January Teaching Workshop

Monday, January 13, 2003

Approaching our teaching in a scholarly way includes taking time to consider and analyze teaching issues with colleagues. This year the January Teaching Workshop addresses a wide variety of teaching concerns. Check for interesting topics, and attend whatever sessions you can.

8:15-8:50 CHECK-IN AND ON-SITE REGISTRATION

9:00-9:20 WELCOME
Gene Block, Provost, Alumni Council Thomas Jefferson Professor of Biology

9:30-11:30 CONCURRENT SESSIONS

Cooperative Learning: A Panel Discussion
Jahan Ramazani, Richard A. and Sara Page Mayo/NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor of English, 2001-04
Dean Harman, Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professor of Chemistry, 1997-99
Lisa Reilly, Horace Goldsmith/NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor of Art and Architectural History, 1999-2002
How can you stimulate thoughtful and productive exchanges between students, whether in large or small classes? Three professors will discuss partner exercises, debate, brief collaborative projects, and other such strategies for intensifying and deepening the classroom experience. Drawing on their experience in both lecture courses and seminars, presenters will explore and evaluate the benefits of cooperative learning for enhancing comprehension, critical thinking, and intellectual community.

The Public Voice
Judith Reagan, TRC Associate Director; Drama
Public speaking is an ever-present aspect of faculty life. In classrooms and lecture halls, at professional conferences and civic meetings, academics must convey complex material. In this session, participants will engage in vocal, physical, and concentration exercises aimed at increasing our personal connection to the words we speak. We will experiment with various short texts including poems, quotations, and Shakespearean insults, and participants may bring their own brief pieces to read aloud as well.

Critical Thinking: What Do We Want and How Do We Teach It?
Marva Barnett, TRC Director; French
We strive to develop our students as people who can think critically, acquire new knowledge and skills, and solve problems. In what ways can we better define our concerns and better teach our students to think well? Workshop participants will share what they desire and what frustrates them in terms of students' thinking. They will also learn some reasons why students respond as they do. Finally, working with models and ideas from both the workshop leader and colleagues, participants will develop and discuss approaches and activities to teach critical thinking skills.

11:40-12:40 CONCURRENT SESSIONS

Lecturing: To the Point
J. Milton Adams, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Engineering and Applied Science; Outstanding Professor Award from the Rodman Scholars Program, 2002
Participants will consider the essentials of creating and delivering effective, informative, interesting lectures.

Sharing the Workload: Integrating Students into the Teaching Process
Bill Murad, TRC Graduate Student Associate; Classics
 Need to make the best use of the time you devote to teaching? Ever wish your students took more responsibility for their own learning? This session features proven techniques to get your students actively involved in the teaching process! They will become more effective learners and will also help unburden you from some of the "heavy lifting" required of teachers, including making review assignments, leading discussions, going through class examples, and so on.

What's in Your Head? The Teaching Mantra
Bill McAllister, TRC Faculty Consultant; History
This session will help you discover and refine the central, usually unarticulated, assumption that informs your teaching. As a participant, you will produce a very brief, individualized statement to guide you through all your pedagogical interactions.

12:40-1:40 CONTINUE OR BEGIN CONVERSATIONS OVER LUNCH
Did you miss a good session? Or want more ideas on a particular topic? To give you an opportunity to talk informally with each other, we have reserved lunchroom space in Ruffner Hall. Topics include:

• Open topic.
• What do you do to encourage and teach your students to think deeply, analytically, reflectively, critically?
• What do you do to energize and engage your students?

1:45-3:15 CONCURRENT SESSIONS

How to Have Successful Group Projects
Gib Akin, McIntire School of Commerce
Like to include group work in your course, but not sure how? Many of us fear that group problems-whether logistical or interpersonal-can overwhelm learning objectives. In fact, you don't need to turn your course in sociology, art history, or engineering into a course in group dynamics in order to get the benefits of teamwork. At this session, you will learn to . . .

• Structure groups so they will work for both you and the students
• Deal with the most pervasive problems in student learning groups
• Handle evaluation of students' work
• Use Gib's workbook to help students build their team effectiveness throughout the term.

Participants should bring both success stories and horror stories to share.

Hoo's in your Classroom? Personality Type and Learning Styles
Toby Emert, TRC Graduate Student Associate; Curry School of Education
Through a discussion of Jungian ideas about personality type, this session focuses on the various ways students (and instructors) take in and process information, how they make decisions, and how they naturally structure and organize. Participants will examine their own personality/learning preferences and consider how to account for their students' divergent learning styles when designing course outlines and individual lessons.

Becoming Tomorrow's Professor Today
Dustin Kidd, TRC Graduate Student Associate; Sociology
So, you have plenty of TA experience under your belt, but how do you actually teach an entire course? This workshop, presented by a graduate student who has been there, will prepare you for the surprising issues you face in transitioning from TA to instructor-in-charge. We will work through a pre-semester checklist and discuss key principles to guide you as you first teach your own course. For instructors from all disciplines.