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Meet Bridget Arend, Ph.D.

Promoting intentional and joyful teaching & learning in higher education
Academic | Teacher | Facilitator

It is no secret that higher education faculty are pulled in a multitude of directions. Faculty members are busier than ever at a time when teaching and student learning is more visible and more complex. It is also true that most faculty have not been provided with a formal background in teaching and learning methods and this aspect of their work can cause the most stress.

I love helping college faculty be intentional in their teaching practice so that they can feel calm and purposeful in this aspect of their role. Throughout all of my work, I hope to instill a sense of clarity in teaching, so that even when students resist or struggle, even when the challenges keep coming, instructors can adapt and feel confident that they have designed the best plans for bringing forth meaningful student learning.

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Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning Asset 10 A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College Teaching

For busy college faculty who want to catch up on the latest developments in teaching and learning, this book offers a guide to seven key evidence-based strategies for effective instruction.

Pre-order the book

Highlights of My Work Asset 10

Speaking

Speaking engagements allow me to share a message of intentionality and enjoyment in teaching.

Keynote/Plenary talks include:

  • POD Institute for New Educational Developers, 2024 Opening Keynote
  • University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) 2023 Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference Keynote: Five Strategies to Refocus on Intentional, Meaningful Teaching
  • Teaching Professor Conference, Opening plenary June 2023
  • Original Lilly Conference in Ohio
  • Teaching 4 Learning Inter-mountain Consortium Conference
  • Lilly Conference in Anaheim, CA
  • LOEX Annual Conference
  • Yale School of Management
  • Idaho State University
  • Marywood University
  • Des Moines Area Community Colleges
  • Murray State
  • USAFA SoTL Forum
  • San Juan College
  • Delta State University

    Workshops

    I enjoy visiting with institutions to support faculty in their teaching practice.

    Recent workshop topics include:

    • Strategies to Refocus on Intentional, Meaningful Teaching
    • The Role of Reflection in Learning: Lessons from the Literature
    • Purposeful Teaching: Choosing and using different ways of learning for effective instruction
    • Teaching for critical thinking, problem solving, and skill development
    • The Nuts and Bolts of Experiential Learning: Scaffolding Project Design and Critical Reflection into Your Activities
    • The Reflective Discussion
    • Teaching Evaluation: Can we measure what really matters?

    I am honored to have won the 2012 POD Innovation Award for the development of a successful online course for new faculty.

    Writing

    I love to explore and synthesize the literature about teaching and learning and share best practices. Highlights include:

    Blog Posts

    Book Chapters

    • What Makes Assignments Meaningful? Arend, B., & Carlson, E. R. (2024) In Harrington, Creating Culturally Affirming and Meaningful Assignments (pp. 37-53). Routledge.
    • Turning Good Intentions into Good Teaching: Five Common Principles for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Hailu, Mackey, Pan & Arend (2016) In Rojas-Primus & Perez Promoting Intercultural Communication Competencies in Higher Education.
    • Strategies and Principles to Develop Cognitive Presence in Online Discussions. Hosler, K, & Arend, B. (2012) In Z. Akyol & D. R. Garrison (Eds.), Educational Communities of Inquiry: Theoretical Framework, Research and Practice. IGI Global.
    • Using assessment to promote problem-solving and critical thinking skills in adults. Arend, B. (2009). In V.C.X. Wang (Ed.), Assessing and Evaluating Adult Learning in Career and Technical Education. Information Science Reference.

    Scholarship

    My research interests include the role of reflection in learning, the evaluation of teaching, and teaching methods broadly with a SOTL focus.

    Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning

    • Conducting a scoping review of the literature to explore the impact of Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning. Arend, B., Hosler, K., Umaña, N., Pitts, V., & Cottrell, B. (2025). Towards holistic college teaching: A scoping review of the taxonomy of significant learning [Poster presentation]. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

    Asssessment and Grading

    • A SoTL study exploring faculty perceptions about alternative grading practices. Rudnick, D., Arend, B., Bernhardt, P. (2024) Faculty Perceptions on Grading and Assessment. Fifth Annual Grading Conference.

    Critical Reflection

    Evaluating Faculty Teaching

    • White Paper: Towards a Comprehensive Teaching Evaluation Framework: A Summary of the Literature, Recommendations, and Examples (available on request)
    • Ill-Defined Borders: Defining Non-Tenure Track Teaching Identity, presented at ISSOTL 2019
    • Articulating teaching aspirations to create meaningful reward structures. Arend, B. & Pitts, V., Presented at the International Consortium for Educational Development .
    • Teaching Evaluation: Can we measure what really matters? Presented at the POD Network Conference.