The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

Classroom Practices

There are many classroom practices that are proven to have a positive impact on your teaching and student learning - some of which you may have encountered in the development of your own teaching, others for which there is scholarly evidence.

Here the Sheridan Center has compiled evidence-based, effective teaching practices and resources on how to implement them in your classroom. These resources encourage you to consider the location and size of your class, current events, strategies or methods to develop specific skills, activities to achieve your course goals, and ways to increase the clarity of the content you teach.

Chances are that you have encountered conversations about ChatGPT – software powered by artificial intelligence (AI) able to deliver nuanced text that mimics natural human writing.
Students learn through their participation in the attainment of knowledge by gathering information and processing it by solving problems and articulating what they have discovered.
Laboratory environments require many different forms of instruction: pre-lab lectures, facilitating interactions with instruments, organizing group work, monitoring safety, providing feedback to students, grading, etc.
Successful learning experiences in large classes are dependent upon good planning, effective monitoring, inclusive teaching, appropriate assessment and active engagement by professors and students.
Presentations involving PowerPoint (and other software) are a popular platform for lecture material and can ease retention of course concepts.
Metacognition is the practice of thinking about thinking or identifying one’s cognitive process (Lovett, 2008) and is a reflective skill that is necessary for creativity, critical thinking and problem solving. Students often perform metacognitive work in writing classes by reflecting on their writing process or development, or in STEM courses by reflecting on course design projects.
The pandemic has had more and more of us reaching for news, stories, and music that we can listen to on-demand, making podcasts more popular than ever before. But podcasts aren’t just a source for news and entertainment—they can also play a useful role in teaching.
We invite you to review this wide range of resources related to teaching when a variety of disruptions might occur in your classrooms.