SOTL Research Methods Series

The CTL is happy to kick off its first SOTL Research Methods Series April 12th.  Drawing on the expertise of our Stonehill colleagues, the series is meant to give faculty opportunities to think about how different disciplinary research methods can be applied in their research on teaching and pedagogy (often termed the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, or SOTL).

Each session will consist of a 15 minute presentation on a standard research method followed by 45 minutes of discussion about how that method might be used in various SOTL projects.  All faculty are welcome to attend!

If you have any questions, contact the CTL Faculty Fellow, John Lanci (ext. 1239) or CTL Director, Stacy Grooters (ext. 1324).

Find the full schedule below or on the CTL website.

Teacher’s Bookshelf: New Directions for Teaching and Learning

Marilla D. Svinicki and Catherine M. Wehlburg, eds. Landmark Issues in Teaching and Learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 123. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Fall, 2010.

Back in 2004, Stonehill received a generous grant from the Davis Foundation in order to promote better teaching and learning at the college. A part of the plan was to open a center for teaching and learning in the room that now houses the Math Lounge in Duffy. At the time, I was sliding into an experience of mid-career faculty burnout—the kind where you would light your hair (if you have any) and jump from a building rather than confront another first year religion class—and so when word went out that the college needed someone to get the center up and running, I volunteered for the job.

Notes from “Information Literacy” roundtable

Last week’s roundtable, led by librarians Patricia McPherson and Heather Perry, discussed their research on the impact of library instruction on students’ information literacy skills.

Working specifically with students in history, McPherson and Perry found that after a more traditional library instruction session — what they term a “one-shot session” — students still struggled with some of the basics of research literacy (for example, crafting a focused research question).

In order to address this lack, the two have been experimenting in their library instruction sessions with active learning pedagogies focused on course-specific topics and texts.  Preliminary results have shown particular success with problem-based learning strategies using course-specific cases.

To see an example of one of these problem-based approaches, you can download their full powerpoint presentation.

New Faculty Seminar April 4th

Teaching with Technology
Monday, Apr 4, 11:30 – 12:45
Duffy 114 Conference Room

The New Faculty Seminar is meant to continue the discussions begun at New Faculty Orientation about teaching and the other professional obligations of new faculty at Stonehill — as well as to provide new faculty a “safe” place for discussing their experiences (good and bad) throughout the year.

In April, we’ll talk about how technology can aid students’ learning in your classes. We’ll talk both about general principles for pedagogically effective ways of using technology and about some specific technologies in use at Stonehill. If there’s time, we’ll also discuss the growing number of “Web 2.0″ and other online tools that can be adapted for classroom use.

Intro to Digital Humanities (free online event)

NITLE (the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education) is hosting a free, web-hosted event for scholars interested in joining the national (and international) conversation on the digital humanities.

Being held via the Elluminate online portal on Friday, March 25th from 4:00 – 5:00 pm (EST).

The organizers hope to provide a forum specifically targeted to those who might not have digital humanities resources on their own campuses or in their own regions, and those who might not have a sense of where to get started learning about the people and practices associated with the digital humanities.

Recognizing that the digital humanities has a long history of practice, the panelists will introduce participants to a variety of online communities in which the digital humanities are discussed, conferences where one might be exposed to relevant conversations, and centers that focus on developing familiarity and fluency with digital humanities tools.

To register, email Rebecca Davis at rdavis@nitle.org.  For more information see the NITLE website.

 

Pedagogy Travel Grant deadline April 1st

April 1st is the next deadline for the CTL’s Travel Pedagogy Grant. Proposals can be submitted online here.

Visit the CTL’s website to read the application guidelines and to see examples of past proposals that have been funded.

Notes from “Course Preparation Assignments” roundtable

In a July 2006 article in Teaching Sociology, David Yamane proposed the idea of “Course Preparation Assignments: A Strategy for Creating Discussion-Based Courses.”

Profs. William Ewell and Robert Rodgers (Political Science) have since expanded on Yamane’s work and have been researching its effectiveness in their own teaching.  They presented on the basics of Course Preparation Assignments (or CPAs) at last week’s Teaching Roundtable.

Basically, a CPA is a short (“snappy”), low-stakes assignment that asks students to engage with the reading before coming to class.  Often asking them to apply what they’ve learned to a real world problem or current event, CPAs encourage students to engage in higher level thinking and to take ownership of the material.  Furthermore, they prepare students to engage more actively in class discussions and other class activities.

Teaching Roundtable: Course Preparation Assignments

Course Preparation Assignments
part of the CTL’s Teaching Roundtable Series

Wednesday, March 9, 2011
1:00 – 2:15 PM
Duffy 114 Conference Room

A common challenge faculty face is motivating students to do the work they need to do outside of class so that they are prepared to participate in class. Yet the options we have for encouraging preparation–reflection papers, quizzes, impassioned pleas–sometimes fall short. To provide a constructive perspective on this question, William Ewell and Rob Rodgers (Political Science) will share their experiments with a pedagogical technique known as “course preparation assignments” (CPAs).

This instructional tool provides students opportunities for significant guided learning beyond the classroom through low stakes writing assignments that emphasize critical thinking and analysis of assigned primary or secondary source materials. Profs. Rodgers and Ewell will explain the basics of CPAs and invite conversation about how they can be utilized in specific courses across the disciplines.

Find the full Teaching Roundtable schedule here.

Notes from “Learning Theories and Technology” Roundtable

Last week’s roundtable on “Learning Theories and Technology,” led by Prof. Brian Glibkowski (Business Administration) raised interesting questions about the relationship between pedagogy, content, and technology.

Working from interviews with Stonehill faculty, Prof. Glibkowski presented a model for thinking about the different ways technology can intersect with learning in the classroom.

He argued for an integrated approach that recognizes the potential of technology to improve efficiency and pedagogy in the classroom — and is flexible enough to allow for customization across multiple disciplines.

Go here to download the slides from the full presentation, including examples of specific classroom technologies and the kinds of pedagogical problems they can address.

Find the full Spring 2011 Teaching Roundtable schedule here.

Teaching Tip: Critical Incident Questionnaire

Today’s Teaching Tip is written by the CTL Faculty Fellow, John Lanci (Religious Studies).

Sometimes when introducing new material or trying to breathe new life into the tried and perhaps no longer true, I don’t want to wait until the end of the semester to discover if the New was also the Effective. I want current, concrete responses to what we have done in class to discover if students “got” what we did and to help me figure out where to go next.

In the second edition of his book, The Skillful Teacher, Stephen D. Brookfield provides a tool for just such an occasion: the Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ). He created the CIQ to help us get a handle on “how students experience their learning and [our] teaching” (Brookfield 41). The CIQ consists of a single page with five or six questions that students can fill out during the last five minutes of class.