This booklet provides practical tips, techniques, hints, and suggestions developed by and for college teachers. The handbook serves as a useful guide for teachers who wish to improve their performance in the classroom. Specific topics include keeping students' attention and interest, helping students to think, teaching effectively in large group…

While researching the lives of well-known artists for a new unit in an art survey course, the instructor developed the idea of dressing in costume and presenting their lives in the first person. The primary goal of each lecture is to provide memorable information about the artist; a secondary goal is to integrate the social and political climate…

Five communication strategies are essential to success in large courses: managing instructor anxiety, using presentation time efficiently, motivating students, communicating enthusiasm, and organizing content. (MLW)

Much of what has been written about improving lecturing is summarized, and strengths and weaknesses of this approach are identified. Lecturing is defined as teaching by the spoken word with emphasis on the teacher talking and the student listening. Instructional goals that are met by lecturing include: communicating the intrinsic interest of the…

Provides a way to enliven the classroom lecture by involving students in the lecture. Students role-play characters in the teacher's lecture becoming active learners through participation. Students learn their roles and make decisions based on the lecture situation presented. Provides an example unit on the growth of big business in U.S. history…

These two documents present (1) a user's guide to the Personal Teaching Improvement Guides Program developed at the University of California, Berkeley and (2) a sample guide. The program uses results of student evaluations (keyed to 24 teaching practices) and descriptions of successful teaching practices to individualize instructional improvement…

Five articles on higher education in Australia and New Zealand are presented, along with two review articles. "Australian Higher Education Research and Society. Part I: Post-War Reconstruction and Expansion, 1940-1965" (D. S. Anderson and E. Eton) is a review of research on higher education in Australia and New Zealand since World War…

This paper outlines a method of transforming traditional learning methods into a competency-based approach in a series of steps. The paper is organized in three sections. The first section defines competency-based education (CBE) and explains how this approach differs from traditional education. It also advances reasons why the competency-based…

Designed to help teachers improve instruction, this handbook provides tips gathered from focus groups of teachers and students at New Jersey's Mercer County Community College, as well as from other teaching resources. The first part focuses on the contribution of faculty-student interaction to student success, listing 21 suggestions for building…

This book presents 16 teaching techniques organized in lessons to be used by teachers who work with adolescents or young adults. The lessons may be used by individuals or in groups to improve instructional skills. A study guide or meeting plan precedes each chapter and suggests objectives, anticipatory set, input and modeling, means to check…

Ways to prepare and present lectures that hold college students' attention and involve them in the teaching-learning process are discussed. Attention is focused on linguistic, rhetorical, and psychological aspects of classroom communication; common communication problems in the classroom; and how to overcome and avoid communication problems.…

This annual serial volume contains 22 articles offering practical pedagogical ideas from faculty at New Hampshire technical colleges. Section I, "Learners Conversing," includes "'Cheering': A Prelude to a Street Dweller," by Thomas Gorka; "Illusions of Fear: Unleashing My Writing," by Bruce Maville; and "Claremont's Writing Workshop," a transcript…

A handbook for University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) teaching assistants is provided compiled from materials developed at UCLA and other college teaching programs. Separate sections cover: teaching roles, meeting the first class, leading sections, teaching one's own course, motivating students, teaching tips, preparing examinations,…

This volume offers strategies and suggestions for college instructors at all levels in the form of 49 teaching tools (organized into 12 sections) that cover both traditional tasks--writing a course syllabus, delivering an effective lecture--and newer, broader concerns such as responding to diversity and using technology. Each tool includes a brief…

This book contains 21 papers devoted to understanding and facilitating adult learning. After "Foreword to the Second Edition" (Malcolm S. Knowles) and other introductory materials, the papers are: "Becoming an Effective Teacher of Adults" (Michael W. Galbraith); "Understanding Adult Learners" (Huey B. Long); "Identifying Your Philosophical…