Learn more about pedagogy and how different theories of teaching and learning work across higher education. Here, academics offer insights into a variety of pedagogies, drawing on their own teaching experience alongside research, to provide practical advice on what instructional methods work best for different university contexts, disciplines and classes.

Higher education pedagogy

Donald Trump may have given life to the phrase&nbsp;“fake&nbsp;news”&nbsp;in order to undermine the credibility of stories that do not conform to his world view, but the phrase has wider use. It reflects the explosion in recent years of online material, where stories can emerge and become mainstream without factual validity.&nbsp;This is as true for many common claims about online teaching and learning as it is for American politics.&nbsp;At&nbsp;Educational Developers Thinking Allowed&nbsp;(EDTA)&nbsp;–&nbsp;an interactive&nbsp;online&nbsp;resource primarily for educational developers in&nbsp;higher education&nbsp;– we asked&nbsp;fellow educators&nbsp;in Canada and the UK to identify their most loathed “fake&nbsp;news”&nbsp;relating to&nbsp;teaching and learning in higher education.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fake news, educated views and how-tos: social media for teaching and researchCollection:&nbsp;Teaching critical thinking‘Well…what do you think?’ Responding to challenging questions in the momentHere are some of the most common&nbsp;unevidenced&nbsp;claims that have taken root:&nbsp;Fake news 1: ‘Students have different learning styles’&nbsp;Theories about&nbsp;“learning&nbsp;styles”&nbsp;to&nbsp;categorise students and their optimum learning environment&nbsp;remain prevalent despite very little evidence to support&nbsp;them.&nbsp;The predominant theories include verbal versus auditory learners, left-brainers&nbsp;versus right-brainers and globalists versus&nbsp;analysts.&nbsp;A&nbsp;2004&nbsp;critique of 13 of the most popular of these learning style theories,&nbsp;by&nbsp;Frank&nbsp;Coffield&nbsp;of the Institute of Education,&nbsp;found that&nbsp;all but one lacked sufficient evidence to support the claims.&nbsp;&nbsp;While it may be helpful to recognise that people are different and learn in diverse ways, it is less helpful to label an individual as having a fixed, specific&nbsp;learning style. Teaching that incorporates multiple means of communication and activity&nbsp;–&nbsp;such as&nbsp;reading, writing, speaking, listening, creating&nbsp;and&nbsp;applying&nbsp;–&nbsp;is likely to benefit all learners regardless of&nbsp;their&nbsp;“style”.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fake news 2: ‘Technology&nbsp;solves everything’&nbsp;There is&nbsp;a&nbsp;growing&nbsp;assumption&nbsp;that bad teaching can be fixed with the right gadget&nbsp;and that&nbsp;“innovation”&nbsp;simply involves transferring courses to the digital sphere.&nbsp;Bad teaching is bad teaching whatever the mode of communication. Technology can only improve student learning in the context of a well-constructed class.&nbsp;There is a great deal of emphasis on innovation in education, particularly since Covid-19 forced&nbsp;almost all teaching online. But putting&nbsp;a lecture online or using a chat room is not by default innovative.&nbsp;What is new for one person is, quite often, old hat for someone else. Students do not need quirks and surprises in order to learn. They do need the experiences to be well structured, thought&nbsp;through and efficient in the use of their time.&nbsp;Don’t&nbsp;require them to learn some new&nbsp;software in order to complete a low-stakes or upgraded exercise. Constructive alignment of outcomes, activities and assessment should be at the heart of all our teaching, bringing in technological solutions only where they are appropriate and serve a clear purpose.&nbsp;Equally there is need to&nbsp;cater to&nbsp;digital literacies&nbsp;that&nbsp;vary greatly among students.&nbsp;Fake news&nbsp;3: ‘Traditional lectures are good and the default mode for teaching’&nbsp;While lectures may be the default mode of teaching for some instructors, it should not be the default mode for all teaching. Traditional lecturing started in the medieval&nbsp;period&nbsp;before the accessibility of books brought about by the invention of the printing press. A&nbsp;“lecturer”&nbsp;lectured to a group of learners&nbsp;because&nbsp;this was the most efficient way to share information. Clearly,&nbsp;we&nbsp;have progressed well beyond this&nbsp;and information is one thing we have in abundance. Knowing what to do with that knowledge, how to evaluate and apply it,&nbsp;is far more important than&nbsp;offering&nbsp;mere access.&nbsp;As long ago as 1972,&nbsp;researcher and author&nbsp;Donald Bligh asked,&nbsp;“What’s the use of lectures?”&nbsp;in&nbsp;his book of the same name,&nbsp;and his arguments are still worth consideration.&nbsp;Lectures have their place in conveying facts or an argument but if we want students&nbsp;to&nbsp;remember and understand, let alone apply the learning,&nbsp;there must be some form of interaction lacking in the traditional format.&nbsp;Educators should not try to replicate traditional lectures online but adopt new,&nbsp;more effective modes of digital teaching&nbsp;such as&nbsp;short videos, pair and group work, reflection, quizzes and discussion.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fake news&nbsp;4: ‘Assessment always drives learning’&nbsp;While most would agree that learning without assessment is difficult to quantify, some would also argue that giving precedence to assessment over the learning experience can skew student and teacher behaviour. This can lead to teaching to the test, where the learning itself is secondary to&nbsp;the student’s ability to get a good grade.&nbsp;&nbsp;As with so much in life, balance is important.&nbsp;Selecting authentic assessment for online teaching is not so different from authentic assessment in face-to-face teaching. Assessments that build on each other throughout the course help students see their development with the&nbsp;bonus&nbsp;of discouraging cheating. Helping students see the connections between what you ask them to do for grades and the purpose of the learning encourages engagement. For example,&nbsp;in one course,&nbsp;Celia&nbsp;replaced a 1,000-word assessment with a guide for teachers,&nbsp;which required&nbsp;students&nbsp;to&nbsp;produce informative posters that were&nbsp;shared with the wider community through&nbsp;the&nbsp;teaching support centre. These&nbsp;posters&nbsp;had a far wider audience than the&nbsp;written assessment would have&nbsp;done&nbsp;and thus&nbsp;more real-world relevance.&nbsp;Celia Popovic is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at&nbsp;York University, Toronto.&nbsp;Fiona Smart&nbsp;is head of teaching and learning at&nbsp;Edinburgh Napier University.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Higher education remains awash with claims and theories that are backed by little evidence. Here, Celia Popovic and Fiona Smart debunk some of the more common ‘fake news’ myths in relation to teaching and look at how to apply this knowledge in online courses

