Tag: student learning

Explain it in 100 Words: Say Less, Engage More – Faculty Focus
I teach Media Writing at a small community college in southeast Texas, and although that may sound remote, my students – like most young students – are quite tech-savvy. I am always on the hunt for better ways to engage them in the art of writing. I regularly refer to Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling, and Tobias’s 20 Master Plots to get the juices flowing, because what we write is largely storytelling. Mostly, I want them to focus on writing and re-writing. One day, while researching subject matter prompts for my class, something caught my eye. What was this “100-word story?”

When I was assigned to teach Media Writing, I was supplied with a textbook that focused on just writing for print and broadcast. But we all know that most of news writing leans on what the reader will see online as well. Plus, with the diversity of the internet, all media writing is not just for traditional news. Because the world has changed dramatically, I knew a pivot was in order. Remembering my creative writing class from long ago and far away, I drew on an exercise we did in that class. It is called free writing, and I thought it would be a motivational technique for my students.

Free writing is a writing technique that has no form or structure. You just write your thoughts on a certain subject for a set period of time. I challenged my students to engage in this practice on a weekly – if not daily – basis.

Editing is a big part of writing a 100-word story. To get started, one could just free write. With free writing, my students resisted at first. But once they got the hang of it, their thoughts would flow. The ultimate challenge was to go back and make sense of it!

So, let’s say you’ve done a little free-writing on a topic. You have been writing for 20 minutes, so your topic may look like mush. Now you have to make sense of it. You pull out the best thoughts, and make spelling and grammar corrections, and you could possibly have an article. And going a step further, you may want an “introductory piece” to your article. That’s where a 100-word story comes in. Pull out the best parts to “tease” your article, then edit it down to 100 words.

Although a 100-word story is useful when writing an article, your “story” can also introduce course subject matter and set the pace – sort of a “tease” – to pull the reader in.

Here are just a couple of ways to use the 100-word strategy:
- Introduction to a course or module. We know attention spans are shrinking, so pull them in with a short course introduction, and short intros to your teaching modules. Students will appreciate the “chunks” you present in a way that gets them engaged in the topic.
- Use the 100-word strategy for assignment guides and explaining assessments. You would be surprised at how quickly you can get your point across by condensing instructions.
As a former producer at a local TV station, I was charged with creating news topicals (current news stories) that involved reading reporters’ complete stories, then explaining the content in exactly 4, 15, or 30 seconds. Sounds intimidating, but after my trial and error period, I could read the story, confirm the highlights with the reporter, and write a 4-second tease. So, 100 words would have seemed generous to me.

Now, some might contend that there are better ways to write an article introduction, or introduction to a chapter study or lecture, and I won’t argue with you! This is just one option. It is a way to condense and simplify your message. Even if I don’t always stick to a strict 100-words, I keep it close, because let’s face it, this style of chunk writing is easily digestible and works to strengthen a student-reader’s attention span. According to Books Calculator, it takes a reader about 24 seconds to read 100 words. You can effectively grab the reader’s attention with 100 words, and if you can do that, you can begin the learning process.

Even outside the classroom, leading with a 100-word story has its advantages. Let’s say you are promoting a speaker for your school and you are creating a flyer, you can use this concept to make your pitch short and sweet. For example:

Join us on Tuesday February 4, when we welcome multi-media journalist Brandi Smith from Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs. Previously, Brandi worked at KHOU 11 in Houston, Texas where she executed “Living in the Lone Star – Hidden Gems,” a TV segment that offers 11 different ways to see and learn about Houston. Brandi earned her bachelor’s degree in Electronic Media from the University of Oregon after receiving her Associates degree in Journalism from Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Come and hear her unique story of perseverance as part of our Speaker Series in the Library at 2:00 P.M.

You just read a 100-word story!

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did equip you with an all-the-rage AI tool or two, for those of you that still get stuck and need more assistance – or just want to explore what AI has to offer:

So, there you have it. A few tips on using the 100-word story. I think you will grow to adore this concept as much as I do. Have fun exploring!

Denise Bates is an Instructor in the Communications Department at Alvin Community College in Alvin, TX. She has been teaching at Alvin Community College since 2019. She enjoys teaching communications courses because it is fascinating how the media industry grew and developed in the 20th Century and how it all changed when the Internet disrupted everything and forced us to embrace the technologies in the 21st Century.

References

100 Word Story (n.d.) https://100wordstory.org

100 Word Story. (n.d.) The Fanciful Story of 100 Words, Lynn Mundell, Writer and Editor https://lynnmundell.com/100-word-story/
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January 23, 2026
Designing the 2026 Classroom: Emerging Learning Trends in an AI-Powered Education System – Faculty Focus

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping education faster than many can realize or believe. According to a 2025 report by Microsoft, 86% of education organizations now use generative AI – the highest adoption rate of any industry and an uncharacteristically rapid pace for a sector which has historically lagged behind in technology adoption.

Across educational organizations, AI is moving from experimentation to impact. Each year, more institutions increasingly accelerate their use of AI. The global AI education market reached $7.57 billion USD in 2025, and is projected to exceed $112 billion USD by 2034.

Looking forward to the classrooms of 2026, AI will expand its stance as a powerful service for learners and teachers alike. From the earliest stages of education, AI-driven platforms are helping provide real-time personalized English instruction, helping level the playing field for young learners in developing countries.

AI’s impact extends across primary, secondary, and higher education, supporting personalized learning that adapts to individual needs, delivers instant feedback, enhances student engagement and outcomes, and reduces administrative demands on teachers.

An AIPRM report of U.S. students, for instance, found a 62% increase in test scores among those using AI-powered instruction systems, attributed to the technology’s ability to identify and address knowledge gaps before they develop into larger challenges.

“Instead of being confined to set moments, instruction can respond as learning happens, guiding students through their thinking and helping them build understanding in real time”, says Rajen Sheth, Founder and CEO of AI-powered edtech company Kyron Learning. The startup delivers personalized learning at scale, and raised $14.6 million USD in a Series A funding round.

At the same time as AI adoption in classrooms surges, companies across the globe confront an unprecedented skills crunch, with growing demand for talent capable of leveraging technology to drive innovation and growth. These challenges are inseparable: as AI reshapes business, it is also transforming how individuals are prepared for work.

In such a fast-moving landscape, higher education institutions are embedding AI, experiential learning, and challenge-based approaches into their curricula, alongside the rise of new institutions dedicated to digital transformation, technology, and data rather than traditional academic disciplines.

Democratization of Learning

Families who relocated recently to English-speaking countries often experience difficulties teaching the language to their children. English proficiency is widely viewed as a critical driver of future educational and economic opportunity for young children, although in regions like Latin America access to high-quality, in-person instruction remains limited to a small sector of families who can afford private lessons.

At this early stage of learning, AI-powered language tools are increasingly filling this gap. Experts expect it to play an even more significant role in the coming year, expanding access to effective, engaging English-language education at scale. Luis Von Ahn, founder of Duolingo, suggested on the No Priors podcast that AI will take on much of the instruction while teachers evolve into mentors or facilitators.

Buddy.ai was launched in 2017 to address this need. After he moved to the U.S. from Siberia, co-founder Ivan Crewkov had witnessed his preschool daughter’s difficulties with adapting to an English-language society.

The application has a multimodal AI tutor, Buddy, that interacts with students in real time and features a voice recognition technology specifically designed for children that complies with COPPA regulations.

Despite the precedents set for this technology in academia, Buddy.ai was the first company to successfully bring this concept to market:

“This is a game changer for teachers, since, in the past, they could only give students the practice of speaking in person, which was almost impossible in crowded classrooms”, explained Crewkov to Entrepreneur Magazine.

Research consistently shows that this approach is more effective than traditional learning methods.

AI-Powered Instruction and the Future of Schools

As per an October 2025 report by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), 85% of teachers and 86% of students used AI in the preceding school year.

“I’m not surprised to hear that 85% of teachers have used it in some way…anything that helps a teacher save time is going to get taken up”, noted Joseph South, Chief Innovation Officer for ISTE+ASCD, a non-profit that provides resources for educators about educational technology, while in conversation with Education Week.

The CDT report also noted that 69% of teachers said AI tools have improved their teaching methods, while 55% agreed that it has given them more time to interact directly with students.

As 2026 unfolds, the use of AI-powered instruction is expected to continue growing amid rising teacher workload and burnout: it reduces administrative demands and offers a promising way to ease staffing shortages and allow educators to focus on teaching and student engagement.

Sheth said, however, that the challenge for educators is scale: “Even the best instructors can’t give every student timely, individualized support 24/7. Kyron helps close that gap while keeping educators firmly in control.”

AI-powered instruction platforms, such as Kyron Learning, help bridge differences in learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and prior educational experiences, with studies showing up to 70% higher course completion rates compared to traditional approaches.

“Rooted in learning science, [Kyron] adapts to each learner’s responses, providing timely feedback, surfacing misconceptions early, and supporting diverse learning needs across environments,” Sheth explained.

Opportunities and Challenges Students Face with AI

Most people can recall a moment in their education journeys when a lack of understanding and frustration made them want to give up. In crowded classrooms, that feeling can be particularly discouraging – but with Kyron’s instruction, students remain engaged, learning with greater confidence.

