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Showing 147 results for "active learning"

Intuition Is What You Need to Take Home!

by Caroline Delaire, Civil and Environmental Engineering I quickly realized that the class generated a lot of anxiety. Students, undergraduate and graduate alike, were surprised and challenged by the quantity of equations and algebra involved in lectures and homeworks. I helped them the best I could with solving problem sets, but at the same time I started to understand that by focusing on algebra and equations students were at risk of missing the point of the class: gaining practical knowledge about water chemistry. They were simply not developing the intuition that would help them address real world environmental issues!

Working with Student Writing: Additional Resources

The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style (2005). Boston and New York: Houghton-Mifflin. In cases where you do want to correct grammatical usage in a student’s writing, this is a useful guide. You may also want to quote or direct the student to specific pages so that they…

Teaching with Media and Primary Sources: Grounding Theory in Genealogy and Method

By José Eduardo Valdivia Heredia, Ethnic Studies  Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 A recurring challenge in interdisciplinary classrooms is the gap between abstract theoretical frameworks and students’ capacity to engage them concretely. In my sections for Introduction to Gender & Women’s Studies, I observed that students could often…

Analyzing Moving Images: A “Salon-Style” Approach

By Jonathan Mackris, Film and Media Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026   Students entering my film courses usually have some familiarity with analyzing written texts. Analyzing moving images is a different story. All of them are able to follow films and understand their plots. Yet many of…

A Jigsaw Approach to Exam Review

By Dev Desai, Molecular and Cell Biology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2026 In the first third of MCB102 (Survey of Biochemistry), a course notorious for its steep learning curve, two recurring concerns emerged from students during my discussion sections: the expectations for the upcoming midterm were unclear, and…

Enhancing Student Confidence and Competency in Data Analysis

By Xueqin Lin, School of Education Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2025 One of the challenges I encountered while teaching lab sessions for EDUC 293A: Data Analysis in Education Research in Fall 2025 was supporting students struggling with statistical software, particularly Stata. One student, who had no…

Practice Trauma-Informed Pedagogy

Trauma is an “event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and…wellbeing (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 2024).

Set Shared Expectations

GSIs can begin to build inclusive classrooms by letting students know what they can expect of the GSI and the learning community they are co-creating. We encourage you to set shared expectations by sharing a statement about your commitment to inclusion, establishing community agreements,…

Enhancing Student Engagement through a Simulated Academic Conference

By Karen Villegas, Education Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2024 As an undergraduate student, I remember dreading group work and public presentations. As a doctoral candidate, I came to value the experience of collaborating on research projects and presenting our findings at academic conferences. There was something special…