Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning:
Interrogating Higher Ed’s Deeply-Held Beliefs

New host Amanda Irvin speaks with Cate Denial about her book, A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024). They explore the strength gained when instructors and students meet as whole human beings and how to implement kindness in the classroom.

October 17, 2024. 23:26 min.
Transcript

Resource: A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024) by Cate Denial.

How can instructors build trust and belonging to improve learning? We discuss “trust moves” and conceptual models for building student-teacher relationships with the authors of Building Trust in the Classroom.

October 31, 2024. 32:58 min.
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Kristi Rudenga (Notre Dame) joins us to discuss the “supercharged” disconnect between students and faculty. She shares practical strategies to rebuild human connection as a necessary precursor to student learning.

November 14, 2024. 23:30 min.
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“When you cannot be present, you cannot teach effectively.” Liz Norell discusses her book The Present Professor, examining authenticity in teaching and sharing tools for cultivating self-knowledge.

December 5, 2024. 21:45 min.
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We kick off Season 8 by examining the systemic structures of doctoral education. How do we prepare the next generation of faculty to teach, and where does this development fit into the rigorous demands of a PhD program?

January 25, 2024. 28:06 min.

Continuing our conversation on doctoral education, we bring in the student perspective. Columbia doctoral students Anirbaan Banerjee, Sara Jane Samuel, and Anwesha Sengupta share their lived experiences and advice on navigating teaching development.

February 8, 2024. 30:37 min.
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Institutions often focus on undergraduate teaching, but what about the specific skills needed to teach at the graduate level? Leonard Cassuto unpacks why this training is often neglected.

February 22, 2024. 31:02 min.
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In four mini-interviews, Columbia CTL staff (John Foo, Jamie Kim, Rebecca Petitti, and Corey Ptak) share the dead ideas they encounter most in their daily work with instructors and the systemic issues that keep them alive.

March 7, 2024. 36:42 min.
Transcript

Resource:

• Science of Learning Research Initiative (SOLER)
• “The Tyranny of Content” (Petersen et al., 2020)
• “Chemistry and Racism” (Babb & Austin, 2022)

Kerry O’Grady discusses the systemic neglect of contingent faculty. She providing research-based recommendations to help adjunct faculty feel valued and integrated into the institutional mission.

April 4, 2024. 29:19 min.
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In this bittersweet finale, host Catherine Ross reflects on four years of the podcast before her retirement. She is joined by incoming host Amanda Irvin to discuss their favorite dead ideas and the future of the series.

May 2, 2024. 41:12 min.
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Have Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) actually created change in higher education? We speak with Mary Wright, Associate Provost at Brown University, about her survey of 1,200 CTLs and her book, Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape of Higher Education.

September 14, 2023. 29:57 min.
Transcript

Resource: Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape of Higher Education (2023). 

Dr. Cynthia Alby discusses how generative AI has rendered an entire constellation of dead ideas obsolete. She explores why AI will be the catalyst for the extinction of four major dead ideas and how it forces a move toward transformative education.

September 28, 2023. 31:32 min.
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Resources

• Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design
• Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI (Columbia CTL Resource).

Does higher education truly value teaching? Michelle Miller discusses “red flags” that signal the undervaluing of teaching and offers a roadmap for universities to change their institutional culture.

October 12, 2023. 37:31 min.
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Resources

• “Is your IHE truly teaching-focused?” (R3 Newsletter)
• Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology by Michelle Miller.

How can we support the entire instructional workforce in science? Marielena DeSanctis and Cassandra Volpe Horii discuss a framework for coordinated change based on justice, equity, and inclusion across all instructor ranks.

October 26, 2023. 32:23 min.
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“Grade inflation is a monster trotted out by folks who wish grades were objective measures of learning.” Josh Eyler joins us to unpack the research behind grading and why it often fails to measure what we think it does.

November 9, 2023. 36:17 min.
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Resource: How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching by Josh Eyler.

Student surveys often perpetuate bias against women and faculty of color. Joanna Wolfe discusses the research on evaluation bias and offers three strategies universities can use to mitigate harm.

