More than 70 Strategies for

Implementing the 7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

The following strategies were developed by your adjunct faculty colleagues at a Center for Teaching Workshop on the 7 Principles on August 22, 2007.   Click here to review explanations of each principle.

Principle 1: Good practice in undergraduate education encourages contact between students and faculty.

• Clear explanation of office hours and alternative availability.
• Encouraging online communications, active use and incorporation of e-mail
• Individual student conferences
• Sending online (and hard copy) individual student memos/cards
• Be approachable: Don’t just lecture; circulate and make personal contact. 
• Take roll and learn names.  Send an e-mail welcoming students.

• Give full information for contacting you.
• Avoid overemphasizing your qualifications. (“Don’t be a pompous ass!”)
• Be enthusiastic.  Be happy you’re there.  Attend extracurricular activities.
• Let students know you can learn from them.  Be honest about when you don’t know an answer but offer to find out and report back to the class. 

Principle 2: Good practice in undergraduate education develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.

Strategies:

• Work in groups of 2/3 on classwork.
• Have students critique each other’s work.
• Work in larger groups (5-6) to create project/presentation.
• Share responsibility for a graded group project and use peer grading.  (Students tell you how the grade should be divided based on what each group member contributed to the project.
• Students in groups of 2 actively listen to each other for 3 minutes, then introduce each other.
• Assemble groups and interact in a dialogue situation (e.g. Spanish)

• Class assignments to work on a problem together.
• Students give each other assignments after the first one is put on the board.  They build upon one another, and students pay attention, as they’re not sure when they will have to contribute.
• Pair students of unequal talents and skill so that they can learn from one another’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Students work in groups (e.g., in psychology) to complete an experiential task, which builds trust, reliance, understanding

Principle #3:  Good practice in undergraduate education encourages active learning.

Strategies:

• Questions and Answers
• Student-developed questions
• Opening questions
• Use KWL Charts with Students (What I Know, What I Would Like to Know, What I Have Learned)
• Humor—use anecdotes and cartoons.
• Movement:  Board work, field exercises, etc.
• Current events/media response: relating and applying solutions.
• Problem-solving
• Presenations
• Use of technology
• Community
• Group work: Cooperative learning, lab work, partner sharing, peer conferencing
• Discussion based on students’ past experience.

• Real-world application of course content.
• Role playing
• Cooperative learning groups.
• Peer/Self-Evaluation
• Student Presentations

Principle #4: Good practice in undergraduate education gives prompt feedback.

Strategies:

• Deliver written communication (essays, exams, quizzes) as soon as possible (next class if possible or within 1 week.)
• Maximize availability to serve students’ immediate concerns (electronic communication, instant messaging, e-mail, optional cell phone number)
• Record prior exam scores on returned exam as a reminder of class status.
• At midterm, provide program reports with grade and number of absences, including comments on progress.
• Review of session at end of class:  What are the main points that students recall?  This serves as a “convincer” of what was taught and hopefully learned.
• "Early bird special": Students who turn in drafts early receive more detailed feedback.
• Peer activities
• Reflective portfolio
• Set expectations, clear assessments
• ALL work back to students ASAP

Principle 5:  Good practice in undergraduate education emphasizes time on task.

Strategies:

• Clearly define tasks.
• Provide time frames for assignments (essays, research, etc.)
• Help students organize time and methods for studying, providing structure (e.g., study guides for tests.)
• Model good time management.
• Provide incentives for good time management (options).
• Discussion of balancing: work/class/study time
• Discuss choosing between social and academic time
• Stress “now vs. later.”
• Stress that better time management leads to better grades.

Principle 6: Good practice in undergraduate education communicates high expectations

Strategies:

• Put expectations in writing, outline in syllabus.
• Lead by example:
• Be on time
• Have a good attitude
• Provide quality materials
• Encourage students to not just set goals, but monitor personal growth, i.e. keeping portfolio.
• Show excellence.  Provide examples, achieved outline/rubric
• Reiterate/remind: Show enthusiasm and dedication.
• Clear standards in syllabus and reiterate throughout the course/semester, continuing to reinforce expectations as a positive message.  Share ownership of expectations, ID progress at midterm.

• Communicate to students that you expect their best effort.
• Bring in outside energy/real world examples.
• Use incremental approach to longterm project completion.
• Give feedback about whether expectations are being met.
• Accentuate the positive in all endeavors.

Principle 7:  Good practice in undergraduate education respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Strategies:

• Make time outside of class.  Encourage students to meet one-on-one with the instructor.
• Survey students about learning styles and expectations.
• Offer multiple options to demonstrate mastery of the material.
• Recognize diverse talents in assignments/performance tasks
• Encourage students to relate their real-life experience to course content.
• Personal assessment: Visual, audio, kinesthetic

• Teacher involvement in groups
• Teamwork/Mini-workshops
• Have students do teaching vignettes
• Develop class book to share individual talents

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