Thursday, January 7
DEV, TBD

10-11am:      Critical and Creative Thinking
11am-12pm: Engaging Learning Through Online Discussion
1-2pm:          Collaboration and Problem Solving
2-3pm:          Creating and Managing Group Projects in an                                   Online Environment

Critical and Creative Thinking
Facilitator: Christine Rener, Pew FTLC
Critical and creative thinking uses systematic reasoning to examine and evaluate ideas, leading to new ways of thinking or doing. This session will address (a) developing a common vocabulary with your students to describe critical and creative thinking, and (b) designing assignments that allow students to practice and advance their critical and creative thinking skills.

Engaging Learning Through Online Discussion
Facilitator: Glenna Decker, IDeL
Online discussion is a central component of creating a community of inquiry and promoting critical thinking. Whether teaching a traditional, hybrid, or online course, they can effectively foster faculty-student, student-student, and student-content presence. This session will discuss specific strategies for integrating and managing online discussion.

Collaborative Problem Solving
Facilitator: Christine Rener, Pew FTLC
Problem solving is the process of designing and evaluating strategies to answer open-ended questions or achieve desired goals. 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 (a) engaging students in a meaningful question or problem, (b) helping students inquire, investigate, and evaluate their results, (c) clarifying expectations for working in groups, and (d) designing assignments applicable in larger classes. 

Creating and Managing Group Projects in an Online Environment
Facilitator: Kim Kenward, IDeL
Whether you are teaching online or face-to-face, facilitating group work can often pose challenges for faculty and students. In this hands-on workshop, we will show you a variety of processes and technologies for facilitating group work. We will also provide you with several best practices from online/hybrid instructors who require group work in their courses. Faculty are encouraged to bring their laptops and feel free to bring sample group assignments with you for discussion.

May 4-6, or June 22-24, 2016
Inclusive excellence refers to the use of pedagogical strategies that address the needs of students with a variety of backgrounds, learning interests, and abilities. These strategies contribute to an overall inclusive learning environment, in which students feel equally valued. The Pew FTLC is partnering with the Division of Inclusion and Equity to offer a 3-day intensive workshop designed for faculty who are new to the idea of engaging difference in the classroom, but are ready to make inclusiveness a focus in their teaching.
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January 19, 12-1pm, 240 CHS
January 26, 12-1pm, 302E DEV
Stress awareness is an important component of your overall health and wellbeing. Using a mindful approach to stress management, you’ll learn tips for identifying stressors in your life and explore practical coping skills. Register in Sprout.

Teaching Circles are designed to support faculty dialogue around a particular book or set of readings related to an aspect of teaching and/or learning. Faculty facilitators lead a semester-long conversation, often with four or so meetings over the course of a semester. The Pew FTLC covers the cost of a book for each member of the circle as well as (optional) light refreshments for meetings. All faculty, full- or part-time, are eligible to participate.

The Teaching Circles for Winter 2016 are listed below. Please email the facilitator to express your interest in participating.
Additional details for each Teaching Circle may be found on the Pew FTLC website.

Contemplative Teaching
Dates/Times/Location: TBD by participant consensus
Facilitator: Peter Anderson, Classics
Participants in this Teaching Circle will discuss approaches to contemplative practice both as a tool for teachers (in support of their professional activities) and as a tool for students (in support of their academic activities). 

Interdisciplining Digital Humanities: Boundary Work in an Emerging Field
Dates/Times/Location: Fridays, 1/22, 2/26, 3/25, 4/15, 9:30 - 11am, 3068 JHZ
Facilitator: Kim McKee, Liberal Studies
Participants in this Teaching Circle will further conversations first initiated in the Fall 2015 "What Do We Mean by Digital Studies" Teaching Circle and serve as one avenue to the continued cross-campus dialogue concerning digital technologies. 

Online & Hybrid Teaching Circle
Dates/Times/Location: once-a-month for 90 minutes (one per campus, CHS, Allendale and Pew), TBD by participant concensus
Facilitator: Kim Kenward, Instructional Design for eLearning
Sponsored by IDeL (Instructional Design for eLearning) and the Pew Faculty Teaching & Learning Center, this Teaching Circle will provide a venue for faculty-led dialogue and to share collective expertise regarding online/hybrid instruction at GVSU. 

Data Visualization
Dates/Times/Location: TBD by participant consensus
Co-Facilitators: Whitt Kilburn, Political Science, and Gerald Shoultz, Statistics
Participants will study contemporary theory and practice in data visualization and identify strategies to teach these ideas to undergraduates.

Never Send a Human to do a Machine's Job: Correcting the Top 5 EdTech Mistakes
Dates/Times/Location: 1/19, 2/9, 3/1, 3/29, 12-1:30pm, 488C DEV
Facilitator: Erica Hamilton, College of Education - Leadership and Learning
Participants will engage in conversation and learning regarding educational technology and how it can best be utilized to enhance teaching and learning.

Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts: Lesson Plans for Librarians
Dates/Times: TBD by participant consensus
Location: 140A DEV, Steelcase Library
Facilitator: Ashley Rosener, University Libraries
Participants will learn about information literacy threshold concepts and how they relate to the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) bring faculty together to work on projects of mutual interest. Each FLC consists of a facilitator and a group of 8-12 faculty. All faculty are eligible to participate. The groups meet over the course of a semester or year, working on either collaborative or parallel projects.
 
Apply on the Pew FTLC grant application site.

Intergroup Dialogue and Social Justice Education
Dates/Times/Location: 6 bi-weekly 90 minute meetings TBD by participant concensus

Co-Facilitators: Joel Wendland, Liberal Studies, and Marlene Kowalski-Braun, Office of Inclusion and Equity
Participants will explore, study, and prepare to implement intergroup dialogue as an academic and curricular pedagogy.

Confirmation Bias: What is it? How Does It Affect Us and Our Students? Can Our Writing Assignments Inhibit It?

Dates/Times/Location: TBD by participant concensus
Facilitator: Lindsay Ellis, Department of English
Participants 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.

Increase Student Engagement in Your Classroom
Dates/Times/Location: 4-5 meetings TBD by participant concensus

Facilitator: Scott Grissom, School of Computing and Information Systems, Pew FTLC
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.

Engaging Difference in the Classroom through Intercultural Competence

Dates/Times/Location:
Thursdays,1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 3/3, 3/17, 3/31, 4/14, 10:30am-12pm
OR
Fridays, 1/29, 2/12, 2/26, 3/4, 3/18, 4/1, 4/15, 1-2:30pm, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Facilitator: Dana Munk, Pew FTLC, Office of Inclusion and Equity
Participants 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.

Community as Classroom: The Pedagogy and Practicality of Community-based Teaching and Learning
Dates/Times/Location: First Meeting – Thursday, January 21, 9:30 - 11am, 302E DEV, subsequent meetings TBD by participant concensus
Facilitators: Danielle Lake, Liberal Studies and Patty Stow Bolea, Pew FTLC
This faculty learning community supports new and engaged scholars in their community-based teaching, learning and research through a community of practice focused on building courses with a service learning (community outreach) focus.