Tackling ‘fake news’ in online education 

When students discuss ideas and learn from one another, they absorb far more, which is the rationale behind the think-pair-share teaching model. Here José Guzman explains how he translated this to the online setting

Think-pair-share: how to structure online classes 

Too many students spell online learning b*o*r*i*n*g.&nbsp;But remote learning need not be&nbsp;dull or lifeless or passive&nbsp;or&nbsp;inert.&nbsp;There are simple ways to make online classes more engaging. The key is active, hands-on learning.&nbsp;Students learn best when learning is active:&nbsp;when they are mentally involved, when they engage in hands-on activities, when they are involved in a process of&nbsp;enquiry, discovery,&nbsp;investigation&nbsp;and interpretation.&nbsp;&nbsp;When students are passive, their brain&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;do an especially effective job of processing or retaining the information. But real learning involves more than memorisation. Students need to reflect on their learning. They need to&nbsp;actually do&nbsp;biology or chemistry or literary criticism or sociology.&nbsp;Students need to undertake&nbsp;enquiries and solve problems and apply what they have learned.&nbsp;Active learning transforms passive students into detectives, myth-busters, problem-solvers&nbsp;and forensic scientists. It gives them the opportunity to investigate enduring mysteries,&nbsp;debunk&nbsp;legends, engage in role-playing exercises and take part in heated political or scholarly debates.&nbsp;So how can we integrate active learning into our virtual classes? Here are&nbsp;five&nbsp;strategies&nbsp;that work, and that can involve a single student or be team-based.&nbsp;Enquiry-based learning&nbsp;Enquiry-based learning is a form of active learning that places students at the centre&nbsp;of the learning process. It begins with a question or problem that students must investigate. The students, then, conduct research;&nbsp;identify, analyse and interpret the evidence they uncover; draw conclusions; and present their findings. The&nbsp;enquiries can be structured or more open, and the outcomes can be known in advance or discovered&nbsp;only&nbsp;through&nbsp;a process of investigation.&nbsp;An&nbsp;enquiry approach builds on the&nbsp;adage&nbsp;“Tell me and I forget;&nbsp;show me and I remember;&nbsp;involve me and I understand.”&nbsp;It requires students to take responsibility for their own learning.&nbsp;Examples include:&nbsp;Researching a topic:&nbsp;Students might be asked to investigate whether&nbsp;a particular political or medical or scientific claim is&nbsp;true or false. For example, is it&nbsp;the case&nbsp;that&nbsp;more than&nbsp;half of marriages end in divorce?&nbsp;Evaluating evidence:&nbsp;Students might evaluate&nbsp;particular pieces&nbsp;of evidence. They might ask&nbsp;what particular advertisements&nbsp;tell us about shifting ideas about beauty, ethnicity and race, or femininity and masculinity.&nbsp;Analysing&nbsp;a case:&nbsp;Provide students with background information about a&nbsp;political or diplomatic or military decision and ask them to&nbsp;analyse&nbsp;the decision-making process, consider options or alternatives, and evaluate the outcome.&nbsp;Game-based learning&nbsp;This approach integrates game-like elements&nbsp;–&nbsp;such as interactivity, competition,&nbsp;playfulness&nbsp;and immediate feedback&nbsp;–&nbsp;into teaching and learning. The use of rewards, recognition,&nbsp;points&nbsp;and levels helps&nbsp;to&nbsp;motivate students and encourages perseverance.&nbsp;Here are some examples:&nbsp;Research scavenger hunt:&nbsp;Ask students to discover how many children a typical mother&nbsp;had&nbsp;in 1800 or the number of automobiles in 1900.&nbsp;Treasure hunt:&nbsp;Challenge students to solve a series of problems or&nbsp;to&nbsp;answer questions to reach or find the&nbsp;“treasure”.&nbsp;College bowl:&nbsp;Pose questions to teams of students to see which group can answer the questions correctly first.