Practitioner inquiry methodology, applied in primary and secondary schools worldwide, provides a structure for systematic study of an instructor's own teaching practice in order to address a self-identified instructional dilemma. This methodology holds promise for improving teaching in higher education as well. In this dialogue, two faculty…

First-generation college (FGC) students compose nearly a third of the total student population in most four-year higher education institutions in the United States. Yet they graduate in drastically lower rates than their non-first-generation peers. To understand how these students can persist with their college learning, faculty need to…

The Socratic method, while utilizing student participation, emphasizes self-knowledge, not self-expression. This is accomplished on the basis of successive stages of issue analysis and self-examination. The Socratic method strives to get at the root of belief by studying assumptions. (MLW)

Interdisciplinary teaching helps students see how knowledge and tools within individual disciplines can be brought together to address problems or issues of concern to mankind. Team teaching within seminars allows students to witness and engage in disciplinary interrelations. (MSE)

Teaching experiences in foreign countries suggest four critical areas of preparation for overseas teaching roles: patience and adaptability; anticipation of language and other communication problems; use of instructional techniques such as advance organizers and explanation of teacher expectations; and reduction of ethnocentric ideas, attitudes,…

The college student who participates in genuine collaboration with a faculty member in an intellectual endeavor transcends the barrier of power. Once it has been breached, other power lines will be less constraining. The experience transforms the nature of learning and constructs a lasting authority in the student. (MSE)

In a new model for marketing teaching education, the Eastern Washington University Department of Education has devised a program that uses research and publication to encourage better teaching, more interaction with the community, and improved communication at all levels of the education system. (MLW)

The American professor in a foreign country must be prepared formally and informally to address questions about the United States, its present, past, and future. Part of bringing American culture to the foreign campus is bringing the openness of American professors to their students. (MSE)

The author argues that Total Quality Management (TQM), in its entirety, is inappropriate for college instruction because the organizational cultures of a college and a corporation differ. Additionally, in a classroom, student contributions are as important as the teacher's, and the student, as "customer," may not know what quality instruction is.…

Graduate students in fields in which an advanced degree is gained traditionally as preparation for college teaching develop their self-images as scholars and teachers with faculty at selective research institutions as their only role models. A better approach would be to require graduate students to observe daily operations of a different…

Four ways to make advising more productive are identified: preparing for the first meeting, integrating course selections and career plans, promoting collegial support, and serving as surrogate parent. (MLW)

Participating in research is valuable for the undergraduate college student's development in the sciences. Students can observe the professor's typical behavior as he leads the research effort as well as learn and practice research ideas and techniques. Financial support is needed for this kind of research involvement. (MSE)

Because college teaching aims to elevate, not entertain, it must be nourished and appreciated as a pedagogical alchemy mixing facts and feelings, ideas and skills, history and mystery. The current debate on educational reform should focus more on quality of learning experience, and on how to create and sustain it. (MSE)

The good teacher, never a force-feeder, understands that the proper relation between teacher and learner is indirect, and only in this indirect relationship is there space for respect. The teaching styles of five college professors illustrate the value of playful interaction between professor and student. (MSE)

Describes a team-taught, interdisciplinary college honors course on politics and literature, including the origins and theoretical underpinning of the course, issues related to the intersection of the disciplines, evolution of the teacher's role in the course, and outcomes. Concludes that despite the difficulties of interdisciplinary team…