Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning
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Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning is a podcast from the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning. Our mission is to encourage instructors, students, and leaders in higher education to reflect on what they believe about teaching and learning.

  1. 12/05/2024

    The Present Professor with Liz Norell

    In the introduction of Liz Norell (https://olemiss.edu/profiles/eanorell.php)’s new book, The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching (2024), she opens with two statements: “When you cannot be present, you cannot teach effectively” and “What’s good for students is good for us, too.” In this episode, Dr. Norell elaborates on these statements, and examines the importance of presence and authenticity in teaching and learning for both instructors and students. Dr. Norell, who serves as Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, also shares tools for cultivating self-knowledge, and discusses how they can positively impact teaching. This will be the last episode of Season 9 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning. We will be back in spring 2025 with Season 10. Thank you for listening!

    22 min

  2. 11/14/2024

    How to Rebuild a Broken Connection With Students with Kristi Rudenga

    Kristi Rud (https://learning.nd.edu/about/team-bios/kristi-rudenga/)enga (https://learning.nd.edu/about/team-bios/kristi-rudenga/), author of The Chronicle of Higher Education article, “How to Rebuild a Broken Connection With Students (https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-rebuild-a-broken-connection-with-students)” (2024), writes that while intergenerational misunderstanding isn’t anything new, “the tumult of the past five years seems to have supercharged the disconnect between students and faculty members.” In this episode, Dr. Rudenga, Director of the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at Notre Dame, discusses her article and shares why human connection is essential, both for an instructor’s own job satisfaction and as an important precursor to student learning. Kristi shares practical, simple strategies that instructors can use to help build connections with students.

    24 min

  3. 10/31/2024

    Trust Moves in the Classroom with Peter Felten, Rachel Forsyth, and Kath Sutherland

    How can instructors build trust, community, and a sense of belonging with their students to ultimately improve student learning? In today’s episode, we tackle this question with Peter Felten (https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/about-cel/center-staff/peter-felten/), Rachel Forsyth (https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/rachel-forsyth), and Kath Sutherland (https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/kathryn.sutherland), authors of the two recent articles, “Building Trust in the Classroom: A Conceptual Model for Teachers, Scholars, and Academic Developers in Higher Education (https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/TLI/article/view/77047)” and “Expressions of Trust: How University STEM Teachers Describe the Role of Trust in their Teaching (https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/TLI/article/view/78560).” Drs. Felton, Forsyth, and Sutherland share ways that teachers can consciously build trust with their students—a previously under-explored topic—through what they call “trust moves.”

    33 min

  4. 10/17/2024

    A Pedagogy of Kindness with Cate Denial

    Welcome to Season 9 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning! In this season, with our new host Columbia CTL Executive Director Amanda Irvin (https://ctl.columbia.edu/about/team/amanda-irvin/), we are exploring the dead idea that the world “outside” of the classroom doesn’t or shouldn’t influence the world “inside” the classroom—that students are exclusively intellectual beings when they step across the threshold (physical or virtual) of the classroom space. In our first episode we speak with guest Cate Denial (https://catherinedenial.org/), the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and author of the book A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024). Cate’s new book argues for the strength and capacity instructors and students gain when they meet each other as whole human beings. Dr. Denial discusses her book and shares suggestions for instructors everywhere on how to implement a pedagogy of kindness in their own classrooms. Resource: A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024) by Cate Denial

    23 min

  5. 05/02/2024

    Passing the Baton: A New Chapter for Dead Ideas

    In today’s episode, we say a bittersweet goodbye to our wonderful podcast host, Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Executive Director Catherine Ross (https://ctl.columbia.edu/about/team/catherine-ross/), as she will be retiring from Columbia in June. Catherine sits down with Amanda Irvin (https://ctl.columbia.edu/about/team/amanda-irvin/), Senior Director of Faculty Programs and Services here at the Columbia CTL, who will be taking the helm as our next podcast host, starting in the fall 2024 season. Catherine and Amanda reflect on their “favorite” dead ideas and episodes, as well as dead ideas that have yet to be discussed, and how this podcast has impacted our Center’s work internally. We’d like to thank Catherine for her passion and leadership as our podcast host over the past four years, and for her unfailing dedication to changing higher education teaching!This will be the last episode of Season 8 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning. We will be back in fall 2024 with Season 9. Thank you for listening!

