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Pedagogy for Retention Toolkit

Access the Toolkit

  • Click here for a .pdf version of the toolkit that includes additional examples and photos.

Introduction


Teaching and learning is at the heart of what we do at Eastern Kentucky University. Students enroll in, persist at, and graduate from EKU because they recognize that faculty and instructors at EKU can help them get where they want to go, do what they want to do, and become who they want to be. Learning is central to the student experience. While not all learning happens in a classroom, faculty and instructors are pivotal to students’ goal development and refinement and their identity formation. Investment in students’ academic success delivers on promises made to students as they enroll, register, matriculate, and graduate. The Pedagogy for Retention Toolkit empowers faculty and instructors to incorporate and prioritize practices most beneficial to students’ academic engagement and success. Intentional actions on the part of faculty and instructors to engage and educate students demonstrate that the academic enterprise is central to the university’s overall enrollment management strategy. 

Connections to the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan


The Strategic Enrollment Management Plan offers a vision for positioning EKU on solid enrollment footing now and in the years to come. Throughout the document’s goals, imperatives, framework, and initiatives, the student academic experience is central to the strategic vision and mission. This includes references to: 

Finally, the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan identifies a need to be “responsive to students,” a deep-rooted strength of faculty and instructors at EKU as they refine curriculum and classroom practices; engage students outside the classroom; and help students identify, aspire to, and prepare for professional goals. 

  • “enhanced retention performance” including intentional classroom practices, timely intervention and support through advising and mentoring 
  • “supply/demand alignment” ensuring a relevant curriculum focused on essential skills for career and civic life 
  • “career outcomes” acknowledging students’ motivation in pursuing postsecondary education and employers’ reliance on higher education to develop a workforce and leaders in industry 
  • “campus belonging” including classroom interactions, involvement in pre-professional student organizations, and out of class experiences like study abroad, study away, and service learning 
  • “engage students in and out of the classroom” through innovative and transparent teaching practices and opportunities extend classroom experiences through advising, mentoring, and co-ops and internships 
  • “individualized support” helping students set and meet goals, providing meaningful and timely feedback on academic progress, intervening when students struggle, connecting students to campus resources, and mentoring through proactive and holistic advising 
  • “transform the student journey” acknowledging the individual nature of each student’s journey and personalizing each student’s path to a degree and entry into life beyond college 
  • “a drive toward knowledge development” recognizing groundbreaking research conducted by EKU faculty and their methods of having scholarship inform classroom practice and content and classroom practice inform scholarship, including through scholarship of teaching and learning and inclusion of students in research 


Finally, the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan identifies a need to be “responsive to students,” a deep-rooted strength of faculty and instructors at EKU as they refine curriculum and classroom practices; engage students outside the classroom; and help students identify, aspire to, and prepare for professional goals. 

Goals of the Toolkit


Two Strategic Enrollment Management Plan goals align with Academic Affairs’ scope and priorities: 

  • Elevate retention and graduation rates by refining proactive advising, student success just-in-time notifications, and course scheduling to meet learners where they are. 
  • Advance academic-market alignment by scaling programs with regional workforce relevance, improving stackable credential options, and auditing low-growth offerings. 

Thus, the goals of the Pedagogy for Retention Toolkit are to: 

  • Help faculty and instructors educate students through relevant, purposeful curriculum and transparent, innovative pedagogy.
  • Personalize education so that students are known, their goals and learning processes are prioritized, and support is tailored to their individual needs.
  • Demonstrate how education is something that occurs both during and beyond class meetings, and in a variety of spaces and methods as need and opportunity arises.

Measuring Impact

National conversations about the academic affairs “side” of student success revolve around two data points: DFW rates and retention rates. Though both rely on variables that are slippery and unpredictable, both can reveal a great deal about student engagement and support.

DFW rates show bumps along a student’s path to graduation. Many factors – academic, personal, financial, or otherwise – overlap and contribute to grades of D or F and to a student’s decision to withdraw from a course.

D – may satisfy a course but not a requirement for a major, and does not contribute to a graduation-ready GPA
F – earns no course credit, requires a course to be retaken, and negatively impacts a GPA and/or time to degree
W – course credit is sacrificed and associated time and energy wasted; GPA is not impacted, but progress toward graduation is interrupted.

