Events: 2014-2015
Spring 2015
FEBRUARY
CATL Workshop – Help your students take more responsibility for their own learning: A practical guide to reflection and metacognition
Wednesday, February 11th, 12:15-1:25 p.m., Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
Facilitated by Katie King, Associate Professor of Psychology
Expert learners use reflection and metacognition for a variety of purposes, including making sense of experience, examining assumptions, and transferring knowledge from one context to another. In this workshop, participants will 1) consider some practical ideas for helping students enhance their learning strategies and ownership of their own learning; and 2) develop your own ideas for using reflection and metacognition to solve challenges in your own teaching.
CATL Workshop – Team-Based Learning (TBL) and the Flipped Classroom
RESCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 10 – SEE BELOW
MARCH
CATL Co-sponsored Session – Academic Service Learning: Sharing Ideas from the PACE Conference
Tuesday, March 3, 12:15-1:30 p.m., Moseley 217 (Lunch provided)
Join us to share and discuss ideas from the Civic Engagement Institute and the Pathways to Achieving Civic Engagement (PACE) conference held last month at Elon. Jean Rattigan-Rohr will facilitate the discussion on the Civic Engagement Institute. Even if you were unable to attend either event, please join us to hear about and reflect on ideas generated from the institute and the conference. Lunch will be provided for those who pre-register. Please RSVP to Libby Otos.
CATL Workshop – Inclusive by Design: Teaching students on the Autism Spectrum
Wednesday, March 4, 12:15-1:25 p.m., Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
This lunch discussion is intended for teaching faculty who would like to learn and share effective strategies for working with students on the autism spectrum. Participants will analyze and discuss anonymized classroom or advising scenarios to consider both in the moment and long-term strategies for fostering student learning. We’ll connect those situations to general principles for inclusive teaching.
CATL Workshop – Decoding the Disciplines: A Two-part Series
Monday, March 9, 12:15-1:25 p.m., The Root (Lunch provided) and Tuesday, March 31, 12:30-1:45 p.m., The Root (Lunch provided)
“Decoding the Disciplines” is a simple, powerful technique for understanding common “bottlenecks” to student learning – and for developing teaching techniques that help students through those bottlenecks. Faculty at Indiana University created Decoding to address persistent teaching challenges, and their work has enhanced student learning in individual courses and throughout certain departments (for example, see this article from The Chronicle).
In this two-part series, participants will:
(1) Read about and discuss how individual faculty can use decoding to work on your own teaching and your students’ learning – on Monday, March 9, 12:15-1:25 p.m.;
(2) Read about and discuss how groups of faculty can use decoding to work together on common “bottlenecks” in a major, minor, or course – on Tuesday, March 31, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
CATL Workshop – Team-Based Learning (TBL) and the Flipped Classroom
Tuesday, March 10th, 12:30-1:45 p.m., Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
Facilitated by Matt Valle, Martha and Spencer Love Term Professor and Professor of Management
The term “flipped classroom” describes a general teaching approach in which students are exposed to course content before class through readings or other instructional resources; classroom time is then spent achieving a deeper level of understanding of course content and learning goals through active learning exercises. TBL enhances long-term retention and learning by making use of individual and team preparation and assessment processes, significant in-class problem-based team learning activities, and peer teaching/coaching.
Workshop participants are encouraged to view the video overview prior to the February 24 workshop. This workshop will build on the overview, providing participants with TBL processes and fundamentals, as well as demonstration activities that will expose participants to the team-based learning approach used by the workshop facilitator in undergraduate and graduate classes.
Workshop Materials: If you were unable to attend, but are still interested in learning about team-based learning and flipped classrooms, please view the workshop materials.
APRIL
CATL Co-sponsored Session – Developing a Qualitative Academic Service Learning Research
Thursday, April 9 (Lunch provided)
Panelists Alexa Darby, Jon Dooley, Amanda Sturgill, and Frances Ward-Johnson will discuss qualitative research projects. Lunch will be provided for those who pre-register. Please RSVP to Libby Otos.
CATL Co-sponsored Session – Internship Mentoring Workshop
Wednesday, April 22, 12:15-1:30 p.m., Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
The session will focus on both programmatic and pedagogical aspects of high quality internships and is intended especially for faculty who have little or no experience in working with internships. Also, departments interested in reviewing and rethinking the design of their internship programs will likely find the session to be helpful. The session will touch on several key aspects of developing internships such as vetting and managing placements, clarifying student learning outcomes, developing a course syllabus, and facilitating communication with site supervisors and students throughout the internship process. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and the College of Arts and Sciences, this session is open to all interested faculty and staff.
