Astronomy classes that teach students to read and write images, diagrams, and plots offer an ideal venue to teach visual literacy.

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 is designed to provide a stimulus for reflective thinking. The intent is to encourage teachers to reflect upon--even question--a teaching methodology that recognizes and builds upon the learning potential inherent in a cacophony of voices, paradoxical worldviews, and divergent ways of personal being. A pedagogical possibility is…

A case study is described that examines the beliefs and practices of a university instructor who teaches regularly in an active learning classroom. His perspective provides insights into the pedagogical practices that drive his success in these learning spaces.

There are many ways to construct classroom-based learning communities. Nevertheless, the emphasis is always on cooperative learning. In this article, the authors focus on three teaching methods--interteaching, team-based learning, and cooperative learning in large, lecture-based courses--that they have used successfully to create classroom-based…

Informed by Rosenberg's (2003) concept of nonviolent communication, the author's pedagogical perspective encourages educators to criticize institutional and classroom practices that ideologically place underserved students at disadvantaged positions. At the same time, this perspective urges teachers to be self-reflective of their actions through…

This chapter provides an overview and implementation guidelines of Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT), an interactive engagement pedagogy used across disciplines and across the academy, now in its fourteenth year. The heart of JiTT pedagogy is Web-based pre-instruction assignments called warm-ups, with some colorful local variations, such as GeoBytes in…

Scholars who study teaching and learning have provided the academy with a range of progressive pedagogies that move beyond traditional ways of teaching. In the call for the use of diverse classroom practices in higher education, many have highlighted the benefits and challenges that come with collaborative teaching models. In this chapter, the…

Can one appropriately teach with the spirit in a secular classroom? This chapter addresses the question by exploring how the concepts of serendipity and stewardship encourage a form of spirituality that is inclusive and appropriate for the university setting. Serendipity and stewardship work hand in hand. Stewardship resists the temptation of…

Being a Hispanic female faculty member in South Texas can be a challenge. This chapter discusses three pedagogical tools (caring, challenging, and consulting) that we use to create a classroom climate that enhances Hispanic students' success by engaging and motivating them to succeed in one of the poorest areas of the country.

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…

A discussion of group dynamics in collaborative learning describes use of this approach in an experimental biology course. Three approaches to group dynamics are outlined (personality and learning style, cognitive style, and group life). Identified are variables that teachers either have little power to affect, can address in course design, or can…

Classroom assessment techniques were used in a large survey college course in psychology to monitor student performance and collect other forms of student feedback. As a result, student-teacher role relations changed, the teacher adopted the role of learning coach and reduced lecture content, and the classroom environment was enlivened. (MSE)

Six specific instances in which supplemental instruction (SI) leaders guide student inquiry in college algebra and calculus are described. The active learning strategies used in the situations are analyzed, focusing on the role of the leader and the support provided by SI leader training and supervision. (MSE)

The pedagogical assumptions and teaching practices of learning community models reflect exemplary conditions for learning, so using these models with unprepared students seems desirable and worthy of investigation. This chapter describes the key role of faculty in creating active, integrative learning experiences for students in basic skills…