Mckeachie's Teaching Tips

McKeachie's Teaching Tips is a handbook designed to provide helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday problems of teaching at the university level, and those that pop up in trying to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and are grounded in enough theory to enable teachers to adapt them to their own situations. The author does not suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically, but gives teachers the tools they need to deal with the ever changing dynamics of teaching and learning.

{RET ? P/R} This indispensable handbook provides helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday challenges of university teaching and those that arise in efforts to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and adaptable to specific classroom situations. Rather than suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically, the book gives instructors the tools they need to deal with the ever-changing dynamics of teaching and learning.

Wilbert J. McKeachie is Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. He is also a research scientist and past director of the University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. He has served as president of the American Psychological Association and of the American Association for Higher Education. He has also served as chair of the Committee on College and University Teaching, Research, and Publication of the American Association of University Professors. He speaks at workshops and conferences around the world and has published numerous articles in the United States and internationally. Marilla Svinicki is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and the retired director of the Center for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned both her B.A. and M.A. at Western Michigan University and her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. Her research interests include application of principles of learning to instruction in higher education and development of faculty and graduate students as teachers. She regularly teaches the college teaching methodology course at UT Austin along with the psychology of human learning and instructional psychology.

I. Getting Started 1. Introduction 2. Countdown for Course Preparation 3. Meeting a Class for the First Time II. Basic Skills for Facilitating Student Learning 4. Reading as Active Learning 5. Facilitating Discussion: Posing Problems, Listening, Questioning 6. How to Make Lectures More Effective 7. Assessing, Testing, and Evaluating: Grading Is Not the Most Important Function 8. Testing: The Details 9. Tests from the Students' Perspective 10. What to Do About Cheating 11. The ABC's of Assigning Grades III. Understanding Students 12. Motivation in the College Classroom 13. Teaching Culturally Diverse Students 14. Dealing with Student Problems and Problem Students (There's Almost Always at Least One!) IV. Adding to Your Repertoire of Skills and Strategies for Facilitating Active Learning 15. How to Enhance Learning by Using High-Stakes and Low-Stakes Writing 16. Active Learning: Cooperative, Collaborative, and Peer Learning 17. Problem-Based Learning: Teaching with Cases, Simulations, and Games 18. Technology and Teaching V. Skills for Use in Other Teaching Situations 19. Teaching Large Classes (You Can Still Get Active Learning!) 20. Laboratory Instruction: Ensuring an Active Learning Experience 21. The Teacher's Role in Experiential Learning 22. Teaching by Distance Education VI. Teaching for Higher-Level Goals 23. Teaching Students How to Become More Strategic and Self-Regulated Learners 24. Teaching Thinking 25. The Ethics of Teaching and the Teaching of Ethics VII. Lifelong Learning for the Teacher 26. Vitality and Growth Throughout Your Teaching Career References Index