20 Teaching Resources
In this important hands-on section, TLH gives you valuable concepts and practical tools to join in the work of transforming classrooms across higher education. Below you will:
- Find out why and how active learning works
- Explore a selection of teaching activities you can use today in your classroom
- Familiarize yourself with the books TLH faculty fellows read to transform their teaching
We also encourage you to write and publish your own transformative texts. Take a look at some models authored by the TLH team:
- “Practicing the Equitable, Transformative Pedagogy We Preach” by Drs. Shelly Eversely and Cathy N. Davidson
- The New College Classroom by Dr. Davidson and TLH Associate Director, Christina Katopodis
- Further resources for teaching online, accessible course design, and active, transformative learning methods
- OpenEd CUNY, an Open Educational Resource (OER) from CUNY faculty
Why Active Learning?
Cathy N. Davidson, founding Faculty Co-Director of TLH, writes about why and how active learning works:
“If your personal goal is equality in a world where inequality is structural and violent and pervasive, engaged learning allows you to restructure your classroom with equality at the core. (Here’s the adage: You cannot counter structural inequality with good will; you need to create structures designed for equality.) You cannot structure all the rest of education or society–but you can at least start with your classroom as a place in which to model a better way. Engaged learning methods work. We’ve known at least since Ebbinghaus’s memory experiments of the 1880s that students (like all of us) forget up to 75% of the tested or “testable” content learned in a course within six days after taking a summative, high-stakes exam in a course. Active learning–peer-to-peer explanation, exchange, individual research on the topic, and methods described below–increase retention, understanding, and applicability well beyond the test.”
Read more here.
Activities
Think-Pair-Share
This can be done in person by handing out an index card to every participant or it can be done online. Hearing your own voice in a classroom—and witnessing being heard—is the beginning of taking responsibility for your own learning.
THINK: Ask a question (e.g., “What are your learning goals for this semester? What do you want to learn from this class that you could take with you?”) and set a timer for 90 seconds. Everyone takes 90 seconds to jot down 1-3 things in response. [Note: this step is important because everyone writes down something original and true for them, avoiding “group think” or following the majority.]
PAIR: When time is up, ask everyone to get together in groups of two or three to share what they wrote down and discuss together for 90 seconds (set another timer for this; remind them to switch speakers halfway through). One person reads their card out loud; the other listens without interrupting. Then they switch roles. Everyone has one oppo