Talking About Teaching Conference: January 2005
Session 1
IDENTITIES & IDEOLOGIES: ENGAGING DIFFERENCES IN THE CLASSROOM, DION 110Presenters: Anthony Baird (Career Resource Center), Norman Barber (First-Year Experience), Carlos Benavides (Foreign Languages & Literatures), Anne Foley (Education), Jeanne Leffers (Nursing), Arlene Mollo (Art Education)
This workshop will explore how to best engage the range of different identities and ideologies that students bring to our classrooms. The presenters will lead a discussion of excerpts from the highly acclaimed documentary film, Skin Deep. This film features students' experiences and views on race and ethnicity and raises challenging questions about the dynamics of ethnocentrism and internalized oppression in higher education.
STORIES FROM THE HEART AND STORIES FROM THE BODY: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN LEARNING, DION 114
Presenters: Kathryn Gramling (Nursing), Diane Martins (Nursing), Robin Robinson (Sociology/Anthropology), Kristen Sethares (Nursing)
Students often fail to see the human side of issues such as poverty, illness, racism, homelessness, oppression, domestic violence, the death penalty, etc. etc. Expressive forms such as literature, personal stories, film, and dance help students put a human face on experiences that are often presented as abstract societal processes. The presenters will illustrate how the use of these aesthetic modalities enables their students to gain a more holistic and compassionate understanding of the human experience. The presenters from nursing will describe how they encourage students to understand the meanings of loneliness, grief, despair, illness, loss and suffering in individual lives. The presenter from the Crime and Justice program will illustrate how she encourages students to empathize with and understand people who are often objectified and vilified.
Session 2
RECONCILING THE DUALITY OF CLASS: OUR STORIES OF LIVING IN LIMBO, DION 110Presenters: Marq Harris (Senior, Business Major); Jean MacCormick (Chancellor); Diana Rodriques ('04 UMD Graduate, English); Matthew Roy (Management)
This session explores a much overlooked issue: the experience of social class for first generation college graduates of blue collar parents. Class is a distinctive culture that creates a sense of belongingness among its members. It is a network of shared values, meanings, and interactions. Shift from one social class to another and you�re likely to feel hopelessly alienated in both. The panelists all have blue-collar roots but live in white-collar worlds. Their stories answer the following questions: How does it feel to live in limbo? How can others - including teachers - make the assimilation process less painful? And, how do people ultimately reconcile the duality within themselves?
LEARNING PROCESS BY DOING, DION 114
Presenters: Richard Upchurch (Computer and Information Science) and Judith Sims-Knight (Psychology)
Modern research suggests that a major ingredient to successful learning is understanding the process by which learning occurs. This session describes two different ways that instructors can help students to learn the processes that lead to success in their fields. Both techniques make use of the Learning Portal, an electronic portfolio available to all faculty at UMD. First, Upchurch will describe how he uses teams to help students learn software process while they are developing a software product and how the Learning Portal makes the task of managing whole class, team work, and role work practical and effective. Second, Sims-Knight will demonstrate how she helps students learn reflective practice through the assessmentbased continuous improvement strategy. The short presentations will be followed by a choice of two handson sessions--learning to use the Learning Portal (Upchurch) and developing reflective practice materials (Sims-Knight).
Session 3
REACHING THE UNINTERESTED: DEMONSTRATIONS DESIGNED FOR LARGE LECTURE FORMATS, DION 110Presenter: John Silva (Physics)
In this session, Silva presents several types of demonstrations he uses in his large lecture format classes. Since the vast majority of the students who enroll in courses like Planet Earth have limited interest in or knowledge of the scientific method, simple demonstrations that accompany the lecture can effectively illustrate how scientific inquiry functions. Silva will involve selected members of the audience in each of the demonstrations and focus on one of the topics students have a great deal of interest in - the dinosaurs. This session is of interest to anyone trying to engage large numbers of students who may be taking your class primarily to fulfill a requirement.
PROMOTING LEARNING THROUGH SERVICE, DION 114
Presenters: Susan Krumholz (Sociology/Anthropology), Mark Santow (History), Suzanne Scott (Management)
Well-designed service learning projects are extremely effective teaching tools. The presenters will describe the projects they have developed in their classes and explain how to set up a service learning unit; integrate it smoothly into the course; guide the students to a successful completion; and assess the results. The session will include a discussion of how this approach helps students link classroom learning with "reallife" challenges. This session is of interest to faculty who are interested in developing service learning projects or who would like to share their experiences with this form of "hands-on" learning.
