The purpose of this paper was to offer a framework analyzing college students characteristics and college teaching. I hoped that this paper could have implications for the improvement of teaching practices in college classroom. There were two sections, which guided by two general questions, in this paper. First, what does the psychological literature on college student learning and development have to offer college educators as they attempt to understand the characteristics of college students? Second, what does the research on college teaching have to offer college educators as they attempt to design and implement instructional programs to facilitate college student learning and development? In the first section, I discussed four research traditions: cognitive style and cognitive strategies, cognitive development, information processing and metacognition and intelligence, and the motivational literature. These different traditions vary in their assumptions about the nature of learning and development. They have different implications for the understanding of the characteristics of college students. In the second section, I discussed four dimensions of college classrooms: academic tasks, reward and goal structures, instructional methods, and instructor behaviors. This section might have implications Tor facilitating active involvement in learning so that both cognition and motivation would be improved. I concluded by pointing out that research in above-mentioned areas promising and should be supported by more funds.
