Teaching Tips!

"What is one (or more) class activity or teaching practice that you would recommend?"


– Theresa Cronan (Curriculum & Instruction)
ASG and Student Alumni Teaching Award

Take a few minutes at the beginning of class to solicit learner input about the subject matter - "What's in your head about .?"  Even if there appears to be little background knowledge or if misconceptions surface, you have an idea of what/how to connect.  One educational psychologist (D.P. Ausubel) felt strongly about this in stating, "The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.  Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.


– Mark Boyer (Landscape Architecture)
School of Architecture Outstanding Teacher Award

The favorite teaching tip I have is to ask the students to give advice to the next class of students taking the same course.  Then I actually compile that advice and print it within the syllabus.  Similarly, I ask the students halfway through what has or has not been working (positive/negative) and then respond to each comment type and give it back to them to discuss.  They seem to have more ownership in the class this way.


– Marcia Imbeau (Curriculum & Instruction)
College of Education and Health Professions Outstanding Teacher Award

I frequently design in-class activities that allow the student to digest specific material in small groups.  Often these activities require students to illustrate their understanding through the use of graphic organizers, concept maps, outlines and the like.  I have found that when I ask students to display the work or large chart paper I can see immediately where they are in terms of their thinking and quickly clear-up any misconceptions or be struck by a perspective I had not considered.


– Ronda Mains (Music)
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award

In my field it is very important for students to be self aware.  Because they are often so caught up in the physical processes of performing, they often miss the obvious.  I video and audio tape their lessons and ask them to analyze the tapes.  We then sit down together and watch or listen after reading their own self analysis.  The experience of self analysis makes the learning experience more relevant.

To make certain that students understand particular concepts, I often have them teach the concept to another student or I ask them to write down instructions for someone else to teach the concept.  It becomes evident whether they truly understand.


– Greg Herman (Architecture)
School of Architecture Outstanding Teacher Award

Break up the lecture - insert a "seminar" segment to force interaction and to break up the flow.


– Neil Allison (Chemistry)
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award

Get feedback from students at least once during the semester.


– George Wardlow (Agricultural & Extension Education)
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award

For each lesson, determine what you want students to know or to be able to do and then ask yourself, "how can I best teach this to insure that students learn it?"  Then, teach to that specific objective, using methods and techniques of teaching tailored to the nature of the subject.


- Grad Assistant, University of Arkansas

Professors!!! You have top-of-the-line state-of-the-art teaching technology tools available for your use! Use these! Your students do not appreciate squinting up at poorly focused, mis-shapen, scratched up overheads! Impress your colleagues, impress your students, impress yourself and figure out how to use powerpoint, etc. Leave that old overhead projector where it belongs . . . .with the rest of the dinosaurs.


- Ken Garner
UALR Criminal Justice - Webster University

Assign each student the responsibility of locating and presenting to the class an oral report on a contemporary issue related to the course. Some examples, a report on the new minimum wage for an HRM class, a review of medicare problems for a Health Services Management class etc. Requiring these prompts the student to think actively , seek out related topics and also assists them in developing some basic speaking skills. I continue to be amazed after 16 years in the graduate and undergraduate classroom at the quality and informative value of the issues brought into the class by these assignments.


- Brenda J. Byers
former member of the Department of Psychology, Arkansas

Effective Processing of Information Through Journal Writing: Journal writing is an excellent tool that allows students to actively engage the material during the encoding and rehearsal stages of processing information. The habit of recording responses or reactions to a topic on a daily basis fosters writing skills and helps the student make a more personal connection with the subject matter. The assignments assist accommodation and/or assimilation of new information into the learner's pre-existing schemata. Journal writing provides learners with the opportunity to engage in elaborate rehearsal which is more effective than rote repetition. Students demonstrate more class participation, exhibit more knowledge of the topic, ask more relevant questions, and express greater interest in information beyond that necessary for the test. Students attribute less test anxiety and greater ease in test preparation to the journal writing. Journal assignments can be used in any content area. In order to maximize learning, however, journals must also be use as an integral component in the overall learning process.


- Gary Taylor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Arkansas

Cognitive Maps: Cognitive psychology stresses the arrangement of subject content into associations and patterns so that learning is facilitated. When students are allowed to code, organize, and elaborate the content of a subject field, they cause the movement of that content from the short term memory into the long term memory. The act of coding, organizing, or elaborating increase the relevancy of the material to the students. All of these benefits can be approached by utilizing cognitive maps which prompt students to see associations, relationships and possible consequences. To utilize cognitive maps, the teacher prepares the maps for all the relevant concepts in a chapter. The composite is then stripped of all its answers and is then given to the students to solve as they study the reading assignment. After students have worked through several cognitive maps, they become quite capable of designing their own maps. The ability to design their own maps can cause students to establish through discovery the inherent relationships within knowledge.


- Michael C. Freeman
International Programs Office, University of Arkansas

Providing a Global Perspective in the Classroom: The International Programs Office collaborates with departments and professors across campus to bring a global perspective to the subject matter presented in the classroom.

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