Spring 2019

In “Speed Teaching” — a creative blend of pedagogy and “speed dating” — a handful of faculty will quickly share a strategy for ensuring student preparation for class. Thursday, February 14, 2019 | 12:30-1:45pm | Lakeside 212 | Lunch provided

In “Speed Teaching” — a creative blend of pedagogy and “speed dating” — a handful of faculty will quickly share a strategy for ensuring student preparation for class. Thursday, February 14, 2019 | 12:30-1:45pm | Lakeside 212 | Lunch provided

You have probably received a notification that a student in your class requires a specific type of accommodation, such as note-taking or extra time in taking tests. Do you have questions about their need for accommodations or how those accommodations were determined? And have you ever wondered what else you could do to ensure that all students achieve their full potential in the classroom and participate meaningfully in the University’s programs and activities? With our emphasis on engaged teaching and learning, experiential education, small class size, and a high level of student-faculty interaction, Elon is an attractive option for students with disabilities. Our Disabilities Resources Office works diligently to support students during their time at Elon and to prepare them for the work world as well. If you haven’t yet, please take the time to view their useful information. Monday, February 18th from 12:15 – 1:25pm | Belk Pavilion 208 | Lunch Provided

You have probably received a notification that a student in your class requires a specific type of accommodation, such as note-taking or extra time in taking tests. Do you have questions about their need for accommodations or how those accommodations were determined? And have you ever wondered what else you could do to ensure that all students achieve their full potential in the classroom and participate meaningfully in the University’s programs and activities? With our emphasis on engaged teaching and learning, experiential education, small class size, and a high level of student-faculty interaction, Elon is an attractive option for students with disabilities. Our Disabilities Resources Office works diligently to support students during their time at Elon and to prepare them for the work world as well. If you haven’t yet, please take the time to view their useful information. Monday, February 18th from 12:15 – 1:25pm | Belk Pavilion 208 | Lunch Provided

In this workshop, we’ll discuss specific strategies and evidence-based models for how to make peer-to-peer observation of teaching a constructive, collegial and beneficial experience. Tuesday, February 26, 2019 | 12:30-1:45pm | Lindner 206 | Lunch provided

In this workshop, we’ll discuss specific strategies and evidence-based models for how to make peer-to-peer observation of teaching a constructive, collegial and beneficial experience. Tuesday, February 26, 2019 | 12:30-1:45pm | Lindner 206 | Lunch provided

This interactive session will explore a framework for gathering, analyzing, and using evidence to inform your teaching and to demonstrate your teaching effectiveness to others. Monday, March 11, 2019 | 3:30-5:00pm | Belk Pavilion 201 | Snacks provided

This interactive session will explore a framework for gathering, analyzing, and using evidence to inform your teaching and to demonstrate your teaching effectiveness to others. Monday, March 11, 2019 | 3:30-5:00pm | Belk Pavilion 201 | Snacks provided

Are you excited to try something new in a current course and want to reflect on how you might document its impact on student learning? Have you noticed something intriguing, perplexing, or challenging in a course that you’ve recently taught? Our conversations will help enrich your thinking about SoTL and identify the ways in which the SoTL scholarly process aligns with research processes already familiar to us from disciplinary frameworks. It will also introduce members to resources helpful to the development and eventual publication of a SoTL project. CoPs will meet three times over the semester; schedules will be determined based on participant availability.

Are you excited to try something new in a current course and want to reflect on how you might document its impact on student learning? Have you noticed something intriguing, perplexing, or challenging in a course that you’ve recently taught? Our conversations will help enrich your thinking about SoTL and identify the ways in which the SoTL scholarly process aligns with research processes already familiar to us from disciplinary frameworks. It will also introduce members to resources helpful to the development and eventual publication of a SoTL project. CoPs will meet three times over the semester; schedules will be determined based on participant availability.

Winter 2019

Fifteen years ago, Lee Shulman introduced the idea of “signature pedagogies,” or approaches to teaching that cultivate disciplinary habits of mind. This concept challenges us to ask some pointed questions: how does the biologist, for example, teach so that her students experience thinking like a biologist and even doing biology? How does the historian teach students to practice historical thinking? How does the artist teach students to see the world through artists’ eyes? What about the other disciplines? And ultimately, why should the biologist, the historian, the artist, and the rest of us care? In this workshop, participants will begin to map their relevant signature pedagogies, including addressing some of the criticisms and creative adaptations that have emerged in recent years.

Fifteen years ago, Lee Shulman introduced the idea of “signature pedagogies,” or approaches to teaching that cultivate disciplinary habits of mind. This concept challenges us to ask some pointed questions: how does the biologist, for example, teach so that her students experience thinking like a biologist and even doing biology? How does the historian teach students to practice historical thinking? How does the artist teach students to see the world through artists’ eyes? What about the other disciplines? And ultimately, why should the biologist, the historian, the artist, and the rest of us care? In this workshop, participants will begin to map their relevant signature pedagogies, including addressing some of the criticisms and creative adaptations that have emerged in recent years.