November 30, 2023. 29:52 min.
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Despite a large body of research on effective teaching, many “dead ideas” persist worldwide. We discuss the psychological and structural reasons for this with John Mahoney, Academic Lead for the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Academy at Australian Catholic University.

January 26, 2023. 33:17 min.
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Resources

• “Why the Science of Teaching Is Often Ignored” (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
• INSPIRE Evidence Center

Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy, authors of Inclusive Teaching, discuss how they translate learning research for a national audience. They explore the structural impediments in higher education that prevent bringing research into practice and how to overcome them.

February 9, 2023. 32:52 min.
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What does engagement require of students behaviorally and cognitively? Alfredo Spagna shares how neuroscience research into attention and perception informs his teaching in large classes at Columbia.

February 23, 2023. 26:03 min.
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Do faculty have a moral obligation to teach students how to learn? We discuss this with Todd Zakrajsek, author of The New Science of Learning, focusing on how to help students learn in harmony with their brains.

March 9, 2023. 27:07 min.
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Resources

• The New Science of Learning (3rd Ed) by Todd Zakrajsek
• Teaching At Its Best (5th Ed)

Tara Harvey defines Intercultural Competence and explains why it is critical for both faculty and students. She discusses the research behind intercultural learning and how to teach authenticity across cultural differences.

March 23, 2023. 30:50 min.
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How can learning analytics reveal student engagement? Samantha Garbers and Adam Brown discuss their work with the SOLER initiative to explore how students engage with course materials.

April 6, 2023. 22:14 min.
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Columbia students Emily Glover and Kyle Gordon reflect on how immersing themselves in learning research through the SAPP initiative has changed them as learners, debunking myths about learning styles and the benefits of being “uncomfortable.”

April 20, 2023. 31:33 min.
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John Warner, educator and author of the Inside Higher Ed blog “Just Visiting,” discusses the debate over the “return to normal.” We explore how the desire to move past pandemic challenges might interfere with deeper questions we should be having about institutional values and writing pedagogy.

September 22, 2022. 36:59 min.
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Drs. Jamiella Brooks and Julie McGurk discuss reframing rigor to move beyond deficit models. They provide three principles instructors can use to ensure that high standards and inclusive practices work together rather than in opposition.

October 6, 2022. 36:46 min.
Transcript

Resources

• “10 Dysfunctional Illusions of Rigor” by Craig E. Nelson.
• Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT).

Professor David Helfand, long-time Chair of Astronomy at Columbia, shares his thoughts on how rigor in science can actually encourage engagement. He discusses the dead ideas surrounding grading curves and maintaining excellence while supporting students.

October 20, 2022. 29:04 min.
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Approaching rigor through social work instruction, Elwin Wu and Kelsey Reeder dive into the tensions between skill development and compassionate care. They discuss how instructors can maintain rigor while actively seeking liberation for their students.

November 3, 2022. 36:57 min.
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In the high-stakes world of healthcare education, excellence and equity must coexist. Drs. Alves-Bradford and Cunningham discuss transforming medical instruction by embracing humility and collaboration without sacrificing evidence-based scientific practices.

November 17, 2022. 33:38 min.
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Larry Jackson, Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum, explores how academic rigor is enacted in humanities courses to promote learning. We discuss how to challenge students in literature, philosophy, and history while providing the necessary support for skill building.

December 1, 2022. 35:49 min.
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How does assessment motivate learning versus grade-seeking? Student consultants Maryam Pate and Olivia Schmitt reflect on their experiences with high-stakes exams versus alternative assessments and how these shaped their perception of “rigor.”

December 15, 2022. 25:55 min.
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Today we speak with Yarin Reindorp, a junior in Columbia’s School of General Studies, and her former teacher in organic chemistry, Dr. Karen Phillips. Dr. Phillips shares teaching techniques and philosophies that tackle dead ideas about collaboration, student empowerment, and equity, while Yarin discusses the profound impact these had on her learning.

February 3, 2022. 40:00 min.
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Beth McMurtrie, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, explores how teaching is often incorrectly considered an innate talent rather than a learned skill. She discusses the cultural and structural reasons this “teaching as an art” myth persists and how damaging it is for the academy.

