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Tips for Teaching #1: For the Beginning of the Semester Make the first day count. Discuss a core idea, pose a typical problem, or ask students to complete a group exercise. By moving into the course material, you're telling students that the course is well organized, well paced and worthwhile. #2: For Using E-mail Use e-mail to enhance class participation. Provide a tutor in the first week to help students learn how to use the computers. To get the discussion started, ask students to generate comments or questions for discussion. Electronic conversations increase student participation, encourage collaboration, and require critical thinking. #3: End of Class Review Take five minutes at the end of each class to ask students to summarize the ideas presented, to solve a sample problem, to apply information to a new situation or to write their reactions to the day's class. Doing so throughout the semester can help you know what you can do to strengthen your te

Effective teaching: 10 tips on what works and what doesn’t The question of what makes a great teacher has been around for a long time. It’s an enquiry that poses many problems because there’s simply no set recipe for success, and different approaches work for different professionals and students. The Sutton Trust has published a  report that reviews the research into effective teaching , finding that popular practices, such as lavishing praise on students or allowing them to discover key things for themselves, actually have no grounding in research. The author of the report, professor  Robert Coe  from Durham University, says this is a “starter kit” for thinking about what makes good teaching. So, what does the report recommend? Here are 10 salient points to take away: 1. Know your subject The report, which looked at more than 200 pieces of research, found that there were six main elements to great teaching and one of the most important ones was subject knowledge. It ma