Kyron Learning is now available to all educational institutions and learning solution providers, partnering with a variety of organizations, including K-12 school districts and universities such as Western Governors University in Utah and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Regardless, concerns have been raised about whether AI-powered learning could hinder students’ ability to form meaningful relationships with teachers and develop critical thinking and research skills.

“As many hype up the possibilities for AI to transform education, our research shows AI use in schools comes with real risks, like large-scale data breaches, tech-fueled sexual harassment and bullying, and treating students unfairly,” said Elizabeth Laird, director of the equity in civic technology project at CDT, to Education Week.

The CDT report also outlined that 70% of teachers worry that AI weakens critical thinking and research skills, and over half of the students agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers.

Sheth disagrees: “At the core, education remains human. The mentorship, connection, and inspiration that great educators provide cannot be replicated”, he continued, explaining that Kyron’s value is, “in reinforcing those strengths by supporting learning at scale,” he assured.

“The future is educators empowered by AI, not overshadowed by it”, he added.

In 2026, learning how to use these learning tools will be crucial. Experts, in fact, have said that the best way for schools to manage AI risks is through teacher training and student literacy lessons.

By that measure, schools and districts are falling behind: although most teachers and students use AI, the CDT report shows that under half have received no training or guidance from their institutions.

“What schools need to do is help teachers and students use [AI tools] in the right and best ways,” South agreed.

Equipping Learners for a Technology-Powered Economy

According to a report by McKinsey, 92% of business leaders expect to boost AI spending over the next three years. Organizations using AI-powered training report clear gains in employee performance, engagement, and retention.

Positioning AI a strategic device and underscoring the need for higher-education institutions to prepare students for this AI-centric workforce is therefore critical.

Leading universities and institutions are already actively redefining their classrooms to align with the demands of an AI-driven economy. The Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec), a private university based in Monterrey, Mexico, actively redefines the curricula to align with the demands of an AI-driven economy.

Tec has woven AI, experiential learning, and challenge-based education throughout its undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.

At Tec, they emphasize real-world problem solving, interdisciplinary collaboration and strong-industry connections to expand digital skills training, certification and workforce opportunities for students– working with partners such as Salesforce, Udemy, AWS, and Oracle, in addition to other global networks like the World Economic Forum Foresight Network and the AI Global Education Network.

Tec’s business programs register an employability level of over 93% just 3 months after graduating.

An alternate institution that has recognized the need to prepare students for the digital economy is ISDI (Instituto Superior para el Desarrolo de Internet), a digital business school in Madrid, Spain that offers master’s degrees and executive programs in digital business, technology, and innovation to equip professionals with these skills.

ISDI utilizes applied learning, continuous reskilling, and close collaboration with industry, equipping students with both technical capabilities and the strategic thinking required to navigate AI-enabled workplaces.

Roughly 90% of ISDI graduates work in fields related to their studies within 6 months of completing their programs.

These institutions have understood that, in 2026, higher education will continue to adapt learning models to prepare students not only to use AI tools, but to thrive alongside them in the modern workforce.

“The value of human skills cannot be replicated by computers. The future belongs to those who can balance technological and human skills to solve problems”, wrote Bernard Marr, world-renowned futurist, author, and strategic advisor who specializes in AI data and digital transformation, in Forbes.

Grace Goldstone is a reporter for Latin America Reports. Originally from the UK, she currently lives in Medellín, Colombia. Grace holds a master’s degree in Politics from the University of Edinburgh and previously interned at the UK House of Commons. Her work has also appeared in WIRED en Español and Entrepreneur Magazine.

References

AIPRM. “AI in Education Statistics.” Accessed December 29, 2025.
https://www.aiprm.com/en-gb/ai-in-education-statistics/

Business Insider. “Duolingo CEO Says AI Will Transform Schools and Childcare.” Accessed December 29, 2025.
https://www.businessinsider.com/duolingo-ceo-schools-ai-future-childcare-2025-5

Center for Democracy & Technology. Hand in Hand: 2025 Polling on Artificial Intelligence and Education. October 2025.
https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/FINAL-CDT-2025-Hand-in-Hand-Polling-100225-accessible.pdf

Conecta Tec. “Crear progreso con egresados: Visión de la Escuela de Negocios del Tec.” Accessed December 17, 2025.
https://conecta.tec.mx/es/noticias/nacional/educacion/crear-progreso-con-egresados-vision-de-la-escuela-de-negocios-del-tec

Engageli. “AI in Education Statistics.” Accessed December 15, 2025.
https://www.engageli.com/blog/ai-in-education-statistics

Entrepreneur en Español. “Entrevista: Así es como Buddy.ai se ha posicionado en educación.” November 07, 2024.
https://spanish.entrepreneur.com/emprendedores/entrevista-asi-es-como-buddyai-se-ha-posicionado-en/482535

ISDI. “ISDI Institutions Overview.” Accessed December 17, 2025.
https://www.educations.com/institutions/isdi

McKinsey & Company. “Superagency in the Workplace: Empowering People to Unlock AI’s Full Potential at Work.” January 28, 2025.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/tech-and-ai/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work

Microsoft Education Blog. “AI in Education Report: Insights to Support Teaching and Learning.” August 20, 2025.
https://windpress.info/en/press-release/851649/ai-in-education-report-insights-to-support-teaching-and-learning-microsoft-education-blog

MDPI. “Artificial Intelligence in Education.” Education Sciences 15, no. 2 (2025): Article 113, January 20 2025.
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/113

Precedence Research. “AI in Education Market Size, Share, and Trends.” Accessed November 18, 2025.
https://www.precedenceresearch.com/ai-in-education-market

Springer. “Artificial Intelligence in Education: Promises and Implications for Teaching and Learning.” International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. Accessed December 17, 2025.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40593-015-0065-9

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January 21, 2026
Designing AI-Resistant Assignments in Educational Leadership Courses – Faculty Focus
When I began teaching graduate-level courses in educational leadership early in the COVID-19 pandemic, my classroom existed entirely online. I quickly learned that keeping students engaged through a screen required more than well-organized slides or polished lectures. It required activities, learning experiences, and assignments that drew students into authentic, applied work that connected theory to the real leadership challenges they would face. Since then, I have taught dozens of educational leadership courses, both online and in person, and I have seen the same pattern: the design of an assignment shapes not only what students submit, but how deeply they engage with the learning process. Now, with generative AI able to produce essays, summaries, and even comprehensive education plans in seconds, the stakes for assignment design have changed. If an assignment can be completed entirely by an AI tool without any meaningful student input, we risk undermining the very skills that matter most in leadership preparation.

Why AI-Resistant Assignments Matter

Some educators have begun using the term “AI-resistant assignments” to describe work that cannot be fully completed by a chatbot. These are not AI-proof, and I am not trying to exclude technology altogether. In fact, when used appropriately, AI can be a valuable support for brainstorming, organizing ideas, or refining language. But an AI-resistant assignment is one where the core of the work, including the evidence gathered, the decisions made, and the reflections offered, must come from the student’s own engagement with people, data, and context.

Other educators have reached similar conclusions. In a recent New York Times column, Grose (2025) profiled professors who are reimagining their courses to ensure students remain active participants in their own learning. The examples she shared came from the humanities, but the underlying lesson applies across fields: in an AI-integrated world, we have to create assignments that cannot be outsourced entirely to a machine. The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning (n.d.) offers strategies for making assignments more resistant to AI completion, such as requiring site-specific context, process documentation, and collaborative components.

Further underscoring the need for evidence, the AutomatED newsletter issued a public challenge to educators to submit assignments they believed were “AI-immune” and then tested them directly with AI tools (Clay, 2023). The results demonstrated that only by actively trialing assignments against AI, not just assuming immunity, can instructors be confident in their design choices.

These realities make it clear that designing assignments for leadership preparation cannot be left to chance. Educators need intentional strategies that not only account for AI’s capabilities but also reinforce the kinds of professional thinking and application AI cannot replicate. The following five principles offer a practical foundation for developing assignments that engage students deeply, foster leadership competencies, and ensure authentic performance.

