lesson in Dramatic Literature, Jordan Greenwald, Comparative Literature
- Teaching Students “Street Smarts” Necessary for Navigating Peer-Reviewed Literature, Jeffrey Benca, Integrative Biology
- Policy Consulting Simulations as a Tool for Understanding and Applying Economic Concepts, Anna Rubin, Public Policy
- What Is It to Truly “See” and How to Deal with the Unseen, Alexandra Courtois de Vicose, History of Art
- Sketching Social Theory Collectively, Chris Herring, Sociology
- Achieving Higher Efficiency in Chemistry Labs Using Electronic Scheduling, Rong “Rocky” Ye, Chemistry
- Developing Interactive Applets to Help Students Visualize Multivariable Calculus, Thunwa Therakarn, Mathematics
- Empowering Learning: History, Collaboratively, Jesse Cordes Selbin, English
- The Importance of Implicit Feature Awareness for Problem Solving in Organic Chemistry, Jordan Axelson, Chemistry
- Starting with Art for the First Time, Elaine Yau, Art History
- Interpretation as Staging: A Lesson in Dramatic Literature, Jordan Greenwald (Comparative Literature)
- Seeing for Yourself, Ryan Turner, Astronomy (Home Department: Earth and Planetary Science)
- Beyond Bean Counting: A New Laboratory to Teach the Concepts of Microevolution, Sonja Schwartz, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
- Incorporating Active Learning and Technology into Teaching Economics, Marquise McGraw, Economics
- Becoming Your Own Dictionary: Increasing Participation and Communicative Confidence through Semiotic Brainstorming, Emily A. Hellmich, French (Home Department: Education)
- A Clinical Approach to Human Anatomy, Britney Kitamata-Wong, Integrative Biology (Home Department: Optometry)
- Bridging Mathematical Models and Managerial Decisions, Auyon Siddiq, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
- Integrating Sociology into Students’ Lives through Twitter, Shelly Steward, Sociology
- Intuition Is What You Need to Take Home! Caroline Delaire, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- The Hip Bone is Connected to the Thigh Bone: Fostering Higher-Order Learning by Not Answering Students’ Questions, Julie Wesp, Anthropology
- Fostering the Ability to Think Like an Experimenter in a Lecture Course, Daniel Bliss, Molecular and Cell Biology (Home Department: Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute)
- The Semester-Long Research Project Reimagined, Tammy Stark, Linguistics
- The Advantages of Rearranging the Topics Covered in a Course, Peyam Tabrizian, Mathematics
- Breaking Down the Barriers Inhibiting Effective Learning Environments, Yekaterina Miroshnikova, Molecular and Cell Biology (Home Department: Bioengineering)
- The Challenges of Teaching in the Summer Session, Conrad Hengesbach, Mathematics