In the introduction of Liz Norell’s new book, The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching (2024), she opens with two statements: “When you cannot be present, you cannot teach effectively” and “What’s good for students is good for us, too.” In this episode, Dr. Norell elaborates on these statements, and examines the importance of presence and authenticity in teaching and learning for both instructors and students. Dr. Norell, who serves as Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, also shares tools for cultivating self-knowledge, and discusses how they can positively impact teaching.

This will be the last episode of Season 9 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning. We will be back in spring 2025 with Season 10. Thank you for listening!

Kristi Rudenga, author of The Chronicle of Higher Education article, “How to Rebuild a Broken Connection With Students” (2024), writes that while intergenerational misunderstanding isn’t anything new, “the tumult of the past five years seems to have supercharged the disconnect between students and faculty members.” In this episode, Dr. Rudenga, Director of the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at Notre Dame, discusses her article and shares why human connection is essential, both for an instructor’s own job satisfaction and as an important precursor to student learning. Kristi shares practical, simple strategies that instructors can use to help build connections with students.

How can instructors build trust, community, and a sense of belonging with their students to ultimately improve student learning? In today’s episode, we tackle this question with Peter Felten, Rachel Forsyth, and Kath Sutherland, authors of the two recent articles, “Building Trust in the Classroom: A Conceptual Model for Teachers, Scholars, and Academic Developers in Higher Education” and “Expressions of Trust: How University STEM Teachers Describe the Role of Trust in their Teaching.” Drs. Felton, Forsyth, and Sutherland share ways that teachers can consciously build trust with their students—a previously under-explored topic—through what they call “trust moves.”