Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, Volume 5, Number 1

Does teaching affect learning? is an important question if we are to focus our efforts to improve learning on innovations in teaching. We know that virtually nothing can prevent learning. Everyone-new babies, young children, adolescents, and adults-constantly acquires new information and tries to fit it into patterns that help make sense of the world. The difference between education and other activities is that teachers and professors attempt to guide the learning process, choosing what they think is important for students to know from the vast array of knowledge in their field, and selecting the approaches that most effectively help them communicate this knowledge.