Michelle Smith is an Associate Professor in the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine, and she's one of the world's leading discipline-based education researchers. Among many other things, she studies why and how peer discussion works as an effective teaching tool, collaborates with biology teachers in college and high school settings, and develops concept inventories (standard assessments of learning) at the course and program level. In this episode, we talk about the benefits of using concept inventories in your own classes, and Michelle gives advice for finding, creating and/or giving them.

Podcast #66: Concept Inventories with Michelle Smith

The Teach Better Podcast is a series of conversations with teachers about teaching. We talk mostly with faculty in higher education, but will occasionally talk with other teachers too. Your hosts are Doug McKee and Edward O’Neill.

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Kevin Gannon is the director of the Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, and he’s also a Professor of History. Many of our listeners may know him from his articles in the Chronicle of Higher Ed or his popular Twitter feed where he writes about teaching, dogs, race, politics, and seemingly whatever else is on his mind. In this episode we dig deep on Kevin’s personal teaching journey and learn how he came to be the teacher he is today and what kind of teacher he aspires to be in the future.

Podcast #81: Becoming a Teacher with Kevin Gannon

The evidence is clear that when students work actively in the classroom, they learn more. It's also true that most of the classrooms we teach in were designed for a professor to lecture to a group of students that sit passively and take notes. What do classrooms designed for active learning look like? Do students learn more when we teach in active learning classrooms? And what other impacts might teaching in active learning classrooms have on students and instructors? Robert Talbert, a math professor and education researcher at Grand Valley State University, recently took a deep dive into the literature on these questions, and in this episode he shares what he's learned.

Podcast #80: Classrooms for Active Learning with Robert Talbert

Our guest today, Doug Robertson, is one of the best teachers on the planet. He teaches 4th grade at Powell Valley Elementary School outside Portland, Oregon, and you might know him from his multiple interviews and podcasts, his books, his YouTube channel, or maybe his incredibly entertaining Twitter stream. While we usually focus on higher ed on the show, we had a great conversation with Doug about how we apply the fundamental principles of teaching in our respective classrooms.

Podcast #79: The Fundamentals of Teaching with Doug Robertson

This fall Doug and Edward both taught classes of their own. In their latest episode, they reflect on their challenges, what they tried, and what they learned.

Podcast #78: Edward and Doug Debrief

Jose Vasquez has been teaching economics at the University of Illinois for 14 years. He teaches one of the largest introductory microeconomics classes in the world every semester with more than 900 students. He also teaches one of the biggest intro micro MOOC’s in the world: His Coursera course has had more than 100,000 students register in the last five years.  He thinks deeply about how best to use his class time and what he wants students to do outside class.
Our conversation covers a wide range as Jose explains what still excites him about teaching and how he got to where he is. Among other things, we talk about the joys of active learning, the importance of motivating our students, and the benefits (and costs) of peer assessment.

Podcast #66: Concept Inventories with Michelle Smith

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