By Paul Hanstedt

My friend Gray Kochhar-Lindgren says there’s no better way to raise the temperature in a room than for one person to tell another person how to teach. I always try to keep this in mind when talking with folks about what we do in the classroom, this thing that has the potential to change the world in very real, very powerful ways—but that also, at times, makes all of us, students and faculty alike, feel incredibly vulnerable. That in mind, please take what follows with a very large grain of salt.

1. Don’t begin by covering the syllabus. Do this later. First impressions matter, and if the first thing we cover is the syllabus, then the message we send is that the class is about rules and regulations, rather than ideas and powerful learning.
2. Instead, begin with a Beautiful Problem—the kind of problem that engages you in your work, the kind of problem that drew you into the field, the kind of big, gorgeous, difficult challenge that engages your curiosity and intellect and keeps you going even as it drives you nuts. If you’re teaching art history, put a painting on the screen. If you’re teaching mathematics, show students a problem that’s puzzled mathematicians for years. Sure, you may have to tone down the degree of difficulty a little, but don’t go down too far! Provide students with a few tools to tackle your beautiful problem, then let them go.
3. Meet students where they are. Yes, this is something of a cliché, but we often forget, focusing instead on how students fall short of our expectations. So when they tackle your Beautiful Problem, point out not their shortcomings, but the small steps, the little bits and pieces of brilliance. We need to have high expectations, but it’s impossible for anyone to meet those expectations if they can’t even begin.
4. Never apologize for being passionate about your topic—or anything else for that matter. Show students not just what you love, but why. And don’t apologize for expecting them to throw themselves into it as well: for these 90 minutes, this is what we do. And we will do it well. An engaged approach will engage students—and more importantly, it will show them that “work” and “joy” are not antithetical.
5. Assume a gracious and powerful audience. Teaching is a rhetorical act: we’re presenting a construction of our selves teaching a construction of the course topic. And we’re teaching it to a constructed audience, created by all of our assumptions about who these students are, what they do or don’t want, how smart they are or aren’t, how far they can or can’t go, how hard they will or won’t work. The thing is, people rise or sink to the level we’ve created for them—they can read how we’re reading them. So assume a wise audience. Assume a room full of students filled with good will and a willingness to work hard. Assume an audience with good intentions, and the desire to be pushed, and the desire to grow. Then forget that you’re the teacher and that they’re the students, and just have a conversation about things that matter.

Paul Hanstedt is a John P. Fishwick Professor of English and Director of the Teaching Collaborative at Roanoke College, where he led the revision of a campus-wide general education program, developed an innovative writing-across-the-curriculum program, and teaches a wide range of courses. He is the recipient of several teaching awards, including a 2013 State Council for Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2014 CASE Carnegie Virginia Professor of the Year. He has authored numerous articles and stories and several books, including General Education Essentials: A Guide for College Faculty and Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World.

By Amanda Kratovil-Mailhiot

As a recent graduate of a PhD program, I received very little formal training in teaching. Naively, I entered academia as an assistant professor of nursing believing that, like in my past experiences, on-the-job training would suffice. How hard could it be to teach undergraduate student nurses anyway? What I failed to recognize was the culture change in education since I was a student. I quickly realized that the roles of the teacher and learner as discrete entities were a thing of the past; teachers and learners are unifying forces to improve student comprehension and retention!

Self-Reflection Is Key

When I read the ACUE program description, I knew this was the formal, yet on-the-job training I needed to be a successful educator. My hopes were confirmed the very first lesson/module. The format of the course is such that I learned the theory and techniques supporting each topic in a well-developed and engaging online format, and then I was required to implement the most appropriate technique in my class that same week. My self-reflection on the successes and difficulties of implementation was one of the most important parts of my growth as a novice instructor. It forced me to take the time and really think about how the students perceived and interpreted the techniques that I used. The focus of my teaching began to shift away from my own goals and intentions of the activities and learning techniques to the students’ perceptions of those activities, which was my biggest takeaway from the program.

