[Editor’s Note: Stephen Brookfield is a featured expert in ACUE’s Course for several modules, including the module on Delivering an Effective Lecture.]

When working on the second edition of Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, I often thought back to my own student days. Part of my book deals with how our personal learning experiences structure the way we approach our own teaching, and I referred to my college years as an example. I was totally bored in lectures and vowed that if I ever became a professor, I’d never lecture to my students.

When I finally became a university teacher, I refused to lecture. If my students protested, I told them that developing independent intellectual judgments is the whole point of college, and only through discussion would they exercise their critical thinking muscles. I subscribed to a simplistic pedagogic bifurcation: discussion good, lecture bad.

This lasted until I got tenure and was finally free to spend more time researching my own teaching. Over the last 25 years, I developed an instrument called the Critical Incident Questionnaire to assess students’ learning experiences in my courses. What I learned from students was that my bifurcation was dangerously naïve. Lectures, when properly delivered, can be wonderfully stimulating episodes in students’ learning journeys.

So what are the lecturing practices that students say keep them engaged in their learning?

“Chunking” Your Lecture

Students like when we “chunk” lectures into a series of approximately 15-minute expositions interspersed with bridging activities. A buzz group, for example, takes between one and three minutes, during which students work in pairs or trios to talk amongst themselves about a question you pose to them. Or I’ll ask students to participate in reflective silences, where they think quietly about a question like “What’s the most important point we covered so far today?” or “How does today’s topic connect to what we covered last week?” Then I’ll have them post their responses on social media through a tool such as TodaysMeet.

Video: Questions are key for chunking your lecture

Integrating Social Media

Lectures that allow students to interact with the material and lecturer are most engaging. Technology tools allow students to pose questions and write reactions in real time. With TodaysMeet, for example, you can create a temporary web page for that day’s class, and students can post questions, answers, reactions, and comments. You can pose a question and give students one minute to think of their response. Instead of students sharing their answers verbally, they post them on TodaysMeet. Posts are anonymous, so there’s no fear of giving a wrong or foolish answer. Consequently, you get many more responses than if you had asked for verbal replies.

Video: The benefits of embracing technology in the classroom

Using Clickers and Other Classroom Response Systems

Clickers are an effective way to conclude a lecture chunk. For example, in my lectures I will project on a screen four or five statements about the material we just covered and ask students to vote on which they feel is most accurate, erroneous, important, or contentious.

Alternatively, you can pose a question to the group and then provide four or five possible answers. Students choose the response they think is the most plausible. A tool like Poll Everywhere allows you to create a poll that students can respond to via text, Twitter, or the web.

Through this approach, the teacher gets a quick, cross-sectional snapshot of where students stand on an issue, or the breadth and depth of students’ understanding. Students then discuss their votes in groups.

Video: Weekly snapshots offer the ground-zero knowledge needed for good pedagogy

Giving Clear Signals

Students appreciate when you pause regularly to let them know exactly where you are in a lecture and what’s happening next. Bligh (2000) suggests the following signals to help students follow your line of thought:

• • Global signals inform students of a new topic or change of direction. (“We’re now going to turn to a completely opposite theory.”)
  • Key point signals emphasize the most important points of a lecture. (“If you only take one idea away from today’s class, it should be this.”)
  • Local signals refer to detailed elaborations of key points. (“To find out how critics responded to Smith’s experiment, look at chapter 14 in our text where this is discussed in more detail.”)
  • Aside signals alert students that you are branching off into a point that is not central to the main themes. (“And just to speak personally, one of the things I found most fascinating about this idea when I first encountered it is….”)
  • Example signals tell students you are going to illustrate an idea with specific examples. (“Now I want to try and concretize this theoretical analysis by giving some very specific, everyday examples that illustrate how it works in real life.”)
  • Meta-review signals summarize where you are in your plan for the lecture. (“Up to now we’ve assumed that this hypothesis is broadly correct. But now we need to look at some of the most damaging critiques of this hypothesis, so for the next section of today’s class I’m going to look at the work of Jones.”)

Video: The signals of an effective lecture

Modeling Critical Thinking

We’re always telling students to think critically, but provide few examples of what that looks like. So students appreciate when we show how we’re doing this in our lectures. Most definitions of critical thinking emphasize the ability to see the same argument, idea, or concept from multiple perspectives. You can use the geography of the classroom to clearly model this process.