&nbsp;Place-based learning&nbsp;Learning need not take place&nbsp;only&nbsp;in a classroom or&nbsp;a&nbsp;laboratory. A hallmark of archaeology, geography and environmental science courses, field-based learning can take place in almost any discipline and give students the opportunity to apply their research skills. Underlying this approach is a belief that neighbouring communities and environments outside the classroom&nbsp;contain&nbsp;assets that can significantly enhance student learning.&nbsp;For this to&nbsp;be educationally meaningful, the students need to formulate a research question; undertake background research; collect,&nbsp;process&nbsp;and interpret data; and draw and present conclusions.&nbsp;Examples of field-&nbsp;or community-based learning include collecting interviews and oral histories&nbsp;or investigating historical sites.&nbsp;Or ask&nbsp;students&nbsp;to go&nbsp;outside and&nbsp;identify&nbsp;particular rocks&nbsp;or minerals or plants.&nbsp;Technology-enhanced learning&nbsp;Technology is a tool, not a&nbsp;pedagogy. Nevertheless, new instructional tools have the power to transform education by&nbsp;facilitating&nbsp;new forms of collaboration and interactive learning.&nbsp;&nbsp;Examples range from the simple –&nbsp;such as&nbsp;classroom surveys and polls&nbsp;–&nbsp;to the more complex. Students might create a mini-movie (a digital story) or a podcast.&nbsp;They might also annotate a text (using Hypothes.is or&nbsp;Perusall) or create a timeline.&nbsp;Project-based learning&nbsp;Learning by doing helps students link theory to practice and translate academic knowledge and skills into tangible products. The best-known form of learning by doing is project-based learning.&nbsp;Ideally, project-based learning requires students to go through a multistage process of design, planning, execution, public presentation, critique,&nbsp;revision and formal assessment.&nbsp;&nbsp;The project outcome need not be a physical product. It can consist of a detailed policy proposal, a teaching resource, a briefing paper&nbsp;or another authentic outcome.&nbsp;Learning&nbsp;– especially online learning&nbsp;–&nbsp;should not be a spectator sport. Meaningful learning requires active engagement, critical&nbsp;thinking&nbsp;and thoughtful reflection.&nbsp;Even online, your students can&nbsp;engage in active&nbsp;enquiry and&nbsp;become creators of knowledge.&nbsp;Steven Mintz is professor of history at the&nbsp;University of Texas at Austin&nbsp;and was a&nbsp;founding director of the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning, which&nbsp;was responsible for designing and testing new educational models and technologies.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

It is all too easy for remote learning to become a passive experience for students, sitting on their own at home. Here Steven Mintz outlines some strategies for ensuring students remain actively engaged with their online courses

Top five strategies for integrating active learning into virtual classes 

Translating creative assessment styles online

Traditional exams can inhibit students, while more creative assessments provide a forum where their talent and knowledge can shine. Madeleine Davies discusses a technique to offer creative assessments online 

Translating creative assessment styles online: Blackboard learning journals 

Sophia Strickfaden, eLearning technologist for Colorado Colleges Online, talks through how to design online courses with strong pedagogy 

Expert Q&A: Course design with strong pedagogy 

Insights to help translate pedagogy from theory into practice in different university teaching contexts, in order to achieve better learning outcomes

Higher education pedagogy

Tackling ‘fake news’ in online education

Think-pair-share: how to structure online classes

Top five strategies for integrating active learning into virtual classes

Translating creative assessment styles online: Blackboard learning journals

Expert Q&A: Course design with strong pedagogy

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