April 2026
Recommended by April Tallant, CFC Director
I am a big fan of podcasts. Most of the podcasts I listen to are for leisure, providing me with an escape from everyday reality. In my experience, podcasts about academia have been hit or miss – until recently when I stumbled across James Madison University’s Center for Faculty Innovation’s (CFI) Faculty Lounge podcast. You can access the podcast on their website, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
In listening to episode 15, Connection is the Curriculum: A Conversation with Dr. Julie Gochenour, I found myself being inspired and contemplating ways I could apply her strategies to my own context.
Dr. Julie Gochenour is a lecturer in the School of Communication Studies (SCOM), and winner of both the Madison Vision in Teaching award and the School of Communication Studies Lecturer of the Year award. In the podcast, she spoke about using engaging lectures and provided strategies for communicating with students.
The following are Dr. Gochenour’s three rules for post-modern communication that she applies to connect with her students and help them learn.
- We learn what we discover. Dr. Gochenour says that the learning starts when students discover for themselves. She takes a “guide on the side” rather than “the sage on the stage” approach, helping students explore and discover course content for themselves.
- The universe is found in the specific. She captures attention by bringing relevance to the classroom, using real life examples, either that she provides or that she asks her students to come up with.
- Only the personal is contagious. Dr. Gochenour contends that if we as instructors don’t buy it, then students won’t either. She recommends being your authentic self and sharing the love for your discipline in your teaching. Showing your passion about your discipline with your students is an effective way to facilitate their learning.
Dr. Gochenour’s rules reflect evidence-based teaching practices. By structuring learning environments where students explore to construct meaning, using relevant examples, making the connection itself instructional, she creates a fertile ground for student learning. Tune in to hear Dr. Gochenour’s 27-minute conversation with Dr. Eric Magrum, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Faculty Associate at JMU’s Center for Faculty Innovation. I hope you find the conversation just as refreshing and insightful as I did, and that it supports you as you engage with your students during the final stretch of the spring semester.
To access the full collection of teaching-related recommendations,
visit CFC’s We Recommend.