New Faculty Seminar May 2nd

Teaching Outside the Classroom
Monday, May 2, 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.

Often it’s the relationships students build with faculty outside the classroom that are the most meaningful. So, for our final seminar will look ahead to next year, when many of you will be taking on formal student advising duties for the first time at Stonehill, as well as seeking out other opportunities to work with students outside the classroom.

During this session we’ll cover some of the basics of how advising works at Stonehill-and the resources available to advisors-and talk about other ways you can help mentor Stonehill students (SURE, Community Associates, club advising, etc.).

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.

New Faculty Seminar March 7th

How Students Learn
Monday, Mar 7, 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.

Understanding some of the basics of learning theory can help you be more deliberate in planning your classes. In March we’ll review some research into the biology of learning and discuss what it means when we talk about student “learning styles” and how to accommodate them.

New Faculty Seminar February 7th

Diversity and Social Justice
Monday, Feb 7, 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.

Whether or not we’re teaching content that addresses questions of diversity and/or social justice, the challenge of creating classroom environments that are inclusive and respectful of all students is one that all instructors face. This month we’ll talk about the fundamentals of inclusive pedagogy and discuss strategies for managing emotionally-charged and other kinds of “difficult” classroom conversations.

Teacher’s Bookshelf: The Skillful Teacher

Stephen D. Brookfield. The Skillful Teacher. On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. 2nd. Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.

If I were asked to recommend one book that I think every faculty member of the college should read, it would be Brookfield’s classic in its second edition, an engagingly written introduction to teaching, which combines a gentle introduction to pedagogical theory with numerous practical suggestions for every teacher—from the newly minted Ph.D. to the seasoned veteran—that will improve performance in the classroom.

From “core assumptions of skillful teaching” and a chapter on how to survive emotionally the onslaughts of our chosen profession, to sections on how to lecture creatively, increase students’ participation in discussion, or respond to resistance, it’s all here.

To my mind, though, the best chapter is the fourth, where Brookfield addresses “what students value in teachers,” asserting that they learn best when credibility and authenticity are held in a state of ”congenial tension” (57).

The attributes that establish credibility include expertise, experience (in one’s field as well as in the classroom), conviction (our sense of the importance that students “get” what we are teaching), and rationale, which Brookfield defines as the ability to “talk out loud the reasons for . . . classroom decisions, course design, and evaluative criteria” (63).

Sections of Brookfield’s  discussion of authenticity may raise some eyebrows.  He claims we must manifest congruence between what we say we will do and what we do; full disclosure (“regularly making public the criteria, expectations, agendas and assumptions that guide [one’s] practice”); responsiveness (convincing students that what you are teaching actually will help them); and personhood (the more controversial part): one’s ability to allow students to know that we are indeed human beings with personal lives outside the classroom (67-71).

Brookfield’s reflections on this final attribute and the problem of balancing self-disclosure and professional boundaries is typical of the book as a whole—nuanced, clear, and brief.

John Lanci
Professor, Religious Studies

New Faculty Seminar December 6th

Evaluating Student Learning
Monday, Dec 6, 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.

With the end of the semester drawing near, we’ll use our December meeting to talk about evaluating your students’ learning and other challenges related to grading: How do we design tests and other assignments so that they match with our learning goals for a class? What alternatives are there to assessing learning aside from tests and essays? How do we provide students sufficient feedback about their performance without overwhelming our own workloads?

New Faculty Seminar November 1st

The Learning-Centered Classroom
Monday, Nov 1, 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.

Contemporary classrooms are shifting more and more away from a “teacher-centered” focus and increasingly toward a “student-centered” or “learning-centered” approach. Such approaches seek to shift the intellectual work of the class from the instructor to the student-recognizing that, in the end, it’s the students themselves who have to do the learning in our courses.

In November we’ll talk about some simple techniques for creating more learning-centered courses as well as other student-centered pedagogies, such as problem-based learning, community-based learning, and team-based learning.

New Faculty Seminar October 4th

Assessing Teaching for Yourself and Others
Monday, Oct 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.

About a month into the semester, you might be wondering what exactly your students are thinking about your class. So this month we’ll talk about methods for gathering formative feedback from your students and discuss strategies for taking some control of the teaching evaluation process: How do student evaluations work at Stonehill – and how do they “count”? How can I collect feedback to help me improve my teaching? What can I do now to start making the case for my teaching effectiveness?

New Faculty Seminar September 1st

Increasing Student Motivation
Wednesday, Sept 1, 11:30 – 12:45 (classes on a Monday schedule)
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.

One of the biggest challenges that faculty can face is figuring out how we (who were once highly-motivated students who chose to make learning our profession) can inspire some passion for learning in our students (who might not share our devotion to inquiry).

So for our first seminar, we’ll discuss what psychologists and other behavioral scientists have to tell us about motivation-and how we can apply these theories in our own classrooms. You should leave with some simple, concrete ideas that you can apply right away in your own teaching.