Interventions, including those below, are available to help students identify successful approaches to courses in which they struggle. While there is sure to be some variation among disciplines, across semesters, even between sections of a course, a DFW rate of 20% is appropriate or aspirational for every instructor and every course. Some students will struggle, but through reflective practice faculty and instructors can identify reasons for struggle and intervene in appropriate and timely ways directly and/or connect students to available support. Teaching changes occur over time – from one class meeting to the next, or from one semester to the next – as well as immediately, through formative assessments and purposeful in-class check-ins. Such interventions can be scripted or reactive, and can be deployed to shape outcomes for individual students or entire sections of courses.

Retention, which is defined as semester-to-semester and year-to-year persistence at the same institution, is influenced by multiple factors, including many beyond any direct control of faculty and instructors. A commitment to student-centered teaching and engaged learning is the most valuable contribution to student retention a faculty member or instructor can make. Because relationships matter, students will often approach a faculty member or instructor with a question or concern that is tangential to the business of the classroom, the course, or the major.

A faculty member or instructor can best help students who present unfamiliar concerns or ask questions to which answers are not known by making use of EKU’s vast network of support. Students resist a runaround. A faculty member’s or instructor’s ability to point a student in the best direction for specific help will contribute to the student’s continued growth and institutional affinity. Consistent with the retention goal identified in the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan, a year-to-year retention rate of 80% will reflect faculty and instructors’ contributions to the holistic engagement and support of enrolled students.

The Toolkit

Many of the strategies in this version of the Pedagogy for Retention Toolkit come from James Lang’s book Small Teaching. Links to that text and several others are included near the end of the Toolkit.

Importantly, the Toolkit is designed to be dynamic, interactive, and evolving. You’ll notice the invitation to suggest a strategy, ask a question, and/or pose a dilemma at the end of each strategy, and this submission form link: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9. Use it! Attribution can be provided and the Toolkit will grow and remain current because of the contributions of EKU’s faculty and instructors.

Learning Strategies

“Even when students predict with very low confidence and with little to no previous knowledge (in other words, they might be “guessing” their answers) their later recall of correct information still improves, provided that timely feedback is given” (“Using Predictions to Enhance Learning,” S. Annee, K. Bonner, & R. Westphal)

Student Learning Need: Establish context and build on prior knowledge in order to develop new knowledge.

Pedagogical Dilemma: How do I help students connect new or unfamiliar content to what they already know?

Classroom Practices:

  • Polling Predictions – include reflection on why answers are right or wrong. 
  • Class/Unit/Course Opening Predictions – focus on upcoming content. 
  • Pause-Predict-Ponder – self-assessment and repair understanding. 
  • Analyze Predictions – Ask for prediction and give students a chance to explain why they made it; help them recognize their knowledge and skill gaps 
  • Apply Predictions – Include end-of-class predictions to point students toward material they will read or study for homework 
  • Immediate Feedback – Provide feedback on predictions as immediately as possible to support the emotional burst from seeing how predictions turn out

Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9


“The act of retrieving something from your memory actually strengthens the connections holding it there, making it more likely that you’ll be able to recall it in the future.” (Washington University in St. Louis). 


Student Learning Need: Access prior knowledge, whether from before a class begins or from earlier points in a course, in order to build on that knowledge to add new knowledge. 


Pedagogical Dilemma: How can students better remember content from previous courses or early in my course so they can build on that knowledge as the semester progresses and retain it after the course ends?

Classroom Practices:

  • Low-or-No Stakes Quizzes – Retrieval practice through questions or ungraded quiz about what was covered in class that day or in the previous class meeting 
  • Concept Checks – Small, low-stakes, regularly occurring quizzes that allow for immediate feedback as content knowledge develops 
  • Formative Assessment – Ungraded pre-quiz to assess what students already know and identify misconceptions; can be usefully incorporated as “entry tickets” to start a class or “exit slips” to end a class 
  • Tap into Prior Experience – Students list 3-5 things learned in previous classes or from life experience related to the topic 
  • Classroom Polling – Students reflect individually, in small groups, or as whole class, why predictions were incorrect 
  • Retrieval/Testing Effect – Give students chances to retrieve knowledge from memory, to test themselves, retrieval practice 
  • ALSO: Check out the definitive retrieval practice website, and a couple books 
    Spaced Retrieval Practice – Self-testing, accessing memory, repeatedly over relatively long time period 
  • Ask Questions – Pause (maybe give all students time to write) – invite responses (in writing or orally) 
  • Faculty Feedback Forms – What is one thing you learned from the class reading?, what is one thing you learned from today’s class?, what are you unclear about or would like to know more about? 
  • Self-Rate Understanding – Students self-rate their understanding of the week’s material from 1 to 100 every week


