This chapter describes how faculty at the University of Vermont are trained to teach their university-wide sustainability general education requirement and how they execute teaching in the classroom.

Educators believe that rather than being a mere possibility to improve as teachers, it is always "necessary" to improve. One way of improving teaching is to adopt teaching methods that are based on or supported by evidence of success in enhancing student learning. Most teachers base their instructional practices on tradition, the opinion of…

During the last fifteen years a quiet pedagogical revolution has taken place in colleges, universities, and community colleges across the United States and increasingly around the world. Often flying under the name "contemplative pedagogy," it offers to its practitioners a wide range of educational methods that support the development of…

Technology and its uses have undergone significant change in the past several decades. Although the technology of 2010 has changed in ways unimaginable in 1960, the promise of technology today is similar to the promise of technology then. The achievement of student learning seems more likely to lie in the minds of the people who use the technology…

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…

A number of universities in the United Kingdom (UK) have launched institution-wide initiatives recently to embed inquiry and research more firmly into the student experience. Among these, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) led a five-year development program at The University of Sheffield (TUOS) between…

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) has widespread appeal in higher education as a suite of teaching strategies that promotes learning through students' increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues using the methods of inquiry of the disciplines. Framed as especially appropriate for research universities, IGL has been…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

The term "assessment" sends shivers down academic spines. For faculty, it signals marching orders from external parties who may or may not appreciate the subtle and not always quantifiable value of faculty efforts. For administrators, it means the dual challenge of recalibrating internal measures to meet external mandates but also…

Proposes the metaphor of teaching as mentoring, suggesting that faculty use their understanding of mentoring and its role within the academy as an opportunity for renewal and change, a way to reflect on daily activities in the classroom and in larger institutional contexts. (EV)

What factors encourage and sustain enduring curriculum change at a typical North American university? Like many faculty members and groups working in teaching and learning centers, the authors have been concerned with understanding how curriculum change takes place in a university. Their group, the Centre for Leadership in Learning at McMaster…

Students can get through college by memorizing, but what they need is to development their analytical skills. More time needs to be spent on teaching students how to use what they know. Courses must be taught from the problem-solving perspective. (MLW)

The implications of the interaction between knowledge acquisition and problem solving are discussed. Options for the teaching of problem solving are listed including: giving students the opportunity to solve many problems, facilitating students' exploration of the mental processes used to solve problems, and providing explicit training in the…

Despite rapid advancements in educational technology, postsecondary teaching methods remain remarkably traditional. However, the microcomputer has emerged as a powerful tool that is transforming what and how students learn, both inside and outside the classroom. (Author/MSE)

Six keys to successful instruction in large classes are identified: don't be intimidated, prepare carefully, be natural, be personal, prevent students from feeling insignificant and anonymous, and stay in touch with teaching assistants. (MLW)