I believe I did a blog along these lines about this time last year—about The Teacher Professor Conference (this year June 5-7 in Washington, D.C., info at www.teachingprofessor.com). We would love to have you join us. We work very hard to make it a great event, and so far I’ve been very proud of how these conferences have turned out. There’s a variety of sessions, all carefully selected, many of which participants tells us are over-the-top excellent. We bring some big names to the conference—people you can really learn from as well as vendors with resources on teaching and learning. It’s a short compact schedule and by most standards, it’s not an expensive conference.

Incorporating material that addresses diversity issues in classes has positive effects on a number of learning outcomes. The success of efforts to make curricula more diverse depends to a large degree on faculty willingness to incorporate these materials because control of the curriculum remains in faculty hands—both collectively, in terms of course and program approval processes, and individually, in terms of daily decisions about what to teach.

A new online course designed to help higher education faculty and staff recognize and mitigate disruptive and potentially dangerous student behavior is now available from Magna Publications. The six-part course, Campus Safety 101, focuses on "the four D's" of concerning behavior — distressed, disturbed, dysregulated and medical disability-based behavior — and how early and effective intervention can protect the campus community and enhance student success.

You may recall that McGraw-Hill and Magna (the folks who bring you this blog and The Teaching Professor newsletter) are sponsoring a scholarly work on teaching and learning award. The first award will be given at The Teaching Professor Conference June 5-9 in Washington, D.C.

Lately I’ve been wondering if there’s a set of initial assumptions made about teaching and learning that inhibit instructional growth and development. Here is list of a few of these assumptions, and why I think they make teaching excellence less attainable.

A love of the material and a willingness to convey that to students only enhances learning. The problem occurs when the content matters more than anything else, faculty are prevented from using methods that enhance student learning. Not only does this hurt the students, but it hurts faculty as well.

If your institution offers online courses, you know that finding quality adjuncts is only half of the staffing battle. Keeping them is sometimes even more difficult. Defections are common as adjuncts report feeling disconnected from the campus community they serve, and there’s always competition from other schools who may offer a better pay rate.

Becoming a department chair does not always follow a smooth or particularly well-thought-out process. Most faculty, who have no academic leadership training, need real support to make this career transition a successful one.

The sheer volume of content faculty members are responsible for teaching is enormous, but being an effective educator takes much more than the mastery and delivery of material. It requires unique skills and knowledge that most new higher education instructors were never trained in. For newcomers, the challenges can seem overwhelming.