Five Principles for AI-Resistant Assignments

From my own practice and from published guidance, I have developed five principles for AI-resistant assignments in leadership preparation:
1. Ground in authentic context – Require site-specific or scenario-specific evidence, incorporate the policy and community realities of schools, and engage peers or stakeholders in the process. This can include interactive formats such as presentations (recorded or live), simulations, debates, classroom observations with low-inference notes, analysis of instructional practice, interviews with stakeholders, or structured peer feedback sessions.
1. Connect theory to practice – Anchor assignments in leadership frameworks such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, Lencioni’s Organizational Health, or Kotter’s change model, and always include both application and contextualized reflection.
1. Make the learning process visible – Assess drafts and planning notes alongside final products, and encourage multimodal evidence such as charts, agendas, or observation notes.
1. Clarify the role of AI – Set explicit expectations for when AI can be used and when it cannot replace original, site-based analysis.
1. Center human presence (Saucier’s PEACE Framework) – Build assignments that highlight preparation, expertise, authenticity, care, and engagement — qualities that cannot be automated and remain central to effective teaching (Saucier, 2025). I make sure that my instructions are clear, grounded in tasks they will use in the field, and meaningful for them to complete in their future leadership positions.
Examples from Leadership Preparation

These principles translate into assignments that blend conceptual rigor with applied relevance:
- Community Introduction Town Hall – District leader candidates prepare and deliver a live presentation introducing themselves to the school community during an initial town hall meeting. The presentation includes school demographics, achievement data, community assets, and identified needs, and is followed by a brief Q&A. This assignment is explicitly aligned to the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) and requires candidates to connect their leadership vision to stakeholder priorities.
- Organizational Health Rubric and Evaluation – Students use research to build on Patrick Lencioni’s organizational health model to create a custom rubric tailored to the context of a school district. They then apply the rubric to conduct an assessment, gathering both qualitative and quantitative evidence, rating each dimension, and concluding with a prioritized set of recommendations for improvement.
- Clinical Internship Logs with Contextual Analysis and Showcase – Students maintain weekly logs documenting activities, decisions, and reflections from their clinical internship, ensuring each entry explicitly connects to course content and relevant standards such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL). At the end of the course, they present a synthesis of their experiences in a live or recorded showcase, highlighting key takeaways, challenges addressed, and leadership growth.
- Practice Instructional Coaching Conversations – Prepare for and conduct a simulated coaching conversation using an observation or case scenario, applying a framework like Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle, followed by reflection on the exchange.
Implementation Strategies

When implementing these assignments, I sequence them so that simpler applications build into more complex, multi-stakeholder tasks, and I scaffold the skills of data collection, context analysis, and reflective practice. I apply UMass CTL’s transparency recommendations, making the purpose of each assignment explicit, clarifying AI use policies, and linking tasks directly to learning outcomes. I also keep the PEACE framework in mind in both my teaching and my assessment design.

Conclusion: Keeping Humans at the Center

AI-resistant assignment design not only maintains academic integrity; it prepares leadership candidates for the realities of their profession. They practice making decisions with incomplete information, balancing competing interests, and communicating effectively with stakeholders, all in contexts where AI can be a partner but never the whole answer. By aligning these assignments with standards such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders and the National Educational Leadership Preparation standards, we ensure graduates leave with the judgment, adaptability, and human skills their roles demand. In an age when AI can produce passable work in seconds, including comprehensive education plans, the temptation for both students and instructors is to let the machine take the lead. But leadership is not about producing text; it is about guiding people and systems toward a shared vision. As Grose (2025) observed, the most enduring learning happens when students must engage with real people and real problems. If we want to prepare leaders who can thrive, we must ensure that every leadership course includes at least one AI-resistant assignment, not as a constraint, but as a commitment to developing the human capacities that no algorithm can replace.

Andy Szeto, EdD, is an adjunct professor in educational leadership with experience teaching more than fifty graduate-level courses. He specializes in instructional leadership, school management, and AI integration in school leadership preparation, drawing from his professional background as a district leader and his ongoing work mentoring emerging school leaders.

References

Clay, G. (2023, April 3). Believe your assignment is AI-immune? Let’s put it to the test. AutomatED: Teaching Better with Tech. https://automatedteach.com/p/believe-assignment-aiimmune-lets-put-test

Grose, J. (2025, August 6). These college professors will not bow down to A.I. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/humanities-college-ai.html

Saucier, L. (2025, May 12). What can college instructors offer their students in the age of AI? Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/what-can-college-instructors-offer-their-students-in-the-age-of-ai/

University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). How do I redesign assignments and assessments for an AI-impacted world? Retrieved August 9, 2025, from https://www.umass.edu/ctl/how-do-i-redesign-assignments-and-assessments-ai-impacted-world
Source link
January 12, 2026
Designing AI-Resistant Assignments in Educational Leadership Courses – Faculty Focus
When I began teaching graduate-level courses in educational leadership early in the COVID-19 pandemic, my classroom existed entirely online. I quickly learned that keeping students engaged through a screen required more than well-organized slides or polished lectures. It required activities, learning experiences, and assignments that drew students into authentic, applied work that connected theory to the real leadership challenges they would face. Since then, I have taught dozens of educational leadership courses, both online and in person, and I have seen the same pattern: the design of an assignment shapes not only what students submit, but how deeply they engage with the learning process. Now, with generative AI able to produce essays, summaries, and even comprehensive education plans in seconds, the stakes for assignment design have changed. If an assignment can be completed entirely by an AI tool without any meaningful student input, we risk undermining the very skills that matter most in leadership preparation.

Why AI-Resistant Assignments Matter

Some educators have begun using the term “AI-resistant assignments” to describe work that cannot be fully completed by a chatbot. These are not AI-proof, and I am not trying to exclude technology altogether. In fact, when used appropriately, AI can be a valuable support for brainstorming, organizing ideas, or refining language. But an AI-resistant assignment is one where the core of the work, including the evidence gathered, the decisions made, and the reflections offered, must come from the student’s own engagement with people, data, and context.

Other educators have reached similar conclusions. In a recent New York Times column, Grose (2025) profiled professors who are reimagining their courses to ensure students remain active participants in their own learning. The examples she shared came from the humanities, but the underlying lesson applies across fields: in an AI-integrated world, we have to create assignments that cannot be outsourced entirely to a machine. The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning (n.d.) offers strategies for making assignments more resistant to AI completion, such as requiring site-specific context, process documentation, and collaborative components.

Further underscoring the need for evidence, the AutomatED newsletter issued a public challenge to educators to submit assignments they believed were “AI-immune” and then tested them directly with AI tools (Clay, 2023). The results demonstrated that only by actively trialing assignments against AI, not just assuming immunity, can instructors be confident in their design choices.

These realities make it clear that designing assignments for leadership preparation cannot be left to chance. Educators need intentional strategies that not only account for AI’s capabilities but also reinforce the kinds of professional thinking and application AI cannot replicate. The following five principles offer a practical foundation for developing assignments that engage students deeply, foster leadership competencies, and ensure authentic performance.

Five Principles for AI-Resistant Assignments

From my own practice and from published guidance, I have developed five principles for AI-resistant assignments in leadership preparation:
1. Ground in authentic context – Require site-specific or scenario-specific evidence, incorporate the policy and community realities of schools, and engage peers or stakeholders in the process. This can include interactive formats such as presentations (recorded or live), simulations, debates, classroom observations with low-inference notes, analysis of instructional practice, interviews with stakeholders, or structured peer feedback sessions.
1. Connect theory to practice – Anchor assignments in leadership frameworks such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, Lencioni’s Organizational Health, or Kotter’s change model, and always include both application and contextualized reflection.
1. Make the learning process visible – Assess drafts and planning notes alongside final products, and encourage multimodal evidence such as charts, agendas, or observation notes.
1. Clarify the role of AI – Set explicit expectations for when AI can be used and when it cannot replace original, site-based analysis.
1. Center human presence (Saucier’s PEACE Framework) – Build assignments that highlight preparation, expertise, authenticity, care, and engagement — qualities that cannot be automated and remain central to effective teaching (Saucier, 2025). I make sure that my instructions are clear, grounded in tasks they will use in the field, and meaningful for them to complete in their future leadership positions.
Examples from Leadership Preparation

These principles translate into assignments that blend conceptual rigor with applied relevance:
- Community Introduction Town Hall – District leader candidates prepare and deliver a live presentation introducing themselves to the school community during an initial town hall meeting. The presentation includes school demographics, achievement data, community assets, and identified needs, and is followed by a brief Q&A. This assignment is explicitly aligned to the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) and requires candidates to connect their leadership vision to stakeholder priorities.
- Organizational Health Rubric and Evaluation – Students use research to build on Patrick Lencioni’s organizational health model to create a custom rubric tailored to the context of a school district. They then apply the rubric to conduct an assessment, gathering both qualitative and quantitative evidence, rating each dimension, and concluding with a prioritized set of recommendations for improvement.
- Clinical Internship Logs with Contextual Analysis and Showcase – Students maintain weekly logs documenting activities, decisions, and reflections from their clinical internship, ensuring each entry explicitly connects to course content and relevant standards such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL). At the end of the course, they present a synthesis of their experiences in a live or recorded showcase, highlighting key takeaways, challenges addressed, and leadership growth.
- Practice Instructional Coaching Conversations – Prepare for and conduct a simulated coaching conversation using an observation or case scenario, applying a framework like Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle, followed by reflection on the exchange.
Implementation Strategies

When implementing these assignments, I sequence them so that simpler applications build into more complex, multi-stakeholder tasks, and I scaffold the skills of data collection, context analysis, and reflective practice. I apply UMass CTL’s transparency recommendations, making the purpose of each assignment explicit, clarifying AI use policies, and linking tasks directly to learning outcomes. I also keep the PEACE framework in mind in both my teaching and my assessment design.

