A Symposium for Current and Future Faculty

Friday, May 15, 2015 – 423 ILR Conference Center, King-Shaw Hall

This annual one-day symposium highlights the research of graduate students who investigated questions about teaching in 2014-2015. Events will include a poster presentation session and a workshop on how to use research skills to inform and improve teaching, as well as a keynote workshop on effectively implementing active learning.

Graduate School newsletter article on 2015 Symposium

2015 Keynote Speaker

Dr. Maryellen Weimer, Professor Emeritus of Teaching and Learning, Penn State University

Dr. Weimer has edited The Teaching Professor newsletter since 1987, and publishes on the Faculty Focus blog. She has authored or edited eight books, including Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice (2nd edition, 2013). Amazon author page

Faculty, staff, graduate students and postdocs are encouraged to attend as many of the sessions as they can. This event is brought to you by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL).

Agenda

8:30-9:00 a.m.: Breakfast and conversation

9:00-10:15 a.m.: Workshop on Teaching as Research

What is Teaching as Research? How can I use research to inform and improve my teaching and my students’ learning? What are some ways I can plan and use these strategies in my classroom? Dr. Kimberly Williams and graduate student fellows of the Center for Teaching Excellence will lead an interactive workshop on this topic. More about Teaching as Research

10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Poster Session of Graduate Student Teaching as Research Projects

Graduate students who have conducted scholarship on teaching and learning in 2014-2015 will present their research in a formal poster session. Student researchers come from all disciplines and were supported through several one- to two-semester programs, including Graduate Research and Teaching Fellows, Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellows, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Practitioner Fellows, and PREPARE Writing Assessment Fellows.

12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Lunch and discussion about opportunities for classroom research

1:00-3:30 p.m.: Dr. Maryellen Weimer Workshop: Active Learning – Participation, Discussion, Group Work, and Still Lots of Content to Cover

In Dr. Maryellen Weimer’s keynote workshop, participants will learn about effective use of active learning strategies and how to successfully join them with content coverage.

Brief description: Much research supports active involvement for students and these interactive strategies do develop important communication skills, but are they effective and efficient ways for students to learn course content? It depends on how these active learning strategies are used. The success of these strategies depends heavily on how they’re designed and delivered. Surprisingly, as we will see, many of the details are straightforward and easy to implement.

3:30-5:00 p.m.: Wine and cheese reception and informal discussion with Dr. Maryellen Weimer