Evolution of an Evidence-Based Philosophy

Because of ACUE’s program, I found my philosophy of teaching evolve, similar to the evolution of new graduate nurses to expert nurses. At first, I was focused on the task of delivering content to students, of preparing well-designed lectures and assignments that accurately assessed what I intended for the students to learn. Throughout the ACUE course, I began to realize that it does not matter how well prepared I am if the students are not receiving and interpreting the information in the way in which I intend. I learned that students may understand and retain more from discussing key concepts with each other than from me lecturing content to them. Therefore, I have implemented many of the ACUE techniques focused on facilitating discussions and learning amongst my students rather than lecturing and forcing information onto them from my isolated perspective. An example of this (also one of the biggest challenges that remains for me) is limiting my input during discussions and group work. I can stand in front of a class and tell students my perspective of a concept in 100 different ways. However, the information is based on my perspective, and many students may be disengaged or my message may be misunderstood. On the other hand, when students begin talking to each other about the same concept, it can be like magic and the concept may become clearer to them in just one conversation with their peers.

The Benefits for Novice Instructors

I was fortunate to have participated in the ACUE program during my second semester of teaching. I could not have asked for a better time to learn many techniques for engaging students and becoming a more effective facilitator of learning. Earning the ACUE credential this early in my career not only provided the opportunity for me to incorporate evidence-based theory and techniques into my teaching philosophy at an early stage, but it also afforded me a solid foundation upon which I can continue to improve and develop. In fact, the student perspective of teaching and learning has prompted me to shift my research focus to undergraduate education.

Promoting and Developing New Evidence

The ACUE program has prompted me to explore new areas of teaching and learning. I plan to qualitatively explore faculty members’ experiences implementing active learning techniques in the baccalaureate program. As Case Western Reserve University discovered after initiating an Active Learning Initiative in 2013, the challenges and barriers to implementing active learning techniques in the classroom are dynamic (Juergensen, Oestreich, Yuhnke, & Kenney, 2016). Undoubtedly, each academic setting has its own nuances to overcome. In our baccalaureate nursing program, instructors’ implementation of active learning techniques varies greatly between instructors. Students’ acceptance of active learning in the classroom seems to be, at least somewhat, dependent on the milieu the instructor sets for the active learning classroom; ensuring students understand the rationale and research behind active learning is crucial.  Through research, I hope to better understand faculty members’ baseline perceptions and interpretations of active learning strategies. This information may then be used to promote the implementation of educational interventions, like ACUE, to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn from faculty who are using evidence-based teaching methods.

Reference

Juergensen, J., Oestreich, T., Yuhnke, B., & Kenney, M. (2016, January 25). New challenges to active learning initiatives. EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/1/new-challenges-to-active-learning-initiatives

Amanda Kratovil-Mailhiot is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Purdue University Northwest. She is currently conducting a systematic review of baccalaureate instructors’ experiences engaging students with active learning techniques. She earned her ACUE credential in spring 2018.

Photo credit: Joann Huang

Dr. Norman Eng is an adjunct assistant professor in the childhood education department of the City College of New York (CCNY) and Brooklyn College (CUNY). He teaches child development, a student teaching seminar, and math methodology and is the best-selling author of Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students (2017). Formerly, Norman was a marketing executive, experience that has proven useful in understanding his “customers” today—students.

Norman earned his ACUE credential at CCNY in spring 2017 and found that the program enhanced his pedagogy—both in teaching education classes and in his writing about teaching—which he explains in this week’s Faculty Spotlight.

Making the abstract concrete

In my child development course, I teach concepts like the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is the difference between what learners can do without help and what they can’t do. It’s an abstract idea, and ACUE’s approach comes in handy for teaching it. The ACUE course recommends teaching new concepts in three phases: concept exploration, concept introduction, and concept application. The course helped me figure out how to get students to explore the abstract concept of ZPD more concretely. For instance, I’ll ask, “How did you learn how to ride a bicycle?” In the discussions that follow, students talk about using training wheels, having their parent keep the bike steady as they pedal, and so on. At that point, I relate training wheels to the temporary supports that teachers provide students, such as an essay template. Students use a template to write their essays until they don’t need it anymore—much as they use training wheels until they can balance on their own. ZPD is the area where teachers provide these temporary supports.

I find the key to making concept exploration work is to omit any mention of abstract concepts, like ZPD, until later in the lesson. When students have activated prior knowledge and experiences—like using training wheels—they can contextualize the concept. Concepts stick better when they are anchored to something familiar. That’s when I lecture about ZPD (i.e., the “concept introduction” phase).

