Teaching Essentials Guides

Because every student deserves good teaching

Center for Teaching Excellence

Teaching Essentials Guides

These guides complement our workshop series on Teaching Essentials and reflect our core pedagogical values. See Toolkits for guidance on other timely teaching topics, or The Open Guide to Teaching and Learning for a more comprehensive overview of teaching strategies, theories, and frameworks. 

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Active and Collaborative Learning

Student-centered instructional strategies yield the best results for lasting student learning. This guide introduces faculty to active and collaborative instructional strategies designed to help students develop higher order critical thinking skills.
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Community of Learners

Every classroom is a community.  This guide helps faculty understand the best practices for high levels of instructor and student engagement, highly effective peer to peer interaction, developing a strong instructor presence, and strategies for being responsible to student needs. 
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Feedback and Assessment

This guide introduces the basics of the assessment cycle, promotes the use of frequent low-stakes assessments, and provides a framework for providing students with actionable feedback. 
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Respect for Students

The relationship between students and their teachers is built upon mutual trust and respect. This guide includes strategies that will help faculty understand their students’ backgrounds and academic preparation.