MAY
Scholarly Teaching Symposium: Decoding the Disciplines – How to anticipate and address obstacles to learning
Wednesday, May 20, 1:30-4:30 p.m. (after the Senior Class Picnic), Belk Pavilion 208
In this afternoon workshop, we’ll introduce and apply the decoding framework to uncover ways to help students understand how experts think in your field. Whether you are developing new courses or assignments or beginning (or nearing completion on) a scholarly project on teaching and learning, this workshop will be useful for you. We’ll start by exploring and discussing the framework and what it might suggest about building disciplinary expertise. The session will also include time to work with colleagues on the question you identify as most relevant for your teaching or student learning as well as the tacit assumptions we hold about our disciplines, and end with a gallery walk and reception where you can share and deepen ideas.
Winter 2015
JANUARY
Making Sense of Student Perceptions of Teaching
Friday, January 9, 12:00-1:15 p.m., Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
This workshop will focus on what and how faculty can learn from the Student Perceptions of Teaching feedback. The session will highlight some of the research on teaching evaluations, but most of our conversation will be about practical ways to use the quantitative and qualitative results from the form to enhance our own teaching and our students’ learning. Please note that CATL is not involved in administering or using the SPT form; we focus on helping faculty use the results to enhance teaching and learning.
Presenting Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness
Thursday, January 15, 12:00-1:15 p.m., Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
What kinds of evidence beyond the Student Perceptions of Teaching can you use to evaluate and improve your teaching? 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.
Reading Group: Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education by Charity Johansson & Peter Felten
Thursday, January 22; 12:00-1:15 p.m., Belk Pavilion 200 (Lunch provided)
This short book by Charity Johansson & Peter Felten provides powerful insights on any university’s core educational mission “to shape students into engaged adults who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor.” A synthesis of extensive interviews with students, teachers, and parents and research on learning and development, Transforming Students describes phases of transformational learning and suggests practices that can help us create such learning experiences for our students.
During this lunch session, we’ll discuss the ideas from the book as well as practical applications and implications of those ideas in our classrooms, advising and mentoring relationships with students. (And the modest authors of this book may be persuaded to join us for that discussion) **Please register by January 9th at noon to receive a copy of the book.
Course Design Working Groups
Times will vary
If you are teaching a new course or want to re-think a course you have taught before, consider signing up to join a course design working group. You’ll meet three times during Winter Term with a small group to plan and discuss your course. 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.”
Fall 2014
AUGUST
Sensitive Topics in the Classroom, Brown Bag Discussion: Race & Privilege
Friday, August 29, 12:10-1:20pm, Moseley 215 (Bring your lunch)
Our first brown bag will focus specifically on teaching about race and privilege in the U.S., prompted by the events in Ferguson but with an eye toward general principles that apply to other hot national issues. It will be held Friday, August 29, at 12:10 in Moseley 215. Please bring your lunch. No need to RSVP. We’re aiming to make this is a practical and stimulating session for faculty from any discipline.
Our second brown bag will focus specifically on teaching about international and religious issues, sparked by the Israel-Gaza conflict. It will be held Friday, September 12 at 12:10 in Moseley 215. Same format – bring your own lunch.
In both discussions, we’ll focus on the specific and unique topic at hand but also discuss some more general questions: How do these topics enter our classrooms, even when we don’t anticipate them? How can we anticipate and respond to student perspectives during class discussion? How can we introduce such topics in productive ways? How can we set up and model civil discussion on sensitive topics rather than avoiding them? And, ultimately, how can we have civil, meaningful, and authentic conversations about “hot topics” in the classroom?
SEPTEMBER
Sensitive Topics in the Classroom, Brown Bag Discussion: International & Religious Issues
Friday, September 12, 12:10-1:20pm, Moseley 215 (Bring your lunch)
See above for session description.
Designing “Critical Reflections”
Tuesday, September 23, 12:30-1:45pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
Many of us (especially those of us teaching experiential learning courses) ask students to write in response to questions intended to prompt “reflection.” Sometimes, however, we don’t receive the type or quality of products we were hoping for. In this workshop, we will spend time analyzing what we and our colleagues mean by critical reflection, learn what some scholars say are the characteristics of effective critical reflection, and write or revise some of our own prompts (with a peek ahead to assessing them).
Workshop Materials: If you were unable to attend, but are still interested in learning about critical reflection, please view the workshop handout.
