In the CTL Library: Teaching with Your Mouth Shut

Donald Finkel’s Teaching With Your Mouth Shut (Heinemann, 2000) is both a teacher’s reflection on his life in the classroom and a useful guide for creating a more student-centered classroom.

Since I first added it to the CTL’s collection in the Faculty Reading Room, Finkel’s book has been incredibly popular with Stonehill faculty.

The McGraw Center at Princeton provides a concise summary of Finkel’s main points:

Undergraduate Research conference (Apr 16-18)

2009 National Conference
on Undergraduate Research

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

April 16-18, 2009

The first NCUR conference was conceived and implemented at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) in 1987.  That first conference drew more than 400 participants from schools across the country.  Now in existence for over twenty years, the conference regularly hosts 2,000 students and their faculty mentors to present their research through posters, oral presentations, visual arts and performances.

Read more about the conference here:

http://www.uwlax.edu/ncur2009/

“Culture Matters” Conference (Nov 21-22)

Culture Matters:
Designing Learning Environments
to Foster Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Competence

November 21-22, 2008
Bloomington, Minnesota

The goal of the “Culture Matters” conference is “to explore the premise that culture, in all of its manifestations, is emerging as a fundamental influence on teaching and learning in the 21st century.

NEFDC Fall Conference (Nov 14)

“Accessing Academic Excellence:
What Colleges Can Do to Promote Student Success”

New England Faculty Development Consortium
Friday, November 14, 2008
Worcester, Massachusetts

Students face a wide array of barriers to college success, ranging from academic preparation to financial pressures.  The Fall 2008 NEFDC conference seeks to explore innovative approaches in the retention and academic support of students.

AAC&U “Engaging Science” conference (Nov 6-8)

Engaging Science, Advancing Learning:
General Education, Majors, and the New Global Century

November 6 – 8, 2008
Providence, Rhode Island

An AAC&U-sponsored conference, “Engaging Science, Advancing Learning: General Education, Majors, and the New Global Century” will explore the place and practice of science in college learning for the twenty-first century.

New in the CTL library: Carol Dweck on Mindset

Now in the Faculty Reading Room is Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006).  Written for a popular audience, Mindset provides an overview of Dweck’s work of the past thirty years examining why some people are more likely to reach their potential than others.

Dweck’s major finding is that some people are more likely to understand traits, such as intelligence, talent, and ability, as fixed, while others see in them the possibility for growth.

For example, those with a “fixed” mindset believe that intelligence is a static, inherent trait that one either has or doesn’t.  Those with a “growth” mindset, on the other hand, believe that intelligence can be developed and improved upon with effort.

Dweck’s research shows that growth-oriented people are more likely to fulfill their potential.

Teaching Tip: Assign Group Roles

In a faculty consultation this week, the topic of group dynamics came up and the benefits that can come from assigning specific roles to students when you’re asking them to interact in groups (both when they’re working in small groups and during full-class discussions).

The faculty member asked me to research some resources related to group roles, and so I thought I might as well share what I found.

Some common roles are:

• Gatekeeper (makes sure that the group stays on topic)
• Timekeeper (keeps an eye on the clock and makes sure the group doesn’t spend too much time on one topic at the expense of other equally important topics)
• Recorder (keeps a written record of the group’s work so that ideas aren’t lost)
• Synthesizer (looks for ways to connect ideas and bring the discussion together)
• Skeptic (points out possible counter-arguments or points of view that haven’t been addressed)

International Lily Conference (Nov 20-23)

Millennial Learning: Teaching in the 21st Century

Miami University
Oxford, Ohio
November 20-23, 2008

The regional and international Lily Conferences have earned a wide following in their nearly 30-year history.  The International Lily Conference, in particular, serves for many as a “teaching retreat” as well as a conference.  Held in Miami University’s Marcum Center, the weekend is usually an energizing and informative event.

Read about conference presentations here:

http://celt.muohio.edu/lillycon/presenters.php

Call for Papers: Study Abroad Conference

Susan Atkins, our new Director of International Programs, passed along this call for papers that might be of interest to faculty involved in study abroad (for example, those who have incorporated international trips as part of a learning community).

The call comes from the Association of Academic Programs in Latin American and the Caribbean (AAPLAC) whose 2009 conference will focus on the theme of “The Role of Study Abroad in Preparing the Next Generation for the New ‘Global Century.’”

Review of Stanley Fish’s Save the World on Your Own Time

Steven G. Kellman writes this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education in response to Stanley Fish’s new book Save the World on Your Own Time (Oxford UP).  Fish, well known for castigating what he sees as the politicization of the classroom, argues for faculty to stick to their jobs — education for its own sake — and leave world-changing agendas outside the classroom.

Kellman counters this point, arguing that

Like fin-de-siècle aesthetes who tried to liberate literature, painting, and music from any responsibility except to their own formal perfection, Fish celebrates the uselessness of the liberal arts.