Conclusion: Keeping Humans at the Center

AI-resistant assignment design not only maintains academic integrity; it prepares leadership candidates for the realities of their profession. They practice making decisions with incomplete information, balancing competing interests, and communicating effectively with stakeholders, all in contexts where AI can be a partner but never the whole answer. By aligning these assignments with standards such as the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders and the National Educational Leadership Preparation standards, we ensure graduates leave with the judgment, adaptability, and human skills their roles demand. In an age when AI can produce passable work in seconds, including comprehensive education plans, the temptation for both students and instructors is to let the machine take the lead. But leadership is not about producing text; it is about guiding people and systems toward a shared vision. As Grose (2025) observed, the most enduring learning happens when students must engage with real people and real problems. If we want to prepare leaders who can thrive, we must ensure that every leadership course includes at least one AI-resistant assignment, not as a constraint, but as a commitment to developing the human capacities that no algorithm can replace.

Andy Szeto, EdD, is an adjunct professor in educational leadership with experience teaching more than fifty graduate-level courses. He specializes in instructional leadership, school management, and AI integration in school leadership preparation, drawing from his professional background as a district leader and his ongoing work mentoring emerging school leaders.

References

Clay, G. (2023, April 3). Believe your assignment is AI-immune? Let’s put it to the test. AutomatED: Teaching Better with Tech. https://automatedteach.com/p/believe-assignment-aiimmune-lets-put-test

Grose, J. (2025, August 6). These college professors will not bow down to A.I. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/humanities-college-ai.html

Saucier, L. (2025, May 12). What can college instructors offer their students in the age of AI? Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/what-can-college-instructors-offer-their-students-in-the-age-of-ai/

University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). How do I redesign assignments and assessments for an AI-impacted world? Retrieved August 9, 2025, from https://www.umass.edu/ctl/how-do-i-redesign-assignments-and-assessments-ai-impacted-world
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January 12, 2026
“Say My Name, Say My Name”: Why Learning Names Improves Student Success – Faculty Focus

“Yes, Iris,” my Chicana/o Studies Professor spouted as he acknowledged my raised hand for a comment about the reading. “He knows my name?” I thought distractedly as I tried to refocus on the thought I had wanted to share. Attending a university with over 20,000 students, and class sizes often ranging from 200 to 600 students, I wasn’t used to my professors knowing me by name. I wasn’t used to my professor even knowing I existed aside from a percentage in a gradebook. I sat up a little taller in class, became more attentive, and sought to improve my writing skills over the quarter. Could the simple act of an educator knowing their student’s name change the trajectory of the student’s learning and perhaps their overall perception of the course? Research suggests yes.

In a study conducted by Cooper et al. (2017), 85.4% of the students surveyed stated that it was important for their instructors to know their names. When asked why this was important, the most common replies centered on feeling valued. The results also indicated that students whose names were known were more likely to seek help from the instructor and that they felt more invested in the course. What this tells us is that by using a student’s name, we are validating their existence and contribution to the class, and in turn, they feel more invested and motivated to do well or to seek help.

Now that we know learning students’ names is a simple yet powerful tool for building rapport and improving learning outcomes, how exactly do we remember all their names?

1. Name Tents

Yes, those little folded pieces of cardstock with a person’s name written on them. These can be your golden ticket to calling a student by name and, hopefully, in the process, eventually committing it to memory. Interestingly enough, some research suggests that a percentage of students with name tents perceive that their name is known by the teacher when in fact, it is not. Ergo, simply calling on a student by name using their name tent as an aid can improve the student’s perception of how much a teacher cares (Cooper et al., 2017). So, ask your students to bust out those markers and glitter and get creative.

2. Self-Quizzing

When we discuss evidence-based practices that enhance the learning and retention of materials taught, we inevitably emphasize the importance of self-quizzing. Well, now is your time to put all that teaching into practice. Most schools will have a student photo associated with the student on their learning platform. Use this as a tool to quiz yourself by covering up the student’s name when looking at their photo and trying to guess their name. Practice, practice, practice.

3. Chunking

If your students sit in rows, use the time before class or during breaks to go through one row of students’ names. Do this each class time. Breaking up the number of names you need to commit to memory into chunks of 7-9 students increases your likelihood of storing that information as short-term memory with the hopes that it transfers to long-term memory (“How Memory Works,” n.d.).

4. Get Creative

Create an assignment at the beginning of the course where students upload creative content about their name to their learning platform. This can take the form of visual art, video, audio, or writing, allowing them to express their name and, if they choose, share its meaning or a personal story related to it. Make this content available to their fellow students as well by posting it to a forum or discussion board, as this can be a helpful tool for students to learn their classmates’ names.

Conclusion

While there are many methods for improving student engagement and building rapport, learning students’ names is a great way to start. Some practical tools for learning names can simplify this process and reduce the cognitive load on faculty. The results are typically mutually beneficial, with students feeling appreciated and thereby contributing more, and faculty gaining insight into students’ perspectives and having “buy-in” of course content and assignments.

Iris Villanueva, DMSc, PA-C, is a Professor for the Physician Assistant (PA) Program at the University of the Pacific and a practicing PA. She is passionate about providing holistic and compassionate patient care while also equipping the next generation of PAs with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Her current research focuses on understanding how physician assistant students perceive burnout and on developing strategies that promote student wellness.

Dr. Julia VanderMolen is a Professor for the Public Health program at Grand Valley State University and a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor with the University of the Pacific, School of Health Sciences. Her research examines the benefits of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in public health. She serves as a board member of the Disability Advocates of Kent County and is an active member of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her current research focuses on exploring the health and medical services available to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

References

Cooper, K., Haney, B., Krieg, A., & Brownell, S.E. (2017). What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. CBE life sciences education, 16(1), ar8. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Derek Bok Center, Harvard University (n.d.). How Memory Works. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works (Access the article here: https://www.scribd.com/document/700827279/how-memory-works)

Source link

January 9, 2026
“Say My Name, Say My Name”: Why Learning Names Improves Student Success – Faculty Focus

“Yes, Iris,” my Chicana/o Studies Professor spouted as he acknowledged my raised hand for a comment about the reading. “He knows my name?” I thought distractedly as I tried to refocus on the thought I had wanted to share. Attending a university with over 20,000 students, and class sizes often ranging from 200 to 600 students, I wasn’t used to my professors knowing me by name. I wasn’t used to my professor even knowing I existed aside from a percentage in a gradebook. I sat up a little taller in class, became more attentive, and sought to improve my writing skills over the quarter. Could the simple act of an educator knowing their student’s name change the trajectory of the student’s learning and perhaps their overall perception of the course? Research suggests yes.

In a study conducted by Cooper et al. (2017), 85.4% of the students surveyed stated that it was important for their instructors to know their names. When asked why this was important, the most common replies centered on feeling valued. The results also indicated that students whose names were known were more likely to seek help from the instructor and that they felt more invested in the course. What this tells us is that by using a student’s name, we are validating their existence and contribution to the class, and in turn, they feel more invested and motivated to do well or to seek help.

Now that we know learning students’ names is a simple yet powerful tool for building rapport and improving learning outcomes, how exactly do we remember all their names?

1. Name Tents

Yes, those little folded pieces of cardstock with a person’s name written on them. These can be your golden ticket to calling a student by name and, hopefully, in the process, eventually committing it to memory. Interestingly enough, some research suggests that a percentage of students with name tents perceive that their name is known by the teacher when in fact, it is not. Ergo, simply calling on a student by name using their name tent as an aid can improve the student’s perception of how much a teacher cares (Cooper et al., 2017). So, ask your students to bust out those markers and glitter and get creative.

2. Self-Quizzing

When we discuss evidence-based practices that enhance the learning and retention of materials taught, we inevitably emphasize the importance of self-quizzing. Well, now is your time to put all that teaching into practice. Most schools will have a student photo associated with the student on their learning platform. Use this as a tool to quiz yourself by covering up the student’s name when looking at their photo and trying to guess their name. Practice, practice, practice.

3. Chunking

If your students sit in rows, use the time before class or during breaks to go through one row of students’ names. Do this each class time. Breaking up the number of names you need to commit to memory into chunks of 7-9 students increases your likelihood of storing that information as short-term memory with the hopes that it transfers to long-term memory (“How Memory Works,” n.d.).

4. Get Creative

Create an assignment at the beginning of the course where students upload creative content about their name to their learning platform. This can take the form of visual art, video, audio, or writing, allowing them to express their name and, if they choose, share its meaning or a personal story related to it. Make this content available to their fellow students as well by posting it to a forum or discussion board, as this can be a helpful tool for students to learn their classmates’ names.

Conclusion

While there are many methods for improving student engagement and building rapport, learning students’ names is a great way to start. Some practical tools for learning names can simplify this process and reduce the cognitive load on faculty. The results are typically mutually beneficial, with students feeling appreciated and thereby contributing more, and faculty gaining insight into students’ perspectives and having “buy-in” of course content and assignments.

Iris Villanueva, DMSc, PA-C, is a Professor for the Physician Assistant (PA) Program at the University of the Pacific and a practicing PA. She is passionate about providing holistic and compassionate patient care while also equipping the next generation of PAs with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Her current research focuses on understanding how physician assistant students perceive burnout and on developing strategies that promote student wellness.