Connect, apply, synthesize: Helping students integrate their learning
Monday, September 29, 3:30-4:45pm, Belk Pavilion 201
This two-part seminar (second session on Monday, October 27) will explore research on and teaching practices that help students learn to connect, apply, and synthesize their learning across contexts and over time. This kind of integration can happen when students link what they’ve learned in one course to another, or when they bridge theory and practice (connecting their learning from a course to an internship, for instance, or vice versa). While majors and programs have integrative goals and use pedagogies to encourage this kind of learning, research suggests that many students are not as successful as they could be at integrative learning. In this seminar we will read and discuss a few key articles on integrative learning – aiming to connect, apply and synthesize the literature on integrative learning to the way we teach our courses and structure our curricula.
OCTOBER
Providing Appropriate Student Feedback
Wednesday, October 1, 12:00-1:20pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
• Paul Anderson, Writing Across the University
• Alan Russell, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
• Michael Vaughn, Teaching and Learning Technologies
This workshop, cosponsored by WAU, CATL, and TLT, will give you insights for providing deep, meaningful feedback on student work. Workshop participants will discuss with Paul and Alan the importance of feedback in the writing process and in the service of course learning goals. Michael will share some of the ways technology might help us streamline the grading workload while providing effective feedback to support student learning.
Workshop Materials: If you were unable to attend, but are still interested in learning about providing feedback to students, please view the workshop handout.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Elon: Faculty Conversations
Wednesday, October 8, 12:15-1:25pm, Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
This conversation will focus on SoTL research questions and methods. The session will begin with Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler (Psychology) and Mike Carignan (History) briefly describing their ongoing research into “Global Mindedness and Intercultural Competence in Short-Term Study-Abroad” (an abstract of their project is below). Mark Kurt (Economics) will respond with some insights from his own research on student learning from study abroad. We then will focus the conversation on the variety of research questions and methodologies used in SoTL inquiries, using Maureen, Mike, and Mark’s questions and methods as a starting point for a wide ranging conversation about the variety of SoTL practices across the disciplines.
“Global Mindedness and Intercultural Competence in Short-Term Study-Abroad”
Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler (Psychology) and Mike Carignan (History)
Institutions of higher learning are increasingly focused on preparing students for a global world, and study abroad programs are one important means of broadening students’ experiences (Wang, Peyvandi & Moghaddam, 2009). There are a number of documented benefits of participating in study abroad programs, including increased concern for international affairs, interest in the history of countries other than one’s own, and ability to understand the complexities of national identity (Clarke et al., 2009; Kim & Goldstein, 2005). Recently, Honors Program administrators and faculty have begun to explore the benefits of program-based study abroad opportunities to advance the general goals of study abroad among Honors students (Mulvaney & Klein, 2013). This presentation will focus on the research questions and methods employed in our on-going investigation of the short- and long-term impacts of the first-year study abroad experience of a small, select group of Honors Fellows.
Teaching LGBTQ Students
Tuesday, October 21, 12:30-1:45pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
In the responses of heterosexual faculty and staff to its campus survey last year, the President’s LGBTQIA Task Force heard a great deal of support for LGBTQ community members but also a desire for more educational programs about their unique situation and concerns. In this session intended for teaching faculty who would like to learn more, participants will analyze a few situations that could arise in their classrooms, labs, studios, or advising sessions as they work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer students. We’ll connect those situations to general principles of inclusive teaching.
Workshop Materials: If you were unable to attend the workshop but are still interested in resources for working with LGBTQ students, please view the materials from the workshop:
- Some guiding principles
- Elon-specific resources for working with LGBTQ students
- General resources for working with LGBTQ students
- Resources for working with transgender students
- Classroom scenarios
Connect, apply, synthesize: Helping students integrate their learning
Monday, October 27, 3:30-4:45pm, Belk Pavilion 201
This two-part seminar (first session on Monday, September 29) will explore research on and teaching practices that help students learn to connect, apply, and synthesize their learning across contexts and over time. This kind of integration can happen when students link what they’ve learned in one course to another, or when they bridge theory and practice (connecting their learning from a course to an internship, for instance, or vice versa). While majors and programs have integrative goals and use pedagogies to encourage this kind of learning, research suggests that many students are not as successful as they could be at integrative learning. In this seminar we will read and discuss a few key articles on integrative learning – aiming to connect, apply and synthesize the literature on integrative learning to the way we teach our courses and structure our curricula.
NOVEMBER
Robert Bringle, Kulynych/Cline Visiting Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State, and long time scholar and advocate of academic service learning and civic engagement, will be facilitating sessions on developing courses and research projects centered on academic service-learning. CATL is co-sponsoring Bob Bringle’s visit, together with Sharon Hodge (Faculty Development Fellow for Service-Learning) and the Kernodle Center for Civic Life.
