Tea for Teaching Teaching from the Same Side
Nov 19, 2025
Michelle Miller, a Professor of Psychological Sciences and author, explores the concept of 'teaching from the same side,' emphasizing collaboration between faculty and students. She discusses the roots of adversarial teaching and highlights how this approach can improve student motivation through self-determination theory. Michelle shares psychological techniques to enhance student commitment and outlines the importance of personalized interactions, like using students’ names, to build trust. She also touches on her upcoming workshops and work on AI in curriculum.
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Same-Side Teaching Mindset
- 'Teaching from the same side' bundles kindness, relentless welcome, and alternative grading into a coherent mindset.
- It reframes faculty-student relations from adversarial to collaborative with shared learning goals.
Changing Policy Won Respect, Not Control
- Michelle tells of a confrontation with a teaching assistant early in her career about changing feedback practices.
- She tried the student-friendly change and found student respect and effort improved, not declined.
Prioritize Shared Learning Goals
- Prioritize course elements that align with why students took the class when you must reduce scope.
- Use the shared goal of learning to shift conversations away from point-negotiation toward genuine help.
