This chapter provides practical strategies for addressing common challenges that arise for teachers in active learning classrooms. Our strategies come from instructors with experience teaching in these environments.

This chapter describes the processes and pedagogies used by one school in transitioning from lecture halls to collaborative learning environments.

This chapter offers strategies for engaging Millennial students in ways that affirm, rather than challenge, students' egos.

Coordinating SoTL and assessment efforts strengthens the processes of inquiry, evidence, and innovation that lead to the continual improvement of student learning. Examples are provided for how to work collaboratively with colleagues to use these processes to continually inform the teaching practices within classrooms, academic programs, and…

This chapter suggests solutions to common practical problems in designing SoTL studies. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of different types of designs are discussed. [Part I available at EJ1029363.]

This article focuses on curriculum-based learning communities (LCs). In these LCs, manipulation of the curriculum is intentional and often innovative, with the overarching goals of developing meaningful connections among students, between students and faculty, and between students and their coursework. The variety of curriculum-based models…

This article discusses the growth and current state of learning communities (LCs) in higher education. It reviews literature on the impact of LCs, highlighting a sample of single-institution studies and describing results from multi-institutional studies. LCs have been a growing movement aimed at educational reform for decades, and evidence…

This volume focuses on learning communities at the beginning and at the culmination of work in the major of psychology and reflects a commitment to good practice both within and outside the classroom. Its comprehensive approach attests to the power of learning communities within the discipline and is a fine example of their evolution. In this…

The purpose of assembling this "New Directions in Teaching and Learning" volume was to introduce college and university teachers to a broad range of approaches that reflect evidence-based teaching (EBT). As each of the preceding chapters has shown, EBT not only can increase student learning across a variety of measures, it also can increase…

Although the causes of achievement are many and varied, it is widely assumed that "motivation" and "self-regulation" are crucial determinants of academic performance. Substantial evidence indicates that students who focus on learning and understanding course material are more likely to perform well academically (Dweck and Leggett, 1988).…

This chapter explores how the framework of intersectionality can be used by faculty in course development and classroom teaching. An overview of intersectionality, highlighting core assumptions and tenets of the framework, is presented first. These assumptions and tenets are then applied to classroom dynamics and the practice of teaching in…

The social basis of learning is a concept that has been embraced by the higher educating community. Since the 1980s, there has been exciting growth and the development of specific practices that better engage students in academic content. The purpose of this review of the social basis of learning is to summarize contributions on this topic to the…

When the University of North Dakota began working to improve general education, two concerns were recognized. The first issue, which faculty and administrators across campus found immediately engaging, was how to change general education so that it would be a better program, more likely to yield clear student learning benefits. A second concern,…

The authors are both teachers in the Economics Department at Fairfield University, where they share responsibility for the introductory and intermediate economics courses. Student's comment illustrates that they were apparently not reaching their students in ways that achieved their goals: developing students' abilities to understand economic…

In his book "Creating Significant Learning Experiences" (2003), Dee Fink challenges professors to create a deep vision for the courses they teach. Educators often have a vision for what their courses could be, but often lack a model for instituting change. Fink's book provides that model. In this article, the author describes how this model helped…