2005 January Teaching Workshop

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Sponsored by the Teaching Resource Center
and the University Teaching Fellows Program.

Approaching our teaching in a scholarly way includes taking time to consider and analyze teaching issues with colleagues. This year's theme focuses on integrating research and teaching. Please join us for as many sessions as you can as we explore a wide array of related topics.

8:30-9:00 CHECK-IN AND ON-SITE REGISTRATION

9:10-10:00 PLENARY:
How Can We Promote Student Learning by Inquiry and in the
Classroom?
J. Milton Adams, Vice Provost for Academic Programs; Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award, 1997
As more students, half of all U.Va. undergraduates now, engage in research, how might we best leverage their research with classroom learning to optimize the four-year curriculum? How do we prepare students over the four years for multiple engagements, of growing sophistication, in inquiry? As students spend more time in pursuing depth in a research topic, what do they lose in breadth? Do particular kinds of thinking become finely honed or lose their edge in discovery and inquiry? Are there patterns or individual differences in development of cognition that suggest how we should approach these questions? In considering such questions as these, participants will share their ideas and perspectives.

10:15-11:45 CONCURRENT SESSIONS

Caught in the Web: Balancing Usefulness and Feasibility
Yitna Firdyiwek, Instructional Technology Group, ITC
Will Davis, Research Associate, Curry School of Education
Just how useful is a course website? More importantly, how time consuming would it be to create one or even to learn how to do so? In this workshop, we will address these and related questions interactively, as participants view and discuss the relative merits of current faculty course websites and other helpful web teaching tools. We will also present and discuss existing support facilities for faculty members at U.Va., focusing on resources appropriate for a wide range of technological knowledge and abilities from novice to advanced.

Infusing Research into the Curriculum: A Look at Research Activities in Undergraduate Courses
Erik Midelfort, C. Julian Bishko Professor of History
Stephen Plog, Commonwealth Professor of Anthropology
Deborah Roach, Assistant Professor of Biology
Nicole Hurd, Assistant Dean and Director, Center for Undergraduate Excellence
In this interactive session, we will be exploring different ways research can be introduced to undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. We will discuss the use of research as a learning strategy as well as the role of research in the undergraduate experience.

Sinking in a Sea of Students?: Managing Large Courses
Michael S. Palmer, TRC Faculty Consultant; Chemistry
Is your Inbox flooded by student email? Are you relentlessly badgered with grade complaints? Do your students think your office hours are whenever they're free? You want to connect with your students and personalize every interaction, but you're now regretting the time and energy required of you to do so effectively. In this workshop, participants will explore ways to evoke and maintain boundaries which strike a balance between being accessible and being deluged. While the workshop draws on strategies for managing student-teacher interaction in large enrollment courses, instructors teaching small classes should find many of the suggestions helpful as well.

12:00-1:15 LUNCHTIME SESSIONS OR DISCUSSIONS
Over lunch, you can either join one of the sessions listed below or continue a conversation sparked by the morning sessions in the room set aside for informal discussions. You are welcome to bring your own lunch.

When Too Much of a Good Thing Is No Longer a Good Thing: How to Build a Diverse Teaching Portfolio
Cristina Della Coletta, Horace W. Goldsmith Distinguished Professor of Italian
While earning their PhDs., many graduate students work as teaching assistants, thus gaining invaluable first-hand teaching experience. However, many TAs often teach the same course or set of courses numerous times. How can graduate students enter the job market and the profession with as eclectic a preparation as possible? How can we reconcile departmental teaching needs with our mission to train the professors of tomorrow? Participants will explore ways to build a diversified teaching portfolio as well as develop teaching skills that are transferable from one course to another.

Advising Graduate Students: Developing and Implementing Your
Philosophy
Rob Kelly, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; All-University Teaching Award, 2004
Part of teaching at many universities is the advising of graduate students. Like classroom teaching, most faculty members get no training in advising, and so we stumble along-either following what our advisor did or doing the exact opposite. In this session, we will discuss the elements of graduate advising and hear about one approach to defining the roles and responsibilities of advisors and advisees. Participants will also discuss particular challenges from both the advisor and advisee perspectives.

Using the Internet in Foreign Language Composition Courses. A Personal
Story.
William C. McDonald, Professor of German
Too many of us teaching composition in a foreign language are still hunting for the "perfect textbook" containing specimen texts, illustrative guidelines, and authentic language for acquisition and imitation. My frustration with conventional methodology prompted me to search out brief internet texts available to every student, which have become the "book" I was seeking. Plus, I can supplement the texts by assigning internet radio for aural proficiency. Initial results affirm that the web can meet the needs of foreign language composition courses, providing contemporary topics formulated in authentic speech.

Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: The Harrison Research
Awards
Nicole Hurd, Assistant Dean and Director, Center for Undergraduate Excellence
Learn more about how you can encourage and support your students in pursuing independent research. An informal discussion.

Informal Discussions

1:30-3:00 CONCURRENT SESSIONS

Tips for Leading Effective Discussions
Wendy Morris, TRC Graduate Student Associate, Psychology; Faculty Senate Dissertation-Year Fellow, 2004-05
Does the idea of leading a discussion bring to mind fearsome images of awkward silences, unproductive dialogue, or unbridled tangents? Or are you exhilarated by the uncertainty of where class discussions may go? In this workshop, we will discuss both the strengths and challenges of using discussion as a teaching tool. The workshop will focus on generating ways to help your students engage in productive discussion while avoiding the many pitfalls commonly associated with this pedagogical technique.

Overcoming the Curse of Math-Based Science and Engineering
Lectures
John Bean, Professor of Electrical Engineering; All-University Teaching Award, 2004
Ed Murphy, Assistant Professor of Astronomy
William Johnson, Professor of Materials Science; All-University Teaching Award, 1999
Much of advanced science and engineering stands upon subtle mathematical principles developed over the span of lifetimes. It would be great if students could be led to this knowledge through an enlightened self-discovery process-but it sure isn't likely! So how can an instructor bring life to otherwise bone-dry mathematical lectures? We'll share some techniques and tricks we have each developed.

The Art of Questioning
Walter Jost, Professor of English
As teachers we sometimes ask questions not only to elicit a discrete item of information but to initiate a new train of thought. This workshop is intended to remind us of what we sometimes forget we already know: that there are different kinds of questions, and that good questioning depends more on timing, audience, and shared purposes than on intrinsic qualities of the question itself.