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“Interleaving may improve attention, induce memory retrieval processes, prompt mental comparison processes, foster relational processing, and simulate the unpredictability of real-world situations, all of which may be beneficial for learning.” (“Interleaved Practice Enhances Memory and Problem-Solving Ability in Undergraduate Physics, J. Samani & S. C. Pan) 

Student Learning Need: Learn contextually, making connections between disparate pieces of information, returning to comparatively older information to make sense of it in new ways as knowledge is gained. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can students study in the most effective ways, focusing on what matters and able to apply content in a variety of ways? 

Classroom Practices:

  • Conditional Release – Include retrieval questions at multiple points in modules and students cannot progress until completing the quiz 
  • Interspersed Quizzes – Include retrieval of recent and distant information in advance of cumulative tests 
  • Interleaving, or Distributed Learning – Space out learning sessions over time, mix up practice of skills students are developing (rather than concentrating like content in a single block) 
    Intermittent Syllabus Review – Have students retrieve syllabus/class schedule information throughout the semester – design syllabus to include space for this 
  • Assess Transparently – Tell students what research says about the value of quizzing and retrieval practice 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial on adding a rubric to an assignment 
  • Cumulative Questions – Make all major exams cumulative to require retrieval and interleaving 
  • Big Basket of Quiz Questions – Randomly and publicly select previous quiz questions to include on current quiz 
  • Apply Knowledge-in-Progress – Set aside 15 minutes of class time a week, or every other week, give students a novel problem and list of everything they’ve learned so far and ask them to apply knowledge to solve 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Math” 
  • Flip the Classroom – First exposed to content outside of class then spend time in class connecting, practicing, and explaining – solve problems, think critically, apply knowledge, ask questions, get help 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Lectures aren’t just Boring, they’re Ineffective too, Study Finds” 


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“For students to think conceptually, they need opportunities to head up to the mountaintop, pause, and take in the entire forest.” (“3 Ways to Boost Students’ Conceptual Thinking,” C. Marschall) 

Student Learning Need: Make sense of new information as it becomes available and incorporate it with their developing knowledge base in ways it can be accessed and applied when needed. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: I want students to understand how new content relates to what they already know so they can use new information accurately and effectively. 

Classroom Practices:

  • Connecting Concepts and Skills – Create environment to bridge learning by having students make connections between distinct concepts or skills
  • Connection Notebook – Students write to make sense of new learning and connect it to previous learning, in your class, another class, or personal lives 
  • Framing Structure – Provide organizing framework of material and let students fill in details 
    Guided Notes – Identify and summarize main points of class discussion 
  • Focus Questions – Ask students Focus Questions they reference or develop concept map to answer 
  • Minute Thesis – Help students see connections throughout course and formulate thesis for synthesis or argument then collaborate to develop introduction, or structure, or support 
  • Examples, Analogies, and Reasons – Help students make connections by asking for examples, analogies (what’s it similar to?), and reasons (why should we care?) 


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“Deliberate practice involves attention, rehearsal and repetition and leads to new knowledge or skills that can later be developed into more complex knowledge and skills.” (“Practice for Knowledge Acquisition (Not Drill and Kill),” M. Brabeck, J. Jeffrey, & S. Fry) 

Student Learning Need: Multiple attempts with targeted, real-time support, to gain familiarity, then comfort, then proficiency. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can I give students chances in class and as part of class to learn, practice what they’re learning in a range of contexts, grow through low- or no-stakes attempts, and then show mastery of what they know in relevant and engaging ways? 

