1. Motivating Student Learning

Motivation is critical for all learning. Without a real need or desire to learn something, whether acquiring information, developing a skill, or deepening understanding, learning simply does not occur. Motiveless learning is shallow learning, which does not take root as enduring knowledge. In this workshop, we will consider what motivates students to learn, and how we can invite them, even incite them, to engage purposefully with the work of our courses. Participants can expect to come away with practical strategies to motivate their students’ learning, in part by considering what motivates their own learning, and in part by considering what learning science research says about motivation.

2. Syllabus and Course Design Essentials

A syllabus is one of the first things to consider when developing a new course or revising one formerly or frequently taught. A syllabus is frequently taken for granted and often not given the full consideration it merits. This workshop begins by asking  fundamental questions: just what is a syllabus, anyway? What are its purposes? How might a syllabus be conceptualized? What metaphors might we imagine for a syllabus and what do they imply about the purpose and nature of our courses and our teaching practices? Through considering these and related questions, participants can expect to freshen and deepen their thinking about the ways a syllabus serves not only to introduce a course and its requirements, but also as ways to contextualize a course and affirm its value for students in their personal as well as their academic lives.

3. The Power of Active Learning

“Active Learning” is a broad term for an approach to teaching that requires students to demonstrate their learning through doing things, making things, and demonstrating their understanding. Active learning provides an alternative to more passive forms of knowledge acquisition, such as listening to lectures and copying information from slides, books, boards, or screens. Active learning shifts the focus from teachers to students. Research confirms that when students take an active role in their learning, they improve their conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. In this workshop we will consider the benefits and the challenges of using active learning pedagogical strategies, including gaining student buy-in for active learning. Participants can expect to come away with practical and effective active learning strategies to employ in their classroom teaching.

4. Effective Discussion-based Teaching

In college and university seminars and other small classes, teaching often takes the form of discussion, which provides a useful complement and alternative to lecturing. Leading productive discussion classes requires both preparation and practice. Effective discussions occur when they possess an explicit, clearly-defined purpose, and when they are summarized and assessed. Good discussions, moreover, are grounded in questions that generate productive thinking for students and instructors alike. Like other active-learning pedagogical strategies, discussion-based teaching needs to be goal directed and learner centered. In this workshop we will consider the benefits and limitations of discussion, along with challenges in its use. Participants can expect to derive clear principles and effective practices for generating and sustaining discussion in their classes, including techniques for responding to students and having them engage in productive cross-talk with one another.

5. Successful Lecturing

The lecture has a long and distinguished history in university life and beyond. Originating in ancient Greece and wildly popular during the European middle ages, the lecture persists in university education worldwide as the primary mode of instruction. In this workshop we will consider the benefits and drawbacks of the lecture, including how to lecture effectively in differing academic environments, across disciplines, schools, and programs. Participants can expect to derive clear principles of and purposes for lecturing, along with effective lecturing practices, among them lecturing as storytelling and lecturing as identifying and resolving problems. An additional consideration will be how to make lectures engaging for students, including strategies for developing interactive lectures.

6. Making Learning Stick

One of the biggest challenges confronting teachers and their students is not learning per se, but making learning last beyond the immediate present, beyond midterm and final exams, beyond the semester—making learning endure for the long haul. We want our students to leave our courses having learned for good what we have to teach. In this workshop, we will consider the obstacles to long-lasting learning, including cramming, along with specific strategies to overcome that and other unproductive learning habits. Participants can expect to come away with the key principles for enduring learning and successful practices for the classroom and beyond that are grounded in recent learning science.

7. Embarrassment & Learning

One of the greatest impediments to learning is fear, and one of students’ greatest fears is the fear of embarrassment. Students are often afraid to expose their weak or limited understanding. They are afraid of failure, of not understanding key concepts, even perhaps of feeling they don’t belong in college at all. Embarrassment and its attendant emotional baggage cut close to students’ sense not just of what they know and understand, but of who they are. In this workshop, participants will explore the social aspects of teaching and learning, using embarrassment and fear as springboards to consider other related impediments to student learning. Participants can expect to come away with a fuller understanding of the emotional elements of learning, along with strategies to overcome the challenges that embarrassment and other socio-emotional aspects of classroom experience bring.

8. Providing Effective Explanations

One of the most essential of all teaching practices is explanation. Much of what we do as teachers requires explaining. But just what are we doing when we explain something to students? What is explanation, anyway? In this workshop, we will explore these fundamental questions, comparing common elements of explanation across disciplines (and identifying particular explanatory aspects of different disciplines). Participants can expect from this interactive workshop analysis of what constitutes good explanations, along with specific examples and strategies for providing effective explanations in their teaching.

9. Assessment & Grading

Assessment is not grading, and grading is not assessment—though the two are often conflated and sometimes confused. Instead of seeing these two forms of evaluation as the same, we need to distinguish between them. When we grade students’ work, we evaluate their performance against a standard that can be explained with a rubric. When we assess a student’s work, we evaluate its level of proficiency as a work in progress or development. Grades are final in a way that assessments are not. In this workshop, we will consider why we grade, what we grade, and how we grade. We will explore grading criteria, rubrics, and challenges. And we will identify some useful assessment tools to measure student understanding. Participants can expect to gain a fuller understanding of the nature and purpose of assessment and grading, along with some practical strategies for using these evaluative tools effectively.