Category: Teaching Tips

Teaching suggestions, stories and insights from the community.

Lesson Planning: At the Intersection of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Knowledge Dimensions

students sitting around a table in the tutoring center

Revisiting Bloom’s Taxonomy In the 1950’s Benjamin Bloom and other researchers collaborated to create what is known as Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive processes. This has been revised over the years and includes today six cognitive dimensions: Remember: recall facts and basic concepts (e.g., define, list, state) Understand: explain ideas or concepts (e.g., describe, explain, summarize)…Continue Reading Lesson Planning: At the Intersection of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Knowledge Dimensions

Overcoming White Fragility by Facing Race

  What if white professors like me spent less time denying our racism and more effort exploring its factuality? One of the most vital books I have read in years builds a case for taking on this provocative challenge. White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (2018) by Robin…Continue Reading Overcoming White Fragility by Facing Race

Exit Cards: A Simple Formative Assessment Strategy

a door marked with an exit sign

We all want to be effective teachers, but how do we gauge whether our teaching has been effective? One simple way to gather informal, low-stakes feedback from students is through exit cards. In the last several minutes of class, the instructor can pose a question to the class, have students write their answer on a…Continue Reading Exit Cards: A Simple Formative Assessment Strategy

Whiteboard Animations

close up of a hand animating on a whiteboard

Now that October has arrived, most courses have had their first exams. As students come in to review their scores, one common refrain echoes through the halls, “I knew that, but I just couldn’t remember it!”. Though it might sound like an excuse, the empirical data is clear – human memory is incredibly fallible, even…Continue Reading Whiteboard Animations

Supportive Resources for Teaching and Learning

students and tutors sitting together at a small round table

Welcome back faculty! We are all now four weeks into our annual sojourn into a new academic year. During our journey as disciplinary experts, we have opportunities to develop and refine the craft of teaching at the college level. The University of Portland and several colleagues on campus offer resources to support our reflective teaching….Continue Reading Supportive Resources for Teaching and Learning