Dr. Julia VanderMolen is a Professor for the Public Health program at Grand Valley State University and a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor with the University of the Pacific, School of Health Sciences. Her research examines the benefits of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in public health. She serves as a board member of the Disability Advocates of Kent County and is an active member of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her current research focuses on exploring the health and medical services available to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

References

Cooper, K., Haney, B., Krieg, A., & Brownell, S.E. (2017). What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. CBE life sciences education, 16(1), ar8. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Derek Bok Center, Harvard University (n.d.). How Memory Works. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works (Access the article here: https://www.scribd.com/document/700827279/how-memory-works)

Source link

January 9, 2026
Scaffolding for Success in a Crash Course – Faculty Focus

As the lead professor for a clinical crash course with 50 students, 16 weeks to cover almost every bone in the body and limited machinery, it is important for my students to be self-directed learners. “Self-directed learning can be defined as the outcome of creating an experience that empowers learners to make decisions about the information they want to become proficient in” (Robinson et al, 2020). The difficulty with teaching undergraduate students, whose ages range from 18 to 47 years old is that self-directed learning may be perceived as me not wanting to put in more effort to teach the students. Still, given the volume of information covered in the course and the number of students, it is inevitable that students will need to engage in self-directed learning and learn how to effectively utilize the resources at their disposal to succeed in the course.

So, how do I properly prepare these students to effectively utilize their resources, especially since many are first-time students? I use scaffolding and repetition while being cautious of unconscious bias.

Scaffolding and How to Use it in Your Classroom

“Scaffolding is a classroom teaching technique in which instructors deliver lessons in distinct segments, providing less and less support as students master new concepts or material. Much like scaffolding on a building, this technique is meant to provide students with a framework for learning as they build and strengthen their understanding” (Nance, 2022). In the context of Radiologic Technology education, the foundation of learning positioning is understanding medical terminology and human anatomy.

In the first week, I provide PowerPoint slides. Using those slides, I lecture on medical terminology and important anatomical terms that will be used for the rest of the semester and during their time as working technologists. From that point, I begin teaching body part by body part each week moving forward, utilizing and emphasizing the use of medical terminology. After revising the course and teaching this class for three years, it is a fact that some students understand the material right away, some need more time, and some require significant guidance. The average time that it takes most students to begin understanding the time commitment to learn this much material and be successful is around week 7 of the 16 week course. At that point, I encourage the student’s independence in finding resources outside of the course to help them succeed, such as YouTube and radiography websites. I continue to make myself available for them, but the expectations for the course are well understood at this point, and students know what resources are available to them to help them succeed. This allows me to give less instruction and less intervention, thus successfully applying the method of scaffolding.

First Week Steps

In the first week, I give the students a foundation of knowledge and help them become familiar with the class by setting expectations of the knowledge they need to acquire each week and the positioning and critical thinking skills they must possess. Depending on the class, between week five and seven, I begin stepping back and allowing the students to become more independent since they know the expectations of the class and the knowledge and skills they need to possess or develop. This is how I utilize scaffolding in my classroom.

Repetition

“When stimuli are learned by repetition, they are remembered better and retained for a longer time” (Zhan et al, 2018). Repetition is not solely asking the same question over and over again. It is asking the same question or reviewing the same concept while utilizing various methods or verbiage so students not only remember the answer but understand the concept. When giving directions, it is essential to repeat the directions so students follow them. When teaching a concept, it is essential to repeat the same question in different ways to promote understanding and memorization of that concept. In my course, students learn anatomical planes. When teaching the midsagittal plane, I ask students questions about the midsagittal plane, how it may relate to the image receptor on a posteroanterior (PA) chest x-ray, how it may relate to the image receptor on a lateral chest x-ray, what the difference is between the midcoronal and midsagittal plane, and more. These are different methods of asking the same question to ensure they fully understand the concept and how it relates to the positioning.

The Importance of Understanding Unconscious Bias

“Unconscious biases (also known as implicit biases) are involuntary stereotypes or attitudes held about certain groups of people that may influence our behaviors, understandings, and actions, often with unintended detrimental consequences” (Ogunleye, 2022). As a higher education teacher, there is a level of professionalism, etiquette, and understanding that I believe students had when I was in college and that I believe students should have. It is important to understand that not all students come from the same background or were afforded the same luxuries of education and that as instructors, it is our duty to instruct our students to the level we believe they should be at or to help them obtain the resources that will help them achieve the level that college students who are successful in this program should be at. In this case, we can provide more guidance and support at the beginning of their education journey, then slowly scale back as they reach the level, also utilizing the concept of scaffolding.

Dr. Ryan Gregory Garcia is a Radiologic Technology Instructor at Cypress College and a Radiologic Technologist at an orthopedic clinic. Dr. Garcia is an active member of the Association of Educators in Imaging and Radiologic Sciences (AEIRS) and is passionate about improving the quality of didactic and clinical education in the radiologic sciences field.

References

Adam Nance. (2022). 7 scaffolding learning strategies for the classroom. University of San Diego – Professional & Continuing Education. https://pce.sandiego.edu/scaffolding-in-education-examples/

Ogunleye, T. A. (2022). Unconscious Bias. Dermatologic Clinics, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.det.2022.08.003

Robinson, J. D., & Persky, A. M. (2020). Developing self-directed learners. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 84(3), 847512.

‌Zhan, L., Guo, D., Chen, G., & Yang, J. (2018). Effects of Repetition Learning on Associative Recognition Over Time: Role of the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12(1).

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January 7, 2026
Reimagining Education through Ritual and Beauty – Faculty Focus

This article first appeared in The Teaching Professor on January 27, 2025 © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. Learn more about The Teaching Professor here.

Over the past several years, I have had the deep privilege of participating in The Way of Remembering (WOR), a spiritually grounded journey to Benin that looks at intergenerational trauma and healing through the lens of African ways of knowing. Benin is a beautiful country and is the birthplace of Vodún (commonly called Voodoo). It is also home to strong oral traditions and healing practices that focus on community connections. As a site deeply scarred by the transatlantic slave trade, Benin holds the weight of immense suffering and also resonates with profound resilience and the capacity for collective healing and growth. I first learned about WOR from a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Omavi Bailey, whom I was mentoring and who later invited me to join him on the trip. The Way of Remembering is designed to help people in the African diaspora reconnect with their ancestral heritage and discover healing methods that address harm passed down through families and communities.

The journey follows five stages: recognition, repentance, reparation, reconciliation, and rehumanization. Indigenous healers I’ve met describe these stages as linked and recurring, each one essential in restoring our shared humanity. Although these stages can be viewed in order, each one connects with and affects the others, showing how healing and growth rarely follow a simple path. Over the years, my experiences there have enabled me to broaden my understanding of trauma, helped me see the power and complexity of healing, and inspired me to think about how these ideas apply to higher education—especially since I am reminded every day that everything is connected.

In Benin (and in other West and East African countries I have visited), I have seen practices that stand apart from the dominant Western approach to trauma, which often looks at individual problems and mechanical fixes. On a recent trip, I asked my mentor, Dr. Erick Gbodossou, what trauma meant to him. He explained that it is “disequilibrium”—not just inside one person’s body but also in their ties to the outside world, community, and nature. In many African philosophies, such as Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), an individual’s wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of the entire group. Any imbalance in one person affects and is shaped by the community. This holistic understanding directly challenges a Western dominant view that focuses only on individual symptoms, ignoring the wider ties that keep us healthy or contribute to our suffering.

I immediately saw how Dr. Gbodossou’s answers connect to higher education, where we often separate knowledge, experiences, and wellbeing. As I am sure many of you can attest, in many academic settings the tendency is to separate disciplines and roles and even mind from body, overlooking the fact that learning is deeply interwoven with emotional, social, and environmental factors. The wonderful Laura Rendón, in her article, “Recasting Agreements That Govern Teaching and Learning: An Intellectual and Spiritual Framework for Transformation,” writes about what she calls “the agreement of separation,” the underlying belief that knowledge, people, and experiences exist in isolated compartments rather than being part of a larger, interconnected whole. She quotes Thich Nhat Hanh, who says, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” Rendón reminds us that we often operate from a standpoint that breaks teaching and learning into parts—mind versus spirit, teacher versus student—when real learning calls for a more united view. Thich Nhat Hanh’s words urge us to see that our greatest purpose is to awaken to our shared life. Yet in the current model of education, we seem to move further away from that recognition, asking students (and ourselves) to keep pushing through tasks without pausing to notice our connectedness.

Dr. Gbodossou readily brought up education when talking about trauma and healing and went on to explain how education has the potential to perpetuate cycles of trauma or transform them into healing cycles. And to transform them into positive growth cycles, it’s necessary to understand the relational nature of trauma and healing. Realizing this potential in education made me think about how our teaching practices can either isolate or integrate the diverse dimensions of learners’ experiences. When we recognize how learning connects to our relationships, we can create spaces where students feel a sense of connection—to themselves, to each other, and to the world around them; see cultivating those connections as part of how they learn; and recognize how learning can be one step toward healing and repair.

