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Research examining excellence in teaching is extensive. Nevertheless, research examining the inverse--what constitutes poor or ineffective teaching--has not been as systematic. The current research addresses this gap in the literature by examining student and faculty perceptions of the qualities and behaviors of ineffective teachers. Students and faculty identified being disrespectful as the number one perceived quality of ineffective teachers. Both groups of respondents also agreed that having weak rapport was indicative of ineffective teachers. Overall, students had a tendency to focus more on the social aspects of the student--teacher relationship, whereas faculty focused more on professional competencies. These findings provide additional support on teaching misbehaviors to avoid both in and outside of the classroom.

Steadily increasing ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States has led employers to see intercultural competence as a valuable and necessary trait for those entering the workforce, including students studying psychology. One high-impact practice that may increase students' multicultural awareness is study abroad. The current research examined the effectiveness of a cultural scavenger hunt offered during two short-term study abroad programs to increase participants' intercultural competencies. Cultural competence was assessed in Study 1 (N = 10) using the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale--Short Form. Results indicated a statistically significant increase across all subscales. In Study 2 (N = 16), the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory was utilized. Results from Study 2 demonstrated statistically significant improvements in the Emotional Resilience subscale. These findings suggest that a cultural scavenger hunt may assist participants in actively engaging in the local culture and facilitate the initial development of intercultural competencies.

This chapter discusses the higher education system in Germany and presents findings on the use of the Teacher Behavior Checklist to examine those qualities and corresponding behaviors that German university students identified in ideal teachers.

Research on teaching has shown that incorporating active student responding (ASR) into classroom instruction facilitates learning and should be considered best practice. Nevertheless, few published studies have examined ASR using a within-participant design across a semester. Using a counterbalanced alternating treatment design, a direct comparison of three ASR methods (clickers, response cards, and hand-raising) and a control condition was conducted across four sections of a general psychology course. Students scored almost 5% higher on exams after utilizing an ASR approach than during control conditions. However, no statistically significant differences were found between experimental conditions. These data suggest that meaningful gains in exam performance are most likely due to the presentation of review questions rather than the use of specific ASR modalities.