Nuts & Bolts of Teaching Academic Service-Learning Courses
Wednesday, November 12, 12:00-1:30 pm, Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
Participants in this workshop will explore enhancing or improving a course with integrated community service activities to enrich the academic learning, civic learning, and personal growth of students. As a result of attending, participants will become familiar with rationales for Academic Service Learning (ASL), conceptual frameworks, aligning service learning activities with student learning objectives, developing community partnerships to support ASL, assessment, and practical issues. It is designed for faculty who are developing a service-learning course, curious about service-learning, or who have some experience teaching them and want to join a focused conversation about key elements to consider in this pedagogical context.
Workshop on Conducting Research of Service-Learning
Wednesday, November 12, 3:30-5:30 pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Food provided)
Academic Service-Learning (ASL) provides interesting opportunities for instructors to produce scholarship related to their teaching, including empirical research on teaching ASL courses. This workshop will discuss how to develop empirical research projects based on ASL, with particular emphasis on quantitative approaches. It is appropriate for those who are planning a research project as well as those continuing a program of research. The workshop discussion will focus primarily on researching student learning, although the discussion will be generalizable to research on community impact, faculty, institutions, and partnerships.
Getting Ready for Winter Term
Tuesday, November 18, 12:30-1:45pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
No one has time to think about Winter Term in November. And yet it will be upon on us soon. Are you new to teaching a short-term intensive course and want to talk about general strategies? Are you teaching a course related to the diversity theme and want to discuss how best to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the theme? Are you bewildered about how you’re going to assess student work in such a fast-paced semester? We will ask participants to tell us in advance what they want to focus on and design this lunch-time session around their needs.
Summer 2014
JUNE
Reading Group – Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, by Elizabeth F. Barkley
Wednesday, June 18 and Wednesday, June 25 (attend either or both), 12:00-1:15pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
Student Engagement Techniques offers a dynamic model for engaging students, and shares tips, strategies, and techniques applicable across a wide variety of disciplines. On June 18th we will explore the theoretical framework of the book as we define student engagement and discuss what it looks like in practice. On June 25th 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. This book discussion is designed so that you can attend either or both sessions. **Register by June 2nd to receive a copy of the book.
JULY
Reading Group – How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, by Susan Ambrose, et al.
Wednesday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 23 in Numen Lumen 201 (plan to attend both sessions), 12:00-1:15pm (Lunch provided)
Wouldn’t it be handy if some authors synthesized recent learning research about mastery, metacognition, student motivation and development, course climate, and how students organize knowledge and then they suggested classroom strategies based on it? Wouldn’t it be nice if they did so in a very readable 224-page book? That’s what five authors did in How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Join your colleagues for a two-part discussion of this thought-provoking book over lunch on July 16 and 23. **Register by June 5th to receive a copy of the book.
CATL Workshop – Helping students think about their own learning: Simple tools that promote learning and reflection
Tuesday, July 29, 12:00-1:15pm, Belk Pavilion 201 (Lunch provided)
Scholars studying metacognition (the capacity to understand your own thinking) have developed several simple tools that can help students learn disciplinary content/skills and also develop the capacity to consider how they are learning. This session will explore “exam-wrappers” and other techniques that are easy to use and can yield enhanced student learning.
AUGUST
CATL Workshop – Should we be “abandoning traditional lecturing in favor of active learning”? A discussion of new research on lectures versus active learning
Tuesday, August 5, 12:00-1:15pm, Belk Pavilion 208 (Lunch provided)
In May 2014 Scott Freeman and colleagues published the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis to date comparing lecturing to active learning in undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education – the quotation in the title of this session comes from page one of the article. This research demonstrates that courses using active learning significantly increased student exam scores and significantly decreased student failure rates when compared to lecture–based classes. The authors conclude: “Although traditional lecturing has dominated undergraduate instruction for most of a millennium and continues to have strong advocates, current evidence suggests that a constructivist ‘ask, don’t tell’ approach may lead to strong increases in student performance” (p. 4).
*Freeman, S., et al. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS early edition, 1-6.
ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES
• CATL course design working groups– Are you planning a new course for next year or spending part of the summer re-thinking a course you have taught before? Sign up to be part of a course design working group. Groups meet 4 times during the summer, often over lunch, based on group member’s schedules. During each meeting, we’ll discuss each course — with group members responding to the questions/topics that most interest you as you design it. To sign up for a group (or if you have questions about the process), please email Deandra Little.
• If you’re interested in discussing how you might adapt your Winter Term course to take advantage of the diversity theme, please email Mary Jo Festle.
• Folks from CATL are available to meet with you one-on-one through the summer to talk about teaching and learning.