Viewing things in this more connected way contrasts sharply with the Cartesian model of Western thought, which shaped much of my own study in philosophy and neuroscience. That model often puts the individual first, values objectivity over everything else, and treats the mind and body as separate. African and other Indigenous worldviews, by contrast, invite us to see the world as a network of relationships in which knowledge is shared among groups and passed down through time. They also embrace ideas about how learning does not always happen in a straight line but can unfold in flexible and surprising ways. Again, from this viewpoint, trauma does not affect only one person; it interrupts the bonds among individuals, communities, ancestors, and nature. Healing requires mending these bonds—or even creating new ones—often through rituals that include body and mind and community. Such rituals use beauty, symbols, and group participation to restore balance.

I have been privileged to see and take part in ceremonies and gatherings in Benin, Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal. For many years, I didn’t speak about my experience, because it felt so ethereal, and words often failed me. I realized these ceremonies are not just performances but active interventions that restore social, emotional, and spiritual equilibrium. These practices focus on remembering in a very real sense—not just recalling bits of information stored in the brain but letting the body (seen as an archive) itself serve as a source of healing and integration. Through repeated rhythms, movements, and symbols, people mend memories that feel broken, bringing together everyone involved. Whether they use drumming, dancing, or shared sacred objects, community participants embody an aesthetic that draws everyone together, forging a collective sense of harmony and renewal. What moves me most—and what I have come to value deeply—is the comfort people find in these repeated patterns and symbols, which support the entire community and guide them toward healing by providing familiar rhythms and shared focus.

These ideas have pushed me to explore what they might mean for how we teach. Too often, our classrooms reflect Cartesian separation: not only mind from body, student from teacher, but also rationality from emotion, past from present, us from them. Yet we humans naturally look for connections, meaning, and beauty, and we find comfort in rituals. I could cite dozens of studies from peer-reviewed journals to convince you that rituals improve attention and retention, but many of you already believe in the power of these practices, so I won’t bury you in jargon. From lullabies we hear as children to ceremonies we attend as adults, we are drawn to repetition, symbolic acts, and sensory experiences that help us make sense of the world through connections. We often overlook these in education because they do not seem measurable or directly tied to learning. But I keep thinking about what a Sufi teacher, Kabir Helminski, once said: What if the most important things in life are the things we cannot measure—things like love and empathy? That question lingers in my mind, especially when I think about teaching. These unmeasurable qualities can help address the sense of disconnection that many students feel in academic settings.

Inspired by my time in Benin, I have started imagining what it could look like to bring beauty and ritual into the classroom. By “beauty,” I mean the elements—visual, auditory, or experiential—that awaken a sense of wonder, joy, curiosity, coherence, and common humanity. By “ritual,” I mean repeated, deliberate actions or gestures that bring participants into a collective rhythm and reflective space, grounding the learning experience in shared purpose. Simple things—like opening class with a moment of silence, gratitude, touching the ground, or playing music—can serve as rituals that center students and help them be truly present. Bringing music, art, or movement into our teaching invites students to feel and experience ideas rather than only think about them, showing us that our bodies play an important part in knowledge, remembering, and knowing. Changing the classroom layout—using a circle of chairs, adding a meaningful centerpiece, or displaying student art—can help turn the room into a place for shared experience, not just a one-way delivery of facts. Involving students in creating classroom rituals or decorating the space can also help them feel ownership and belonging. Such involvement gives students a chance to shape their learning environment, which can boost their sense of being valued and included. That is, when our students help design the rituals or artwork, they can feel they are co-creators in the educational process rather than bystanders.

Over several years, I have been refining a classroom ritual that centers on the heart. At the start of each semester, I talk with my students about why they are here, about finding meaning in what they learn, and about how learning engages their minds and bodies. I share research showing that memory is stored in the brain and in other organs. I describe how my Muslim upbringing highlights the importance of the heart. The Arabic word for heart—Qalb—comes from a root meaning “to turn.” We are always turning toward each other, toward the divine, and toward truth. I give each student a small gem in the shape of a heart and invite them to bring their hearts to the learning journey. The heart gems come in different colors and look a bit like yummy candy. Although some students are uncertain at first, they soon discover how this practice sets a warm tone. It also signals that they can speak from the heart in a science class, which might not be what they expect. Sometimes I even greet them by asking, “How’s your heart?” They come to see that this is a real invitation, and it can spark genuine sharing.

When I first came to this country, I took English as a second language during my sophomore year of high school. My teacher asked us to bring an object that mattered to us and, if we felt comfortable, pass it around to our classmates. This simple activity was a beautiful ritual because it honored who we were, let us show a piece of ourselves, and helped the class feel like a real community. It’s something I remembered years later and see as a moment of true validation.

Similarly, in a literature class, for example, a professor might invite students to bring in their favorite book or share a story from their childhood. If possible, have the student pass the book or object around as they explain its significance. This ritual encourages active listening and signals that every voice counts.

By contrast, in a biology lab, taking a moment to acknowledge the natural resources and the history behind modern scientific research can serve as a ritual of gratitude and humility, connecting students to a broader context. These kinds of rituals and practices may be especially important in STEM fields, where teaching can sometimes feel cold or purely analytical. By adding a sense of wonder, reflection, and shared humanity, we remind students that science is not just about data; it’s about people working to understand life and make discoveries that can benefit us all.

I share these ideas to invite my colleagues—whoever you are—to create your own beautiful rituals in your classes and to encourage your students to do the same. There is no single right way. Your rituals might emerge from your cultural traditions or from your curiosity and imagination. Whatever the source, when we welcome these practices, we create a space for students to feel both a deep sense of purpose and a personal connection to each other and what they are learning.

Even small gestures—like starting class by saying thank you or ending with a reflective exercise—can remind everyone that learning is not just something happening in the mind but something we do together as people. Over time, these actions can build a classroom culture that encourages connection instead of isolation, involvement instead of passive listening, and mindfulness instead of simply going through the motions. These steps indeed deepen students’ learning as well as support their emotional health and strengthen the classroom community. Taking a step back to notice how these seemingly small actions can transform the classroom can remind us that teaching is about forming connections as much as it is about sharing knowledge.

Ritual themselves can bring beauty. Beauty is not just a decoration: It can become a source of healing, inviting wonder, joy, and a sense of unity. Bringing beauty into teaching—through ceremonies, art, music, or group storytelling—helps us resist the mechanistic, transactional models of schooling that can stifle creativity and leave emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning and personal growth unaddressed. Instead, we can build a place where students are seen as whole people and where their emotional and cultural backgrounds—and even their pasts and futures—are honored.

Beauty through ritual is especially important for students who bear the weight of intergenerational trauma. When we hold rituals that allow students to share and be witnessed, we help them imagine new narratives that go beyond their trauma, and we plant seeds of possibility for their futures and the future of all of us. The sense of belonging grows into a sense of agency to rewrite their own stories and become part of a greater healing process that stretches across generations.

Of course, it goes without saying that bringing elements of ritual and beauty into the classroom requires care. That is, when I think about these practices, I want to remain mindful of cultural sensitivity, recognizing that practices drawn from specific traditions should be adapted respectfully and, ideally, with guidance from those who uphold those traditions.

My experiences in Benin have taught me so much—above all that yes, education can be a pathway for intellectual growth as much as it can open possibilities and facilitate personal growth and collective healing. I often cry when I leave Benin. The separation feels wounding, and my mentors often remind me that “we are together.” This year especially, I want to be more intentional to take Benin with me into my teaching and to be more intentional about using African epistemology, which emphasizes community wisdom, ancestral insights, and balance with the environment, to rethink how we teach and learn. What if we let rituals anchor these efforts, creating spaces where I and my students can face previous wounds and imagine fresh possibilities?

I believe this more holistic view of education calls us to move beyond a narrow, overly pedantic approach to learning and into a classroom culture where healing is everyone’s responsibility. By adding beauty and ritual to our teaching, we can affirm that education is about so much more than transferring information. Education can restore a sense of wholeness and give us the chance to nurture a more caring and honest story of who we are as a human family. We can plant seeds that will grow long after our time with students is over, watering a shared garden that will bloom for future generations.

Additional resources

The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present by Byung-Chul Han

The Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teachings by Yaya Diallo and Mitch Hall

Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman by Malidoma Patrice Some

Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane

The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation by Kabir Helminski

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Sentipensante (Sensing / Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation by Laura I. Rendón

Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Reimagining STEM Education: Beauty, Wonder, and Connection” by Mays Imad

Mays Imad is an associate professor of physiology at Connecticut College. Previously, she taught for 14 years at Pima Community College, where she also founded the teaching and learning center. She is a Gardner Institute Fellow for Undergraduate Education, an Association of American Colleges & Universities Senior STEM Fellow, a Mind and Life Institute Fellow, A scholar-in-residence at Georgetown University’s Red House, and a research fellow with the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ) at the University of Stellenbosch.

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December 19, 2025
Reimagining Education through Ritual and Beauty – Faculty Focus

This article first appeared in The Teaching Professor on January 27, 2025 © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. Learn more about The Teaching Professor here.