February 10, 2022. 29:51 min.
Transcript

Resource: “The Damaging Myth of the Natural Teacher” by Beth McMurtrie.

Aleksandra Jakubczak shares her journey to becoming a more informed and confident teacher. She discusses how her engagement with the CTL’s Teaching Development Program changed her conception of teaching and its place in her career.

February 24, 2022. 27:51 min.
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Resource: Read more about the CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP).

Dr. Frank Tuitt explains anti-racist pedagogy, how it differs from inclusive teaching, and what structural changes universities should make to support it. He shares his own journey in this work and the dead ideas he has encountered.

March 10, 2022. 30:35 min.
Transcript

Resources:

• Race, Equity, and the Learning Environment (2016)
• “Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Action: First Steps” (Columbia CTL Resource).

Drs. Chavella Pittman and Thomas Tobin discuss how student perceptions of authority impact an instructor’s ability to use inclusive practices. They compare experiences of student resistance to ungrading and flexible deadlines.

March 24, 2022. 32:14 min.
Transcript

Resources

• Learner-Centered Teaching by Maryellen Weimer.
• “Academe Has a Lot to Learn about How Inclusive Teaching Affects Instructors”.

Susan Hrach, author of Minding Bodies, explores how physical space and movement affect learning. She shifts the focus of adult learning from an exclusively mental effort toward an embodied, sensory-rich experience.

April 7, 2022. 31:30 min.
Transcript

Resource: Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning (2021) by Susan Hrach.

Emma Fromont and Victor Jandres Rivera discuss how transitions between online, hybrid, and in-person modalities have shaped them as learners. They share dead ideas regarding technology, community, and grading discovered during the pandemic.

April 21, 2022. 33:14 min.
Transcript

Resource: Students as Pedagogical Partners initiative: Resources and reflections.

We begin this season by turning the conversation around: our guest today is Catherine Ross, Executive Director of the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, and host of Dead Ideas. Interviewed by Ian Althouse, Catherine shares why she decided to start this podcast—including her own “aha” moment—and gives listeners a sneak peek of this season’s upcoming guests.

September 23, 2021. 29:17 min.
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Today we speak with renowned teaching and learning theorist Laura I. Rendón. Dr. Rendón discusses some of the entrenched beliefs that dictate the current culture of teaching and learning, and how they could be shifted to embrace a new vision of higher education that centers equity and inclusion.

October 7, 2021. 42:20 min.
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Kevin Gannon discusses how the pandemic has highlighted “bedrock” flaws in faculty evaluation processes. Dr. Gannon elaborates on the destructive potential of returning “back to normal” and offers steps that faculty can take to move forward with radical hope.

Resources

• “Faculty Evaluation After the Pandemic” by Kevin Gannon, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (2020) by Kevin Gannon

Drs. Aaron Pallas and Anna Neumann share three pedagogical moves to convergent teaching, as well as dead ideas that it debunks. They discuss why good college teaching matters now more than ever.

November 4, 2021. 38:19 min.
Transcript

Resource: Convergent Teaching (2019) by Aaron Pallas and Anna Neumann

Today we speak with Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney. They discuss the need for an institutional-wide strategy to implement learning innovations and how higher education can evolve for changing workforces and demographics.

November 18, 2021. 39:25 min.
Transcript

Resources

• Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education (2020)
• The Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios (2021)

We speak with Denise Cruz about the profound impact a blended format had on student engagement in her large lecture course. Dr. Cruz discusses the dead ideas she confronted during the redesign process that led to her Presidential Teaching Award.

December 2, 2021. 36:13 min.
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Resource: Denise Cruz presents her course redesign project.

Beginning In 2007, Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons (VP&S) began to radically rethink their curriculum and assessment strategies for first and second year medical students. In today’s episode, we speak with Jonathan (Yoni) Amiel and Aubrie Swan Sein about the changes they have implemented and the dead ideas they have encountered—especially around assessment.

January 21, 2021. 36:24 min.
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Jesse Stommel, co-founder of Hybrid Pedagogy, has not graded student work in the traditional sense in 20 years. In this episode, Jesse unpacks why he supports “ungrading” and how it promotes student learning by dismantling standardized approaches to assessment.