Fall 2018

How can we find “air & light & time & space” for writing once the craziness of the teaching semester has set in? How do we keep the flame of our research alive without burning ourselves out? When we are under pressure, our writing can all too easily become a site of frustration, guilt, and shame. Yet an abundance of research has shown that productivity and pleasure are bedfellows, not enemies; writers who strike the keys with joy are more likely to become engaging communicators, skilful wordsmiths, and prolific researchers than those who struggle to get words onto the page. This evidence-based workshop will help you establish and maintain a productive writing practice by rediscovering the pleasures of writing. Her popular academic writing workshops have taken her to more than 70 universities, conferences and institutes in North America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa. See her website (www.helensword.com) for links to her books, her digital poetry and the Writer’s Diet test, a free diagnostic tool for writers.

How can we find “air & light & time & space” for writing once the craziness of the teaching semester has set in? How do we keep the flame of our research alive without burning ourselves out? When we are under pressure, our writing can all too easily become a site of frustration, guilt, and shame. Yet an abundance of research has shown that productivity and pleasure are bedfellows, not enemies; writers who strike the keys with joy are more likely to become engaging communicators, skilful wordsmiths, and prolific researchers than those who struggle to get words onto the page. This evidence-based workshop will help you establish and maintain a productive writing practice by rediscovering the pleasures of writing. Her popular academic writing workshops have taken her to more than 70 universities, conferences and institutes in North America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa. See her website (www.helensword.com) for links to her books, her digital poetry and the Writer’s Diet test, a free diagnostic tool for writers.

Among their many characteristics, students may come to campus with anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, chronic health impairments, or other disabilities. As with all of our students, our goal is to provide educational environments that meet the learning needs of students with disabilities while simultaneously promoting their development. Over two Friday afternoons, this book group will discuss the needs of our students with disabilities, applications of universal design for learning, and a range of specific pedagogical strategies that have been shown to be effective both in the classroom and in experiential learning activities. The text is available as an e-book via our library, contact catl@elon.edu for help downloading it to your device or for alternative ways to access this text. September 14th: Intro, Chapter 4, Chapter 6 | September 28th: Chapter 10, Chapter 12

Among their many characteristics, students may come to campus with anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, chronic health impairments, or other disabilities. As with all of our students, our goal is to provide educational environments that meet the learning needs of students with disabilities while simultaneously promoting their development. Over two Friday afternoons, this book group will discuss the needs of our students with disabilities, applications of universal design for learning, and a range of specific pedagogical strategies that have been shown to be effective both in the classroom and in experiential learning activities. The text is available as an e-book via our library, contact catl@elon.edu for help downloading it to your device or for alternative ways to access this text. September 14th: Intro, Chapter 4, Chapter 6 | September 28th: Chapter 10, Chapter 12

Summer 2018

Reading Groups

Reading Group on Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning

Thursdays, June 28 and July 19, 12:00-1:30 pm (Lunch provided), Lindner 206

In Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning, Davis and Arend suggest practical tips for matching your learning goals with the most effective teaching methods. The authors divide the book into seven categories of learning outcomes (such as, building skills, developing thinking and reasoning processes, practicing professional judgment) and connect those to different ways of learning and teaching that research suggests support those learning outcomes effectively.

Whether you are looking for new ways to improve student learning or simply continuing to fine-tune after years of experience, Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning can offer new ideas and also remind us why we make the effort to improve our facilitation skills.

Join colleagues for this two-part discussion of the book over lunch. Please plan to attend both sessions.

Reading Group on Interactive Lecturing

Tuesdays, June 19th and July 10th, 12:00-1:30 (Lunch provided), Lindner 206

Interactive Lecturing is designed to “help faculty members more effectively lecture,” in ways that combine purposeful student learning activities with engaging lectures. The authors share tips, strategies, and techniques applicable across a wide variety of disciplines.

On June 19th, we will explore the theoretical framework of the book as we define interactive lecturing and discuss what it looks like in practice.

On July 10th, we will explore tips, strategies, and techniques as well as sharing at least one technique that we have modified for use in our own classroom.

Course Design Working Groups

Times will vary

Whether you are planning a new course or re-thinking one you’ve taught before, you can sign up to be part of a course design working group. Groups meet 3 times during the summer—often over lunch—based on group member’s schedules. During the meetings, we’ll discuss each course, using a backwards course design framework and focusing on the questions and topics that most interest you as you design it.

Facilitated by CATL faculty, planned around your schedules, and focused on your key questions, course design groups can be a collegial and productive way to develop a course. Past working group members remark that:

  • “the greatest use for me was the discipline of thinking through exactly what I wanted the students to learn.”
  • “I typically think that course development is a very lonely process. It helped alleviate a lot of stress I was feeling.”

SoTL Community of Practice (CoP)

Times will vary

Open to faculty of all experience levels, this CoP brings together colleagues who have an emerging interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to:

  • enrich thinking about SoTL and help you develop your SoTL project
  • identify the ways the SoTL scholarly process aligns with research processes already familiar to us from disciplinary frameworks, and
  • introduce members to resources helpful to develop and publish a SoTL project

Participants in the CoP will support, sharpen, and sustain the work of their colleagues, and individuals’ goals guide our shared time together.