Over the past several years, I have had the deep privilege of participating in The Way of Remembering (WOR), a spiritually grounded journey to Benin that looks at intergenerational trauma and healing through the lens of African ways of knowing. Benin is a beautiful country and is the birthplace of Vodún (commonly called Voodoo). It is also home to strong oral traditions and healing practices that focus on community connections. As a site deeply scarred by the transatlantic slave trade, Benin holds the weight of immense suffering and also resonates with profound resilience and the capacity for collective healing and growth. I first learned about WOR from a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Omavi Bailey, whom I was mentoring and who later invited me to join him on the trip. The Way of Remembering is designed to help people in the African diaspora reconnect with their ancestral heritage and discover healing methods that address harm passed down through families and communities.

The journey follows five stages: recognition, repentance, reparation, reconciliation, and rehumanization. Indigenous healers I’ve met describe these stages as linked and recurring, each one essential in restoring our shared humanity. Although these stages can be viewed in order, each one connects with and affects the others, showing how healing and growth rarely follow a simple path. Over the years, my experiences there have enabled me to broaden my understanding of trauma, helped me see the power and complexity of healing, and inspired me to think about how these ideas apply to higher education—especially since I am reminded every day that everything is connected.

In Benin (and in other West and East African countries I have visited), I have seen practices that stand apart from the dominant Western approach to trauma, which often looks at individual problems and mechanical fixes. On a recent trip, I asked my mentor, Dr. Erick Gbodossou, what trauma meant to him. He explained that it is “disequilibrium”—not just inside one person’s body but also in their ties to the outside world, community, and nature. In many African philosophies, such as Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), an individual’s wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of the entire group. Any imbalance in one person affects and is shaped by the community. This holistic understanding directly challenges a Western dominant view that focuses only on individual symptoms, ignoring the wider ties that keep us healthy or contribute to our suffering.

I immediately saw how Dr. Gbodossou’s answers connect to higher education, where we often separate knowledge, experiences, and wellbeing. As I am sure many of you can attest, in many academic settings the tendency is to separate disciplines and roles and even mind from body, overlooking the fact that learning is deeply interwoven with emotional, social, and environmental factors. The wonderful Laura Rendón, in her article, “Recasting Agreements That Govern Teaching and Learning: An Intellectual and Spiritual Framework for Transformation,” writes about what she calls “the agreement of separation,” the underlying belief that knowledge, people, and experiences exist in isolated compartments rather than being part of a larger, interconnected whole. She quotes Thich Nhat Hanh, who says, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” Rendón reminds us that we often operate from a standpoint that breaks teaching and learning into parts—mind versus spirit, teacher versus student—when real learning calls for a more united view. Thich Nhat Hanh’s words urge us to see that our greatest purpose is to awaken to our shared life. Yet in the current model of education, we seem to move further away from that recognition, asking students (and ourselves) to keep pushing through tasks without pausing to notice our connectedness.

Dr. Gbodossou readily brought up education when talking about trauma and healing and went on to explain how education has the potential to perpetuate cycles of trauma or transform them into healing cycles. And to transform them into positive growth cycles, it’s necessary to understand the relational nature of trauma and healing. Realizing this potential in education made me think about how our teaching practices can either isolate or integrate the diverse dimensions of learners’ experiences. When we recognize how learning connects to our relationships, we can create spaces where students feel a sense of connection—to themselves, to each other, and to the world around them; see cultivating those connections as part of how they learn; and recognize how learning can be one step toward healing and repair.

Viewing things in this more connected way contrasts sharply with the Cartesian model of Western thought, which shaped much of my own study in philosophy and neuroscience. That model often puts the individual first, values objectivity over everything else, and treats the mind and body as separate. African and other Indigenous worldviews, by contrast, invite us to see the world as a network of relationships in which knowledge is shared among groups and passed down through time. They also embrace ideas about how learning does not always happen in a straight line but can unfold in flexible and surprising ways. Again, from this viewpoint, trauma does not affect only one person; it interrupts the bonds among individuals, communities, ancestors, and nature. Healing requires mending these bonds—or even creating new ones—often through rituals that include body and mind and community. Such rituals use beauty, symbols, and group participation to restore balance.

I have been privileged to see and take part in ceremonies and gatherings in Benin, Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal. For many years, I didn’t speak about my experience, because it felt so ethereal, and words often failed me. I realized these ceremonies are not just performances but active interventions that restore social, emotional, and spiritual equilibrium. These practices focus on remembering in a very real sense—not just recalling bits of information stored in the brain but letting the body (seen as an archive) itself serve as a source of healing and integration. Through repeated rhythms, movements, and symbols, people mend memories that feel broken, bringing together everyone involved. Whether they use drumming, dancing, or shared sacred objects, community participants embody an aesthetic that draws everyone together, forging a collective sense of harmony and renewal. What moves me most—and what I have come to value deeply—is the comfort people find in these repeated patterns and symbols, which support the entire community and guide them toward healing by providing familiar rhythms and shared focus.

These ideas have pushed me to explore what they might mean for how we teach. Too often, our classrooms reflect Cartesian separation: not only mind from body, student from teacher, but also rationality from emotion, past from present, us from them. Yet we humans naturally look for connections, meaning, and beauty, and we find comfort in rituals. I could cite dozens of studies from peer-reviewed journals to convince you that rituals improve attention and retention, but many of you already believe in the power of these practices, so I won’t bury you in jargon. From lullabies we hear as children to ceremonies we attend as adults, we are drawn to repetition, symbolic acts, and sensory experiences that help us make sense of the world through connections. We often overlook these in education because they do not seem measurable or directly tied to learning. But I keep thinking about what a Sufi teacher, Kabir Helminski, once said: What if the most important things in life are the things we cannot measure—things like love and empathy? That question lingers in my mind, especially when I think about teaching. These unmeasurable qualities can help address the sense of disconnection that many students feel in academic settings.

Inspired by my time in Benin, I have started imagining what it could look like to bring beauty and ritual into the classroom. By “beauty,” I mean the elements—visual, auditory, or experiential—that awaken a sense of wonder, joy, curiosity, coherence, and common humanity. By “ritual,” I mean repeated, deliberate actions or gestures that bring participants into a collective rhythm and reflective space, grounding the learning experience in shared purpose. Simple things—like opening class with a moment of silence, gratitude, touching the ground, or playing music—can serve as rituals that center students and help them be truly present. Bringing music, art, or movement into our teaching invites students to feel and experience ideas rather than only think about them, showing us that our bodies play an important part in knowledge, remembering, and knowing. Changing the classroom layout—using a circle of chairs, adding a meaningful centerpiece, or displaying student art—can help turn the room into a place for shared experience, not just a one-way delivery of facts. Involving students in creating classroom rituals or decorating the space can also help them feel ownership and belonging. Such involvement gives students a chance to shape their learning environment, which can boost their sense of being valued and included. That is, when our students help design the rituals or artwork, they can feel they are co-creators in the educational process rather than bystanders.

Over several years, I have been refining a classroom ritual that centers on the heart. At the start of each semester, I talk with my students about why they are here, about finding meaning in what they learn, and about how learning engages their minds and bodies. I share research showing that memory is stored in the brain and in other organs. I describe how my Muslim upbringing highlights the importance of the heart. The Arabic word for heart—Qalb—comes from a root meaning “to turn.” We are always turning toward each other, toward the divine, and toward truth. I give each student a small gem in the shape of a heart and invite them to bring their hearts to the learning journey. The heart gems come in different colors and look a bit like yummy candy. Although some students are uncertain at first, they soon discover how this practice sets a warm tone. It also signals that they can speak from the heart in a science class, which might not be what they expect. Sometimes I even greet them by asking, “How’s your heart?” They come to see that this is a real invitation, and it can spark genuine sharing.

When I first came to this country, I took English as a second language during my sophomore year of high school. My teacher asked us to bring an object that mattered to us and, if we felt comfortable, pass it around to our classmates. This simple activity was a beautiful ritual because it honored who we were, let us show a piece of ourselves, and helped the class feel like a real community. It’s something I remembered years later and see as a moment of true validation.

Similarly, in a literature class, for example, a professor might invite students to bring in their favorite book or share a story from their childhood. If possible, have the student pass the book or object around as they explain its significance. This ritual encourages active listening and signals that every voice counts.

By contrast, in a biology lab, taking a moment to acknowledge the natural resources and the history behind modern scientific research can serve as a ritual of gratitude and humility, connecting students to a broader context. These kinds of rituals and practices may be especially important in STEM fields, where teaching can sometimes feel cold or purely analytical. By adding a sense of wonder, reflection, and shared humanity, we remind students that science is not just about data; it’s about people working to understand life and make discoveries that can benefit us all.

I share these ideas to invite my colleagues—whoever you are—to create your own beautiful rituals in your classes and to encourage your students to do the same. There is no single right way. Your rituals might emerge from your cultural traditions or from your curiosity and imagination. Whatever the source, when we welcome these practices, we create a space for students to feel both a deep sense of purpose and a personal connection to each other and what they are learning.

