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Grand Valley State University

Teaching Strategies & General Education Skills Goals

This series of workshops is designed especially for faculty teaching General Education Issues courses. Of course, all faculty are welcome to attend. This series will be repeated – and expanded upon – during the week of January 4th.

Each of these sessions will (a) provide concrete suggestions on four critical aspects of the topic at hand, (b) provide handouts and sample assignments for each aspect, and (c) allow ample time for discussion and sharing of your successes and challenges. Participants will be sent a link to a 20 min. video presentation to watch in advance of the session. Feel free to attend one or all. Please register through Sprout. If you have any questions, please contact the session facilitator: Christine Rener, Pew FTLC .

Critical and Creative Thinking
Wednesday, December 16, 12 - 1pm, 119E DEV
Thursday, December 17, 12 - 1pm, 3068 JHZ

Critical and creative thinking uses systematic reasoning to examine and evaluate ideas, leading to new ways of thinking or doing.
This session will address:

  • Developing a common vocabulary with your students to describe critical and creative thinking
  • Designing assignments that allow students to practice critical and creative thinking
  • Advancing students’ thinking skills
  • Making critical and creative thinking visible via engaging online threaded discussions

Collaboration
Wednesday, December 16, 1 - 2pm, 119E DEV
Thursday, December 17, 1 - 2pm, 3068 JHZ

Collaboration is the process of working together and sharing the workload equitably to progress toward shared objectives learned through structured activities that occur over a significant period of time. This session will address:

  • Designing meaningful assignments that truly require collaboration
  • Ways to assign students to groups
  • Helping students become effective group members
  • Using document sharing tools to help students collaborate

Problem Solving
Wednesday, December 16, 2 - 3pm, 119E DEV
Thursday, December 17, 2 - 3pm, 3068 JHZ

Problem solving is the process of designing and evaluating strategies to answer open-ended questions or achieve desired goals. This session will address:

  • Engaging students in a question or problem
  • Scaffolding the process of inquiry and investigation
  • Helping students evaluate and justify their results
  • Crafting opportunities for students to communicate their findings

Teaching Circle Opportunities - Winter 2016

Data Visualization
Dates/Times: TBD by participant consensus
Location: TBD
Co-Facilitators: Whitt Kilburn, Political Science, and Gerald Shoultz, Statistics

We will study contemporary theory and practice in data visualization and identify strategies to teach these ideas to undergraduates. The selected book, Graphical Data Analysis with R by Antony Unwin, applies techniques of data visualization in the statistical software application, R. The software is a foundation of data visualization by Amanda Cox at The New York Times, who will visit the Grand Valley campus in March. Teaching Circle participants will receive a copy of the book. The Data Inquiry Lab will hold introductory workshops at the beginning of the Winter 2016 semester on using R for faculty unfamiliar with it. To register, please contact Whitt Kilburn.

Never Send a Human to do a Machine's Job: Correcting the Top 5 EdTech Mistakes
Dates/Times: 1/19, 2/9, 3/1, 3/29, from 12 - 1:30pm 
Location: 488C DeVos Center
Facilitator: Erica Hamilton, College of Education - Leadership and Learning

According to the book's authors, Yong Zhao, Gaming Zhang, Jing Lei Wei Qui, "technology has transformed our lives, and virtually every school and classroom is connected. Why then, has it not transformed education?" In response to this question, this Teaching Circle seeks to facilitate conversation and learning regarding educational technology and how it can best be utilized to enhance teaching and learning. Through reading and discussing this book, participants will have opportunities to consider (and re-consider) pedagogy and practice as well as share examples and ideas. Conversations will be aimed at further developing participants' understanding of how/when to use technology to improve student learning outcomes. Books and snacks will be provided by the Pew FTLC. To register, please contact Erica Hamilton.

Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts: Lesson Plans for Librarians
Dates/Times: TBD by participant consensus
Location: TBD
Facilitator: Ashley Rosener, University Libraries

Through this Teaching Circle, participants will learn about threshold concepts, specifically information literacy threshold concepts. Participants will discover how to create (or edit existing) lesson plans that use information literacy threshold concepts as their foundations through looking at examples created by other librarians as exhibited in the book. Participants will explore how information literacy threshold concepts (in relation to the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education) relate to the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Participants will use this Teaching Circle to explore new teaching strategies and lessons and share their experiences implementing them in the classroom. Participants will learn from each other in this space with the intent of growing as teachers of information literacy. Books will be provided by the Pew FTLC. To register, please contact Ashley Rosener.

