|
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), in conjunction with the Provost's Office, will sponsor several teaching events this year.
Teaching Arts Luncheons are faculty-led discussions on current pedagogical issues. They are held on Fridays from 12 to 1 in the College Club-Lower Level, where a buffet lunch is provided by the Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty, the Jacobson Center, and the Center for Teaching and Learning. All faculty are welcome to attend. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions for future events, please contact Borjana Mikic (Director, Center for Teaching and Learning).
September 25
Giving Shape to the Center for Teaching and Learning
Conversation led by Borjana Mikic (Director, Center for Teaching and Learning)
October 2
Capstone Experiences
Conversation led by Susannah Howe (Engineering)
November 6
Concentrations as Opportunities for Integrative Learning
Conversation led by Rosetta Cohen (Education & Child Study) and Susan Van Dyne (Program for the Study of Women and Gender)
November 13
Grading Fairly
Conversation led by Floyd Cheung (English) and Ginetta Candelario (Sociology/Latin American Studies)
November 20
Language and Culture Across the Curriculum
Conversation led by Janie Vanpee (French/Comparative Literature)
December 11
Writing Intensive 2009 Assessment
Conversation led by Julio Alves (Director, Jacobson Center) and Cate Rowan (Director, Institutional Research)
In addition to the Teaching Arts Lunches, the Center for Teaching and Learning will be hosting several informal 'brown bag' lunches on Fridays from 12 to 1 in Room 102 of the Campus Center. Topics are purposefully left open until the week in question in order to provide the opportunity to follow up on questions that emerge from prior discussions and to address pedagogical issues as they arise. A light dessert and beverages will be provided. Please bring your own lunch. Fall semester Brown Bag Lunches will be held on: October 9, October 16, & December 4.
The Center for Teaching & Learning will be hosting three informal lunches for new faculty (lunch is provided courtesy of the Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty). These events are meant to be relaxed opportunities to come together to share the successes and challenges of the semester in a safe and supportive environment. At our first meeting, we will use Ken Bane's book, What the Best College Teachers Do (distributed at New Faculty Orientation), as a launching point for discussion. Lunches will be held in the Red Room of the College Club on the following Mondays: October 5, November 2, and December 7.
Supported by the reconfigured Rappaport Fellows Program, the CTL is organizing a teaching – learning seminar for the 2009-2010 academic year. Led by Al Rudnitsky (Education & Child Study) and Glenn Ellis (Engineering), the seminar will build on the work of last year’s Kahn projects that explored the science of learning and its relevance to our work as teachers. The planned structure for this year’s seminar includes shared reading and discussion followed by “design experiments” in which faculty will try out new ideas in their own teaching.
Assessment of student learning emerged from the Kahn projects as a topic that held universal interest among faculty participants. All agreed that better teaching and learning were inextricably related to the quality of our assessments and that our assessments ought to measure the learning outcomes we most value.
An article entitled Efficiency and Innovation in Transfer [i] piqued faculty interest in developing better ways to assess student learning. The authors suggest that our current assessments tend to privilege narrow forms of transfer that feature replication rather than the interpretation and understanding that we want our students to develop. The authors go on to describe new forms of assessment that can shift the balance to more innovative uses of knowledge. Our teaching – learning seminar this year will begin with this reading and take on the challenge of designing assessments that are consistent with our goals for student learning.
Brown Bag Information Session: Friday, October 23, 2009 at 12:15 pm in Seelye 207 (dessert and beverages will be provided).
Due to the structure of the seminar, a limited number of participants can be accommodated. However, we aim to have a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives and experiences represented in the group. All interested faculty are encouraged to attend the October 23 session. If you are interested in participating in the seminar, but are unable to attend the brown bag lunch, please email Borjana Mikic at bmikic@smith.edu.
[i] Schwartz, D.L., Bransford, J.D., & Sears, D. (2005) Efficiency and Innovation in Transfer. In Mestre, J. (ed.) Transfer of learning: Research and Perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
November 6
1-4 p.m., location TBA (refreshments provided)
Discussion of common reading
November 20
1-4 p.m., location TBA (refreshments provided)
Planning the goals and structure for the Spring Seminar
Please contact Borjana Mikic, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (bmikic@smith.edu) with questions or suggestions. |
