Resources for teachers

University Teaching

Parmentier, J. F., & Vicens, Q. (2022). Enseigner et former-2e éd.: Psychologie appliquée et pédagogies actives, secondaire, supérieur, formation professionnelle. Dunod.

Fondé sur les apports récents de la recherche en neurosciences, ce livre vous propose 41 outils pour un enseignement actif, sous une forme visuelle et synthétique.

Les outils sont présentés sur 2 pages (schéma et résumé, pourquoi et comment l’utiliser, avantages et limites), suivis d’exemples. Ils sont rassemblés en 4 thèmes (construire son cours, gérer la classe, choisir les méthodes d’interaction efficaces, structurer son enseignement en ligne).

Certains outils, conçus pour l’enseignement secondaire, peuvent être à adapter pour l’enseignement supérieur.

Nilson, Linda B. (2010) Teaching at its best: a research-based resource for college instructors.
A comprehensive and user-friendly guide to university teaching and learning skills. It includes chapters on a range of different teaching approaches and issues, including lecturing, group work, using questions and managing student behaviour problems.

Svinicki, Marilla D. and Wilbert J. McKeachie (2013) McKeachie’s teaching tips, 14th edition
The standard text for university teaching and learning, contains chapters on basic skills for getting started in lecturing and testing as well as ideas on more specific situations like lab work and large classes.

Entwistle, Noel (2009) Teaching for understanding at university, deep approaches and distinctive ways of thinking
Not so much focused on specific teaching skills, but more an exploration of the key concepts underpinning effective teaching and learning. This book seeks to clarify what university teachers should know about educational psychology and what that means for how they should approach teaching.

Ramsden, Paul (2003) Learning to teach in higher education, 2nd edition.
A book that focuses on core principles of good teaching rather than on specific skills, the core of this book is the focus on what it means for students to learn and what this means for how we should organize teaching. The principles for good teaching outlined in chapter 6 are particularly useful.

Bligh, Donald A. (2000) What’s the use of lectures?
Focused on lecturing in specific rather than university teaching in broader terms, Bligh’s book is richly informed by research evidence and extremely detailed on a range of aspects of successful lecturing.

Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Disciplines

Crawley, Edward et al. (2014) Rethinking engineering education, the CDIO approach, 2nd edition
The Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) model for engineering education curriculum was developed originally in Sweden but has now become influential throughout the world. This book outlines 12 standards that aim to educate professional engineers to meet the challenges of 21st century engineers.

Kalman, Calvin S. (2008) Successful science and engineering teaching
This book draws on the literature on the psychology of learning science and on the philosophy of science to explore what it means for students to learn to see the world scientifically. From this, it develops a model for helping students to develop not just scientific knowledge but a scientific perspective.

Baillie, Caroline and Moore, Ivan (eds.) (2004) Effective learning and teaching in engineering
This edited book addresses a number of themes in engineering education, including curriculum design, and the use of teaching methods like case studies, studio courses and workplace-based learning.

Wellington, Jerry and Ireson, Gren (2012) Science learning, science teaching, 3rd edition
Although designed with secondary school science classes in mind, the chapters on planning and managing learning, on lab work, investigations, and practicals are likely to be useful to those teaching science and engineering in university.

Assessment/ Examinations

Wakeford, Richard (2003) ‘Principles of student assessment’ in Fry, Heather et al. (eds.) A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education, enhancing academic practice, 2nd edition.
As well as describing the range of assessment types and the key principles of reliable and valid assessment, this chapter includes case studies on assessment problems in university settings.

Haladyna, Thomas M. (2004) Developing and validating multiple choice test items, 3rd edition.
This is quite a dry, rather technical, text on Multiple Choice Tests. The discussion of formats, the guidelines for developing multiple choice items, and the casebook of exemplary items are all very useful.

Stevens, Dannelle and Levi, Antonia (2005) Introduction to rubrics
Grading rubrics are a simple and powerful tool for communicating to students and colleagues what it is you want students to be able to do at the end of a course. They also can make the grading process more valid and reliable. This short book explains what rubrics are, how they can be developed and provides examples from different disciplines including laboratory classes.

How people learn

Ambrose, Susan A. et al. (2010) How learning works, 7 research-based principles for smart teaching
A very readable account of the research evidence on how people learn, organized in a way to make it accessible to those who are not psychologically trained.  This book is full of practical insights about what educational research means for higher education teaching.

Bransford, John et al. (2000) How people learn; brain, mind, experience and school
The result of a review of learning sciences literature undertaken on behalf of the US National Research Council, the focus of this text is on pre-university students. Nonetheless the chapters on how expert knowledge is organized and on effective teaching in mathematics and science are very useful for university educators.

Hattie, John (2009) Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement
This book is a landmark in the movement towards evidence-informed teaching. It reviews the quantitative research evidence on student learning in a way that allows different teaching approaches to be compared. In doing so it teases out some key principles that seem to underlie different effective teaching methods. Although quite dry and somewhat repetitive, it is an incredibly powerful resource for thinking about teaching.

Bain, Ken (2012) What the best college students do
A very readable account of effective student learning in higher education and how teachers can facilitate such effective learning.

Innovative Teaching Methods

Cohen, Elizabeth (1994) Designing groupwork, 2nd edition
A classic work on what the research evidence tells us about group work and the implications of that for designing student group work tasks.

Laurillard, Diana (2002) Rethinking university teaching, a framework for the effective use of learning technologies 2nd edition
Although now quite old, this book combines a focus on what we know about learning with some practical ideas about how that knowledge can be used to inform the use of information technology in supporting learning. Technology has developed over the years but the ideas in this book remain relevant.

Mazur, Eric (1997) Peer instruction, a user’s manual
Peer instruction is one of the most widely publicized and used methods of promoting student active learning in lecture-type settings. This user manual provides both a step-by-step approach to planning for peer instruction as well as a range of resource primarily of use for physics lecturers.

Waldrop, J.B and Melody A. Bowdon (2016) Best Practices for Flipping the College Classroom
Provides a brief overview of the objectives and context of flipped classes, followed by several case studies which present the specific organisation, assignments and assessment methods used across a range of disciplines, levels and teaching contexts.