Intentional Teaching, a show about teaching in higher education

Derek Bruff
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Education
  • Updated Biweekly

Intentional Teaching is a podcast aimed at educators to help them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching. Hosted by educator and author Derek Bruff, the podcast features interviews with educators throughout higher ed. (Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.)

  1. Study Hall with Flower Darby, Josh Eyler, and Regan Gurung

    9h ago

    Study Hall with Flower Darby, Josh Eyler, and Regan Gurung

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. Study Hall is back! This is the format where I talk to three fantastic guests about three recent studies on generative AI in higher education.  Guests for this edition of Study Hall are: Flower Darby, incoming director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Estrella Mountain Community College; Josh Eyler, senior director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and assistant professor of teacher education at the University of Mississippi; and Regan Gurung,  professor of psychology at Oregon State University. Episode Resources STUDY #1 Kestin, G., Miller, K., Klales, A., Milbourne, T., & Ponti, G. (2025). AI tutoring outperforms in-class active learning: An RCT introducing a novel research-based design in an authentic educational setting. Nature Scientific Reports, 15, 17458. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-97652-6 STUDY #2 Lodge, J. M., and Loble, L., (2026). Artificial intelligence, cognitive offloading and implications for education, University of Technology Sydney, https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2026/03/experts-warn-unstructured-ai-use-in-schools-risks-cognitive-atrophy/contentassets/ai-cognitive-offloading-and-implications-for-education.pdf  STUDY #3 Wadinambiarachchi, S., Kelly, R., Pareek, S., Zhou, Q., & Velloso, E. (2024.) The effects of generative AI on design fixation and divergent thinking. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 380, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642919  Flower Darby's website: https://flowerdarby.com/Josh Eyler's website: https://josheyler.wordpress.com/Regan Gurung's website: https://regangurung.com/Study Hall 2025 with Lance Eaton, Michelle D. Miller, and David NelsonSupport the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    53 min
  2. AI and Cognitive Offloading with Leon Furze

    Jun 2

    AI and Cognitive Offloading with Leon Furze

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. On the podcast today, I talk with author and consultant Leon Furze about the ideas found in some of his recent writing on AI and learning. We talk about resistance as a framework for combatting cognitive offloading, the mental models that educators and students have of working with AI (and how they can lead us astray), and classroom activities that can help students build the kinds of expertise they need to use AI effectively. Episode Resources Leon Furze’s website Leon Furze on LinkedIn “Resistance as a Framework for Combating Cognitive Offload,” Leon Furze, March 22, 2026 “IYKYK: How Do We Know What AI Can Really Do?”, Leon Furze, March 18, 2026 “Resistance Training Toolkit: Expertise,” Leon Furze, April 22, 2026 “On the Sensibility of Cognitive Outsourcing,” Derek’s take on that MIT study, July 7, 2025 Lodge, J. M., and Loble, L. (2026). Artificial intelligence, cognitive offloading, and implications for education. University of Technology Sydney Corbin, T., Tai, J., and Flenady, G. (2025). “Understanding the place and value of GenAI feedback: A recognition-based framework.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 50, 718-731 “It’s time to move past the notion of AI as an answer machine,” Derek’s elaboration on Leon’s comment about mental models of AI, May 15, 2026 Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    45 min
  3. Supporting Student Reading with Jessa Roisen and Donna Battista

    May 19

    Supporting Student Reading with Jessa Roisen and Donna Battista

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. Today on the podcast, I’m excited to welcome Jessa Roisen, professor of philosophy at St. Ambrose University. Jessa teaches those intro to philosophy courses with really challenging primary sources—Plato and Kant and Descartes and the like. She’s seen her students struggle with those readings, and it’s changed her approach to teaching these courses. She provides a lot of support and scaffolding for her students, both before and during class. This episode of Intentional Teaching was produced in partnership with Top Hat, and joining the conversation is Donna Battista, managing director for learning solutions at Top Hat. Donna partners with educators across higher ed, helping them use the Top Hat platform to address the teaching challenges they face. In today’s episode, Donna and Jessa share their perspectives on the challenge of teaching students to read hard things, and they offer both philosophical and practical responses to that challenge. Episode Resources ·       Jessa Roisen’s faculty page ·       Donna Battista’s LinkedIn page ·       Top Hat Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    43 min
  4. Surviving Peak Higher Ed with Bryan Alexander

    May 5

    Surviving Peak Higher Ed with Bryan Alexander

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. The total number of students enrolled in US higher education institutions grew steadily in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. However that total peaked in 2011 at around 18 million students. It’s been declining ever since. You can imagine some of what that means—fewer students means less tuition, which means fewer faculty and staff and the closure of colleges and universities. US higher ed has been on the downhill across multiple measures for about 15 years now. That decline is the focus of Bryan Alexander’s new book Peak Higher Ed. If a whole book on the crash of higher ed sounds grim, well, there’s some hope in the subtitle of Bryan’s book: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis. See, Bryan Alexander is a futurist—his work helps us imagine what might come next for higher ed and what steps we can take to navigate those challenges. I’m excited to have Bryan, who is also a senior scholar at Georgetown university, on the podcast today. We talk about the methods that futurists use in their work, the shape of higher ed’s current decline, the possible futures of generative AI and how higher ed might respond, and lots more.   Episode Resources Peak Higher Ed by Bryan Alexander Bryan Alexander’s website The Future Trends Forum Bryan’s other books Bryan’s 2020 appearances on the Leading Lines podcast Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    47 min
  5. Teaching Math with AI with Amy Langville, Chloe Lewis, Lew Ludwig, and Kathryn Pedings-Behling