Classroom Practices:

  • Rehearsal – Repeated practice (rehearsal) of skills that will be assessed with immediate, ungraded, guiding feedback 
  • GO DEEPER: James Lang’s Chronicle article “If You Care about It, Do It in Class” 
  • Create Space to Learn from Failure – To get anything new correct we have to do it many times – try, make mistakes, correct mistakes, try again 
  • Real-Time Feedback – Provide feedback while students are working and/or on their practice 
    Pause and Reflect – Ask students to pause and reflect on what they are doing and why they are using the approach they are as they work 
  • Foster Creativity – Offer suggestions for creative new pathways for students to try 
    Break Planned Assessments into Cognitive Tasks – Teach these skills and let students practice and get feedback on them individually and repeatedly 
  • Practice as Active Learning– Help students see classroom as site to engage in active, mindful practice of skills rather than place to sit passively and absorb material 
  • LEARN MORE: Explore the Noel Studio’s educator-support resources and request an Active Learning Toolkit 


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“When students explain their thinking to themselves (self-explanations) or to others (peer-explanations) their recall and conceptual understanding improve.” (“Learning by Explaining,” C. Bowers, K. Christopher, & K. Shingleton) 

Student Learning Need: Chances to reflect on and rehearse new information, thinking through it with themselves in language that benefits them, then with peers or others before being required to more formally interpret or apply knowledge in high-stakes situations like quizzes, essays, or exams. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can students develop and show mastery of what they learn in meaningful and personal ways?  

Classroom Practices:

  • Process Talk – Students explain out loud what they are doing during the completion of a learning task 
  • LEARN MORE: Exam/Paper Wrappers, as used in a variety of courses at Carnegie Mellon 
  • Write It to Know It – Students write to themselves or someone else about their learning as it happens 
  • Practice Teaching 1 – Students teach something to other students, or even just prepare to teach something to other people 
  • Practice Teaching 2 – Students explain developing or newfound knowledge or material to someone else, whether a peer, or an outside audience, or to a camera as a video lecture 
  • Office Hour Think-Aloud – Use student visits to your office as chances to have them self-explain or think-aloud about their process and decisions 


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“At its best, advising is a collaborative process between a student and an advisor designed to help the student realize their educational potential.” (“Effective Advising for Postsecondary Students: Practice Guide,” Institute of Education Sciences) 

Student Learning Need: The right combination of just-in-time support and intervention to connect students to appropriate resources when they need them, and long-term major and career planning that helps students see how courses and other university experiences fit together and prepare students for their careers and lives beyond the university. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can I meet students where they are in order to support them as they make progress toward where they say they want to be?  

Classroom Practices:

  • Make the General Education Conversation Essential – Help students see the value and potential of essential education courses, rather than any general education class as something students have to “get through” 
  • Balance Advising and Mentoring – Dedicate time during meetings with advisees to talk about career goals, the breadth of the student’s academic experience, and how course work and extracurricular experiences support post-graduation opportunities 
  • Advising as Progress Check – Review students’ recent academic progress – last semester grades, progress reports, midterm grades – in advance of advising meetings, and discuss progress and goals with students, helping plan for remediation or connecting to support when necessary 
  • Coach and Connect – Diversify interactions with students to fill multiple mentoring roles – coaching when students need short-term help, mentoring to contribute to growth over time, and connecting when support beyond your immediate purview is appropriate 
  • GET HELP: Use the Faculty Guide to Dealing with Student Issues to help in unpredictable moments and intervene in the right ways at the right time  


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

Engagement Strategies


“Belonging is the emotional and neurological foundation of learning. Students must feel safe, connected, and valued before their brains can engage deeply.” (“The Science of Belonging: How Connection Drives Learning and Reduces Absenteeism,” L. Hampton)

Student Learning Need: Establish a sense of belonging at EKU, in class, with faculty, among classmates and peers. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can I help each student know that they are known, valued, and that they have a place in my class and at EKU? 

