Episode 38: Self Motivation: Where Does It Come From?
Since it is still January, I feel it is okay to do a post that reflects on New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions make me think about the question of internal versus external motivation because they are an interesting combination of both. It is external in...
Episode 37: Tools and Creativity—The Role of AI
Tools and creativity. These seem to be two consistent definitions of what it means to be “human.” Considering pre-historic records, we have the amazing creative work of cave paintings that exist alongside the incredible stone, wood, and bone tools made to create...
Episode 36: Presentation Matters—But Not Necessarily the Way You Think
One of the most difficult things to navigate in this world is the fact that presentation matters. This is particularly challenging in a society that claims to value the individual but then penalizes individual expression in the places where it can impact your...
Episode 35: What to do with Prerequisites?
As you can tell from past blogs, I often draw my topics from things I hear faculty saying. And one common refrain I’ve heard throughout the years is faculty commenting on the fact that students never seem to learn what is expected of them before they get to their...
Episode 34: Raising the Standards Through New Grading Practices
Standards and academic rigor are two challenging topics that I keep coming back to in these posts. On the one hand, it is exciting to hear people quote my statement, “Broader standards, not lower standards.” On the other hand, I recognize the incredible challenge...
Episode 33: The Importance of Kindness
As I thought about my first blog post of the fall quarter, I struggled with a concept I wanted to communicate. I finally landed on the idea of kindness, and I hope my post captures the sentiment I wish to express. The topic of kindness came to mind as I reflected...
Episode 32: Rethinking the Classroom as a Team- Part 4
This is the final installment of the series based on the panel I hosted with UCI coaches and School of the Arts faculty on April 20, 2022 (watch the panel recording here). The focus of this final reflection is best summarized by the question: How long should you be...
Episode 31: Rethinking the Classroom as a Team- Part 3
This week’s post is part 3 of the series inspired by the panel I hosted with UCI coaches/artists on April 20, 2022 (watch the panel recording here). In this post, I would like to focus on an interesting idea that a coach shared as a lesson they learned from...
Episode 30: Rethinking the Classroom as a Team- Part 2
Listening to coaches speak during our panel on April 20, 2022 (watch the panel recording here), I was struck by how often coaches’ actions are actually “feedback” to a player that they are not doing well! One of the most obvious is the action of taking a...
Episode 29: Rethinking the Classroom as a Team- Part 1
On April 20, 2022, I hosted a special panel that brought together a group of UCI coaches, art directors, and dance faculty to discuss different approaches to teaching a class. This panel generated a number of surprise thoughts, and I decided to dive in and explore...
Episode 28: Setting Standards is Hard!
In these blog posts, I have written about standards from a variety of perspectives. When I first shifted from student to instructor, I remember being struck by how challenging the concept of standards really was. A core challenge I see over and over results from...
Headliner: Episode 27: Is the Classroom a Team?
Most people that listen to me talk about teaching are probably tired of hearing me compare it to coaching. This is part of the reason I added a comparison to conducting an orchestra to my repertoire, despite having never actually conducted for real! However, as I...
Episode 25: Flexibility—What Is It Really?
Throughout the pandemic, we have repeatedly asked for instructors and students to remain “flexible.” But, what does flexibility in the classroom mean moving forward? I fear that this word has been used in so many different contexts that it can cause confusion for...
Episode 24: Leveraging Instructor Strengths
In my last post, I made a reference to a strength-based approach to student success and the importance of having a growth mindset when approaching the design of education. In this post, I want to highlight the implications of these approaches when applied to...
Episode 23: The New Year
I have been struggling with what to write for my first blog of 2022. Then, inspiration struck when reading the excellent post by my Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation colleague, Andrea Abersold. If you missed it, go read her post (and any others you...
Episode 22: Introducing the New Student Excellence Center
In this blog, I have focused on issues of student success directly connected with course design, learning environments, and other key aspects of the student experience. Of the essential elements that comprise the student experience, meaningful connections and human...
Episode 21: The Anteater Virtues
It is so exciting to be welcoming students back to campus this week! The energy is amazing and is providing a real sense of renewal. For me, it was particularly powerful to kick off the week with Convocation and to be out on Crawford Field in front of roughly 5,000...
Episode 20: Are Standards in Conflict with Equity and Inclusion?
Recently, I read an interesting article that was published on New Discourses back on March 8, 2021. The article, “The University of California Drifts toward Conformism: The Challenges of Representation and the Climate for Academic Freedom in the Country’s Greatest...
Episode 19: Time—The Finite Resource
One of the most rewarding aspects of starting this blog has been the opportunity to notice trends in my own thinking that have become crystal clear through the writing process. One recurring theme that seems to come up again and again for me is the idea that time...
Episode 18: College is Four Years—Let’s Give Students the Full Time
One of the most striking things about college is the deep-seated understanding that it lasts four years. Whether it’s how college is represented in popular media or how the higher ed community talks about college, there is a general assumption that it should last...
Episode 17: How Do We Decide On Prerequisites?
In the last post, I focused on why we have general education requirements, mostly from the student perspective. For this post, I am going to ask the question of why we require prerequisites and focus on this topic from the university perspective. While I hope my...
Episode 16: Why General Education?
In my last #DenninInsights post, I introduced a common question that students often ask faculty: “Why do you teach certain courses?” While this question can certainly relate to how faculty decide which subjects they want to teach, I find that students are usually...
Episode 15: What Does It Mean to be an Independent Learner?
One of the most common claims from universities is that we train “independent learners.” As with so many other aspects of our instruction that I have discussed, the concept of the independent learner is a positive idea at its core. It conveys a sense of...
Episode 14: Equity First, Technology Second
In honor of finals week here at UCI, I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on my published #DenninInsights posts and highlight the common themes and threads that bring them all together. Many of my posts are focused on the questions of what instruction may...
Episode 13: Designing Course Policies That Respect Student Time
As I reflect on living through a pandemic, I realize how many questions of time and its impact on higher education have flown under the radar. Assumptions around time interact with so many aspects of the educational process and policies. Perhaps the most visible...
Episode 12: Why We Should Record Lectures Post-Pandemic
As the return of in-person instruction draws closer and closer, more and more thoughts turn to how we want our courses to look in the Fall. In a previous post, I expressed my hope that faculty would be encouraged to experiment with different technologies, delivery...
Episode 11: Why Success (Not Winning) is the Goal
In reflecting on the last year and my blog posts so far, a fundamental question has emerged—why is higher education structured as a competition? I can already hear reflexive answers to this. There are limited spots to get into college so that naturally creates...