Congratulations to Professor Sheckler!

Congratulations to Professor Allyson Sheckler for being awarded the Louise F. Hegarty Award for Excellence in Teaching. Go here to read more about Professor Sheckler’s teaching accomplishments.

Upcoming conferences for Community-Based Learning

Nuala Boyle passed along these suggestions for some upcoming conferences related to community-based learning and civic engagement.

• 7th International Research Conference on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, October 6-9, 2007 in Tampa, Florida.
• 6th International Conference on Imagination and Education, January 29-31, 2008 at the Rydges Hotel by the Lake in Canberra, Australia
• 12th Annual Institute: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, February 7-8, 2008 on the campus of Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan
• Community-University Partnerships: Connecting for Change, May 4-7, 2008 in Victoria, BC, Canada

To learn more about community-based learning opportunities at Stonehill, see the website for the Office of Community Service & Volunteerism. Be sure to check out this list of recent Stonehill courses that have incorporated community-based learning.

CFP: Association for Core Texts and Courses Annual Conference (proposals due 11/1)

Thanks to John Lanci and Anna Lännström (who have both presented at this conference) for pointing out this recent call for papers:

The Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) Fourteenth Annual Conference

“Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts”

Thursday, April 3 – Sunday, April 6, 2008
Radisson Hotel, Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts

An excerpt from the CFP:

“Readers and teachers of core texts might, at once, accept and challenge Tocqueville’s analogy as an approach to the question of “Who are we?” Surely, each individual is reared in circumstances which bring the traditions, institutions, and habits of civilizations and cultures, governments and associations, education, religion, and family to bear on forming who they are up to that age (be it 18 or 45) when a person decides to go to college. But the encounters of new college students with core texts and the hopes and convictions of teachers in core text programs seem to say, “college is a new beginning for you.” If this beginning is really new, then it would seem that the answers to “Who are we?” should be very different for students at the beginning and end of a baccalaureate. What difference, then, might core texts make to the answers to this question? Is there a maturity which we expect, and can we direct our programs and our readings of core texts toward helping achieve that? Do we remain just as we were, or are we radically changed after encounters through core texts with ourselves or the other?”

To download the entire CFP and read more about the conference, click this link: actc-2008-conference-announcement.doc

Weekly “Teaching Tips” from Richard Lyons

Dr. Richard Lyons is an independent consultant on instructional development who hosts a weekly “teaching tip” on his website, developfaculty.com.

To check out this week’s tip (on Teaching Styles), or some previous tips, click here.

“Spirituality, Liberal Learning, and College Student Engagement”

The Teagle Foundation has established a new blog for discussing undergraduates’ engagements with religion, both in and outside the classroom. To read more about the blog’s development, go here. And the blog itself is located at:

http://www.teaglefoundation.org/liblog/default.aspx?bid=3

The Foundation’s website also has links to a 2006 essay written by George Kuh (who will be the keynote at the NEFDC conference listed below under “SOTL Conferences in November”). An excerpt from Kuh’s essay, “Spirituality, Liberal Learning, and College Student Engagement” is below:

“Our analyses revealed three noteworthy patterns:

1. Students who frequently engage in spirituality-enhancing practices also participate more in a broad cross-section of collegiate activities. [. . .]

2. Institutional mission and campus culture matter more to spirituality and liberal learning outcomes than most other institutional characteristics. [. . .]

3. Students at faith-based colleges engage in spiritual practices more and gain more in this area, but participate less often in certain other activities associated with liberal education outcomes.”

Read Kuh’s essay in its entirety here.

SOTL Conferences and Workshops in November

There are three conferences coming up in November that all sound promising. Note, in particular, the one-day NEFDC conference being held nearby in Worcester.

November 3 – 5: IUPUI Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, IN.

November 9: NEFDC fall conference, “Engaged Learning: Fostering Student Success” at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA (Stonehill has an institutional membership to the NEFDC, so all Stonehill participants can register for a reduced rate).

November 15 – 18: International Lily Conference on College Teaching at Miami U. in Oxford, OH.

See the post below regarding grant opportunities to fund Stonehill faculty travel to these conferences!

SOTL/Pedagogy Grant and Instructional Technology Grant: applications due 9/14

The first round of applications for the SOTL/Pedagogy grant and Instructional Technology grant (formerly the Pedagogy and Technology grant) will be due by the end of the day Friday, September 14th. All Stonehill faculty are welcome to apply for these funds.

Various types of proposals relevant to teaching and learning will be considered. For example, we welcome requests to:

- attend an instructional technology workshop;
- present at or attend a pedagogy-related conference;
- purchase instructional equipment, software, or media;
- fund research-related expenses for a SOTL-related project; and
- invite local pedagogical scholars to campus for departmental workshops.

Full details and applications can be downloaded by clicking the links below:

Instructional Technology Grant

SOTL/Pedagogy Grant

If you have questions about any aspect of the application process, please contact Stacy Grooters at sgrooters@stonehill.edu.

Beloit’s “Mindset List” for Class of 2011 released

If you’d like to check out what the folks at Beloit College have come up with as the gauges for this year’s incoming 18-year-olds, see the “mindset list” here.

CFP: (Re)Constructing Queer Pedagogy

A call to form a panel for the 39th Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Convention to be held April 10-13, 2008 in Buffalo, New York.

An excerpt from the CFP: “What is the role of the queer instructor in the classroom? What is the role of the non-queer instructor in the queer classroom? What constitutes a queer pedagogy? What are the practical concerns, limitations, and advantages of such approaches? Which pedagogical strategies create a queer-affirmative space in the classroom and/or the academy? How might we as instructors employ, expand, and combine different pedagogical approaches (expressivist, collaborative, cultural studies, feminist, social epistemic, etc.) to construct an anti-oppressive/queer pedagogical space? What are the implications of and the institutional barriers to such pedagogical models?”

For the complete call, click here.

CFP: Mid America Theatre Conference 2008 Pedagogy Symposium

From the CFP:  “Guided by the overall conference focus on THTR 2 DA MAX, the Mid America Theatre Conference Pedagogy Symposium seeks complete panel proposals, discussion sessions, and workshop demonstrations that somehow attend to notions of Xtreme-ness. Given this, we encourage all submissions to push  accepted notions of “pedagogy”, “theatre”, and “performance” to their limits by way of suggesting and sharing an array of information exchanges (broadly defined) drawn from both within and without what might be considered by the academy as conventional learning environments. In the end we are looking for critical engagements that reach across boundaries, cross disciplinary borders, and reflect upon learner-centered approaches to  creative-scholarly praxis.”

For the complete call, click here.