Teaching Resources on Pedagogy and Teaching Strategies

We are not endorsing purchase of the following books from any specific business. Links are included to help you identify the books.

Small Teaching - James M. Lang

In this incredibly useful book, James Lang presents a collection of small classroom activities and teaching strategies that are soundly grounded in research about how students learn. More than just a collection of teaching tips, this book provides a framework by which instructors can start making significant improvements to their teaching through relatively small steps that impact student knowledge, understanding, and motivation. The book is an engaging read and provides a balance of use-it-on-Monday teaching strategies and the deeper lessons about learning that underlie them.

Small Teaching Online - Flower Darby and James M. Lang

Inspired by James Lang’s (2016) Small Teaching, Flower Darby provides readers with small, strategic changes that can make a large impact on student learning in the online space. Readers will learn about applying the backward design process to online courses, how to build community within the course, and strategies for motivating students in this space.

The Blended Course Design Workbook: A Practical Guide – Kathryn Linder 

This text is a true workbook designed to guide readers through designing a blended course from start to finish.  Whether you have a new prep or are transitioning a face-to-face course to an online format, this workbook is your friend; particularly in this time of unknown modality for fall.  Linder begins by providing definitions of course modality based on the percentage of content delivered online; blended 30-79% and online 80% or more.

Make it Stick - Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel

This book introduces the research of Roediger and McDaniel through an engaging writing style that places individual stories around each of the concepts. This is a valuable first step into understanding how people learn if you've never read about this research area. It can be useful to consider how to help your students learn better through spaced repetition, avoiding illusions of knowing and practicing retrieval. It is less applied than the Small Teaching books, the first of which quotes Make it Stick repeatedly. UIS Library

Teach Students How to Learn - Saundra Yancey McGuire

This is a very applied book for helping students to better understand how their success comes directly from the effort and strategies they employ. I have found this to be one of the best resources for knowing how to talk with students that are struggling and having more to say to them than just work harder. Much of the focus in on meta-cognitive learning strategies. UIS Library

Collaborative Learning Techniques - Elizabeth Barkley, Claire Howell Major, and Patricia K. Cross UIS Library

High-Impact Practices in Online Education: Research and Best Practices - Kathryn Linder & Chrysanthemum Mattison Hayes

While this book appeals to a targeted audience who utilize High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as service learning, intensive writing assignments, or undergraduate research, it provides utility to transitioning these traditionally face-to-face strategies to an online space. This edited text provides an overview introduction and conclusion as well as a chapter devoted to each of the 10 HIPs.

Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty - Robert Talbert

Talbert’s seven-step process for “flipping” a classroom not only provides a simple breakdown for transitioning F2F content to an online format, but also addresses the biggest concerns and questions that arise with when teaching in a partial or fully online environments. This research-based approach to organizing and implementing content provides guidance in making the most of an online space through considering a range of topics including cognitive load, multimedia learning, and self-regulated learning.