What if learning isn't just happening between our ears?

For generations, we've designed classrooms around a familiar formula: sit still, face forward, and let your mind do the heavy lifting. It's a model that treats students almost like computers, passively processing information—or as Susan Hrach puts it, "brains on sticks."

But learning is far more dynamic, shaped not just by what happens in our heads, but by our bodies, emotions, and the environments around us.

In this episode of Higher Learnings, educator and author Susan Hrach draws on her book Minding Bodies to explore how physical space, sensation, and movement influence the way students think and learn.

Along the way, she challenges us to reconsider whether traditional classrooms might actually be working against learning, and shares practical ways to engage students' minds and bodies, even if it means getting a little uncomfortable ourselves.

Guest Bio

Susan Hrach is an educator, author, and faculty development expert with more than 25 years of experience in higher education. She is the author of Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning and now works as an independent speaker, workshop facilitator, and coach.

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What separates a classroom where students are genuinely invested from one where they’re simply going through the motions?

Harvard professor Jal Mehta has spent years studying what deeper learning looks like, and found answers in some decidedly unexpected places. In this episode, we explore what sports teams and theater productions can teach us about student engagement, why the “tyranny of content” may be working against meaningful learning, and what changes when students get to actually do the work of a discipline rather than simply learn about it.

From rethinking the role of the professor to making small changes in your next class, this conversation offers a compelling case for learning that students don’t just complete, but carry with them.

Guest Bio

Jal Mehta is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education whose work explores deeper learning, school improvement, and educational innovation. He is the co-author, with Sarah Fine, of In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School.

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What if some of the things that make higher education feel most like school are actually getting in the way of learning? In Schoolishness, Dr. Susan Blum argues that familiar practices—from lectures and grades to rigid schedules and requirements—can leave students going through the motions rather than genuinely invested in what they’re learning.

Blum challenges us to look beyond student disengagement to the deeper problem of alienation, and to rethink what actually motivates students to care, take risks, and persist through difficult work. Along the way, she explores grading and fear as motivators, why students sometimes resist greater freedom and agency, and how faculty can create more authentic and meaningful experiences even within traditional academic structures.

For educators wondering how to move beyond “doing school,” this conversation offers a provocative—and practical—vision for making learning a little less schoolish.

Guest Bio

Dr. Susan Blum is a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame whose work explores education, learning, and the culture of schooling. She is the author of Schoolishness and I Love Learning; I Hate School, and editor of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning.

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When Christian Fauria—a two-time Super Bowl champion turned broadcaster—stepped into the classroom at Bryant University, he quickly discovered that expertise doesn’t automatically translate into effective teaching.

In this episode, he teams up with Bryant’s Interim Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Constanza Bartholomae, to explore the surprising parallels between elite coaching and great teaching.

From building trust and culture to delivering meaningful feedback and fostering reflection, they unpack what it really takes to help students grow—and why the best instructors, like the best coaches, focus on raising the floor for everyone.

Guest Bio

Constanza Bartholomae is Interim Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Bryant University, where she partners with faculty to foster meaningful, reflective, and student-centered teaching. Christian Fauria is a two-time Super Bowl champion, former sports broadcaster, and Professional in Residence at Bryant University, teaching sports broadcasting and leadership.

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Students aren’t reading the way we expect, and many faculty are feeling the strain. In this episode, James Lang, author of Small Teaching and Distracted, unpacks what’s really behind the decline in reading and what we can do about it.

From the impact of distraction and shifting reading habits to the often-overlooked need to teach students how to read in our disciplines, this conversation blends insight with practical strategies. You’ll hear how to scaffold reading, build meaningful accountability, and create conditions where students can engage more deeply with texts.

If reading feels like an uphill battle in your course, this episode offers a more hopeful—and human—way forward.

Guest Bio

James M. Lang is Professor of Practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and Emeritus Professor of English at Assumption University. He is the author of seven books, including Small Teaching, Distracted, and Write Like You Teach. A longtime columnist for The Chronicle of Higher Education and a highly sought-after speaker, Lang focuses on practical, research-based strategies to improve teaching, learning, and student engagement.

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Children ask hundreds of questions a day—until school teaches them not to. In this episode, educational leader, higher ed consultant, and The Collaboration Chronicle author Tawnya Means explores the growing “curiosity deficit” and what we lose when learning becomes an exercise in compliance rather than discovery.

Tawnya challenges us to rethink the purpose of higher education—not as the transfer of information, but as the cultivation of human potential. From reimagining assignments to using AI as a partner in thinking, this conversation offers a powerful vision for creating learning experiences that spark wonder, deepen engagement, and inspire lifelong learning.

Guest Bio

Tawnya Means is an educational leader and consultant helping universities navigate AI and digital transformation. With over 20 years of experience, her work focuses on developing human potential, reimagining learning, and using technology to create more engaging, meaningful educational experiences.

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In an era Zach Mercurio calls an “epidemic of insignificance,” many students feel invisible. And when students feel unseen, motivation fades, trust erodes, and persistence becomes fragile.

Drawing on his bestselling book The Power of Mattering, Mercurio shares three simple, research-backed practices—noticing, affirming, and helping students feel needed—that educators can use to cultivate significance in everyday moments. These small shifts don’t require sweeping reforms or more time, but they can transform classroom culture, performance, and resilience.

Whether you’re an educator, administrator, or leader, this conversation offers practical, powerful ways to help people feel seen—and thrive.

Guest Bio

Zach Mercurio, Ph.D., is the bestselling author of The Power of Mattering (Harvard Business Review Press). His scholarship in positive organizational psychology and meaningful work informs his engagements with higher education institutions and organizations seeking to foster cultures of significance, motivation, and well-being.

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Burnout. Disengagement. AI anxiety. In higher education right now, flourishing can feel like a distant dream. But what if joy isn’t a distraction from serious teaching but the foundation?

In this episode, we sit down with Flower Darby, author of The Joyful Online Teacher, to explore the science of human flourishing and why it matters more than ever. Drawing on positive psychology and Martin Seligman’s PERMA model, Flower makes the case that when instructors thrive, students do too. And the best part? This isn’t about lowering standards or adding fluff. It’s about designing learning experiences that energize, connect, and endure.

So the question is: Are you flourishing in your classroom, or just surviving?

Guest bio

An internationally-renowned instructor, author, and speaker, Flower Darby inspires educators to bring an equity-minded lens to enhance their teaching practices. As Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri, she draws on 28+ years of teaching across diverse subjects and modalities. Darby’s work empowers faculty to create inclusive learning experiences, and her publications include The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2023), Small Teaching Online (2019) and, most recently, The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes.

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