The Elon University Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning has chosen five faculty members to serve in the CATL Scholars program from 2007 to 2009.
Stephen Folger, associate professor of physical therapy; Ashley Hairston, assistant professor of English; Sirena Hargrove-Leak, assistant professor of engineering; Pam Kiser, professor of human services; and Cindy Fair, associate professor of human services, will work with student partners on innovative two-year teaching and learning projects. These research teams will be active participants in local, national and international dialogues about the scholarship of teaching and learning.
A brief synopsis of each faculty member’s research project follows:
- Stephen Folger, “Practicing Clinical Decision Making with Simulated Cases: Asssessing the Students’ Situation Awareness”—This project will examine the factors that influence students’ understanding and decision making in clinical settings. The project will use online simulations to assess and develop student thinking while they are engaged in clinical situations, rather than relying on student reflection and explanation after a clinical encounter.
- Ashley Hairston, “Humanizing the Law: Legal Challenges, Public Narratives, and Humanistic Principles”— In this project, undergraduates will investigate the challenges to American culture presented by contemporary legal policy conflicts, assess their effects on groups and individuals, and evaluate how the law may resolve current conflicts while reflecting our culture’s most essential humanistic traditions. This project builds on recent moves by leading law schools to bring both narrative analysis and classical studies back into legal education.
- Sirena Hargrove-Leak, “Underwater Robots: A Model for Interdisciplinary Engaged Learning at Elon”—This project uses the building of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to teach fundamental principles of math, science, and engineering. The project will begin with Elon students constructing and testing ROVs, and then will extend this experience to high schools, community colleges, and other four-year institutions in the area by hosting a workshop to teach other educators how to build ROVs.
- Pam Kiser and Cindy Fair, “Enhancing Academic Challenge in the Human Services Internship”—Many departments struggle with the integration of academic content and academic challenge into internship and other experientially-based courses. This project will develop a new model for senior internships in the Human Services Department with the intention of transforming the manner in which internships are taught both within and outside the human services discipline.
Each Scholar, or team of Scholars, will be awarded a two-year fellowship to pursue a transformative teaching and learning project, and to work with other teacher-scholars at Elon. The Scholars program is an integral component of Elon’s participation in the Carnegie Institutional Leadership program, a three-year project that will explore ways to improve student learning in the classroom by studying the best practices of learning and teaching.
This year’s Scholar selection committee was comprised of:
- Jon Metzger, Associate Professor of Music
- Deborah Long, Faculty Administrative Fellow, Assistant to the President
- David Copeland, A.J. Fletcher Professor of Communications
- Dan Wright, Associate Professor of Chemistry
- Tom Henricks, Professor of Sociology and Distinguished University Professor
- Jennifer Platania, Assistant Professor of Economics
- Jessica Harmon, senior Education major
- Rosemary Haskell, Professor of English
The next round of Scholar selections will be made during the fall of 2007 for the 2008-2010 academic years.
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