And so it begins, the Teach Better Podcast. In the first episode, we talk about what these podcasts are going to be like, and give you a free sample of us talking about teaching.

You can subscribe to the Teach Better Podcast through your favorite podcast app or simply subscribe through iTunes if you don’t have one yet.

Show Notes

0:00 ⏯ Introduction

0:39 ⏯ Doug’s questions for interviewees

4:26 ⏯ Rookie mistakes and a tenor’s formula

• Broken Blossoms
• John McCormack: Wikipedia bio, Where’er You Walk (Semele)
• Citizen Kane, Evil Dead II, and Brief Encounter
• Showboat: IMDB (1936), Make Believe (Allan Jones and Irene Dunne)
• Opium, by Jean Cocteau

12:37 ⏯ Motivation and revealing something about the universe

• The Central Limit Theorem

14:31 ⏯ Should teaching be entertaining?

17:08 ⏯ Mnemonics are useful but not enough.

• Never Eat Sour Worms (North, East, South, West)
• Quadratic Formula Song

18:39 ⏯ What do you learn from teaching the same material in different ways to different audiences?

21:35 ⏯ Why some students prefer video lectures

22:35 ⏯ Executive functions and metacognition. Is flipping a class equally good for all students?

24:50 ⏯ Student engagement, notetaking, and the Dual System Theory

• Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahnemann

27:31 ⏯ Should we ban laptops in the classroom? Can we demand student engagement?

• Tal Gross, “This year, I resolve to ban laptops from my classroom”

30:33 ⏯ What if the lecture were an opportunity for students to learn how they best learn?

32:15 ⏯ Benjamin Bloom on peer instructions and mastery learning

35:30 ⏯ Self-paced courses, Specs Grading, mastery without competency, and pass-fail students

• Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast
• Specifications Grading
• The Canvas Gradebook

44:00 ⏯ The common factors in psychotherapy, and teaching as a form of helping

• Common Factors Theory in Psychotherapy

46:10 ⏯ What’s the value-add of going to lecture? Is teaching a commitment device?

47:22 ⏯ Teaching using the tools of your discipline and persuading students of the value of what you’re offering

• Stephen Chew
• Is It Possible That We Actually Loathe Learning?

50:02 ⏯ Getting all meta-