Some Pedagogy Resources

 

The following web and print resources are focused on effective teaching methods, particularly leading discussions and creating engaged learning environments. 

 

Duke Resources

 

Duke also offers active workshops through the Graduate School, including a regular program of Teaching IDEAS (Instructional Development for Excellence and Success) workshops, as well as courses on college teaching that count towards the new Certificate in College Teaching.

 

Online Resources

 

The Scholar as Teacher Tip-Sheet Series – from the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton.   Includes a variety of “tip sheets” under the following categories: Teaching Lectures and Discussions; Grading Students and Course Assessment; Understanding Student Learning; Advising and Mentoring Students.  This is really worth a browse!  Here are a few useful examples (PDFs):

 

-          Facilitating Discussion in Humanities and Social Science Classes

-          How to Engage Students in Lecture

-          The First Day of Class

-          What To Do When Class Discussion Stalls

-          Creating Course “Flow”: Finding the Balance Between Boredom and Anxiety

-          Cultivating Complexity: Helping Students Recognize and Deal with Plurality and Uncertainty

 

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture – journal through Duke University Press, available through Duke’s library here (DUP) or here (Project Muse).

 

Blogging Pedagogy – a blog about pedagogy and English studies from the University of Texas

 

Teaching Tips Index – a well-organized and very comprehensive collection of teaching tips from the University of Hawai’i Honolulu Community College

 

Techniques in Learning and Teaching (TILT) – Ideas/blog at the University of Minnesota

 

Discussion Tips – and other “Elements of Teaching” resources from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning

 

Ten Strategies for Effective Discussion Leading – James R. Dawes (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard)

 

Tutorials and Teaching Resources from the University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning:

 

-          Active Learning

-          Resources for Multicultural Teaching and Learning

-          Effective Lectures

-          Tutorial: Active Learning

-          Tutorial: Managing Conflict

 

Academic Commons – a “community of faculty, academic technologists, librarians, administrators, and other academic professionals interested in two interlocking questions: how do creative uses of new technology and networked information support the current project of liberal education, and, perhaps more interestingly, how do they force us to re-think what it means to be more liberally educated?

 

Elaine Showalter’s Teaching Literature – the web site for this book includes web resources, sample chapters, and an interview with the author.  You can buy the book on amazon.  She includes a link to the:

 

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching – includes an eLibrary with articles on pedagogy

 

A Few Books

 

-          Teaching Literature – Elaine Showalter (see web page)

-          What the Best College Teachers Do – Ken Bain

-          McKeachie’s Teaching TipsMarilla Svinicki and Wilbert J. McKeachie

-          Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire

-          The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors – Peter Filene

-          On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to your First Semester of College Teaching – James M. Lang

-          Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty – Elizabeth F. Barkley

-          Tools for Teaching – Barbara Gross Davis

 

Anna M. Gibson

Duke University

Fall 2011