ABSTRACT
The students of today bring a host of complex issues into a college learning environment, issues that faculty may not have had to face previously and that reflect a student experience quite different from the faculty members’ own educational and experiential backgrounds. The authors review the literature on what is known about the nature and the impact of college pedagogy on student achievement, outlining why, despite good evidence about effective college pedagogy, it is infrequently implemented across colleges. College culture evolves from an assumption that faculty members are a group of brilliant iconoclasts who need total freedom to pursue and instill knowledge. The distinctive power of American higher education comes in no small part from faculty who are given the freedom to structure what occurs in a college classroom, leading to multiple authentic, open-ended, and creative approaches that keep the teacher and those taught interesting and interested.
