The Benefits of Good Teaching Extend Beyond Course Achievement

Abstract

This paper synthesizes research from the Wabash National Study on Liberal Arts Education, the National Study on Student Learning, and the Research on Iowa Student Experiences study that estimates the influence of certain effective instructional practices on a range of student outcomes. Student perceptions of two specific teacher behaviors – instructor clarity and instructor organization – are associated with gains in a number of important student outcomes including critical thinking, propensity for lifelong learning, academic motivation, persistence to the second year of college, graduate degree plans, likelihood of obtaining a bachelor's degree, and student use of deep approaches to learning.

Keywords

• Effective instruction
• teaching
• cognitive development
• critical thinking