Revisiting the syllabus

The ACUE course encourages making syllabi more engaging and relevant, something I’ve put a lot of work into for my courses. For example, I focus on one main question that drives my child development course—the question that permeates every lecture: How do you help children develop into successful adults? Students know exactly what they are getting out of this course, and that aligns with their larger goal to become certified teachers. I’ve also simplified the language to make my syllabus more reader-friendly, and, where possible, I’ve replaced text with visuals, such as using a graphic icon of a smartphone in place of the words “cell phone policy.”

Having an impact

As academics, a lot of what we write is obscure. Before I took ACUE’s course, I wrote a general-interest book to help new college instructors teach complex subjects, and I think readers found it helpful. I was also working on a video series based on the book. But then I took the course and experienced an a-ha! moment during the module that discussed concept exploration. What if, in teaching a new topic, we turn it from a phrase into a question? The next edition of the book will reflect this discovery. The video series already does.

If we want to make an impact on our students, perhaps what we do outside of journal publications should count for just as much. Teaching is not just about pedagogy or research and scholarship. It’s also about pursuing our passions. I encourage my colleagues to share their expertise beyond academia—write the book you want to write, start a blog that means something to you. This can be immensely gratifying—and can make for great classroom discussions.

To learn more about Norman, visit his website, normaneng.org, and follow him on Twitter: @EngNorman.

A new study suggests that preparation in evidence-based teaching practices benefits graduate students, and an instructor reminds faculty not to neglect their “A” students.

The Graduate Training Trade-Off ‘Myth’
A new study suggests that preparation in evidence-based teaching practices may benefit graduate students’ teaching skills, increasing both their confidence and preparedness for careers in academia. (Inside Higher Ed)

Small Changes, Large Rewards: How Individualized Emails Increase Classroom Performance
In an attempt to engage her “forgotten” students, Zoë Cohen sent personalized emails to students who failed the first exam in her course. She reminded them it was still early enough to turn their grades around, suggested ways of improving, and asked whether they knew why they hadn’t performed well. Students were grateful for the support, and Cohen saw a noticeable improvement in their grades after this intervention. (The Evolllution)

Teaching Techniques: Reflections on AAC&U’s Webinar
Bonni Stachowiak offers her takeaways from the AAC&U webinar “Teaching Techniques to Improve Learning and Ensure Classroom Success.” José Bowen, for example, spoke about the importance of finding an entry point for students to tackle content in their instructors’ areas of expertise. The presenters also suggested specific ways to engage students in content, such as Elizabeth Barkley’s idea of having students keep contemporary issues journals. (Teaching in Higher Ed)

Make Wikipedia Even Better (and Support a Great Cause!)
As part of an effort to improve the digital environment and prevent the spread of fake news, Mike Caulfield has announced a project urging students and faculty to contribute 1,000 articles on significant English-language local newspapers to Wikipedia. Lee Skallerup Bessette suggests that other faculty consider incorporating a digital literacy assignment into their own courses. (ProfHacker)

The Dangers of the “Silent A”
Even “A” students still have plenty to learn, Adam Kotsko writes, and not providing substantive feedback to help them improve could result in their stagnation as learners. He suggests supporting both stronger and weaker students by zeroing in on one or two overarching areas for improvement and providing support to all learners. (Inside Higher Ed)

Finding the Right Atmosphere for Learning
An atmosphere that emphasizes freedom and agency enables students to learn better, John Warner writes. He continually assesses his course atmosphere by asking students questions such as “Do you find the project you’re working on interesting?” and “Do you have enough time and support to achieve what you’re trying to accomplish?” (Just Visiting)

Partner News

Arizona State University: Effective teaching course a game changer for College of Health Solutions faculty (ASU Now)

Kansas State University: K-State awards scholarships to online students (The Hutchinson News)

Miami Dade College/Broward College: Miami Dade, Broward Colleges In Running For Prestigious National Prize — And A Big Check (WLRN)

We frequently talk about student success initiatives as “what” we implement on our campuses to impact student retention and completion and ensure students’ learning leads to meaningful degrees—but what about the “who” behind student success?