Classroom Practices:

  • Establish Cognitive Belonging for All Students – Find ways to create strong sense of community – cognitive belonging – in the classroom 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Student Perceptions that their Instructor Knows their Name Predicts College Classroom Belonging” 
  • Make Learning Social and Collaborative – Create ways for students to interact and work collaboratively in class and out of class 
  • Foster Self-Belief – Help students believe they have the tools they need to succeed 
    Promote Asset-Mindedness – Create opportunities for students to share their assets with you and with one another 
  • Focus on Strengths – Ask students early in the semester “What are you good at in school?” 
  • Identify Students’ Strengths – Begin a class early in the semester by providing an overview of what you learn about students in your class – what they’re good at, what their strengths are 
  • Assign, and Rotate, Roles for Groups – Assign and rotate roles throughout the semester for student group work 
  • Peer Instruction – Use peer instruction to give students a chance to think about answers to questions, respond, then talk through reasoning with a peer 
  • Allow Time for Thinking – Don’t call on the first hand to be raised – think about waiting until 5 hands are raised before calling on anyone every time 
  • Normalize Help-Seeking Behaviors – Students might view asking for help as affirmation of their lack of belonging, so emphasize to students that asking for help is what successful students do and explain the pathways to help in your class 
  • Acknowledge Struggle as Part of the Learning Process – Tell students stories from your own experience about times you struggled and sought help 
  • Normalize Tutoring Support – Invite someone from the tutoring center to speak to class and explain how tutoring support works 
  • Believe in Students’ Ability to Succeed – Believe that students belong and can succeed – find ways to act on that belief, especially for students who do not yet believe that about themselves 
  • Community Involvement – Connect students to student organizations and other groups that involve them with other students in projects that transcend classroom learning experiences 

Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9

“Active teaching strategies increase lecture attendance, engagement, and students’ acquisition of expert attitudes toward the discipline” (Measuring Actual Learning versus Feeling of Learning in Response to Being Actively Engaged in the Classroom,” L. Deslauriers, L. S. McCarthy, K. Miller, & G. Kestin) 

Student Learning Need: Connect with students, in class and out, in relationship-rich ways that help acclimate students to class, campus, and college. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can I connect with students individually and in groups to increase their comfort and support their growth?

Classroom Practices:

  • Transparent Communications – Email class to encourage those who haven’t met a deadline (like posting to discussion board) and thank one or more students by name for positive contributions 
  • After-Class Email Follow-up – Send short emails to individual students or the whole class after class or between classes to praise contributions and thank engaged participants 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Email from Professor Enhances Student Motivation and Attitudes” 
  • Canvas Inbox Conversations – Tool to support timely instructor-student communication in a secure, course-connected space students check 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 
  • Canvas Announcements – Keep students oriented and reduce missed information by delivering timely, course-wide updates directly to students’ dashboards and notifications 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 
  • In Canvas, Message Students Who… – Tool that enables targeted outreach to students based on performance or participation, supporting timely encouragement and intervention 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 
  • Canvas Course Analytics – Identify students who struggle early and intervene before problems escalate 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 
  • Personalize Education – Recognize students by name and encourage them about the work they’re doing 
  • Surface Discussion Board Contributions – Interact regularly with discussion board posts – “surface” great contributions and praise positive contributors 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial on using Discussion Board 
  • Use High Structure – Put “high structure” – as much structure as possible – on classroom experiences like group work because it benefits students who need it and doesn’t interfere with the progress of students who don’t 
  • GO DEEPER: Chronicle article on high structure and other inclusive teaching practices 
  • Canvas Accessibility Checker – Component of the Canvas Rich Content Editor that detects common accessibility errors within edited page content 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 
  • Contextualize Office (Student) Hours and Review Sessions – Describe in class what office (student) hours are and what review sessions are for 
  • Assign Office (Student) Hours Visit – Consider making a first assignment a visit to your office (student) hours 
  • Make Office (Student) Hours Mobile – Move some office (student) hours to Starbucks, Library, etc. 
  • Take Office (Student) Hours Online – Make office (student) hours available on Zoom
  • Dedicated Space in Canvas for Questions – Create a forum in Canvas for questions – monitor regularly and respond in Canvas and in class, then use those to develop easily accessible FAQ site 
  • Canvas Calendar – Single place that helps students manage workload and deadlines across all their courses, reducing cognitive load and missed due dates 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial  

Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“Motivation has been shown to positively influence study strategy, academic performance, adjustment, and well-being in students” (“How Motivation Affects Academic Performance,” R. A. Kusurkar, T. J. T. Cate, C. M. P. Vos, P. Westers, & G. Croiset) 

Student Learning Need: Identify and capitalize on internal and external sources of motivation and purpose. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can students keep their “why” in the front of their minds, remembering why they’re in college, understanding why they’re in my course, and seeing how each class meeting contributes to their goals? 

