Lunch Discussions
Promoting and evaluating student participation
January 5th – 11:45-1:15 in Belk Pavilion 200.
Engaged learning depends on active participation on the part of all students, providing guided practice in disciplinary ways of thinking and talking about ideas. This session will focus on strategies for promoting and evaluating student participation in a variety of contexts, including small groups, whole class discussions and on-line forums. RSVP required – Katie King, ext 6449 or email kingcath@elon.edu.
Whose career is this anyway?
(Co-sponsored by Leadership and Professional Development)
January 11th – 11:45-1:15 in Belk Pavilion 200
We tend to talk about our career trajectories focusing on external incentives and constraints, obstacles and limitations. What if we looked at the positive instead? In this session we will focus on ways of developing our interests and strengths and explore the possibilities for our career trajectories. What aspects of your work are most personally rewarding? What are your short term and longer term goals as a teacher-scholar or staff member? RSVP required – Katie King, ext 6449 or email kingcath@elon.edu.
Making sense of your results from the new “Student Perceptions of Teaching” form
January 18th – 11:45-1:15 in Belk Pavilion 200
This discussion will focus on what and how faculty can learn from Elon’s new end-of-term teaching evaluation form, the Student Perceptions of Teaching. 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 just help faculty use the results to enhance teaching and learning. RSVP required – Katie King, ext 6449 or email kingcath@elon.edu.
Reading Groups
A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change
(2011) by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown (118 pages)
January 12th & 19th – 11:45-1:15 in Belk Pavilion 200.
Through exploring the forces of technological and cultural change, the authors invite us to imagine a future of learning that is both powerful and optimistic. The book presents play, innovation, and the cultivation of imagination as cornerstones of learning, working together to create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable and scalable. This reading group will facilitated by Alison Morrison-Shetlar and Ben McFadyen. Lunch will be available, so please RSVP, including any dietary restrictions, to Katie King (x6449; kingcath@elon.edu).
Lesson Study: Using Classroom Inquiry to Improve Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
(2011) by Bill Cerbin (138 pages)
January 3rd and 23rd – 11:45-1:15 in Belk Pavilion 200
Lesson study is a simple yet focused technique for studying learning in one aspect of a course. The lesson study technique originated among teachers in Japan, and has been adapted at the University of Wisconsin to study learning in college classrooms (the author directs the UW program). Lesson study is a powerful and efficient way for faculty to improve student learning. Peter Felten will facilitate this group, and participants will be invited (but obligated) to develop a lesson study project in the spring. Lunch will be available, so please RSVP, including any dietary restrictions, to Katie King (x6449; kingcath@elon.edu).
Course Design Group
Just-in-time course design
Faculty Group
Times and Location TBD by participants
Do you have a new course to teach in the spring? Are you still hoping to find the time to re-think a course you have taught before? We’re here to help! Sign up to be part of a course development group. We’ll meet three times over the lunch break during winter term. During each meeting, we’ll discuss each participant’s course — with group members responding to the questions/topics that most interest the person who is designing the course. If you are interested in joining a course development group this winter term, please email Katie King (kingcath@elon.edu).
Looking ahead to Spring and Summer
Coming Spring 2012
- Using small groups to coach thinking and teach disciplinary argument
- Designing and sequencing assignments to facilitate deep learning and critical thinking.
- We’ll also conduct a reading group on Whistling Vivaldi (2010) by Claude Steele, a Stanford psychologist and a leading scholar on identity development, diversity, and stereotype threat.
- And we will offer a new opportunity for learning from the best through Speed Teaching. Ever want to talk with teaching award winners about the secrets of their success? In “Speed Teaching” – a creative blend of pedagogy and “speed dating” – four award-winning professors each will quickly introduce one teaching technique that has worked for them with some interested faculty members. Attendees will have a short 15-minute “date” with one award winner, then move on to 15 minutes with another, and then 15 minutes with one more.
Visiting Scholars
- Derek Bruff (Vanderbilt), Feb. 20-22, to focus on both (1) using “clickers” and other technologies to deepen student engagement in class, and (2) writing in quantitative courses. http://derekbruff.com
- Charlie Blaich (Center for Inquiry in the Liberal Arts), March 7-8, to focus on implications for Elon of the Wabash National Study’s finding about what and how college students do (and don’t) learn. http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/study-overview/
And don’t forget about
- Diversity Infusion Project applications due in February
- Teaching and Learning Grant applications due in March
- CATL’s annual Writing Residency (May 29-June 1)
- Teaching Renewal Retreat for Mid-Career and Late-Career Faculty
Graylyn Conference Center in Winston-Salem, May 29th – June 1st, 2012
Last year the retreat, which included faculty from seven regional colleges and universities, was an overwhelming success. More information, including how to apply, coming soon.