The UCLA instructors seated in a Biomedical Sciences Research Building classroom were surprised to be studying Common Grackle specimens as part of examining how to implement active learning techniques. While the activity demonstrated how light interacts with matter to make color through the birds’ iridescent feathers, it also showcased how to engage students’ curiosity in the classroom while learning complex material.
Twenty-eight UCLA instructors participated in this year’s Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Teaching, an annual program to explore effective teaching strategies to improve student engagement. Co-facilitated by the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS), the four days offered instructors opportunities to practice innovative instructional approaches to strengthen learning in their classrooms.
For the Institute’s organizers, this methodical approach foregrounds instruction supported by research- and practice-based results.
“By implementing evidence-based strategies—which are shown to boost conceptual understanding, improve retention, and narrow equity gaps—we can build an inclusive environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive,” shared Deb Pires, Vice Chair for Life Sciences Core Education and Senior Advisor to the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning for Instructional Initiatives who led this year’s Institute.
Across various interactive sessions, the Summer Institute showcased teaching methods that leveraged activity learning strategies to support student learning goals. In one workshop examining the cognitive process behind how people learn, participant groups were tasked with categorizing a random assortment of superheroes such as Iron Man, Cyborg, Supergirl, and Wolverine.
Groups excitedly debated different systems of organizing the superheroes, from costume color to the source of their abilities to year of origin. Facilitators then led a discussion examining how
students’ engagement with course material builds on their prior knowledge, as well as their experiences, interests, and motivations, prompting participants to reflect on how to apply the principles in their classrooms.
“I hope attendees came away with a better understanding that students learn best not by just listening, but by doing, by engaging, by building on their own understanding and experiences, and by connecting with one other and the instructor,” shared Shanna Shaked, Senior Associate Director of CEILS and one of the Institute’s facilitators.
Instructors also practiced using active learning techniques together. Throughout the week, they worked in small groups to design a “teachable tidbit,” a brief course module with engaging activities and assessments to meet a course’s learning objectives.
Groups presented their tidbits on the Institute’s final day, including the module on the physics of color. Instructors from chemistry and neuroscience guided the audience in investigating why the sky and ocean are blue, prompting them through class polling to utilize their inference skills to develop explanations of structural and chemical color. The engaging module centered students’ curiosity in developing scientific explanations.
Another teachable tidbit by instructors from musicology, writing programs, and European languages and cultures examined how to develop a critical interpretation of a text by analyzing storytelling techniques in songs. The audience completed a guided close reading of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” to understand how text, subtext, and musical sounds all contribute to creating a musical world, as well as how students can identify uses of subtext in their daily lives.
Instructors found that designing the modules prompted them to consider how to support students in making connections to the course material.
“It was great to really break down the logic of our lesson and examine how each point connects so that students could follow along,” noted Kay Xia, the 2026-27 Donald J. Cram Teacher-Scholar in the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who attended the Summer Institute. “Really having to think about it from the perspective of a student who’s seeing it for the first time and having to make all those little logical connections was very insightful.”
The Summer Institute is UCLA’s iteration of the National Academies Summer Institute, started at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2004. Since coming to the university in 2016, the program has created an interdisciplinary setting for advancing teaching excellence. Participants closed out the week with a certificate ceremony, joining a national network of past cohorts.
Organizers like Shaked emphasized that she hoped participants would carry forth strategies that invite students into the learning process.
“I hope every attendee leaves this week with at least one concrete idea about how they want to engage more students during class time, in a way that aligns with their key learning goals; that way, students can learn more and better understand what they are learning and why,” she shared. Deb also hoped that the Institute offered instructors a sense of community as they enter into fall quarter.
“Spending four days together allowed faculty from all corners of campus to connect through a powerful shared experience,” she noted. “Now that our faculty have practiced building ‘teachable tidbits,’ the goal is for them to bring these actionable skills back into their classrooms.”