2009-2010 Teaching Effectiveness Program
Reflections on using student response
systems to enhance in-class participation
With Professors Jocelyn Aubrey, Ralph Shiell and Alan Slavin
October 16, 2009; 1.5 hours
View the workshop summary.
Student response systems (clickers) are being used in twenty-two courses from within the Departments of Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Forensic Science, Math, Physics & Astronomy, Psychology and the School of Education. In this teaching presentation Jocelyn Aubrey, Ralph Shiell and Alan Slavin - three faculty members who have used clickers for several years - will share their reflections on the impact of this technology on their teaching and on their students' level of engagement. They will also share feedback that they have received from their students, both informally through conversation and formally through questionnaires/course evaluations.
Faculty members who are interested in adopting clicker technology in their courses for the winter term are asked to contact the Trent University Bookstore and the Instructional Development Centre prior to October 31, 2009.
Academic Emotions: Simple ways to reduce anxiety in our students
With Wendy Kelly, Department of Psychology
November 2, 2009; 1.5 hours
This teaching conversation will focus on the interplay between students' emotions and their comfort and performance in academic settings. Specifically, the forum will focus on methods to reduce student anxiety in different disciplines. Please come prepared to share examples of how anxiety affects your students' progress and ways that you may explicitly or implicitly reduce that anxiety.
How to write a lot: A summary of a systematic approach to increasing your productivity
With Professor Elaine Scharfe, Department of Psychology
November 17, 2009 & December 16, 2009; 1.5 hours
This workshop is based on Paul Silvia’s book "How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing" and is for anyone who has had any of the following thoughts in the past few months: I can’t find time to write, I would write more if only I could find a big block of time in my weekly schedule, I would write more if I had a better chair (or a better computer or a better desk or a better pen or a better office), I am waiting until I feel like it, or It is a shame that article (or book) is on hold until the summer. In this workshop, one approach to increasing your writing productivity will be presented (Silvia, 2007). Several well known techniques for changing behaviour will be explained and participants will be guided through several introductory exercises. The workshop will not remove all the guilt and anxiety from writing process but it may be a start.
Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops for the workshop exercises (alternatively, exercises can be completed on paper).
Managing the University Classroom
with Meri Kim Oliver, Associate Vice President, Student Services
January 13, 2010: 2 hours
The profile of a university campus has changed in many ways that have had direct and indirect impact on the campus classroom. One of the fundamental changes that affects the classroom setting is the profile of the individual student and of the university cohort as a whole. Diversity, disability, rights, parental involvement, shifting social norms, expectations of technology . . . all change the classroom experience. What hasn’t changed is that faculty have the most consistent contact with students and the greatest opportunity to observe when deeper issues than shifting social norms are becoming visible in individual students. Depression, anger, stress or threats of harm can become visible in behaviours or in written assignments, before being visible elsewhere on campus.
- Do you know when a behaviour is threatening versus merely odd?
- Do you have strategies for classroom management that help to identify when a student is no longer able to function well in the classroom environment?
- What are indicators in written assignments that should raise your concerns?
- Do you know what is required of you by law when you become aware of a student who may be a risk to self or others?
The workshop time will be spent on the following:
- The student profile in 2010.
- What the profile means for the classroom and the institution.
- Identifying risk behaviour.
- Balancing the rights of the individual with the rights of the other students in the class.
- What about your rights as a faculty member?
- Safety first.
- Resources.
This workshop will incorporate case studies and discussion into the presentation.
Promoting Student Participation
with Professor Deborah Berrill, School of Education and Professional Learning
January 19, 2010; 1.5 hours
Getting students to offer their ideas in class can sometimes be challenging. Too often, just a few students dominate, and, in turn, the quieter students further silence themselves. A variety of instructional strategies can be used to ensure that every person speaks; that they feel safe in speaking; and that their contributions are meaningful. In this workshop, participants will share ideas that they use and will also experience a number of different strategies that they can use 'the next class' in their own teaching -- both to get discussions started and to prompt critical reflection.
Academic Integrity and Indigenous Knowledge Traditions
with Professor David Newhouse, Indigenous Studies
January 19, 2010; 2 hours
This workshop examines indigenous knowledge traditions and their use in the development of academic integrity practices within the academy.
Communicating Science: the role of public science literacy and the media
with Lydia Dotto, Instructor, ERSC-350 Environment and Communication
January 28, 2010; 1.5 hours
The influence of science in public policy and in the daily lives of citizens is growing rapidly. This has created a demand for scientific experts to explain complex issues to non-scientific audiences, including the media, political leaders, community groups, educators and the public at large.
Unfortunately, scientists rarely receive training in the techniques of popular science communication. The skills they use to communicate within their peer groups are generally inadequate to get their message across effectively to the wider community.
