This overview is intended to help faculty recognize and respond effectively to a broad range of culturally diverse students. Aimed at raising awareness and using tools and strategies to respond with respect and dignity, the goal is to help participants create a rich learning environment that encourages student participation and maximizes learning outcomes.

This 2-hour workshop will allow us to examine in detail aspects of non-verbal cues which occur in the teaching/learning environment. We will explore what research says about the first three minutes we teach a class and look in detail at messages sent and received between faculty and students that can lead to both effective and ineffective environments. We will interact with each other and analyze pseudo-teaching segments. Careful attention will be paid to today’s diverse classroom environment with an examination of the impact of generation, gender, second career and second culture on the interpretation of non-verbal cues. The goal is that everyone will leave the session sharing a desire to get back in the classroom and experiment!

If a teacher aspires to teach in ways that promote learning, what does that teacher do about the nuts and bolts of instructional practice?  What would that teacher do about attendance, assignments, tests, papers, lecturing, group work, classroom management, content and grades?  How does the teacher balance the learning needs of today’s college students with the content and skills demands of degree and professional programs?
 
These questions will be the focus of an interactive session on teaching that promotes learning.  It will be based on a book, Learner Centered Teaching, that identifies five areas of instructional practice relevant to how much and how well students learn.  In addition to proposing and exploring a variety of concrete, practical strategies and details associated with successfully implementing learner-centered approaches, the session will challenge faculty to consider who’s responsible for what in the teaching learning process.

Most college teachers begin their careers full of enthusiasm for teaching. But their idealistic goals and the realities of academic careers often collide, leaving teachers with tarnished goals and sometimes cynical perspectives. Beliefs about teaching directly impact practice in the classroom. Some increase instructional effectiveness and contribute to long term growth. What are those assumptions on which solid instructional practice can be set and what beliefs foster the growth and development of teachers? The goal of the session: propose ways of thinking about growth and change that can increase both the motivation to teach and effectiveness in the classroom. Session content will be drawn from Inspired College Teaching.

This seminar will present and discuss the basic concepts of teaching critical thinking. Helen will lead the attendees in the completion of some critical thinking exercises and then move on to discuss how to implement critical thinking skills in the classroom. Helen will demonstrate how to build critical thinking categories and activities up to and including students’ tests and assignments. Helen will also explore how to create questioning and discussion sequences.

Rubrics - bridging the gap between expectation and performance. Explore the combination of effective instruction, efficient management, and authentic assessment that rubrics can provide for your course. We’ll consider their design, construction, and use as well as showcase their versatility in comparing outcomes and establishing standards. If validity, reliability, and utility are crucial components in your assessment and evaluation efforts, this workshop’s for you. You will leave the session with assessment dimensions to consider, templates to use, and with increased confidence in grading consistency.

Multiple-choice tests are the most widely used form of objective assessment in college and university settings, but using them effectively is not always a simple matter. Critics point out that multiple-choice questions are often poorly written, and moreover that they tend to focus on memorization at the expense of higher-level thinking. It is important to realize, however, that with proper training, these shortcomings can be avoided. Because writing structurally sound, high-quality items requires some expertise, we will begin our session by considering guidelines that can make the task much easier. We will then go on to consider how to write multiple-choice items that assess students’ higher-level thinking rather than their ability to remember facts. This session is designed to provide instructors with very practical tips that they can start using immediately in their everyday teaching.