Public workshops I’ve facilitated through the Teaching Effectiveness Program:
- Basic Teaching Skills
- Metacognition
- Co-Teaching Strategies
- Getting Students to do the Reading
- Teaching with New Technology: Diigo Groups
- Inclusive Course Design
- Engaging Student Resistance
- Getting the Most Out of Group Work
- Getting to Know Your Students (a key to Belonging)
AY 2015-2016 Workshop Descriptions:
Basic Teaching Skills:
Sept 21 and 25, Sept 25, 9:00-3:00, Allan 140. Register here
As you prepare to lead your first sections, we’ll outline strategies for leading rich class discussions, encouraging students to prepare and participate, managing your group, preparing for exams, responding to student work, promoting critical thinking, working within the context and goals of the larger course and with your faculty mentor, and inhabiting an intermediary role between student and professor–and all the potential (and potential pressure) that comes with that. We’ll consider how this teaching work will support your own academic professionalization, and how to make the most of it.
Metacognition:
Metacognition Fall 2015 ppt
Metacognition, simply, is “thinking about one’s own thinking” (Cooper & Sandi-Urena 2009). Research shows that students who engage in metacognitive exercises perform better on exams, written assignments, and class discussions. Most importantly, thinking metacognitivly is important for students to gain independence and agency as thinkers. How then can we foster students’ ability to be metacognitive and to reflect on how and why they learn? After participating in this workshop, you will be able to design activities and assignments that enhance students’ metacognitive skills and integrate these activities into your courses.
Getting Students to do the Reading:
Virtually every teacher laments, at some time or another, that their students just haven’t read the assigned material(s). Virtually every teacher also laments that students miss critical concepts, information, or implications of the readings they do deign to pick up. It seems, to many, that it gets worse every year. These complaints are not without merit; according to one national study students spend about 40% less time on out-of-class homework today than students in 1961 (Babcock and Marks 2010). In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for designing and teaching courses in ways that maximize student motivation and ability to read difficult, important texts in your field.
Getting The Most Out of Group Work:
http://prezi.com/e304trfjjcm2/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Group work in class, or through larger out-of-class assignments, is now quite common across the curriculum. Despite its apparent popularity, however, many students (and faculty!) report hesitancy, if not downright hostility, to participating in group activities. In this workshop we will explore effective strategies for faculty to structure and facilitate group-based assignments and activities. By taking this workshop you will gain tools and resources for implementing various effective and creative group activities, as well as techniques for demonstrating the value of such activities to skeptical students.
Engaging Student Resistance:
Despite your best efforts to motivate and engage students, do you find that ‘the resistance’ is alive and well in your class? Do you encounter students who go beyond being merely passive and unmotivated, who actively resist learning or challenge yourself or the course? In this workshop we will learn about the sources from which students develop resistance to learning and discuss a number of strategies for engaging this resistance to make learning more valuable for all students. We’ll focus on student resistance to course content, especially issues of power, privilege, and difference. We’ll also address resistance to particular teaching and learning methods.