At the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Academic Affairs Summer Meeting, ACUE-credentialed faculty members Christina Zambrano from Rutgers University-Newark, Mohammed Errihani from Purdue University Northwest, and Jason Myrowitz from Northern Arizona University shared how they’re contributing to their universities’ student success efforts by using evidence-based practices that improve student engagement, persistence, and learning. Below are some of the critical insights they shared during the session.

Q: How are faculty part of student success efforts on your campus? Is teaching part of these efforts?

CZ: Teaching is not a peripheral part of student success; teaching is the key to student success.  Faculty spend the most time with students, and students are more likely to identify a faculty member as a mentor than any other individual on campus. Thus, it is absolutely essential for faculty to be included in student success initiatives. Faculty-student relationships can be opportunities to identify students who are at risk of not completing courses due to personal circumstances, who can be candidates for accelerated programs, who are in jeopardy of failing, and every student in between. The use of active learning, transparent assignments, and multiple low-stakes assessments creates more opportunities for student success and communicates that the faculty member cares about student learning. Since incorporating these new approaches into my teaching practice and earning my ACUE credential, students are now passing my classes at much higher rates and are able to recall and apply knowledge long after the courses end. It has been so amazing for me to see my students achieve more in my classes, without ever lowering my expectations or sacrificing rigor.

ME: Faculty and teaching are critical to student success at Purdue University Northwest. Faculty are in charge of curriculum and instruction, which is particularly apparent in the experiential learning component of every student’s tenure at PNW. Faculty play an important role in student research, not only through instruction but also through mentoring and copresenting/coauthoring, all of which represent important components of student success at my institution. Additionally, our faculty are becoming more and more aware of their role in student retention and graduation since 62% of the freshman class at my university are the first in their families to attend college. As such, faculty have become an integral part of their success by making sure they provide students not just with effective classroom instruction but also effective study skills, mentoring, and advising.

JM: Faculty can contribute to student success in any number of ways, certainly including teaching. I believe faculty are also instrumental in helping motivate and inspire students to pursue their personal and professional goals. Professors are routinely called upon to write letters of recommendation, broker introductions to business professionals, and serve as advisors for student organizations. While I believe there has yet to be an agreed upon definition of “student success” in the academy, I hope that all efforts—whether by faculty or administrators—that lead to an increase in students’ realization of their potential are viewed as correlates of that success.

Q: Sometimes faculty are viewed as “challenging” when it comes to making important changes. Has this been your experience? If not, what’s made the difference on your campus?

ME: This is an issue that’s more pronounced with some faculty and less so with others, although I would say that shared governance seems to be the issue that irks many faculty, who are generally quite vocal about it. I’ve been on both sides of this debate—as an administrator in charge of 14 faculty members while directing an English as a Second Language program for 10 years at my institution and as a tenured faculty in the English department. I see that faculty in general are beginning to realize the important role that they need to play in making sure that students return the following semester and graduate. My experience is that faculty are playing a more active role in student success and retention because their jobs and the jobs of future faculty rely primarily on student success.

CZ: Faculty are driven by initiatives that will make a difference in their students’ lives. When changes are implemented that are for the benefit of students, I have not seen faculty be as challenging at all. If anything, faculty are often at the forefront, pushing for these changes. On the other hand, when changes are either viewed as forced upon faculty or lacking a clear purpose, resistance may ensue. Change has most successfully occurred among faculty when there has been community support and accountability, coupled with strong support from the administration. My experience is that when faculty are engaged with a cohesive community of people in making a change, anything is possible.

Q: What does it take to embrace—and equip—faculty as “agents of change”? What did it take on your campus?

JM: Equipping faculty as agents of change requires providing resources to help faculty improve their teaching and general interactions with students. This adjustment can be accomplished in so many ways, such as introducing ACUE credentialing to faculty who want to help their students become more thoughtful members of society. There are also a host of books and videos on how to engage more effectively with students. Any university that provides access to these opportunities and materials will imminently see vast improvements in the potential for instructors to effect change.

