Learning is a social process! We learn most effectively when we engage others within a supportive (classroom) community, to make meaning of new content and ideas. Meaningful engagement supports deeper understanding, longer retention, and increased implementation of new concepts and ideas.
There is no one right way to teach! However, there are many practices shown to be ineffective, especially with diverse learners, as well as a range of well-researched teaching practices with strong evidence of their effectiveness, when implemented teaching learners with varied diverse backgrounds. UNC's mission is Students First!, but not all instructors are trained in the science of Teaching and Learning. To support effective instruction for all UNC students, by all instructors, the science of Teaching and Learning has been applied to the development of resources that can be used to support implementation of new teaching practices that are evidence-supported through extensive research. All tools and resources provided support flexible teaching practices that can be implemented in any classroom or discipline of study, and have been shown to effectively support learning with diverse learners. Everyone has their own approach and range of teaching practices, and every class is different. How each instructor chooses to adopt different practices and deliver effective instruction will vary by instructor, content area or discipline, and even based on the students enrolled in a course.
Make it your own! It can be challenging, and even intimidating to try new teaching practices. The important first step is to try. Consider what could work best in your course, with your students. Figure out how you want to implement the practice using the guides and resources built into the tools, and then do what works for you.
A variety of tools and guides designed for UNC instructors are available within Canvas, to support a range of evidence-based effective teaching practices. In addition to the guides, each tool includes scaffolded support to help you adopt a new teaching practice, adapt it for your course, and implement it effectively with your students. Consider how you want to engage students to support effective learning in your course.
If you struggle with any tools, don't hesitate to reach out! UNC's Instructional Design Team (IDD) is always happy to help you with any course.
Review the tools provided below, the effective teaching practices they support, and a few suggestions for easy use in class.
In addition to working as a lecture slide deck, this Session Plan Template promotes predictable multimodal engagement.
Lengthy lecture is known to be one of the least effective methods for teaching diverse groups of students because lecture alone does not enable student engagement. Lecture is sometimes needed to deliver content, but is most effective when limited to 10-15 minutes.
The Session Plan template is provided to scaffold synchronous class sessions that deliver effective instruction that engages students. This tool structures a flexible plan for lesson delivery that facilitates student engagement throughout the class session to support student learning most effectively.
After creating your session plans with this template, post them in the corresponding weeks or modules in Canvas. All your content will be in one place and easy to find next time you teach the course or share the course with another instructor. When appropriate, they can also be published to students!
Student participation is much more than attendance; it is engagement. While attendance can be monitored, students can attend without being prepared to engage the course concepts. Even when prepared, students can choose to disengage while attending a class session. Research shows it is more effective to monitor student participation during course opportunities for engagement. In Canvas, the Roll Call - Attendance tool enables instructor tracking of student participation in opportunities to engage within each session of a course. If the class session does not include opportunities for students to engage, we can only monitor attendance. That means students need to know it is participation, not just attendance that is important for their learning. Assigning credit that students earn through participation can be both a motivator and a monitoring tool.
When students understand their participation is more significant than their attendance alone, they are more likely to prepare before class (e.g., course readings) and engage during class (e.g., discussions and activities). Credit for meaningful engagement with the course concepts should reflect the participation demonstrated by each student during the class session.
Example - A student is late thereby missing a Do Now activity or an Ice Breaker discussion at the beginning of class (i.e., an opportunity to engage peers and activate their prior knowledge to be ready for more meaningful engagement during class).
Assessing student-centered practices and instruction NOT just content assignments
Formative assessments inform effective teaching. Formative data is essential to understand how the teaching techniques used in class are working for your students. Every learner is different, so this is not about judging the quality of teaching. This data helps you 1) assess whether students understood the concepts covered, and 2) adjust future session plans to support effective learning in response to student feedback.
For example, students share they don't understand a foundational concept. You can adjust your session plan for the next meeting. Provide more clarity at the beginning of class, before building new knowledge by adding more complexity to the concept.
Review the tools and resources available to support formative assessment:
Students show that they are prepared and attentive, not just present.