This presentation will focus on one of the key elements of good science communication: understanding non-scientific audiences and the context in which they receive information. If scientists wish to improve their ability to communicate with these groups, they must be aware of the state of public scientific literacy and understand the rapidly-evolving role of the media and new communications technologies in disseminating scientific information.
Student Teams: Creating Contexts for Success
with Professor Asaf Zohar, Business Administration
February 5, 2010; 1.5 hours
In this workshop Asaf Zohar will address the challenges,opportunities and strategies for successful team performance. The following core teambuilding strategies and skills will be examined: characteristics, development stages, & conflict management approaches of successful teams; methods for effective teamwork, communication, and the importance of team contracts.
Eliminating Class from the Classroom:
Some Lessons from Paulo Freire
with Sheilagh Knight, Lecturer, Modern Languages and Literatures
February 23, 2010; 1.5 hours
Paulo Freire is arguably the world's best known pedagogue. Author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Professora Sim, Tia Não (translated into English as Teachers as Cultural Workers), Freire contributed greatly to debates on equality in education, notably looking at class as a predominant feature influencing pedagogy. In this presentation, we will do a concise synopsis of Freire's contributions to pedagogy and discuss what relevance these ideas might have in today's classroom.
Creating an Online Skills Workbook:
The Experience of History
with Professor Fiona Harris-Stoertz, Department of History
March 12, 2010; 1.5 hours
Students arrive at Trent with widely varying skills. How do we, as instructors of first year courses, ensure that students have the basic skills necessary to do the work expected of them in our first year classes and in the upper year? In the History department, our problem is compounded by our recent move to having many of our first year seminars taught by graduate teaching assistants. With up to 20 different tutorial leaders in a course, some of them first year MA students new to Trent, it is challenging to ensure that first year students receive consistent training in basic skills. For many years we’ve relied on publications from the Academic Skills Centre, but these are not specifically written for History students and will soon no longer be available as ASC withdraws from publishing.
In response to this problem, a team consisting of two experienced GTAs, a staff member from the Academic Skills Centre, and a History faculty member have created an Online History Skills Workbook. The initial project, funded by a Learning Innovations Grant and an Academic Innovation Fund Grant, was designed to serve our largest first year course, History 1500, but we hope to develop the resource further this summer and make it available to all History course instructors. The goal was to create a series of learning modules, each focussing on a specific History skill. These included such subjects as note-taking, critical reading, library skills, essay construction, grammar, creating outlines, research techniques, etc. Students were expected to read a module before each seminar, and then seminar leaders discussed the modules with their students, working through practice exercises. In developing the project, we consulted with History faculty and graduate students, the Disability Service Office, the library, and especially the Academic Skills Centre who generously allowed us to adapt some existing materials.
We tried to make the modules accessible to a variety of learning styles in accordance with the principles of Universal Instructional Design, although there is much we can improve upon in this area.
Participants in the workshop will be given the opportunity to examine the workbook and discuss how it could be improved or adapted for other courses and disciplines (you are welcome to build on our work for your own programs). Topics covered will include:
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What can we expect from incoming students?
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The process of constructing an Online Skills Workbook
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Catering to different learning styles
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The workbook in the classroom: has it worked?
Developing and Nurturing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy
with Professor David Poole, Mathematics
March 22, 2010; 2 hours
Increasingly, the requirements for appointment to academic faculty
positions, tenure and promotion decisions, nominations for teaching
awards, and grants in support of teaching innovation include a
statement of teaching philosophy. Often, such a statement forms part
of a larger teaching dossier or portfolio but it may also need to
stand on its own. In this workshop we will discuss what makes a good
teaching philosophy statement, how to develop one, and how it may
change over time.
Examples will be given to illustrate some of the salient features of
a good teaching philosophy statement and participants will be asked
to share their own ideas. This session will hopefully prove useful
both to those beginning to develop their teaching philosophy
statements and to those who already have one.
This session will incorporate exercises and discussion into the presentation.
Conversation in Motion:
Combining Second-Language Learning with Dance
with Rita Granda, Instructor, Modern Languages and Literatures, Trent in Oshawa
March 25, 2010; 1 hour
Last semester, a new approach was implemented for practising the oral component of second-language learning at the Trent in Oshawa campus. The traditional Spanish conversation hour was replaced with Latin dance classes in the hopes of enhancing the retention of grammar and vocabulary by adding motion to the conversation. This hypothesis arose from recent studies on the importance of gesturing in language learning but it also attempts to address the varied needs of musical, kinetic and spatial learners in language classes. Presumably, the repetitive musical environment in the dance class would encourage students to express themselves in Spanish, their speech would then be linked to a pleasurable kinetic experience and retention would be enhanced further through voluntary practice outside of class. Seventeen students in second-year Spanish participated in 10 one-hour Latin dance classes. Initial results are encouraging, though there were some unanticipated revelations.