Effective Teaching Practices: Setting the Benchmark for Faculty Development
Evidence-Based Courses That Drive Faculty and Student Success
Transform Teaching With Evidence-Based Practices
Creating a Productive Learning Environment
Transform your classroom into a dynamic learning community and drive lasting academic success with proven strategies focused on engagement, motivation, and meaningful feedback.
- Starting Strong
Launch your course by building a community of active learners and establishing clear course expectations. - Fostering a Productive Learning Environment
Set expectations for student engagement and address minor and major disruptions. - Advancing Achievement for All Students
Assess students’ prior knowledge to inform instruction, incorporate research-based study strategies, and encourage the use of academic support resources. - Helping Students Persist
Build intrinsic motivation through choice, targeted feedback, revision opportunities, communicating the relevance of coursework, and fostering a growth mindset. - Checking for Student Understanding
Get a pulse on student understanding using quality questioning and formative assessment strategies. - Providing Useful Feedback
Deliver timely and actionable feedback that empowers students to improve.
Promoting Active Learning
Master teaching methods that deliver engaging lectures, effective note-taking, collaborative group work, and dynamic discussions to transform students into active participants and critical thinkers.
- Developing Effective Class Sessions and Lectures
Facilitate well-organized class sessions that align with learning objectives and engage your students. - Teaching Powerful Note-Taking Skills
Motivate students to use effective note-taking skills by leveraging skeletal outlines, processing time, and cues that highlight important points. - Using Groups to Ensure Active Learning
Actively involve students by using effective group strategies, ensuring accountability, and collecting feedback. - Using the Active Learning Cycle
Plan and facilitate an active learning cycle that piques students’ interest, builds knowledge, and prompts application in both small and large classes. - Planning Effective Class Discussions
Craft thought-provoking questions, set participation expectations, and prepare students for meaningful discussions. - Facilitating Engaging Class Discussions
Implement activities to jumpstart discussion and encourage interaction.
Inspiring Inquiry and Preparing Lifelong Learners
Transform your teaching practice with strategies that inspire deeper learning, increase transparency, and empower students to take ownership of their learning.
- Motivating Your Students
Support student success by inspiring appreciation for the discipline, goal setting, incentivizing assignment completion, and offering choice. - Providing Clear Directions and Explanations
Provide effective assignment directions and explanations of challenging content. - Using Concept Maps and Other Visualization Tools
Help students grasp complex interrelationships with concept maps and flowcharts. - Using Student Achievement and Feedback to Improve Your Teaching
Use student achievement patterns, midsemester evaluations, colleague observations, and faculty specialists to inform and adjust instruction. - Using Advanced Questioning Techniques
Apply questioning strategies that prompt critical thinking and help students develop their questioning skills. - Developing Self-Directed Learners
Deepen students’ ownership of their learning through self-assessment and by building an awareness of their strengths and preferences.
Designing Learner-Centered Courses
Design cohesive, student-centered courses where learning outcomes, assessments, and activities align seamlessly and your syllabus and grading policies empower students to achieve success.
- Ensuring Learner-Centered Course Outcomes
Write student-centered learning outcomes that accurately describe the knowledge and skills students need to be successful in your course. - Designing Aligned Assessments and Assignments
Design assessments that allow students to demonstrate proficiency and support students in meeting expectations. - Aligning Learning Experiences With Course Outcomes
Design transparent assignments and learning activities that prepare students to meet course outcomes. - Developing and Using Rubrics and Checklists
Develop grading tools that clarify requirements, support learning, and provide you with data to inform your instruction. - Developing Fair, Consistent, and Transparent Grading Practices
Explore research-based grading systems and clearly communicate your grading policies. - Preparing an Effective Syllabus
Design a syllabus that communicates essential information and sets students up for success.
Create a Lasting Impact for Faculty and Students
ACUE’s Effective Teaching Practices course offers more than practical classroom strategies—it fosters lasting growth. Faculty gain confidence in facilitating engaging learning experiences that improve achievement and readiness for the future.
Perspectives on ACUE Impact
“We believe teaching is not just a skill; it’s a calling, and ACUE equips our faculty with evidence-based practices proven to elevate student learning outcomes. Our partnership with ACUE is helping us build a culture where exceptional teaching is recognized, supported, and sustained—empowering our faculty and shaping the future of every classroom and every student we serve.”
“Not only is ACUE’s Effective Teaching Framework nationally recognized and able to help us engage our students better, but new faculty and those who have taught for years are learning principles that they can then apply in the classroom in a way like they never have before.”
