Newer Faculty Seminar   

NOTE:  This group no longer meets, but you will find some good resources here.

Goals:
    Delve into what we do as instructors and what students get.
    Feel at home at UW-L building community and collaboration.
    Focus on teaching and learning as the UW-L mission.
    Give and take practical tips based on literature and best practice for teaching, scholarship, and service.
    Find people and resources to aid you in navigating tenure and promotion.

Organized by Deb Hoskins (Dept. of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Boon Murray (Recreation Management and Therapeutic Recreation).  For more information, call Deb Hoskins at 5-8734 or email her, or call Boon Murray at 5-8205 or email her.

Fall 2004 

Sept. 9  Breaking the Boxes:  Shake and Howdy

Resources, IF you're interested    In new faculty orientation during the Academic Preseason, those of you just arriving examined lots of “boxes.”  Let's get together this first week of classes and talk across, through, around, and over the "boxes" that can divide us -- colleges, departments, scholarly interests -- whatever.  If you know of issues -- especially related to teaching -- that you'd like to explore more, tell us.  Whether you're nervous or excited, tell us.  If you know that some ways of working with you will help you reflect better, or will turn you off, tell us.  Ask any questions that linger from orientation (or last year!);  we won't know the answers, but we'll help you find out. 

 

Sept. 23    Making Passions Public:   Career Development and Staying Balanced

Resources, IF you're interested  Whether we’re talking about our development as teachers or researchers, or curriculum development, or our engagement in campus issues or community service, we want to find ways to know and to share what turns us on.  The "Passion For Teaching" essay that Betsy Morgan emailed to newer faculty gives 10 ideas for "passionate teaching."  The article's on the D2L website (see instructions to access it here -- it's #26 in the "Teaching Tips" section).  Let's use this list as a starting point.  And let's talk about using the policies and resources of UW-L to energize, rather than deplete, ourselves and our endeavors.

Oct. 7  Student Learning Styles

People learn in a variety of ways.  How do you learn? How do your students learn? Do you know? Do they?  Can you accommodate more than one learning style at the same time?  Should you develop some facility in this area?  If so, when?  You might wish to peruse this website before you come today -- including a questionnaire that anyone can use to evaluate their preferences -- VARK-- A Guide to Learning Styles

Oct. 21  Building Courses:  Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

Resources, IF you're interested The issue here is outcomes versus coverage, and the new Gen Ed program making its way through the process promises to change the program so much that a new way of thinking will be required -- one that begins with Student Learning Outcomes rather than what chapters are in the textbook.  Let's talk about what that means for your courses, now and in the future. 

Here are the current Student Learning Outcomes for General Education:  Gen Ed SLOs.  Your department may have SLOs as well.

Nov. 4  Teaching For Diversity

Resources, IF you're interested  Cultural competence, now a central educational goal for all institutions of higher education, is perceived to be lacking in our graduates.  How do we address that as faculty?  What is good diversity education?  What are the classroom issues?  What are the political, scholarly, personal and interpersonal issues (e.g., work/life balance) if you as the faculty member are a member of a non-traditional population? 

Nov. 18  Redesigning Your Syllabus for Learner-Centered Teaching

Resources, IF you're interested  Do you 'go over' the syllabus or let students 'discover' your syllabus?  Learner-centered teachers focus on instructional design using policies and practices that develop maturity and responsibility so students encounter themselves as learners who go beyond the status quo.  Let's examine who controls the content and how the syllabus affects classroom climate.  Bring a syllabus with you for a course you'd like to revise, and we'll get you started.

Dec. 2  Celebration!  Congrats on (another) great semester!

Spring 2005   

Jan. 27  Student Assumptions, Faculty Assumptions

Various surveys, both on campus and off, can inform our conversation about what assumptions students make walking into your course.  What assumptions do we make about students?  What is the culture of UW-L as an institution of higher education?  Is that culture different for students than for faculty?  If there’s a disconnect, what does that mean for learning, student engagement, and being faithful to teaching as a calling?

Feb. 10  Evaluating Student Learning

Resources, IF you're interested  How do you know if your students are learning?  Do your course assignments actually measure the kinds of learning you want your students to gain?  How do you know if they’re just “mimicking mastery” rather than gaining deep understanding?  And what do you want them to understand? 

Feb. 24  "Teaching as Community Property"

Resources, IF you're interested  The title of this session comes from a Carnegie publication by the same name that argues for collaboration among faculty on improving teaching and learning, rather than the "privatization" model of higher education practice that most of us learned in graduate school.

Mar. 10  Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEIs):  What Are They, What Do They Mean, How Can I Use Them?

Resources, IF you're interested  How useful are SEIs?  How does your department use SEIs?  How does the Joint Promotion Committee (JPC) use them?  Can you create a process that will help you and peer reviewers make good use of SEIs to inform your teaching, especially open-ended responses, without ripping your skin off?  

Mar. 24  Portfolios for Teaching And Learning

UW-L requires portfolios for tenure and promotion, but there are many uses for portfolios.  Course portfolios, teaching portfolios, learning portfolios, and electronic portfolios all support development, demonstration, and valid assessment of capabilities and transformation that we'll explore today.

Apr. 7  Reflective Practice

Resources, IF you're interested  The key to improving in everything we do is reflection.  How do you do that?  Do you formalize it?  Why or why not?  What types of reflective activity help or hinder you (logs, journals, peer support)? How has reflection helped you?  How might it help?

Apr. 21  Celebration