Faculty Learning Communities – Winter 2016

Intergroup Dialogue and Social Justice Education
Dates/Times: 6 bi-weekly 90-minute meetings TBD by participant consensus
Location: Allendale (location TBD)
Co-Facilitators: Joel Wendland, Liberal Studies, and Marlene Kowalski-Braun, Office of Inclusion and Equity

This faculty learning community will explore, study, and prepare to implement intergroup dialogue as an academic and curricular pedagogy. Intergroup dialogue has its origins in social justice education that emphasizes the production of safe and “brave” space (Arao and Clemons 2013) in which difficult and less inhibited conversations about experiences with intersectional social identities and their connections to systems of oppression and social structures can take place (May 2015; Collins 2000). The goal of such conversations is to increase “intergroup learning, confidence in engaging social action, learning about the social group identities of self and other, and [reduce] stereotypes and prejudice” (Dessel and Rogge, 2008, 216). In the end, the student participants craft a shared sense of meaning about the issues at stake in the dialogue and take some action to alter existing perceptions or barriers to intercultural relationships. Important social identity dialogues for a potential pilot program may include but are not limited to gender, gender identity, sexuality, race, nationality/migration status, and social class. The goal of the FLC, in addition to the above stated aims, will be to establish a working group to collectively design curriculum that will reproduce a version of this process specific to the needs and resources at GVSU. Active faculty participants will receive a $100 stipend. For more information, please contact Joel Wendland. Apply on the Pew FTLC grant application site.

Confirmation Bias: What is it?  How Does It Affect Us and Our Students? Can Our Writing Assignments Inhibit It?
Dates/Times: TBD by participant consensus
Location: TBD
Facilitator: Lindsay Ellis, Department of English

Confirmation bias is a recognized problem in many fields and professions (Nickerson 1998). It is generally defined as the human tendency to notice only the information that supports our pre-existing ideas (that confirms our biases). On the one hand, it is a necessary cognitive strategy to manage overload in a data-rich environment, on the other hand, it poses a threat to inquiry and critical thinking in both the sciences and humanities. This faculty learning community will discuss what is currently known about confirmation bias, reflect on how it affects our and our students’ thinking, and collaboratively strategize ways to help our students to inhibit it. The work of this FLC will inform a workshop in March or April offered to all faculty, one that examines writing assignments designed to inhibit confirmation bias and deepen critical thinking. This workshop will be carefully marketed to faculty teaching SWS sections of courses. In addition, participants will be invited to design small action research projects on inhibiting confirmation in their own courses, in collaboration with Lindsay Ellis, director of Writing Across the Curriculum. These Scholarship of Teaching (SoT) projects can be written into Faculty Activity Plans (FAPs) as an area of significant focus. Active faculty participants will receive a $100 stipend. For more information, please contact Lindsay Ellis. Apply on the Pew FTLC grant application site.

Increase Student Engagement in Your Classroom
Dates/Times: 4-5 meetings TBD by participant consensus
Location: TBD
Facilitator: Scott Grissom, School of Computing and Information Systems, Pew FTLC

Dozens of empirical studies show that active learning pedagogies increase student learning, classroom participation, student motivation and faculty enjoyment. Effective strategies include peer instruction (aka clickers), just-in-time teaching, inverted classrooms, process oriented guided inquiry (POGIL) and collaborative learning.  The common theme of these approaches is that students spend more time engaged with each other and with the material instead of passively listening to you lecture. Participants will study the benefits of evidence-based instructional practices, witness successful implementations of these strategies at GVSU, develop immediate as well as long range plans for implementing a few activities into your classroom, and assess the impact of the new approach for self-review and to share with colleagues. The facilitator will serve as your personal coach to provide motivation, support, and accountability, as you make meaningful changes to your learning environment. Materials and light snacks are provided by the Pew FTLC. Active faculty participants will receive a $100 stipend. For more information, please contact Scott Grissom. Apply on the Pew FTLC grant application site.

Engaging Difference in the Classroom through Intercultural Competence
Dates/Times:
Thursdays, 1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 3/3, 3/17, 3/31, 4/14, 10:30-12:00pm
Location: Allendale, room TBA
OR
Fridays, 1/29, 2/12 2/26, 3/4, 3/18, 4/1, 4/15, 1-2:30pm
Location: Pew Grand Rapids Campus

Facilitator: Dana Munk, Pew FTLC, Office of Inclusion and Equity

Why is Intercultural Competence important in the classroom? Because it has been identified as a key capability for developing positive relationships with students across cultural boundaries, both internationally and domestically. Critical to the faculty role is the fact that intercultural competence is central to such outcomes as the reduction of academic disparities between dominant and non-dominant identity student groups, such as graduation rates, achievement scores, and retention rates.

This Faculty Learning Community will incorporate the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) as a means to explore, and ultimately enhance, intercultural competence and the ability of faculty to engage different learners in the classroom. Over the course of the semester, participants will engage in a 4 step process:

  1. Complete an IDI assessment to identify intercultural competence orientation
  2. Identify goals and challenges based on results
  3. Create a targeted development plan
  4. Implement strategies into their classrooms

Active faculty participants will receive a $100 stipend. For more information, please contact Dana Munk. Apply on the Pew FTLC grant application site by January 11.