Introduction
Sponsored by the Undergraduate
Teaching Improvement Council, Faculty College provides an annual opportunity
for UW System faculty and academic staff to unite in concentrated study
and discussion aimed at improving undergraduate teaching and learning. Some
100 participants attend three days of intensive, interdisciplinary seminars
on topics related to teaching and learning. Each participant registers for
two of the four seminars offered.
The experience of the College
enhances collegial interchange on teaching, contributing to a systemwide
network of faculty and academic staff committed to educational excellence.
Application information is
available from the Vice Chancellor's office at each UW institution.
Keynote Speaker - Stephen
Brookfield
The Other Side of the Mirror:
How Experiencing Learning Reframes Our Teaching
In addition to the four seminars,
the 1997 Faculty College program includes a keynote address by Stephen Brookfield.
Since beginning his teaching career in 1970, Stephen has worked in England,
Canada, Australia and the United States, teaching adults in a variety of
college settings. He has written and edited eight books on adult learning,
teaching and critical thinking and has thrice won the World Award for Literature
in Adult Education. Brookfield currently serves on the editorial boards
of educational journals in Britain and Australia, as well as in the United
States. After ten years as a Professor of Higher and Adult Education at
Columbia University, he now holds the title of Distinguished Professor at
the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Among his most recent
books are The Skillful Teacher and Becoming a Critically
Reflective Teacher.
1997 Seminar
Descriptions
Active Learning Strategies:
How to Devise, Implement, and Think about Them
Diane Gillespie
Active learning is an effective
strategy in many contemporary classroom settings. This workshop explores
how to design and carry out such methods as case study, “fish bowl” debates,
reader-response writing groups, and “forum theatre.” Participants will examine
various types of strategies from more open-ended, constructionist strategies
to ones where students discover pre-determined patterns or sequences of
facts. Each participant will create an active learning strategy for his/her
classroom.
Active learning alters teachers'
classroom orientations and their vision of teaching. The last part of
the workshop will engage participants in reflective practices designed
to make teaching "active" when student learning is.
Diane Gillespie is a professor
in the Goodrich Scholarship program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha,
where she teaches multicultural courses in the social sciences to sophmore
students. She teaches qualitative research to graduate students at the
University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Her research includes articles on reflective
teaching practices and a book entitled The Mind's We: Contextualism
in Cognitive Psychology. She has won seven awards for her teaching,
including the 1992 Nebraska Case Professor of the Year, and conducted
numerous workshops on active learning and reflective teaching practice
at universities and national conferences.
Designing our Courses
with Student Learning in Mind
Tim Riordan
This seminar will assist participants
in designing courses that specifically and systematically address what and
how students learn. Participants will engage in a process that includes
identifying course goals that integrate the knowledge and abilities students
should learn. Using these goals as a foundation, participants will then
specify criteria that can be used to judge student performance, create assignments
and learning experiences that assist students to develop appropriate levels
of understanding and ability, explore ways of giving effective and efficient
feedback to students to improve their learning, and develop assessments
that thoughtfully measure student learning.
As part of the process, participants
will also discuss how they can more imaginatively and productively think
about their disciplines as frameworks for student learning. In addition,
they will consider the implications of this kind of approach for their
scholarship and for the evaluation of teaching. Participants should bring
with them a syllabus for a particular course or have a course in mind
that they are interested in creating or revising.
Tim Riordan is a professor
of philosophy at Alverno College in Milwaukee, an institution that has
received prominent national recognition for its student-centered teaching
and its institution-wide evaluation practices. Professor Riordan has been
actively involved in faculty development at Alverno, particularly in relation
to the scholarship of teaching. He has also served as the Coordinator
of the Faculty Development Network for the Wisconsin Association of Independent
Colleges and Universities (WAICU). He has given workshops on teaching
and scholarship at institutions across the country, and has worked closely
with the the UW System’s Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council. He
has also been active in national initiatives such as the Peer Evaluation
Project, sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Association
of American Colleges and Universities.