    41 min

  6. 04/04/2024

    How to Help Adjuncts Not Want to Give Up with Kerry O’Grady

    In today’s episode we examine the systemic issues and dead ideas that underlie the hiring and supporting of contingent faculty. We speak with Kerry O’Grady (https://business.columbia.edu/staff/people/kerry-ogrady), Director for Teaching Excellence at the Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence at Columbia Business School. Dr. O’Grady discusses some of the “normalized” practices that often leave adjunct instructors with a lack of resources and support for their teaching. She then provides research-based recommendations that can help adjunct faculty feel more valued and empowered, as noted in her letter to the editor (https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/letters/how-to-help-adjuncts-not-want-to-give-up) in The Chronicle of Higher Education, in response to an article titled, “Adjunct Professors Face a ‘Constant Struggle to Not Give Up,’ Report Says (https://www.chronicle.com/article/adjunct-professors-face-a-constant-struggle-to-not-give-up-report-says),” (October 26, 2023). Resources* “Adjunct Professors Face a ‘Constant Struggle to Not Give Up,’ Report Says (https://www.chronicle.com/article/adjunct-professors-face-a-constant-struggle-to-not-give-up-report-says)” (October 26, 2023, The Chronicle of Higher Education) by Amita Chatterjee* “How to Help Adjuncts Not Want to Give Up (https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/letters/how-to-help-adjuncts-not-want-to-give-up)” (November 29, 2023, The Chronicle of Higher Education) by Kerry O’Grady

    29 min

  7. 03/07/2024

    Notes from the Field: Dead Ideas from Columbia CTL Educational Developers

    In this episode of 4 mini-interviews, we ask Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) staff John Foo, Jamie Kim, Rebecca Petitti, and Corey Ptak what’s been on their minds as they go about their work as educational developers. What dead ideas in teaching and learning are they encountering in their day-to-day work with instructors, in their reading and research? What are the underlying systemic issues perpetuating these dead ideas? And how are these developers addressing these challenges? Listen in to hear their responses. Resources* Columbia Science of Learning Research Initiative (SOLER) (https://soler.columbia.edu/)* Columbia Office of the Provost’s Teaching and Learning Grants (https://vptli.columbia.edu/request-for-proposals/)* "The Tyranny of Content: ‘Content Coverage’ as a Barrier to Evidence-Based Teaching Approaches and Ways to Overcome It (https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.19-04-0079)" (Petersen et al., 2020) in CBE—Life Sciences Education* “Facilitating Change in Undergraduate STEM Instructional Practices: An Analytic Review of the Literature (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.20439)” Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011) in Journal of Research in Science Teaching * “Four Categories of Change Strategies for Undergraduate STEM (https://ascnhighered.org/ASCN/change_theories/collection/four_quadrants.html)” (Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011) in Accelerating Systemic Change in STEM Higher Education * “Chemistry and Racism: A Special Topics Course for Students Taking General Chemistry at Barnard College in Fall 2020” (Babb & Austin, 2022) in Journal of Chemical Education * CTL Teaching Transformations Reflection from Rachel Narehood Austin

    37 min

  8. 02/22/2024

    Why is There No Training on How to Teach Graduate Students? with Leonard Cassuto

    In this episode, we continue this season’s examination of graduate education, now looking into how institutions often overlook the need for preparing faculty to teach graduate students and graduate courses. We unpack the dead ideas that underlie this neglect with Leonard Cassuto (https://www.fordham.edu/academics/departments/english/faculty/leonard-cassuto/), professor of English at Fordham University, and author of The Chronicle of Higher Education article “Why is There No Training on How to Teach Graduate Students? (https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-is-there-no-training-on-how-to-teach-graduate-students)” (May 8, 2023).

    31 min
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About

Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning is a podcast from the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning. Our mission is to encourage instructors, students, and leaders in higher education to reflect on what they believe about teaching and learning.

Information

  • Creator
    Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    58
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning
  • Show Website
    Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

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