Prior to the class session beginning, you post three or four signs around the room, each representing a theory or analytical framework you want students to understand. You begin by standing in the center of the classroom and explaining that you intend to demonstrate the range of alternative perspectives that can be taken on a piece of content. You then move to the first sign you’ve posted and explain the topic as if you were someone who only thought within the framework, theory, or viewpoint posted on that sign. You then move to the second and then third sign you’ve posted and give your understanding of the content as if you were solely concerned with that second or third perspective.

Students say that bringing in a simple spatial difference—speaking the language of a different theoretical paradigm when you’re at a different station—helps underscore the differences between perspectives and clarify what each represents.

When you’ve done this a few times in class, you can add another wrinkle. You divide the class into groups and ask different groups to go and stand at the different signs. You then pose a question or raise an issue about the material and ask the groups to brainstorm how they’d respond to the question or issue if they operated only within the framework represented by their sign. The exercise ends with each group giving a summary of their responses.

End Lectures With Questions

Lecturers are often told that the golden rule of effective lecturing is to “tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell em, then tell ’em what you’ve just told ’em.” The problem with this is establishing a sense of definitive closure, so students leave thinking the last word has been spoken on the subject.

An alternative is to end your presentations by raising difficult or unaddressed questions about the lecture’s content, or by pointing out which of the questions posed at the lecture’s outset have been left unanswered. You can also ask students to share final questions via TodaysMeet or on your learning management system. These questions can help kick off the next lecture.

Done well, lectures provide a solid foundation of understanding that can be extended or critiqued in discussions and assignments. At the outset of a unit of study, they can establish the broad contours of a subject and help students navigate through a complex field. Lectures can model the inquiring behaviors you want students to emulate and, at the same time, help build your credibility. So in moving to more interactive modes of online and group learning, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, pedagogically speaking. Well-situated lectures can be crucial to students’ development as learners.

This week, degree-granting programs for students with cognitive disabilities are becoming more widespread, and Alan Alda uses his celebrity status to promote engagement in science courses.

Seeking Better Student Outcomes? Start With Improving Instruction
Steven Taylor writes that colleges should further explore the relationship between teaching quality and student success, citing Rutgers University-Newark’s collaboration with ACUE as an exemplary model for improving student outcomes through instruction. (Higher Ed Today)

The Path to Higher Education With an Intellectual Disability
Some institutions offer degree-granting programs for students with cognitive disabilities, teaching courses ranging from relationship skills to math, in an effort to prepare them for the workplace and give them access to an education they wouldn’t have otherwise. (The Atlantic)

“Small Bites” Can’t Substitute for a College Degree
Lebanon Valley College President Lewis Thayne argues that a college degree not only prepares students for a career, but also equips them with the skills they need to lead well-rounded, fulfilling lives. (The Hechinger Report)

In Praise of the First Person
Teaching students to write papers using the first person helps them think of themselves as scholars, David Gooblar writes. (Pedagogy Unbound)

Want to Finish College? Go Full Time, at Least Part of the Time
A new report shows that students who attend at least one semester of college full-time are more likely to graduate than those who attend part-time, and recommends that institutions find ways of engaging part-time students to motivate them to succeed. (nprEd)

Alan Alda on Teaching Science
Alan Alda encourages instructors to use a variety of strategies including storytelling and communication to engage students in science classes. (Higher Ed Professor)

A Tenure Track for Teachers?
Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth propose creating separate tenure tracks for research and teaching, arguing that granting tenure to faculty who focus on teaching would raise the standards of higher education instruction. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Measuring Up
A new study finds that students who receive effective instruction are more likely to complete their degrees than those who don’t, and that the benefits of learning under a skilled instructor continue beyond the end of the course. (Education Next)

Partner News

Arizona State University: A “Playbook For Trustees” Highlights Innovative Practices for Campus Change Initiatives (EdSurge)

University of Southern Mississippi: Southern Miss Ranked as Nation’s No. 1 Military-Friendly Online College (Southern Miss Now)

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities: Board of Regents Recognizes 21 CSCU Faculty with Teaching, Research & Scholarly Excellence Awards (CSCU)

The below piece is cross-posted on ACE’s Higher Education Today blog.

By Steven Taylor

Today’s postsecondary students are increasingly being taught by part-time faculty. Currently, contingent faculty—part-time and full-time non-tenure-track faculty—are responsible for about 75 percent of college and university instruction, and that number is expected to increase each year for the foreseeable future. The primary job responsibility of part-time faculty is to teach, and while these individuals have developed substantive expertise in their discipline, they may benefit from further training on effective college instruction.

