I meet regularly, usually over breakfast, with my good friend and colleague Larry. We share our papers, ideas, and good stuff we’re reading. I am so lucky to have this wonderful pedgogical colleague. I’ve been working on a paper that explores the knowledge bases for teaching, one of which is the experiential knowledge faculty derive from time spent in the classroom. I used the old cliché about experience being a great teacher. Larry was all over that idea. Experience isn’t a teacher—it’s yet another case where a metaphor conveys the wrong meaning. Teachers work to form and frame content in the interest of helping students learn it. Experience doesn’t do that. Learning from experience is like any other kind of learning—it takes effort and depends on focus, reflection, and practice. It never just happens.

Have you ever wondered if what you teach and how you teach it results in career-ready students? Have you ever wondered if your expectations for student learning outcomes match what the real world requires? In the Public Relations Studies program at Columbia College Chicago, we wondered, too. So, we set out to answer our own questions about the most basic skills professionals expect of entry-level candidates.

Before embarking on a writing assignment, I challenge my students to imagine a skeptical reader who expects them to answer five important questions. Answering these questions demands critical writing and thinking, and helps the students develop thoughtful content, efficient structure, and clear sentences.

The February issue of the newsletter contains highlights from an amazing article—one written by a faculty member who describes himself as a “bad teacher.” The piece chronicles his transformation as a teacher. It’s one of the best articles I’ve read in a long while (and you know I read more than a few articles).

Unless they have a real problem with how the course was run, most students fill out end-of-course evaluations so quickly there's often very little valuable information in them. Here are two ways that Wayne Hall, psychology professor at San Jacinto College in Texas, elicits helpful feedback on his courses:

If you’re interested in approaches that encourage students to participate in class and develop their public-speaking skills, as well as techniques that help you learn student names, then my “daily experts” strategy may be of use to you.

In a chapter in an e-book on undergraduate student research in psychology, authors Wadkins and Miller integrate research and resources into a wonderfully pragmatic exploration of the role of faculty mentors. When undergraduates do a research project under the guidance of a mentor, the process not only develops the students’ research skills, it also “transforms their professional and academic selves.” (p. 209)

“We cannot assume … that students will learn how to become better group members simply by participating in group activities.” Diane Baker (reference below) makes this observation in a first-rate article on peer assessment in small groups. Here’s a sampling of the ideas, information, and resources included in her article.

It’s a new year, but the same old challenges exist. Given today’s financial constraints, colleges and universities are working harder than ever to be careful stewards of limited resources and demonstrate their effectiveness to stakeholders, constituents, and the public.