Teaching 101: advice for university educators

What key skills do teachers need to connect with students, develop professional confidence and thrive?

Teaching is much more than standing in front of a lecture hall or leading a tutorial. University educators may devote a significant proportion of their time to teaching, but only a fraction of this will be spent in a classroom with students. Deciding teaching modes, planning course material, learning new edtech and doing research to refine tutorial questions and reading lists will all challenge academics taking their first steps as teachers. This collection of resources offers support for lecturers, from pedagogy and classroom management to building confidence and support networks, managing workload and finding inspiration to enrich your teaching practice.

By Eliza.Compton, 21 September, 2022

Classroom management techniques you don’t get taught

‘Fake it till you make it’ is a useful motto for new university teachers facing a classroom of antsy students for the first time. Here are seven basic skills to master

Reading time

3minutes

Getting started

Resources

By Eliza.Compton, 1 September, 2022

How to get through your first year of teaching

Young Asian woman working at laptop in library wearing headphones

For any new teacher, standing in front of a class is daunting – professionally and emotionally. Here are some tips to help you prepare, adapt and conquer nerves and self-doubt

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 24 August, 2022

Let’s get professional: advice for new university teachers

No matter if you’re a just-minted postdoc or transferring from industry to academia, a professional approach will give your new teaching career a solid foundation. In this video, Carl Sherwood shares his top tips

By Miranda Prynne, 7 September, 2022

Switching career directions: lessons from the first year as a teaching academic

Image of a male teacher hosting a university seminar

The first year in a teaching role is challenging, particularly following the disruption caused by the pandemic, yet rewarding. Janine Wilkinson shares what she has learned

Reading time

4minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 31 August, 2022

Targeted teaching: meeting students where they are

Teaching students according to their strengths and shortcomings, stimulating their interest in learning and building confidence in learning, is not only part of Chinese education philosophy, it promotes students’ all-round development

Reading time

3minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 22 February, 2022

Easy as ABC: design an online course in 90 minutes

Advice on developing online courses using ABC Learning Design as your framework

Want to create an online course but not sure where to start? Lizzy Garner-Foy shares tips on how to create engaging online learning using a quick, easy method: ABC Learning Design.

Pedagogical tips and tricks

Resources

By Miranda Prynne, 13 September, 2022

Tactics to ensure students engage with and learn from feedback

Image of people learning from one another

Students often perceive feedback as criticism and fail to take on board the constructive guidance. Rebecca Lewis explains how she encourages student engagement with her feedback

Reading time

5minutes

By Eliza.Compton, 17 May, 2022

Eight tips to boost active listening in university students

Active mental engagement enhances students’ understanding and their ability to remember the ideas we teach. These simple tools and skills can help to move students from passive to active modes of listening and keep them there

Reading time

4minutes

By dene.mullen, 2 August, 2022

A step-by-step guide to implementing an agile curriculum

Flexible, innovative and creative, agile curricula offer many advantages over traditional approaches – here’s how to get started, says Olufunke Aluko-Daniels

Reading time

4minutes

By dene.mullen, 21 September, 2022

From planning to delivering lessons: getting the basics right

Planning and delivering a lesson in university

Nelly Ramirez Vásquez discusses the nuts and bolts of creating, teaching and overseeing high-quality lessons and courses for delivery online and in person

Reading time

3minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 29 April, 2022

Revolving roles: creating inclusive, engaging, participant-led learning activities

A student playing the part of a teacher to represent the revolving roles pedagogy

‘Revolving roles’ is a simple, adaptable method for designing learning activities that challenge and change conventional ‘leader’ and ‘participant’ responsibilities, embrace students’ diverse needs, and develop their unique attributes, as Pablo Dalby explains

Connecting with students

Resources

By dene.mullen, 14 September, 2022

Relationship-building: the key to effective teaching

Relationship-building skills are transferable from the workplace to academia

Teaching in HE is daunting for new academics, but interpersonal skills honed in the workplace provide strong foundations, say Charles Marley and colleagues