As the focus in higher education becomes more concentrated on outcomes versus inputs, the impact of inputs on outcomes becomes a critical area of research. Over the past few decades, a sizable literature has emerged on the effects of teaching quality on student outcomes, and as institutions seek to improve student outcomes, we are seeing a renewed interest in this field of study.

Institutions, particularly public institutions, increasingly are facing budgetary challenges and are pursuing systematic improvements to increase efficiency. Evidence suggests that an investment in instructional quality improves student retention, persistence and success rates, all of which may positively affect net revenue. ACE hosted a webinar Jan. 24 to look at these areas of intersection, as well as the notion that student academic achievement, as supported by effective teaching practices, is a strong predictor of graduation. Instructional quality as a driver of institutional efficiency is further explored in an commissioned white paper, Instructional Quality, Student Outcomes, and Institutional Finances, released during a concurrent session at the ACE Annual Meeting in March.

ACE and Strada Education Network are collaborating to examine higher education instruction, assess the connections between effective pedagogical approaches and improved student outcomes, and provide critical tools and resources to instructors and institutions. This research aligns with ACE’s work to create and implement student-centered, attainment-focused methods and practices leading to improved student outcomes and more timely postsecondary credential completion.

Unpacking Relationships Between Instruction and Student Outcomes

In 2016, ACE commissioned a white paper, Unpacking Relationships: Instruction and Student Outcomes, authored by Natasha Jankowski, director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes and Assessment. The paper includes an analysis of relationships between clearly articulated performance expectations and pedagogical approaches that enhance outcome attainment.

Through a review of the scholarly literature and evidence-based practice on instruction and student outcomes, Jankowski concludes the more students engage in their learning environment, the more likely they are to complete, learn and be satisfied with their experience. Evidence-based practices have been widely documented as effective, yet the author suggests they are not being widely used in practice.

The white paper explores five areas of intersection between instruction and student outcomes: transparency, pedagogical approaches, assessment, self-regulation and alignment. Jankowski also discusses how the academy might address the challenge of equipping the growing population of contingent faculty with the pedagogical skills and techniques necessary to support students’ academic achievement.

Strategic Commitment to Teaching Excellence at Rutgers University-Newark

The findings presented in Unpacking Relationships: Instruction and Student Outcomes are relevant to students regardless of the type of institution or academic program they chose. Given the research about the barriers first-generation students and those from under-resourced communities and schools face in completing credentials and degrees, it is likely more student-centered, attainment-focused instructional approaches will have a disproportionately large and positive impact on students from underserved communities.

Rutgers University-Newark, one of the four institutions in the Rutgers University system and the most diverse campus in the country, recently completed a strategic planning process under the leadership of Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Rutgers-Newark is increasingly focused on institutional change to build on its legacy as a place of opportunity that emphasizes “curriculum, scholarship, initiatives, places and spaces for both intragroup solidarity and inter-cultural engagement.” Instruction and creative pedagogy are natural places to value and leverage diversity for the greatest impact on student success.

Excellence in instruction, therefore, is an important part of their plan to drive stronger student outcomes and higher graduation rates. Last fall, the university launched the P3 Collaboratory for Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship, a comprehensive faculty development center that supports the emerging and existing professoriate. Rutgers-Newark is making pedagogical training a cornerstone initiative of the P3 Collaboratory and aims to prepare nearly three-quarters of their instructional faculty in evidence-based instruction through the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) online Course in Effective Teaching Practices.

Faculty who complete the program earn a certificate in Effective College Instruction co-endorsed by ACE and ACUE. ACE is invested in ACUE’s success and has reviewed the Course of Study as part of this collaboration, which advances ACE’s historic mission to expand access to postsecondary education and provide critical tools and resources to instructors and institutions. Bonita Veysey, founding director of the P3 Collaboratory, commented that Rutgers-Newark was committed to enhancing professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, and fully supporting them across their overlapping roles as scholars, teachers, and mentors.

“Research confirms that students’ success and instructional practices are directly correlated,” Veysey said. “Because we believe in investing in faculty and student success, RU-N is providing the ACUE program to participants at no cost,” adding that she expected the university’s already high graduation rates to continue to rise, along with faculty and student satisfaction.

Implications for Future Research

The empirical research on the relationship between the quality of postsecondary classroom instruction as an input into student outcomes is still ripe for further study. An increasing emphasis on outputs as a measure of success means focusing on the central endeavor to the academic enterprise: teaching and learning. Thus, further research and collection of empirical evidence of the relationship between effective classroom instruction and improved student outcomes—retention, persistence and success—should be a strategic imperative for colleges and universities.

