A group of members from the Associated American New Colleges (ANAC) gathered to learn about the ways that Elon faculty are integrating students into the scholarship of teaching and learning. Details...
The June 14 session, “Student Voices in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Examples and Questions,” encouraged open discussion among ANAC members about how to incorporate students into teaching. Integrating students into the design and development of courses was a key topic during the dialogue.
Stephen Schulman, assistant professor of philosophy at Elon, used a small group of students to help him rebuild his ethical practice class. The semester-long rebuilding process gave Schulman the opportunity to see things from a student perspective.
“Students offer this incredible expertise about where they are,” Schulman said. “My classes require a different set of skills, and students are often uncomfortable with ambiguity. I wanted to get a sense of how students could feel more comfortable.”
The panel also shared the challenges of measuring how much students are learning. One question of the participants was “What do you do to understand what your students are learning?”
As part of the Carnegie Foundation’s CASTL Institutional Leadership Program, Elon involves a number of faculty in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research projects. Each year, several Elon faculty apply to become CATL scholars (Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning). As part of the program they are given two years, a lighter course load and $2,000 to research innovative methods of teaching and learning.