Speaking skills are critical in a rapidly changing work landscape that requires collaboration and problem solving. However, class size (small or large) can influence students’ feelings and behaviors when practicing speaking in class, with this study finding that total class size affects students’ outcomes not only during student presentations to the whole class but also during students’ small group interactions. Students in a small class reported feeling more positive about their experiences within the class as a whole, experiencing greater interest in coursework and exhibiting greater attention.

Colleges often struggle to engage and retain adult learners effectively while the U.S. military consistently produces mastery, discipline, and resilience under pressure. This practice-oriented article examines instructional principles drawn from military training—clarity of mission, structured feedback, peer accountability, and experiential mastery—and explores how these methods can enhance faculty teaching and student success in higher education. Grounded in Schlossberg’s Transition Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the paper integrates qualitative insights from Spencer (2024) with recent empirical research on debriefing, motivation, and faculty development. The discussion advances a model of mission-based pedagogy that reframes faculty teaching as a balance between structure and autonomy—emphasizing purpose, feedback, and reflection as tools for excellence. Adapting these principles does not militarize learning; it professionalizes it, fostering instructional precision and engagement across in-person, online, and hybrid learning environments where structure, feedback, and reflection sustain learner motivation and persistence.

Museum education has changed dramatically in recent years, creating new opportunities for higher education faculty to integrate museums into evidence-based teaching and learning. Technology, innovation, and professional development have expanded museums’ capacity to support undergraduate and graduate instruction across disciplines through interactive exhibits and distance learning that connect students with experts and collections otherwise inaccessible. Framed through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), this InStruct article positions museums as course-integrated learning environments and provides practical, adaptable strategies aligned to learning outcomes. It emphasizes course-embedded evidence to assess and refine museum-based learning that deepens engagement and disciplinary thinking.