# # #

Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor leads national initiatives on alternative education pathways, institutional change and innovation, and instructional quality for ACE; he is co-principal investigator on ACE’s grant to research the impacts and outcomes of quality, scalable faculty development. Additionally, he follows trends around education and industry credential alignment that influence the work of ACE’s Center for Education Attainment and Innovation. Taylor is also an adjunct faculty member in the College of Business at Wilmington University (DE).

Taylor has worked for over a decade designing and delivering training programs and working with non-traditional learners in the higher education and trade association sectors. Before ACE, he managed the development of over thirty certification preparation and continuing education courses for pharmaceutical and medical device industry professionals at the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society. His experience at institutions includes roles in student development at the University of North Texas and leading the first Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program (TexPREP) in the Dallas County Community College District.

Taylor earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University–Commerce and is working towards his doctor of business administration from Wilmington University.

This week, instructors reflect on their burgeoning and ending teaching careers. Plus, ways to help students recover from failures.

Not Just Cash Cows
Colleges should invest in educating professors on how to help international students acclimate to new cultures and improve the internationalization process, Rick Turner writes. (Inside Higher Ed)

My “Last” Class
A longtime writing instructor reflects on his “accidental” teaching career. (Just Visiting)

Education Technology Expert on Teaching the Next Generation
An educator who is tasked with teaching future teachers describes the technological techniques she believes will advance learning. (EdTech)

Professors Are Hired to Teach, but Few Are Ever Taught How
A recurring theme at the recent AACC meeting was the importance of providing professional development in effective teaching practices for faculty, which would ultimately improve student retention and lead to increased revenue. (Education Dive)

A Journey Towards Online Teaching and Learning
After some reluctance, Tracy Smith developed a hybrid course and found that using a different delivery method helped her improve and expand her teaching methods.  (The Scholarly Teacher)

Lessons from Year 1 on the Faculty
An instructor describes what he learned from his first year of full-time teaching, including the need for communication and resilience and the importance of a work-life balance. (Vitae)

Creative Ways to Help Students Recover From Failure
Helping students recover from academic failure not only encourages them to grow as individuals, but also strengthens colleges by building and expanding student support programs. (The Chronicle of Higher Education – Paywall)

Want Happier Professors? Try Being Nice
A survey of newly-tenured faculty shows that cultivating a supportive, caring environment may play a greater role in retaining instructors than focusing on broad, expensive organizational efforts. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Why College Presidents Are Becoming More Like Corporate CEOs
The role of college presidents is changing to encompass increased involvement with learning, technology, and student affairs, and many institutions are looking outside of academia or to nontraditional pathways within academia to fill the position. (The Washington Post)

Using Facebook Live in Higher Ed Teaching
Bonni Stachowiak shares lessons from her experience conducting poster sessions through Facebook Live, including the value of selecting a student host and using helpful tech accessories. (Teaching in Higher Ed)

Partner News

Arizona State University: Investment in Universities Leads to Huge Payoff, High-Paying Jobs (Arizona Capitol Times)

West Virginia University: West Virginia University Looks to Reinvent West Virginia (The Intelligencer)

Goucher College: What Goucher College Is Doing to Rethink What It Means to Get a Liberal Arts Degree (Baltimore Business Journal)

Southern Connecticut State University: SCSU Inaugurates Its 12th President in New Haven (New Haven Register)

WATERBURY, Conn.– Increased student engagement, faculty who are more confident in their teaching, more relevant course material, and an improved student experience are many of the benefits that Naugatuck Valley Community College hopes to gain from a pilot program with the Association for College and University Educators (ACUE) which began in February. Partnering with 12 full-time faculty, three part-time faculty, and two faculty co-facilitators, the semester-long program offers an opportunity for the College to continue to promote quality instruction that addresses pedagogical skills and knowledge in designing effective classes, establishing a productive learning environment, utilizing active learning techniques, promoting higher order thinking, and assessing to promote learning. Using a module-based learning system, faculty in nursing, English, math, human services, psychology, first year experience, and business, are refining their teaching methods to help students succeed which can enhance NVCC’s already impressive number of graduation awards which have grown from 521 in 2007-‘08 to 1,371 total awards in 2015-‘16.

“I’ve enjoyed participating in the ACUE pilot and serving as one of the facilitators. The techniques to enhance active learning and clearly identify learning outcomes for my students has had a positive impact on my teaching,” said Kathleen LeBlanc, a professor of human services/pre-social work and a faculty co-facilitator for the program.  Steve Parlato, NVCC Associate Professor of English, who serves as LeBlanc’s co-facilitator, echoed that he has observed similar positive impacts in his teaching and has loved learning from members in his cohort.