Designing Problem-Based Materials
for use Across the Curriculum
William J. Stepien
Problem-based learning (PBL) is
a system for organizing portions of a curriculum around teacher designed
ill-structured problems that help students acquire new knowledge
and experience in solving authentic, real-world problems. Too often, traditional
coverage of the curriculum leaves students with overly simplistic models
of complex issues and little opportunity to develop higher order reasoning
skills. They learn to use "bumper sticker thinking" when confronted with
challenging problems. PBL offers a true apprenticeship in critical thinking
and ethical decision making.
The seminar will provide an
introduction to the roots and elements of problem-based learning, demonstrations
of instructional problems, and coaching in the development of a problem
for each participant's classroom.
William J. Stepien has been
a teacher, curriculum specialist, writer, and staff development trainer
for thirty years. His authorship includes social studies textbooks, software
in economic education, and scholarly articles on teaching methods and
their impact on learning.
In 1985, Stepien joined the
Illinois Governor's Task Force to restructure mathematics and science
education for the state. He helped design the Illinois Mathematics and
Science Academy (IMSA), a public residential high school for gifted and
talented from across the state, founding and directing the Center for
Problem-Based Learning during the ten years he was at IMSA. In 1994, Bill
established the Consortium for Problem-Based Learning in the Center for
Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University to give more attention
to the adaptation of PBL to k-college classrooms. The Consortium works
with 3,000 teacher affiliates in the United States, Asia, and Africa.
Creating an Active Classroom
through Writing in the Disciplines
Charles Schuster
Writing Across the Curriculum
(WAC) is an educational reform movement operating from the fundamental assumption
that writing is one of the primary ways we learn. This workshop will invite
participants to discover a variety of ways writing can create dynamic classrooms
in which students both learn by doing and participate as active learners.
It will address both practical and conceptual questions, including: How
can I include more writing when I lack time now to cover my subject area?
How do I handle the grading load? What about in-class versus out-of-class
writing? Why should I assign more writing--isn’t this the English Department’s
job?
Although a variety of practical
suggestions will be presented, this workshop is organized around the premise
that faculty must find their own best ways to incorporate writing in their
disciplines. We will, therefore, work frequently in small groups where
we can develop and share specific strategies and solutions. By the end
of the workshop, you will be ready to start trying WAC out in your courses
next fall.
Charles Schuster is Professor
of English and Director of the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum program at
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also coordinates the Writing
Center and is developing a Peer Mentoring program. He has just completed
a two-year term as President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators,
and has led day-long and week-long workshops for faculty designed around
collaboration, problem solving, and interactive community building. Schuster
is co-editor of Speculations: Perspectives on Culture, Identity, and
Values, and is winner of the Conference on College Composition and
Communication Outstanding Book of the Year Award for co-editing The
Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. He is a widely published
editor and author of numerous textbook series, articles, and reviews on
the theory and practice of writing, literature, and culture.
1997 Faculty College Schedule
Thursday, May 29
2:00 - 4:30 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows Meeting
4:00 - 5:00 Registration
5:00 - 7:00 Reception and Dinner
7:30 - 9:00 Keynote Address and Discussion
Friday, May 30
7:30 - 8:15 Chinese Exercises
7:30 - 9:00 Breakfast
9:15 - 11:45 Morning Seminars
12:00 - l:15 Lunch
1:30 - 4:00 Afternoon Seminars
4:00 - 5:00 Free Time
5:00 - 7:00 Reception and Dinner
7:30 - 9:00 Folow-up Q&A with Stephen Brookfield
Saturday, May 31
7:30 - 8:15 Chinese Exercises
7:30 - 9:00 Breakfast
9:15 - 11:45 Morning Seminars
12:00 - l:15 Lunch
1:30 - 4:00 Afternoon Seminars
4:00 - 5:00 Free Time
5:00 - 7:00 Reception and Dinner
7:30 - 9:00 Evening Program
Sunday, June 1
7:30 - 8:15 Chinese Exercises
7:30 - 9:00 Breakfast
9:15 - 10:45 Morning Seminars
11:00 -12:30 Afternoon Seminars
12:30 - l:30 Lunch and Closing Session
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