Lessons I've Learned (Abridged)

1. The majority of students will only do work at home if it's for a grade. If I think something is important, I should tie it to a grade.
2. According to education research, high quality learning comes from a scaffolded approach: a) Work as a class with the instructor, b) Peer-to-peer learning under supervision, c) Individual learning and reinforcing concepts at home. Leaving out any step of this process substantially hurts learning.
3. One of the best ways to learn is teaching. Encourage students to form study groups, teach each other concepts inside of and outside of class, and to quiz each other.
4. When exam averages are lower than I want, it's better to hold group exams to help them earn points back than to just apply a curve. Then you can scale the exam grade by something like final grade = (40% raw score) + (60% group exam score). This turns a negative experience into a learning opportunity. It shows them that their actions and level of preparation still matter. It reinforces mastery of the concepts.
5. Students using AI on take-home assignments should not discourage me from giving them take-home work. Even when they use AI, they're still thinking about the concepts at home and engaging with parts of the learning process. It's even better to try to assign problems that teach them and are hard to complete with AI.
6. The less technology you involve in the learning process, the better. If you reduce the number of platforms involved, enforce physical textbooks, use more simple calculators, and make labs use less high-tech equipment, they will learn better. They will read and process information instead of skimming. They will engage with fundamental concepts instead of poking at blackboxes that do most of the first-principle thinking for them.
7. It's important to incorporate joyful and rewarding moments into class through the semester that will stick with them. Structure topics so they have a lot of big-moment putting-everything-together types of lessons. Give them easy hoops that they can jump through so they can feel accomplished and proud. Encourage mastery of the material in positive ways that stick with them.
8. Try to make lessons/lectures relevant to who they are as people. Look at the student demographics and incorporate examples that connect to their pre-existing knowledge and schema. Include examples that they may see later in their careers. Make the material feel relevant and important to them.
9. When writing exams, a good exam question rewards students with lots of points who study and know the material, and it punishes students who did not study. There is often software I can use to analzye questions and give me a measure of if it's a good question or not. (It's a built-in feature inside of Canvas assessments.)
10. If students are struggling with a new concept, it's important to break down the concept into steps for them and include multiple parts on one problem with checkpoints that they can check their work against. That way they understand how to start and get through the problem. You can see an example of this strategyhere.
11. Cell phones are brain killers. It's important to communicate and enforce a strict no phone policy in class. Smartphones are addictive and pull the attention of everyone nearby. They hurt the learning process.
12. The Dunning-Kruger effect is always relevant to students' performance and confidence. It's important to give frequent feedback to the students so that they don't develop false confidence and then revolt or cause problems when low exam scores come back.