This page addresses topics in teaching helpful to new and experienced teachers, including starting a class, using evidence-based teaching practices, and employing learner-centered teaching with resources on our students. In addition, other resources pages on assessments, active learning, and inclusive teaching will be helpful.
OTEI Resources:
Focus your teaching on two primary aspects, for best results: Clarity and Building Rapport. These two "buckets" of skills include many evidence-based practices. For more information, see An Introduction to Learner-Centered Teaching (PDF)
Use evidence-based teaching practices; see also a set of suggested teaching strategies to accompany the "top 10" evidence-based teaching strategies to build more clarity and rapport into your teaching!
To organize your course for clarity, from the Instructional Playbook.
Build Rapport with your students to help them learn. You can further build rapport by considering how we talk with students and adjust to today's generation: Reframing Our Language: Practical Tips to Support Student Success
Multiple resources can be found on this page on our current "Gen Z" students, with resources from a student research project covering three semesters of information gathering (thank you Ashley Fisk for your students' work!). Find information on active learning, learning preferences and other topics from Clemson students.
Tips for the First Day of Class (PDF) A “how to”page with ideas for starting off your class.
A quick start guide to teaching a class session or lab (PDF) A visual one-pager for easy reference.
Reflection Activities for Multiple Purposes (PDF) This page lists sample activities to get students to explore their thinking, to react to experiences, and to examine their own learning habits.
For similar activity suggestions for both discussion and lecture courses, see the Active Learning Resource page.
From the FLC group: the Values of Teaching:
Do you need some inspiration? Need some new ideas for class? The Faculty Learning Community on the Values of Teaching created several short videos to help assist and inspire instructors:
Candor (Julia Sherry, CBSHS)
Introspection (Erin Shepard, CBSHS)
Kindness (Lauren Stephens, CBSHS)
Silence (Scott Brame, CECAS)
Trust & Respect (Mariah Magagnotti, CECAS)
External Resources:
See this Faculty Focus archive page for short articles on managing a college class.
Periodic Table of Visualization - a wonderful visual resource for visualization methods and techniques.
The Patricia K Cross Academy has a wealth of ideas for activities--group, individual, reflective, and active! Each technique is explained in a short video (just a few minutes) and comes with explanations you can access as pdfs.