“Teacher” is not a word reserved solely for the professor in the classroom.

When a professor teaches for an entire school term without learning anything new from his/her students, the term has not been a successful one. Teaching and learning are concentric: It is difficult to decipher where the act of one ends and the other begins. Lectures will not always be received the same and must therefore be ‘tweaked’ for future success, much as every batch of term papers will be unique in its dynamic, proposing new sets of possibilities for the integration and presentation of material. Class discussions and questions during lectures are essential to this dynamic, and students should feel comfortable doing both. Professors should encourage feedback and participation during lectures, and should never be too proud to say, “I don’t know the answer to your question – it’s a good one – let’s find out the answer together.”

Higher learning is achieved by integrating smaller topics into grander schemas.

I like to call it ‘Gestalt learning’. Contrary to memorizing concepts and regurgitating them for an assessment, students should be made to ‘interact’ with the material. Hands-on projects, integration essays (reading two or more pieces of literature and writing about their relationship), incorporation of multimedia into lectures, required discussion and critiquing of literature, etc… When students are able to see the common threads running through the general theories and methodologies of the cognitive sciences, they will become better equipped to think critically about their specific research interests, and how they can/will contribute to the field. For less advanced students or undergraduates that may not know what choices they will make for their careers, a demonstrable understanding of the fundamental concepts of cognition and/or neuroscience can only aid in their decision to become, or not to become, a member of the field.

Structure is essential.

There is no worse feeling as a student than not knowing what is required of you to be successful in a particular course. It is an important responsibility of professors to provide students with a coherent and comprehensive explanation of what is expected of them in the course. Rules should be adhered to, and exceptions (and there will be some) should be consistent in nature and reason. When students know what is expected of them, there is no concern that their final scores are confounded by any misunderstandings – on their part or the professor’s.