Exit Tickets are brief assessments of students' understanding or learning that needs support. Formative assessments are designed to inform upcoming instruction, so you can respond to the needs of your students. Simultaneously, they can be used to assess student participation and engagement, which correlates with higher levels of learning comprehension and higher course grades. These should not be used to assign credit for mastery of course concepts.
Focus on student understanding, not just directions or lectures.
Check-Ins are small formative assessments embedded within course sessions to verify students understand and are ready to proceed. These can often be done with simple hand signals. For example:
Feedback informs responsive instruction, not just post-course evaluation.
Course surveys are a useful way to gather data and assess whether your teaching practices are effective for your students. Give students an opportunity to voice what is working well for them, which activities are supporting their learning, and which are least effective uses of their time, so you can make instructional adjustments appropriately.
CETL provides a great Mid-Term Check-In that can be integrated through Canvas as a Survey or Quiz (credit for completing, no "wrong" responses)
Focus on student learning and development, not just terminal outcome.
Course grades are often based on summative assessments of learning outcomes. This is an important measure, but doesn't indicate how much a student learned during the course. If a student was already knowledgeable, they may have learned very little, while a student who started with little background knowledge may have learned significantly more, even if their summative assignments appear to demonstrate lower levels of mastery. This enables you to assess student development through your course, in addition to learning outcomes at the end of the term.
Setting up a survey or a quiz focused on course concepts can be a great tool. At the beginning of the term, students responses can give you an idea of what they know already and what you need to focus on to support them in the course. A pre-assessment is most effective as a quiz with credit for completion. (Students should not lose credit for not knowing the course content, before taking the course!)
At the end of the term, students respond again in another copy of the same assessment. This time, responses show you and students how much they have learned, in comparison with their beginning of semester base-line. Students who struggled with a particular assignment may show they have learned a significant amount through the course. Likewise, if you see a trend of students continuing to struggle with a concept, you can review how the concept is covered to clarify, adjust, and improve learning opportunities with that concept in the future. Again, this is most effective as a quiz for credit, so that students will respond at the end of the semester, but how credit is assigned for completing the quiz, or for correct answers (e.g., final exam) can be determined by the instructor.
Keep in mind, research shows tests or exams are not an effective tool for teaching, learning, or assessing – unless there is a specific need to prepare for a similar style of assessment. If a licensing exam is needed for a credential in the field, research shows students can benefit from preparing and practicing for the appropriate exam format. However, if the standard in the field is body of work or performance, a test is not a good fit for teaching and learning in that field.
Consider what your students will need to do as future professionals, and how your course learning assessments help them prepare appropriately for the relevant field. For example:
Professional Licensing Exams- Teaching, Counseling, Medical & Social Work, Practicing Law, Public Accounting...
Professional Performance- Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Marketing, Design...
Assessment Tip: Try a Pre/Post course comparison "quiz"!
Credit can be given for completing the questions at the start of the semester. At the end of term, credit can be given for appropriate answers with low weight toward the course grade. See how much students learned in the course by comparing the data! Movement from Pre-test knowledge toward Post-test knowledge suggests student learning in the course. This type of low-stakes "testing" enables 3 benefits:
Listen to student perspectives, not just directed perspective from Instructors.
Wherever possible, consider how you can integrate student voice. Consider where you can build in opportunities for students to share their interests, preferences, and perspectives. Opportunities to share their voice enables effective learning in a variety of ways. Students generate more buy-in regarding the value of the focal concept. Students make stronger connections between their lives, experiences and backgrounds, and the focal concept, increasing both understanding and retention. Student motivation can also be bolstered, leading to more interest and participation when given opportunities to engage others focused on the concept.
Instructors are responsible for delivering the course as accredited, but there are always opportunities to bring in student voices which will vary each semester. Here are a few simple suggestions:
Ice Breaker Discussion - find a neighbor and discuss one prompt:
Do Now Activity - discuss at your table to complete the activity together:
Get extra support from UNC's Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Mid-Semester Feedback: Improving Learning & Teaching Mid-Stream