Learning and Instruction in Higher Education Classrooms

Abstract

This chapter inventories the essential components necessary to leverage theory and research in the deployment of effective instruction in higher education. The chapter begins with a discussion of the importance of structuring and organizing a higher education course to foster deep and enduring learning based on the evidence which supports it. The chapter then provides a rich chronology of the seminal theoretical ideas that support the value of student cognitive and behavioural activity that gives rise to active engagement during learning. Next, the importance of activities in and out of the classroom are discussed, with evidence-based examples illustrating the diverse and effective methods that lead to deep learning. Finally, for better or for worse, higher-educational classrooms still deliver much their instruction using the method of lecture. Thus, the chapter concludes with evidence-based research that explains the way to lecture properly by directing and sustaining attention, using personal examples, and activating student emotions to build cognitive models of new knowledge and motivate students to learn.KeywordsCourse organizationCourse structureHigher educationLearning and InstructionActivity as engagementCognitive elaborationEffective lecturingActivating positive emotionsLearning activity