    Apr 21

    Teaching Math with AI with Amy Langville, Chloe Lewis, Lew Ludwig, and Kathryn Pedings-Behling

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. A few years ago, it was pretty easy for math educators to ignore generative AI. The chatbots of 2022 and 2023 were notoriously bad at math. But that’s no longer true! Today’s frontier AI models are very good at math—to the point of proving mathematical conjectures that have been open for decades.  Today on the show, I have a roundtable of math faculty sharing what AI-aware mathematics teaching looks like here in 2026. Our roundtable guests are Lew Ludwig (Denison University), Chloe Lewis (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire), Amy Langville, and Kathryn Pedings-Behling (both of the College of Charleston).  Episode Resources The Science of Learning Meets AI by Lew Ludwig and Todd Zakrajsek (2026) Chloe Lewis’ website, https://www.chloelewis.net/  Teaching Mathematics with Generative AI Google Group Episode 10. Deconstructing Calculus with Amy Langville and Kathryn Pedings-Behling (April 5, 2023) Deconstruct Calculus Project Episode 85. In-Class Writing with James Seitz (March 10, 2026) “Types of Students’ Justifications” by Larry Sowder and Guershon Harel in The Mathematics Teacher (1998) Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil (2017) “The Agents Are Waking Up” by Marc Humphries on Generative History (April 17, 2026) Episode 11. Generative AI in Computer Science with Brett Becker (April 18, 2023) “Computer-Based Maths: The Change” by Conrad Wolfram  Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    58 min
  6. Teaching Civic Engagement with Bridget Trogden, James Burns, Megan VanGorder, and Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem

    Apr 7

    Teaching Civic Engagement with Bridget Trogden, James Burns, Megan VanGorder, and Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. The Civic Engagement & Voting Rights Teacher Scholars program serves as an avenue for faculty to work together to create classroom teaching materials – by faculty, for faculty – to support a thriving American democracy. The Teacher Scholars are recruited and supported from across the nation to work in cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary, humanities and arts-based faculty learning communities. The Teacher Scholars design, create, and disseminate openly licensed pedagogical materials for use in college courses nationwide. Today's guests are the co-directors of the program, Bridget Trogden, dean of undergraduate education and academic student services and professor of education at American University, and James Burns, professor of history at Clemson University, as well as two program participants: Megan VanGorder, assistant professor of history at Illinois State University, and Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies at Worcester State University. We have a lively conversation about the importance of teaching civic engagement in the year 2026, the strategies that these faculty use to engage students in these challenging topics, and the value of a faculty development experience structured like this one.  Episode Resources Civic Engagement & Voting Rights Teacher Scholars Program The program’s repository of open educational resources Megan VanGorder’s resources for “Key Issues in State and Federal Constitutional Government” Bridget Trogden’s faculty page James Burns’ faculty page Megan VanGorder’s website Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem’s website Bethany Morrison’s Teaching Hub collection “Teaching for Democratic Engagement and Civic Learning” Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    47 min
  7. Pop Quiz on Faculty and the Law with Kent Kauffman

    Mar 24

    Pop Quiz on Faculty and the Law with Kent Kauffman

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. In the last year, we’ve seen many stories of college and university faculty being accused by students of teaching something that the student didn’t think the instructor should be teaching. These incidents have a lot of instructors worried about teaching controversial topics—and just about any topic can be controversial these days. Previously on the podcast, we've explored pedagogical responses to the current political climate. Today, we look at our legal options. Our guest is Kent Kauffman, author of the 2024 book Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues College Faculty Need to Know. Kent knows the caselaw on academic freedom, and he has a lot of insight to offer faculty who are who are making hard decisions about what to leave on or take off their syllabi. In our conversation, he argues that academic freedom is under attack and he provides practical suggestions for preventing and responding to these attacks. However, we start the conversation in a little lighter mode. I invited Kent to give me a pop quiz of sorts by describing a few scenarios faculty might encounter and challenging me to identify the legal issues involved. You’ll have the chance to test yourself as you listen—and to find out how I did on Kent’s quiz.  Episode Resources Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues College Faculty Need to Know (Bloomsbury, 2024) Teaching in Higher Ed Episode 557 featuring Kent Kauffman  Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    45 min
  8. In-Class Writing with James Seitz

    Mar 10

    In-Class Writing with James Seitz

    Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. Last November, University of Virginia English professor James Seitz offered a workshop through the UVA Center for Teaching Excellence titled “Teaching in the Age of AI: How Students Can Do All Their Writing in the Classroom.” When I saw the workshop announcement, I have to admit that my initial reaction wasn’t a positive one. Was this another call to return to the days of blue books, with high stakes essay exams depending on students being able to practice the lost art of handwriting?  No! I’m excited to have Jim Seitz on the podcast today to share how he has moved the writing his students do into the classroom. This move is a response to generative AI’s disruption of writing instruction, yes, but it’s also the latest in a series of teaching choices Jim has made to teach his students writing as a way of thinking and to change their relationship with writing. Jim takes a very thoughtful and intentional approach to his in-class writing days, as you’ll hear in our conversation.  Episode Resources James Seitz’s website, https://jamesseitz.com/  “What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?” by Hua Hsu in The New Yorker “Bringing the Term Paper into the Classroom,” an interview with Lily Abadal on the Designed for Learning podcast “Getting Started with Specifications Grading,” a Teaching Hub collection by Dorothe Bach “Strategies for Avoiding AI” and “More Strategies for Avoiding AI” on the UVA Teaching Center website Support the show Podcast Links: Pre-order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff. Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

    45 min
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Intentional Teaching is a podcast aimed at educators to help them develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching. Hosted by educator and author Derek Bruff, the podcast features interviews with educators throughout higher ed. (Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.)

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