If you have been following the newsletter, hopefully you would have had a chance to learn a little bit about some innovative projects that have been happening right here at CVM!
Teaching and Learning is honored to have had a chance to present at the biennial Veterinary Parasitology Educators Symposium, which took place at the CVM on 12/14 and 12/15. We would like to share our presentations with you.
(Click the image below to open the interactive poster. Visit our door for a real-life interactive experience!)
(Complete notes for the 11/18 release)
For Everyone:
For Instructors:
To advance from scholarly teaching to SoTL, transformation of teaching activities into scholarly research can occur by following these 10 steps:
For more information of transforming teaching activities into publishable scholarly projects, this “How to guide” is a great starting point: http://advan.physiology.org/content/30/2/83.short
Citation: O’Loughlin, 2005. A “how to” guide for developing a publishable Scholarship of Teaching project. Advances in Physiology Education Jun 2006, 30 (2) 83-88; DOI: 10.1152/advan.00027.2005
The first of two discussion session on application of instructional practices outlined in Teach Students How to Learn — the OTLs autumn semester book group selection — took place this week. Faculty attending said this particular selection was helpful in gaining insight into how students can empower themselves as learners.
The Office of Teaching & Learning has shared some of the strategies presented in this text with students. In particular, we provided them with information on metacognitive learning strategies and the study cycle.
Continue reading Teach Students How to Learn Provides Insight Into Learner Empowerment
An issue that often arises in the classroom is student entitlement. Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., noted in a recent “Faculty Focus” newsletter, that advice on “confronting entitled perspectives is challenging. If a student wants to take the exam at a later date so he can attend Grandma’s 90thbirthday celebration, or if the objection to phone usage during class is answered with, ‘I paid for this course—what I do in it is my business’ — the faculty member can say no or can cause the student to incur some consequences. Although those actions may take care of the immediate issue, they probably won’t change the student’s attitude. Rather, the student is more likely to conclude that the faculty member is difficult, or more jocularly, a jerk.”
Weimer suggests a two-prong approach to handling entitlement.
She concludes, “Is persuading students a reasonable goal for conversations about entitlement? Probably not for one conversation, but if the message is consistently delivered by multiple teachers and across the institution, then we’ll start seeing progress.”
The October 28th release is packed full of features and enhancements for instructors!
For Instructors:
In addition, a recent blog post by the Office of Distance Education and eLearning lists some additional enhancements that are coming to CarmenCanvas next semester:
Tufts University School of Dentistry has piloted a course for fourth-year students “that now involves a team of students from each year and a real-time student response tool that plants the seeds of community in previously anonymous auditorium classes,” according to a new Educause article.
The course teamed “each fourth-year student with a third-year student, a second-year student, and a first-year student so they could work together on the fourth-year student’s case. This is a new pedagogical approach called ‘Student-driven Pedagogy of Integrated, Reinforced Active Learning (SPIRAL),’ modified from a program designed by Mark Wolff and Andrew Spielman from New York University College of Dentistry (see figure 2).
According to course developers, “Each student has particular responsibilities to align with their progress through the program.
“For the peer-review element, the students analyze one another as a team by reflecting on the project to discover areas for improvement and assess factors of one another’s teamwork, presentation, and time-management skills. We also have mentors for each team — faculty and clinical staff members who oversee the team and monitor its progress.”
Read the complete “Integrating 21-st Century Workplace Skills into Lecture Based Courses article.
An issue that often arises in the classroom centers on student entitlement. Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., noted in this week’s “Faculty Focus” newsletter, “Maybe the advice is missing because confronting entitled perspectives is challenging. If a student wants to take the exam at a later date so he can attend Grandma’s 90thbirthday celebration, or if the objection to phone usage during class is answered with, “I paid for this course—what I do in it is my business”—the faculty member can say no or can cause the student to incur some consequences. Although those actions may take care of the immediate issue, they probably won’t change the student’s attitude. Rather, the student is more likely to conclude that the faculty member is difficult, or more jocularly, a jerk.”
Weimer suggests a two-prong approach to entitlement.
1. Teachers should clarify their expectations at the beginning of the course and in the syllabus, and provide reminders as needed. “Grades are not curved in this class.” “Students with borderline grades are not bumped up.” “Exams are taken the days they are scheduled.” “Late homework gets feedback but no credit.”
2. A second preventative approach involves having a conversation about entitlement before it’s expressed. Do students know what it is? Are the attitudes ones they hold?
She concludes, “Is persuading students a reasonable goal for conversations about entitlement? Probably not for one conversation, but if the message is consistently delivered by multiple teachers and across the institution, then we’ll start seeing progress.”