CZ: At Rutgers University–Newark, there is clear communication from the highest of administration that teaching matters—that by implementing good teaching practices, we are providing all students with the tools to succeed. When opportunities like ACUE’s Effective Teaching Practices course are offered, it communicates the value of education. It is crucial for good teaching to be of merit: in conversations, in hiring and promotion decisions, and in policy and practice. I have observed a transformation in my teaching since receiving my certification through ACUE. I’m able to focus on my goals for a class session and for an overall course, and I’m now equipped with strategies that get students to grapple with course concepts and apply knowledge in new ways. My students have more than risen to the occasion, and I have witnessed a greater depth of learning since I began teaching in this new way. Faculty are in a position to have the biggest impact on students’ lives, and when faculty are knowledgeable about transformative pedagogy, they become equipped to change the lives of every student in their classrooms.

Sitting in our college cafeteria, I hear an administrator espousing that “everyone knows that researchers can’t teach.” Despite the questionable wisdom of not knowing their audience and the fallibility of generalizations, this particular individual was parroting a divide that has dogged universities since their millennium-old inception. In the intervening centuries, the rise of epistemology and technical expertise has shifted the onus from regurgitating entrenched dogma to evidence-based science and discovery and its dissemination. However, John Henry Newman’s (1852, 1891) expressed sentiment that “to discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person” remains pervasive. It is this sentiment to which I take exception here, especially considering the rightful focus on developing critical thinking skills in our students today

At least two practices, common in academia today, contribute to this unfortunate teaching–research polarization:

1. New faculty are often hired based on research expertise or potential, with the bar set for teaching being “Are they adequate?” (Wilson, 2014)

2. University administrators may view dollars generated from credit-hour production as a given, with little dependence on teaching quality. Research dollars may be perceived to bring greater prestige to the university.

This situation can produce a disconnect between those perceived as research or teaching faculty, even when both may have similar appointments (commonly 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service). Thus, those focused on research may view teaching as an encumbrance, whereas their teaching counterpart must generate a scientific publication record that may or may not advance science or pedagogy. In this situation, the amazing harmony between knowledge discovery and delivery to a new generation of scholars is at risk.

Another potential problem concerns full- or part-time, non-tenure-track instructors. These instructors may be absolutely marvelous educators who, despite a dearth of hands-on research engagement, keep scrupulously up-to-date in their field. However, for those who become overreliant on outdated textbooks and do not attend current scientific conventions (often not required or supported for their position), it may mean that their material is simply incorrect. Some fields progress at an extraordinary pace. Fortunately, today’s research engines, such as the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, make readily available the latest in scientific discovery. Moreover, if the necessary expertise is not locally available, email provides a (usually) ready access for earnest individuals to world authorities in their field. In my experience, these academics try to answer genuine questions as time and expertise allow. Due diligence by the instructor in this regard, especially in foundational science courses that cater to pre-med and pre-health majors, can enable the instructor to adopt the latest discoveries and keep abreast of the pertinent literature. To do otherwise would be tragic and result in students being denied the education they rightly deserve and the best foundation possible for their professional school. It is to be hoped that administrators recognize the importance of providing the time, resources, and incentives for their faculty to take advantage of these resources.

Despite John Henry Newman’s misgivings expressed above, superlative teaching, as wonderfully guided and presented in the ACUE certification course, is based immutably upon research evidence. Whereas we may all know (or know of) research faculty who do not teach well, the opposite is also true. Some of my mentors were superb teachers: For instance, Professor Jared Diamond at UCLA is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (see Diamond, 1997), an engaging and extraordinary educator, as well as a superlative physiologist, anthropologist, and historian. According to Wilson (2014), also a Pulitzer prize winner and an accomplished biologist and naturalist, sentinel characteristics of a scientist are “to think like a poet but work like a bookkeeper.” I submit that both qualities, when applied in the right measure, can contribute to teaching effectiveness and excellence. This is true particularly when creative state-of-the-art teaching practices and attention to Bloom’s Taxonomy, as promoted by ACUE, are utilized.