Reading time

3minutes

By stefan.gagov, 25 August, 2020

The secret to timely, relevant, inclusive communication with students

Effective communication is vital to engaging and positive remote study. Cathy Stone offers advice on how to ensure communication between institutions and students is timely, relevant and inclusive

By Miranda Prynne, 25 August, 2022

Make classroom connections by drawing from the slow movement

Tortoise walking down a road - representing how slow and steady can be more effective than fast

An introduction to the slow movement and its ideology to show how it can inspire approaches to building connection in the classroom, purposefully scaffolding moments of connection into teaching and relating these to learning

Reading time

6minutes

By dene.mullen, 1 August, 2022

Tips for new lecturers on the human elements that make students feel included

There are many simple, free tools in a lecturer's arsenal for making lectures more inclusive

Forget constructive alignment and instructional scaffolding, things like saying ‘hello’ and being encouraging are the real key to good, inclusive lectures, says Andy Grayson

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 14 July, 2022

Build your teaching presence to better engage students

Image showing one person striding off with a crowd following

A strong ‘presence’ in the classroom can help imbue students with a passion for your subject and willingness to learn. Catherine Wehlburg explores simple ways to enhance teaching presence

Reading time

4minutes

Taking teaching online

Resources

By miranda.prynne, 14 January, 2021

Making the implicit explicit: improve online learning through ‘presence’

Using the Community of Inquiry to improve online learning outcomes

Dara Cassidy explains how the Community of Inquiry provides a framework to help translate teaching strategies that come naturally in the classroom to the online learning environment where they require more deliberate planning

By miranda.prynne, 9 June, 2021

It’s not you, it’s me: taking responsibility for student engagement and interaction

Proactive steps educators should take to better engage students in online learning

Maia Forrester and Ian Lee share lessons in boosting student engagement and interaction when teaching online, based on their experience training medical educators

By miranda.prynne, 23 November, 2020

A guide to effective digital course design and delivery from four online teaching experts

Research on effective digital course design and implementation

Chrysi Rapanta consolidates the knowledge of four online teaching experts to produce guidance on what pedagogical content knowledge faculty need in order to develop effective digital courses

By dene.mullen, 18 August, 2022

Communities of practice: how to help them thrive

Communities of practice are an excellent way for staff and faculty to share knowledge

There are few better ways for staff to build and share knowledge within institutions, but while communities of practice can evolve organically, they also need nurturing

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 18 March, 2022

Mind the gap: creating a pathway for post-doctoral researchers to gain teaching experience

Advice on creating opportunities for early career researchers to develop their teaching skills

Postdoctoral researchers often struggle to secure teaching experience so institutions need to develop opportunities for these academics to support or lead classes. Ellen Bull explains how this can be done

Reading time

3minutes

Ideas to enrich your teaching

Resources

By dene.mullen, 15 August, 2022

Podcast as pedagogy: discovering the joys of a new teaching format

After a first foray into podcasting as a mode of instruction, Alan Bradshaw shares some of the tips he picked up along the way for those considering taking the mic

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 4 February, 2022

Bringing learning to life: nine tips for teaching in outdoor places and spaces

Advice for taking your university teaching out of the lecture theatre or classroom

David A. G. Clarke reflects on his experience of teaching in outdoor spaces and provides valuable tips on how to take higher education outside the classroom

By Miranda Prynne, 5 September, 2022

Theatre ice-breaker games for team-building in higher education

An introduction to using theatre ice-breaker games games to break down barriers between students and promote teamwork and trust at the start of a course

Reading time

3minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 29 August, 2022

Tutor training for architect-educators: twinning, observation, reflection and testing

Image of a lecturer teaching a class of adult students

Staff development and training for architecture tutors is very limited. This resource looks back at a tutor training programme that ran from 1996 to 2002, and draws lessons for future architect-educators

Reading time

4minutes

By Miranda Prynne, 14 January, 2022

Landing your first lectureship: top five academic career planning tips

Career planning advice for early career researchers on how to secure your first permanent academic job

Utsa Mukherjee shares five tips to help early career researchers build their professional experience and CV in order to secure their first permanent academic post