February 4, 2021. 33:28 min.
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Resources

• Hybrid Pedagogy: the journal of critical digital pedagogy
• An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy (2018)
• Digital Pedagogy Lab

What does the syllabus do? Why is it chronically unread? William Germano and Kit Nicholls, authors of Syllabus (2020), tackle these fundamental questions and discuss how the document serves as a starting point for addressing larger dead ideas about student engagement.

February 18, 2021. 41:46 min.
Transcript

Resources

• Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything (2020)

What misconceptions do instructors and students harbor about teaching online? Roxanne Russell, Director of Online Education at Mailman School of Public Health, discusses how online activities can benefit student engagement, community-building, and inclusion.

March 11, 2021. 33:25 min.
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What are small steps instructors can take to teach inclusively? We chat with the authors of What Inclusive Instructors Do (2021) about student-centered, community-based approaches and the dead ideas they debunk.

March 25, 2021. 41:35 min.
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Resources

• What Inclusive Instructors Do (2021) – Code: INCL20
• Authors: Tracie Marcella Addy, Derek Dube, Khadijah A. Mitchell, and Mallory SoRelle

We unpack Lee Shulman’s argument that teaching should be “community property” with doctoral students Thomas Preston, Diana Newby, and Ami Yoon. They discuss how collaboration provides a range of benefits in teaching and learning.

Resource: “Teaching as Community Property”

Student Bios: Thomas Preston, Diana Newby, and Ami Yoon. Full bios here.

Welcome to Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning, a new podcast hosted by CTL executive director, Catherine Ross. Our mission is to encourage instructors, students, and leaders in higher education to reflect on what they believe about teaching and learning. In each episode, guests are invited to share their discoveries of “dead ideas”—ideas that are not true but that are often widely believed and embedded in the pedagogical choices we make.

October 14, 2020. 3:49 min.
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In our first episode, Diane Pike, Professor of Sociology at Augsburg University, discusses her motivation to write the article “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning”, which serves as the foundation of this podcast. Pike shares “light bulb” teaching moments from her career as well as how her thinking around “dead ideas” has evolved in the past 10 years since the article’s publication.

October 15, 2020. 24:20 min.
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Do we really only use 10% of our brains? Will using technology in my course improve my students’ learning and motivation? Are students nowadays “digital natives”? In this episode, we tackle these questions and others with Michelle Miller, Professor of Psychology at Northern Arizona University and author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology. Miller talks about her research and experiences with misconceptions about the mind, brain, and learning, with a focus on neuromyths related to teaching with technology.

October 29, 2020. 24:58 min.
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Carl Wieman, Nobel laureate and Professor of Physics and Education at Stanford University, has dedicated much of his career to addressing the problems and challenges of how universities teach science. In this episode, Wieman imparts the “aha!” moment that motivated his transition from physics research to science education research. He also shares dead ideas that he encounters routinely in science teaching, including those that are magnified by the shift to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

November 12, 2020. 24:42 min.
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In Spring 2020, Columbia students Mae Butler, Jennifer Lee and Kalisa Ndamage served as undergraduate teaching and learning consultants as part of the CTL’s Students as Pedagogical Partners initiative. In this episode, these students share their experiences and perspectives on remote teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss Columbia’s move to pass/fail grading in the Spring 2020 semester, how we can use technology more intentionally in classrooms, and what they would change if they could reinvent higher education.

December 3, 2020. 29:31 min.

On March 20, 2020, days after Columbia University transitioned to fully remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jenny Davidson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, published an article in The Washington Post titled “Forget distance learning. Just give every student an automatic A.” In this episode, Professor Davidson further discusses why she chose to give all of her students an A in Spring 2020, and why, even outside of a pandemic setting, she has long been resistant to the conventional practices of grading.

December 10, 2020. 21:47 min.

In this bonus episode, we continue our conversation with Jenny Davidson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, to tackle the question of how much reading is enough in a literature course. Professor Davidson shares examples of how she balances assignment load with student learning objectives in her literature courses, and how she has had to adjust that balance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

December 17, 2020. 24:24 min.
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