To be a professor, one needs something to profess. The very epitome of higher education is firsthand experience in discovery with the ability to deliver that knowledge to students in a compelling, relevant, and (hopefully) entertaining fashion. As research is the apogee of critical thinking, our research questions can form the bases for developing such in students. My dearest colleagues and I take exceptional pride in placing students and their education along with our research endeavors on the top tier of our professional responsibilities, and this benefits all. Some of our very finest doctoral students first become enamored with scientific research in our undergraduate classes. This philosophy has reaped great rewards in terms of our laboratory’s productivity combined with our students’ many successes and career achievements. It has also been recognized by these same colleagues winning multiple teaching accolades at the college, university, and national levels.

The towering educator and scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) opined, “Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.” I submit that these principles are common to teaching and research. Many of the skills and techniques inspired and delivered through ACUE have helped me more effectively combine my teaching and scientific research at Kansas State University.

References

Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Huxley, T. H. (n.d.). Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/181580

Newman, J. H. (1852). Discourses on the scope and nature of university education: Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin. Dublin, Ireland: Duffy.

Newman, J. H. (1891). The idea of a university: Defined and illustrated. London, England: Longmans, Green. (Original work published 1852)

Wilson, E. O. (2014). The meaning of human existence. New York, NY: Liveright.

David C. Poole is a University Distinguished Professor of kinesiology, anatomy, and physiology at Kansas State University. His National Institutes of Health-funded discoveries have helped define the oxygen transport pathway and advanced novel therapeutics for heart failure. He has taught over 7,000 students and authored 300 research publications and three books.

Who’s best positioned to impact student success? Our faculty.

As George L. Mehaffy, AASCU’s VP for academic leadership and change, noted in a recent Chronicle report, there’s a “glaring ‘donut hole’ in many colleges’ plans: what happens in the classroom. We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that as a key component [when] the place we know [students are] going to be is class.”

ACUE is closing this gap. We prepare, credential, and support faculty to teach with the practices that improve student achievement. Together with faculty at partner colleges and universities nationwide, we’re providing students with an extraordinary education.

At AASCU’s Academic Affairs Summer Meeting this month, ACUE’s Chief Academic Officer Penny MacCormack will be facilitating a session “The ‘Who’ in Student Success: Faculty as the Agents of Change” with faculty from some of our partner institutions: Rutgers University-Newark, Purdue University Northwest, and Northern Arizona University. The panelists will discuss the changes they’re making to their teaching and how these changes are positively impacting their students. They’ll also share how their institutions are putting faculty and teaching at the heart of their success strategies.

We hope to see you in Seattle on July 26!

Visit AASCU’s 2018 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting website to view the full schedule of events.

This week, taking lessons from experimental psychology, effectively mentoring students, and bringing primary research into first-year courses.

It’s Time to Make a Push Toward More Primary Research in First-Year Composition
Although first-year composition courses are common at colleges, Sarah Carter notes that many don’t require students to conduct primary research. Carter, who has students conduct primary research through interviews, urges faculty to consider how they can incorporate this skill into their curricula since it will serve students well throughout their academic and professional careers. (NCTE)

How to Circumnavigate Common Roadblocks in Changing the Status Quo: Some Guidance from Experimental Psychology
Since faculty are sometimes reluctant to take part in curriculum or course overhauls, Alexandra Logue suggests institutions take lessons from experimental psychology to demonstrate the benefits. This might include collecting data on students both at their own and other institutions to demonstrate the need for change and offering rewards to faculty whose teaching and course evaluations may be affected. (The Evolllution)

3 Higher Ed Experts Share Their Blended Learning Advice
Higher ed professionals gathered at Babson College to discuss how to implement effective blended learning programs, which incorporate both online and face-to-face teaching. Suggestions included surveying students to gauge their interest in blended programs and working with faculty and students to explore the benefits these programs bring to teaching and learning. (eCampus News)

Higher Education in the Postdegree Era
Rather than focusing on time spent in class, educators should pay attention to the quality of the learning taking place, John Cavanaugh writes. He suggests that instructors should incorporate flexibility, collaboration, and entrepreneurship into their curricula in order to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need and promote lifelong learning. (Inside Higher Ed)

An Elephant in the Room: How We Set Ourselves Up to Be Bad at Mentoring
Caring about mentees isn’t enough, according to one instructor. As mentors, faculty should help their “junior colleagues” develop and follow a career trajectory to help them succeed. She also reminds faculty that they should treat students as partners, cognizant of the “power” they hold as mentors. (Tenure She Wrote)