Teaching at the  University of Washington  can be great fun. But it can also be really hard. I wrote this guide to help you maximize the fun and minimize the hard. Whether you’re a new teaching assistant, a novice teacher, or a lifelong teacher, I hope there’s something you can learn from it. 

And the chances are good you will, because very few people who teach in higher education have ever had the opportunity to learn about the science of learning  ^{1,2 1}

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. National Academies Press..

Why listen to me? I don’t have a formal education in education, so I’m not fully versed in it’s complexities, but I’m not inexpert either:

• I’ve taught as a tutor and in classrooms since I was 14.
• I’ve taught in higher education since I was an undergraduate in 1999.
• I’ve read most of the seminal work on the science of learning and teaching.
• In 2010, I started doing research on the teaching and learning of computing.
• I’ve been teaching at UW since 2008, which gives me enough experience with recent history to have a sense of our campus culture and our undergraduates students.
• Students like my teaching: I regularly get 4.5 or higher on our (flawed and biased) student evaluations of teaching, which at least suggests that students  perceive  me as an effective teacher.

Of course, that hardly means I know everything: like all teachers, I’m still learning and improving. But I’m guessing you’re reading this because you think I have  something  to teach you about teaching.

Of course, as with any advice, there are some caveats:

• Some of the tips I give in this guide might be too adapted to my skills and personality. They might not work for you. Teaching methods aren’t equally adoptable by all teachers.
• I’ve studied a lot of the major literature in education and learning sciences, but I don’t have a Ph.D. in it, and I’m self taught. I might have some things wrong. I hope any experts who stumble upon this point these inaccuracies out.
• If you’re reading this, a lot of it is tailored to teaching at UW and in Informatics in particular. Much of the advice I share might only be relevant to our particular university and population.

With those disclaimers in mind, let’s start with a discussion of Informatics students at UW.