ELI Webinar | Small Teaching: Core Principles for Building an Effective Learning Experience

The explosion of new research in the learning sciences has left many faculty wishing to make modifications to their teaching, but uncertain about the kinds of changes that will have the greatest impact—and fearful of the time commitment that making such changes might entail. Fortunately, a significant portion of the new research on learning suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of learning environment, including both face-to-face and online courses. This webinar will introduce three core learning principles that can help us make powerful, positive changes to the ways in which we design and teach college courses: the power of retrieval practice to promote the mastery of core skills and content; the benefit of helping learners connect new learning to their existing knowledge; and the important role that curiosity plays in motivating student learning. In each of these three areas, we'll consider briefly the body of research that supports the principle, and then we'll review practical techniques that can use the principles to foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning.

Outcomes

• Explore three principles—retrieval, connection, and curiosity—that can help guide the creation of effective new learning environments for both face-to-face and online courses
• Use strategies designed to foster retrieval, connection, and curiosity to implement small but effective changes to existing learning environments you have created
• Develop new strategies for putting those principles into practice based on your discipline and specific teaching context

Supporting Resources

• Small Changes in Teaching, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Special Report, June 22, 2016