Instructional Moves for Powerful Teaching in Higher Education

A toolkit of strategies for postsecondary instructors to use to cultivate safe, inclusive learning spaces and improve teaching.

Based on work conducted through the Instructional Moves project at Harvard University, Instructional Moves for Powerful Teaching in Higher Education outlines the many ways in which good college and graduate school teaching is rooted in deliberate pedagogical choices that support active learning. Jeremy T. Murphy and Meira Levinson distill good instruction to its essential components, analyzing the careful steps successful instructors take to create learning spaces that encourage all students to do ambitious work.

Profiling professors in a range of contexts and disciplines, Murphy and Levinson take readers on deep dives into individual instructors’ teaching methods in actual classrooms. Each real-world example is accompanied by a set of practical action points that can be adopted by both new and experienced instructors, communities of practice, and educational developers and coaches.

Collectively, the examples underscore how students with differing abilities, diverse identities, and disparate worldviews can all benefit from student-centered learning environments, in which collaboration is valued and students are afforded opportunities to apply what they have learned. Murphy and Levinson spotlight inclusive instructional moves such as community-building exercises, interactive lectures, and discussion facilitation that nurture a sense of belonging and encourage student engagement in both in-person and online settings. They also explore the benefits of innovative teaching formats such as flipped classrooms, simulations, and virtual learning. Instructional Moves for Powerful Teaching in Higher Education illustrates how pedagogical shifts small and large can improve college teaching powerfully.