Even small gestures—like starting class by saying thank you or ending with a reflective exercise—can remind everyone that learning is not just something happening in the mind but something we do together as people. Over time, these actions can build a classroom culture that encourages connection instead of isolation, involvement instead of passive listening, and mindfulness instead of simply going through the motions. These steps indeed deepen students’ learning as well as support their emotional health and strengthen the classroom community. Taking a step back to notice how these seemingly small actions can transform the classroom can remind us that teaching is about forming connections as much as it is about sharing knowledge.

Ritual themselves can bring beauty. Beauty is not just a decoration: It can become a source of healing, inviting wonder, joy, and a sense of unity. Bringing beauty into teaching—through ceremonies, art, music, or group storytelling—helps us resist the mechanistic, transactional models of schooling that can stifle creativity and leave emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning and personal growth unaddressed. Instead, we can build a place where students are seen as whole people and where their emotional and cultural backgrounds—and even their pasts and futures—are honored.

Beauty through ritual is especially important for students who bear the weight of intergenerational trauma. When we hold rituals that allow students to share and be witnessed, we help them imagine new narratives that go beyond their trauma, and we plant seeds of possibility for their futures and the future of all of us. The sense of belonging grows into a sense of agency to rewrite their own stories and become part of a greater healing process that stretches across generations.

Of course, it goes without saying that bringing elements of ritual and beauty into the classroom requires care. That is, when I think about these practices, I want to remain mindful of cultural sensitivity, recognizing that practices drawn from specific traditions should be adapted respectfully and, ideally, with guidance from those who uphold those traditions.

My experiences in Benin have taught me so much—above all that yes, education can be a pathway for intellectual growth as much as it can open possibilities and facilitate personal growth and collective healing. I often cry when I leave Benin. The separation feels wounding, and my mentors often remind me that “we are together.” This year especially, I want to be more intentional to take Benin with me into my teaching and to be more intentional about using African epistemology, which emphasizes community wisdom, ancestral insights, and balance with the environment, to rethink how we teach and learn. What if we let rituals anchor these efforts, creating spaces where I and my students can face previous wounds and imagine fresh possibilities?

I believe this more holistic view of education calls us to move beyond a narrow, overly pedantic approach to learning and into a classroom culture where healing is everyone’s responsibility. By adding beauty and ritual to our teaching, we can affirm that education is about so much more than transferring information. Education can restore a sense of wholeness and give us the chance to nurture a more caring and honest story of who we are as a human family. We can plant seeds that will grow long after our time with students is over, watering a shared garden that will bloom for future generations.

Additional resources

The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present by Byung-Chul Han

The Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teachings by Yaya Diallo and Mitch Hall

Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman by Malidoma Patrice Some

Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane

The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation by Kabir Helminski

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Sentipensante (Sensing / Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation by Laura I. Rendón

Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh

“Reimagining STEM Education: Beauty, Wonder, and Connection” by Mays Imad

Mays Imad is an associate professor of physiology at Connecticut College. Previously, she taught for 14 years at Pima Community College, where she also founded the teaching and learning center. She is a Gardner Institute Fellow for Undergraduate Education, an Association of American Colleges & Universities Senior STEM Fellow, a Mind and Life Institute Fellow, A scholar-in-residence at Georgetown University’s Red House, and a research fellow with the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ) at the University of Stellenbosch.

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December 19, 2025
The Art of Ending Well – Faculty Focus
This article first appeared in The Teaching Professor on May 1, 2023 © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. Learn more about The Teaching Professor here.

“Last impressions can be lasting impressions.”
—Donald Redelmeier (Lewis, 2017, p. 236)

Have you worked with students for months to create a learning community only to have the final interaction take place in a sterile room where students silently write and then slip out? An experience that is the antithesis of the relationship-rich interactions they encountered in the course? Perhaps you have experienced impersonal completions whereby students submit their final projects on an LMS link or under your office door, with no attention paid to the significance of what the learning community shared and created during your time together. More regrettably, students and faculty often end courses feeling tired, underappreciated, and sometimes even antagonistic, unable to acknowledge the growth that has occurred. How sad it would be if these were the impressions that lingered.

What if, instead, you could create conclusions that allow for looking inward and outward to add meaning to the process, consequently bringing more joy? In our recent book (Zehnder et al., 2021), we lead faculty through course design from the first seeds of ideas through the end of the course because we believe every aspect of a course matters; over time we have come to realize that endings matter far more than one might imagine.

How you end a course shapes students’ memories and sense of meaning. None of us wants students to forget about our course shortly after they’ve turned in their final exams. Moreover, if we’ve spent time building connections and community, then we want to enhance those relationships at the end, which means we need to intentionally design course conclusions. We suggest taking a page from Priya Parker’s excellent book The Art of Gathering (2020) to make a lasting impression. According to Parker,

A strong closing has two phases . . . Looking inward is about taking a moment to understand, remember, acknowledge, and reflect on what just transpired—and to bond as a group one last time. Turning outward is about preparing to part from one another and retake your place in the world. (p. 259)

Our goal is to help you envision a variety of possibilities for looking both inward and outward.

A simple option

One simple option is to ensure that the group spends its last 20 minutes together reflecting through both writing and discussion.
- Looking inward: Who were we together? What mattered? What learning are we most proud of? What events, values, and emotions do we want to remember? Were we changed? If so, how?
- Looking outward: “What of this world do I want to bring into my other worlds?” (Parker, 262). What will I remember from this class five years from now, and why?
A grand finale

Consider what it is like to leave a Broadway musical still humming the finale, knowing that the experience changed you in some way and that the songs will pop into your mind at unexpected moments in the future. How can you cocreate with students a magical and memorable course finale?
- If a class ends with a big project or presentation, build in time to celebrate after all the work is done. Ask students to create a party playlist, or collect songs focused on a course theme. Bring in a few snacks. If possible, bring in some fun room decorations. You would be amazed at how positively students respond to small items that can transform a space—like tea lights, balloons, silly party hats, or stickers. Social events that include food and drink and celebrate positive life events, like completing a major project, enhance our sense of social support (Brick et al., 2022).
- Provide students with virtual or actual pictures and have the class create a collage that represents what they’ve learned throughout the semester. Take a picture and send it to each student, wishing them well in the future and acknowledging their contributions to the course.
- In Google Slides, ask each student to create a slide that represents their work from the course with a picture signifying each major activity or topic. Then students can do a gallery walk and admire each other’s posters; you can add comments to each.
- Provide students with a reflective prompt ahead of time, then give each student 30 seconds in class to respond. Ask each student to summarize a peer’s response in one word, then have everyone share their words.
End with gratitude

Expressing gratitude can enhance social, psychological, emotional, and physical well-being, and expressing gratitude positively correlates with happiness (Harvard Health Publishing, 2021). Providing yourself and students with an opportunity to express gratitude can connect these positive emotions to your course ending.
- End with a toast! Ask each student to bring in a nonalcoholic beverage of their choice (and have a few extras for anyone who forgets). Then have each student raise their glass and make a toast to the class with a specific mention of a person (not you) or activity who inspired them.
- Use gratitude letters. Invite students to express thanks to someone who has had a positive impact on them.
Final exam tweaks

Sometimes a final exam may serve an important purpose or be required. In these cases, consider giving students an opportunity to reflect on their learning by asking them to complete one or two do-ahead final exam questions, such as the following:
- Create an art project connected to the course.
- Describe two ways in which you’ll use course content, skills, and dispositions in the future.
- Compose a letter to future students providing advice.
- Generate a course-wide concept map.
Post student responses into a last-day-of-class slideshow—with their consent, of course. Or ask students to provide peer feedback (positive comments only) using your favorite electronic sharing tool (the LMS, Google Forms, etc.).

Finally, add a positive, closing message to your final exam that reminds students of the hard work they’ve done and to be proud of their accomplishments.

Does all of this take some time? Of course. What we have observed, however, and what cognitive science experts explain (McDaniel et al., 2014), is that content generally fails to stick when there is no shift in focus. By devoting time to ending well, you’ll be giving learners, as well as yourself, more opportunities for deep and meaningful learning.

If you want to take advantage of every opportunity to make a positive, lasting impression, and you would like students to carry with them the social and academic benefits of a learning community, we urge you to develop your art of ending well. We expect that you will finish with as much joy as students do.

Caralyn Zehnder, Cynthia Alby, Karynne Kleine, and JuliA Metzker are the authors of Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education and the creators and facilitators of Learning that Matters—the Course Design Institute. They have over 60 years combined experience in faculty development, assessment, and course design.

References

Brick, D. J., Gullo Wight, K. Bettman, J. R., Chartrand, T. L., & Fitzsimons, G. J. (2022). EXPRESS: Celebrate good times: How celebrations increase perceived social support. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 42(2), 115–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/07439156221145696

Harvard Health Publishing. (2021, August 14). Giving thanks can make you happier. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier

Lewis, M. (2017). The undoing project. Penguin Books.

McDaniel, M. A., Roediger, H. L., & Brown, P. C. (2014). The science of successful learning. Belknap Press.

Parker, P. (2020). The art of gathering: How we meet and why it matters. Penguin.

Zehnder, C., Alby, C., Kleine, K., & Metzker, J. (2021). Learning that matters: A field guide to course design for transformative education. Myers Education Press.
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December 12, 2025