Getting Started @ UVa
Sharon Hostler, Vice Provost of Faculty Development and Milton Adams, Vice Provost of Academic Programs

Motivating Students for Learning
Michael Palmer, TRC Assistant Director & Associate Professor (Chemistry)

What should you do—or not do—to help motivate students to actively engage in the learning process? In this session, participants will examine the prevailing theories of motivation and then consider some of the characteristics of learning environments which influence the approaches students take to their own learning.
 

Starting with the End in Mind: Goals for Significant Learning
Dorothe Bach, TRC Assistant Director & Associate Professor (German)

What do you really want your students to know, to be able to do and to value three years after they complete your course? This session will help you clarify your deeper goals for student learning and explore ways to communicate them so that they inspire and motivate students.

Check-In/Registration
Breakfast available
 

What Do the Best College Teachers Do?
Dorothe Bach, TRC Assistant Director & Associate Professor (German) and Judith Reagan, TRC Associate Director & Associate Professor (Drama)

We all have assumptions about what it means to be a good (or a bad) teacher. Some of those assumptions are rooted in our own experiences, others are informed by prevalent cultural images. Whether you aspire to teach like Albus Dumbledore or Delores Umbridge (Harry Potter), it will be worthwhile to consider research on what the best college teachers do and why.
 

10:00 AM – 12:00 noon

Teaching for Learning: Effective Teaching Methods
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in two of the following four round table sessions during this 2-hour block.

1. Experimenting with Interactive Lectures
   Judith Reagan, TRC Associate Director & Associate Professor (Drama)
   
   In this session, we'll flip the more traditional approach to lecture. We'll experience a class that's heavy on student activity, light on professor lecturing. We'll briefly reflect on how such an approach relates to yesterday afternoon's topics (motivating students for learning and our deeper goals for student learning) and consider which topics in one of your fall courses invite a similar experiment.
    
2. Facilitating Effective Discussions
   Deandra Little, TRC Associate Director & Associate Professor (English)
   
   If, as Deborah Meier argues, "Teaching is mostly listening, learning is mostly telling," how should we use that knowledge to frame effective discussions in our classes? In this session, we'll discuss general principles and specific techniques to foster effective classroom discussions, including structuring and guiding discussion as well as encouraging and evaluating student participation in both listening and telling.
    
3. Mentoring and Advising Graduate Students
   Panelists: Silvia Blemker, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Biomedical Engineering; Ira Bashkow, Associate Professor, Anthropology
   
   Moderator: Dorothe Bach, TRC Assistant Director & Associate Professor (German)
   
   What does it take to be a good mentor or advisor to graduate students? How can you develop skills and knowledge in this area? A panel of experienced faculty will share their strategies and insights on how to best support individual students or research teams.
    
4. Utilizing Collaborative Learning Techniques
   Michael Palmer, TRC Assistant Director & Associate Professor (Chemistry)
   
   Collaborative learning, or structured group work, is a proven pedagogy that actively engages students, enhances critical thinking, promotes deep—as opposed to superficial—learning, and shifts the focus from instructor to students. After defining collaborative learning, participants will explore several group learning activities by engaging in a collaborative exercise and then discuss best practices for designing and implementing activities, assigning and managing groups, and assessing student learning.

Panel Discussion: Lessons from the First Year at UVa
Over lunch, you'll have a chance to hear from a panel of UVa faculty who will share their reflections on their first year here and answer your questions about their experiences with teaching, research, and the larger UVa community.
 

Measuring Student Learning
Deandra Little, TRC Associate Director & Associate Professor (English)

How will you and your students know whether they are meeting your learning goals? In this session, we'll discuss principles for designing assignments that measure student learning and effective (and efficient) strategies for providing feedback to students.
 

Teaching the First Days of Class
Marva Barnett, TRC Founding Director & Professor of French 

How we teach the first days of class affects the entire course. Share your ideas for successful beginnings and receive useful University resource information.
 

Meeting the Challenges of Competing Priorities: Peak Performance Practices of Productive and Happy Faculty
Susan Robison, Ph.D.

A faculty job can be a very satisfying life-long career if it is handled well. This practical, interactive workshop, based on the evidence-based Peak Performing Professor model, will explore the challenge of the tripartite professor job description and how to weave together great teaching, research, and service along with a great life. Long-term work-life balance requires a combination of two things: a vision of what is needed for success professionally and personally and the work habits used by successful academics to achieve long-term work and life satisfaction. Hint: doing everything well all of the time is not the answer.
 

12:15 – 2:30 PM
Lunch

Working Lunch & Human Resources Orientation

2:30 – 3:30 PM

Resource Fair

4:30 – 6:00 PM

President's Reception, Carr's Hill