Some Principles for Good Practice in Teaching and Learning

1. Good Practice Encourages Student - Faculty Contact
   Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students keep on working and get through rough times. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual and emotional commitment to learning.
2. Good Practice Encourages Cooperation Among Students
   Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others significantly expands the potential of learning and student ownership of their learning responsibilities. Articulating and sharing ideas and responding to others' reactions improves thinking and deepens understanding. A supportive learning environment where learners feel empowered to negotiate tasks, take risks and be part of a shared context are necessary to develop cooperation among students. Helping students make connections among themselves enhances the learning environment.
3. Good Practice Encourages Active Learning
   Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to what they feel is important. They must make what they learn a part of themselves. Equally important is the need to make explicit the learning processes that are occurring in the learning environment and why particular strategies are being used.
4. Good Practice Gives Prompt Feedback
   Knowing what you know and don't know focuses learning. Feedback is an integral part of learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from courses. In getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during college, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, and what they still need to know.
5. Good Practice Emphasises Time on Task
   Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one's time well is critical for students. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other staff can establish the basis for high performance for all.
6. Good Practice Communicates High Expectations and Provides Appropriate Support
   Expect more and you will get it. High expectations are important for everyone -- for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations for themselves and make extra efforts. In challenging students and developing in them a sense of independence and responsibility for their learning, the appropriate amount of support must also be provided, otherwise the development we strive for in the students may be hindered.
7. Good Practice Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
   There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or design studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well in theory or creative problem solving. Students need the opportunities to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in new ways that do not come so easily.
8. Good Practice Acknowledges Diversity Among Students
   In addition to diversity of talents and ways of learning, students in the classroom represent the diversity that is found in the wider community. Such diversity includes cultural and linguistic backgrounds, religious beliefs, educational and employment experiences, urban and rural backgrounds, different school experiences, family and community structures, sexual orientation, gender and age. The effective classroom acknowledges, supports and uses this diversity to enhance the learning experience.
9. Good Practice Reflects Clear Organisation, Smart Preparation and Clear Presentation
   Paramount in learning is how well we structure new knowledge for students. Lessons to be learned and teaching strategies must be organized and clear. Organization is clear when the level of difficulty of content matches somewhat, the student's prior level of understanding. Clarity and cohesiveness are emphasized by the well-chosen example, analogy and active learning strategy. Being well-prepared allows for flexibility and dictates that teaching is pared to fit the time allotted. Organisation and preparation does not compensate for poor communication to the learner. Attention must be given to aspects of delivery, including voice, pace, humour, body language as well media.
10. Good Practice is Based on Interconnected Knowledge and the Creation of a Meaningful and Relevant Context for Learning
    Cognitive growth is enhanced by the restructuring that occurs when new knowledge is connected with existing knowledge. Most learning occurs naturally embedded within a context which is obvious/explicit to the learner. It is much easier to learn subsets of knowledge when you have an idea of the big picture, can see its relevance, see how it is connected to practice and how it builds on what you already know.
11. Good Practice Communicates Enthusiasm for the Subject and for Teaching
    There is no substitute for a professional's eager interest in and love for teaching. Some instructors demonstrate this interest outwardly in their classroom teaching behaviors, while others demonstrate it in the tone of their assignments, exams, grading, and in the teaching-learning strategies they choose and implement. Such interest recharges everyone's mental batteries. When students sense that an instructor's zest is authentic, they respond in kind.
12. Good Practice Emphasises Fairness
    Ethical behaviors and the creation of optimal learning environments are integral to the academy's learning mission. Instructors must engage their students in fair play, and allow only fair play between students. Students thrive in situations they trust, i.e., when instructors are consistent in expectations and grading, and uphold academic integrity. Fairness is achieved through thoughtful planning; explicating and testing for learning objectives; and where behaviors are not dictated by personal biases and self interests.

These principles are an expansion of existing material including:

Hatfield, S.E. Ed. (1995) The Seven Principles in Action: Improving Undergraduate Education, Bolton, MA: Anker.

Seven (Plus Three) Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. The Office of Instructional Resources, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. February 2000.

Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. SRHE & Open University Press.