Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

In the introduction of Liz Norell’s new book, The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching (2024), she opens with two statements: “When you cannot be present, you cannot teach effectively” and “What’s good for students is good for us, too.” In this episode, Dr. Norell elaborates on these statements, and examines the importance of presence and authenticity in teaching and learning for both instructors and students. Dr. Norell, who serves as Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, also shares tools for cultivating self-knowledge, and discusses how they can positively impact teaching. This will be the last episode of Season 9 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning. We will be back in spring 2025 with Season 10. Thank you for listening!

In 2020, Denise Cruz, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, worked with the CTL through a Provost’s Innovative Course Design Grant to transform her large lecture course in Asian American Literature into a blended format. Today, we speak with Denise about the profound impact the new course format has had on student engagement, motivation, and collaboration in her class, and the dead ideas in teaching that she confronted as she designed and taught it. Spoiler alert: the redesign was so successful that Dr. Cruz was awarded both the Presidential Teaching Award and Mark Van Doren Teaching Award. Transcript available at ctl.columbia.edu/podcastResourcesDenise Cruz presents her course redesign project at Columbia’s 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium: https://youtu.be/_QA9FdiYNfE

Today we speak with Joshua Kim, Director of Online Programs and Strategy at Dartmouth College, and Edward Maloney, Executive Director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University. In their recent book Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education (2020), Drs. Kim and Maloney write “We have no shortage of knowledge about how learning works and how this knowledge can be applied to advance teaching. What we lack is an understanding of the conditions in which learning science propagates through institutions to change organizational structures and teaching practices.” In this episode, Josh and Eddie discuss the disconnect between many institutions’ mission and the work of innovating teaching and learning, as well as the need for an institutional-wide strategy to implement such innovations. They suggest steps for how those in higher education leadership can think about systemic changes that would help higher education teaching and learning evolve over time for changing workforces, demographics, and environments. Transcript available at ctl.columbia.edu/podcastResources:Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education (2020) by Joshua Kim and Edward MaloneyThe Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education (2021) by Edward Maloney and Joshua KimListeners can save 30% on both books with the code HTWN at press.jhu.edu.

While much public discourse argues over the value and the future of higher education—whether it really “pays off” or how we can leverage technological tools and big data—what’s often missing from the conversation is the importance of good teaching. Aaron Pallas and Anna Neumann, professors of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, believe that good college teaching matters—so much so that they wrote a book about it! In today’s podcast episode, Drs. Pallas and Neumann discuss their book Convergent Teaching (2019) and share three pedagogical moves to convergent teaching, as well as dead ideas that it debunks. Transcript available at ctl.columbia.edu/podcastResource: Convergent Teaching (2019) by Aaron Pallas and Anna Neumann

In today’s episode, Kevin Gannon, a Professor of History and Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University, discusses how the pandemic has highlighted “bedrock” flaws in higher education systems, including in faculty evaluation processes. These flaws, based on dead ideas such as emphasizing equality rather than equity, disproportionately affect marginalized groups. Dr. Gannon elaborates on the destructive potential of returning “back to normal” in these systems after the pandemic, and offers steps that faculty can take to best move forward. Gannon, author of the book Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (2020), also shares what keeps him inspired and why he believes we should remain hopeful about the future of higher education. Transcript available at ctl.columbia.edu/podcastResourcesFaculty Evaluation After the Pandemic (June 9, 2021) by Kevin Gannon, The Chronicle of Higher Education Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (2020) by Kevin Gannon