“Our faculty continues to participate in opportunities that help them enhance their teaching strategies. This forward thinking on their part is clearly one of the reasons many of our students succeed, reflected in our high graduation and success rates,” said Irene Rios-Knauf, Ph.D., Dean of Academic Affairs.

As part of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system, NVCC’s pilot program represents a system initiative in partnership with ACUE. ACUE was founded in 2014 by leaders in higher education to promote quality instruction at colleges and universities nationwide. ACUE’s comprehensive Course in Effective Teaching Practices prepares college educators to implement all of the essential practices shown to improve student outcomes. This facilitated, online course is offered to cohorts of faculty at participating institutions. Educators who satisfy course requirements earn a Certificate in Effective College Instruction endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE).

Aside from creating a better classroom experience, the research-based teaching practices that NVCC faculty will gain from the pilot program will help students stay on the path to graduation. This is critical to Connecticut’s future as the knowledge economy grows and earning a college degree becomes key to preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow. Aside from creating a better classroom experience, the research-based teaching practices that NVCC faculty will gain from the pilot program will help students stay on the path to graduation. This is critical to Connecticut’s future as the knowledge economy grows and earning a college degree becomes key to preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow.

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Naugatuck Valley Community College serves Beacon Falls, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Cheshire, Danbury, Middlebury, Naugatuck, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Oxford, Prospect, Roxbury, Sherman, Southbury, Thomaston, Washington, Waterbury, Watertown and Woodbury. The College is located on a 110-acre campus at 750 Chase Parkway, Waterbury, Conn., and in Danbury at 190 Main Street. The College is one of 17 institutions governed by the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education. Visit nv.edu for more information.

About ACUE
ACUE partners with colleges and universities to make great teaching a key driver of their student success. Through the online Course in Effective Teaching Practices, a comprehensive training and credentialing program, ACUE this year is on track to support 50 institutions and prepare 6,000 college educators in the practices shown to improve student outcomes. To learn more, visit acue.org

This week, an instructor experiments with game-based learning, and students at the University of Tennessee learn about the twentieth century through the eyes of Dolly Parton.

Down With 8 a.m. Classes
Mariah Evans of the University of Nevada, Reno, led a study on sleep and cognitive function and found that college students may learn best if they choose their own—often later—starting times for classes. (nprEd)

From Written to Digital: The New Literacy
Students need to learn how to write and think digitally, not only as a prerequisite for many employment opportunities, but also to help them gain intellectual independence, Phil Ventimiglia and George Pullman write. (EDUCAUSE Review)

Teaching Race: On Stereotypes and Privilege
Laura LeVon describes a method she uses to open up the conversation around race and racism in her classes. (Cultural Anthropology)

Students Can Be Parents, Too
An instructor who attended college as a single mother offers a list of suggestions for instructors that could help nontraditional students stay in school. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Getting Our Students Wrong
David Gooblar advises instructors to avoid falling prey to the initial assumptions they form about students, and to understand how these biases can impact their understanding of student learning. (Pedagogy Unbound)

Teams and Game Design With Walker White
In a podcast, a gaming instructor explains how he views his job as a project manager instead of a content deliverer and describes the role of student collaboration in his courses. (Teach Better)

The True Basics of Writing
Rather than spending inordinate amounts of time focusing on sentence construction, instructors should teach students to grapple with ideas as the kernels of the writing process, John Warner suggests. (Just Visiting)

Dolly Parton Course Combines Music, History, and Appalachia Pride
A University of Tennessee professor livens up history for students by teaching about the twentieth century through the eyes of Dolly Parton. (The New York Times)

“How Do I Reach These Kids?”: An Experiment in Gamification
In order to test out the merits of game-based learning, an instructor gamified her marketing curriculum so that students progress through “quests” that increase in difficulty based on prior performance. (Teaching & Learning Innovations)

Immersing Yourself With Intention
Laura Schram offers suggestions for making the most of “immersives,” which give graduate students the opportunity to sample prospective careers, network, and learn more about organizations that interest them without committing to full programs or internships. (Inside Higher Ed)

Partner News

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities: State to Offer More Options for Community College Students (Fox61)

University of Nevada, Reno: Nevada Research and Innovation Corporation Launches to Promote Discovery (Nevada Today)

New Jersey City University: ‘Womenomics’ is Focus of Upcoming, Innovative Conference in Jersey City (NJ Biz)

City University of New York: ASAP Expands North and West (Inside Higher Ed)