Classroom Practices:

  • Help Students Find their Own Reasons to Succeed – Focus more attention on building students’ intrinsic motivators instead of relying (solely) on external motivators 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Can Self-Determination Theory Be Used to Increase College Student Retention?” 
    Change the World – Build on students’ desire for purpose, especially transcendent purpose – the desire to help other people, to change the world, to make a difference 
  • Who Cares and Why: Connect Learning to Purpose – Think about how to infuse student learning with purpose 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “Boring but Important: A Self-Transcendent Purpose for Learning Fosters Academic Self-Regulation” 
  • Empower Students – Help students recognize the power of their learning to make a difference to the world 
  • Evoke Wonder and Get Students Noticing – Use the minutes before class starts to evoke wonder and curiosity by posting an image on the screen before class begins and asking “What do you notice/wonder?” 
  • GO DEEPER: Peter Newbury’s “You Don’t Have to Wait for the Clock to Strike to Start Teaching” 
  • Foster Curiosity – Connect detailed material that may not be of broad interest to instruction on topics that students are highly motivated to learn 
  • RESEARCH SAYS: “States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit” 
  • Start with a Story – Frame a class meeting as a story – provoke interest with story starter or question that class content will finish or answer, then be deliberate to tie story to that day’s class content 
  • Show Why this Course is Awesome (or Whatever Word Kids Use these Days) – Emphasize the power of your discipline to help other people or impact the world 
  • Make the Course Description Really Matter – Write the course description to highlight promises course makes to students – connect one or more of those promises to assignments 
  • Continually Map Your Course – Show students where any individual class meeting falls within the larger picture of the course – remind students where they’ve been, where they are, where they’re going, and why 
  • What Question Does Your Class Answer? – Think about what you want students to learn in your class as the answer to a question – share that question with students to show them the context for the work they’ll do 
  • Geek Out about Your Content – Show students you care about your content area and the subject matter of your course – “geek out” at times when it can help students’ engage and see why your discipline deserves attention 
  • Contextualize Your Course – Show students how the subject matter of your course matters to some larger context (their lives, their communities, the world), which is why it should matter to them 
  • What’s So Good about this Day’s Class? – Remind yourself before every class what’s fascinating about the subject matter for that day’s class and find a way to share that fascination with students
  • Show Students They Matter – Make a strong commitment to respond to student work to show them that their work matters, their thinking matters, and that they matter 
  • Personalize Interactions in Class and in Feedback – Individualize the students in the class, through responding to their work, or by engaging them before or after class, and ideally both 
  • Communicate Like a Real Person Talking to Real People – Use “warm” language in your syllabus and on other documents so it feels like you are speaking to a real person, be flexible when possible and explain why policies are in place 
  • Care for the Whole Student – Embrace “cura personalis” – care of the whole person – by connecting with students personally and being available to connect students to help they need 
  • Teach Transparently – Ensure students understand, with every assignment, what is being asked of them and why 
  • LEARN MORE: Transparency in Learning and Teaching site  


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

“When students have a growth mindset, they are more likely to challenge themselves, believe that they can achieve more, and become stronger, more resilient and creative problem solvers” (“Growth Mindset and Enhanced Learning,” Stanford Teaching Commons) 

Student Learning Need: Establish a positive and authentic growth mindset focused on effort and willingness to participate in the learning process rather than ability or achievement. 

Pedagogical Dilemma: How can I help students develop the right mindset about their academic growth and success in my course, and all their courses?  

Classroom Practices:

  •  Experiment in Every Class – Change 2 or 3 things every semester, even knowing something may not work, instead of teaching the exact same way 
  • Teach Today’s Student – Think about how you are going to impact the learning of the students in your class, not the students in your class 5 or 10 years ago 
  • Use Canvas Studio – Multimedia platform to support student learning as they watch, rewatch, and interact with video content at their own pace 
  • LEARN MORE: Canvas Tutorial 


Suggest a strategy, ask a question, pose a dilemma: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9 

Teaching & Learning Resources

Listening Resources:

Reading Resources (A good place to begin: “10 Books for the Evidence Based Professor” (Inside Higher Ed): 

Log On Resources:


Suggest a book, podcast, article, site, or other resource: https://forms.gle/qqxByYgMB62svqTJ9