Teaching and Learning Workshop Agenda
All Session will take place in the Teaching Commons (Dewing 206) unless otherwise noted.
Workshop Goals: Teaching purposefully and creating a “connected education”
- Create and sustain a community of learner-teachers
- Increase our understanding of, and appreciation for, the diversity of learners and teachers
- Explore how that diversity affects teaching and learning
- Develop a common language for teaching and learning
- Catalyze conversations about teaching and learning among the faculty
- Foster a dynamic campus culture centered on teaching and learning
- Situate educating students within the K environment
Tuesday, 3 September 2019
5 – 7 p.m. Dinner and informal introduction to the workshop and each other
Attire: very casual
Location: Home of Jan Solberg . Rides can be arranged as needed.
Logistics: Partners, spouses, and children are invited. Vegetarian and omnivore food choices will be served in back yard (weather permitting). Workshop participants will gather for 15 minutes in microteaching groups to preview the weeks work.
Introductions: Name, Department, Where you’re coming to K from, and…
- What is the best or most absurd “ice-breaker” question you’ve encountered?
As an example, a previous TLW used “what color is your academic discipline?”
Preview of Wednesday’s Microteaching Assignment (more information will be provided at Monday’s gathering): teach a 10-minute segment that will introduce your focal course and make use of knowledge you gained from reading How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, Chapter 2: Key Findings. Do try to imagine that your microteaching audience is composed of K College students. Please note that your segment should attempt to make a connection between your class and the reading. The debriefing sessions afterwards will also discuss how your class and the reading are connected.
[Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., and J. W. Pellegrino, Editors; Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, National Research Council. 2000. How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice.]
Why did we choose this reading?
The most important goal of teaching is student learning and all teachers want their students to learn. Most of us agree that learning implies that a student can use concepts and skills taught long after leaving the classrooms and in situations different from the classroom environment. Effective instructional design therefore requires us to know something about how students (people) learn and how different teaching strategies achieve different learning outcomes. This reading provides a few fundamental results from the research on learning and some implications for effective teaching. The reading encourages us to explore the research on teaching and learning as we purposefully decide on content, teaching strategies, activities, and assessment choices for our individual courses.
Note: All TLW readings are intended to introduce ideas related to
teaching and learning. Readings do not offer the “best” ideas or comprehensive
coverage of a particular topic. Readings are really only meant to get us
thinking about something together.
Wednesday, 4 September 2019
8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast at the Teaching Commons, 206 Dewing (attendance expected)
8:30 – 8:45 Opening Welcome from Provost Danette Johnson
8:45 – 11:15 Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing Hall classrooms)
11:15 – 12:00 General discussion of how to match teaching approaches to how students learn
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 Discuss guidelines and scenario for Wednesday’s microteaching segment and sign-up for Wednesday’s dinner hosted by Provost Danette Johnson
2:00 – 2:20 Dewing Commons Introductions: Center for International Programs, Center for Career and Professional Development, Center for Civic Engagement (Dewing 1st floor lobby)
2:30– 3:30 Student Development: Office of the Dean, Counseling Services (Stu Dev Conf Room)
6:00 – 8:00 Dinner at Provost Danette Johnson’s home (attire: informal, casual) Partners, spouses and children are invited; RSVP sign-up at dinner Tuesday
Preview of Thursday’s Microteaching Assignment: teach a 10-minute segment of your focal course employing knowledge you gained from reading Saunders and Kardia (2016) in order to promote student learning in an environment of diversity and inclusiveness.
[Saunders, S. and D. Kardia. Creating Inclusive College Classrooms. Accessed July 25, 2016 ]
Why did we choose this reading?
Kalamazoo College strives to be an institution where all students
feel that they belong and are able to reach their full academic potential.
Fostering a sense of belonging is
important to all students’ academic
success and psychosocial wellbeing, and especially to students who may see themselves
as marginalized. To achieve these goals, we promote inclusive classrooms where
students and instructors work together to build an environment in which
everyone feels safe and supported. This reading presents potential issues
related to content, assumptions, and classroom activities. The reading offers
practical suggestions that might be helpful, or at least act as the beginning
of a conversation.
Thursday, 5 September 2019
8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast at the Teaching Commons (attendance expected)
8:30 – 11:15 Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing Hall classrooms)
11:15 – 12:00 General discussion of how to creating inclusive classrooms
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 Discuss guidelines and scenario for Thursday’s microteaching segment
2:00 – 3:30 New Faculty Orientation Event: Library resources (IS, IT, Learning Commons, Circulation, Acquisitions) and mandatory Title IX training (First floor Library)
Preview of Friday’s Microteaching Assignment: teach a 10-minute segment of your focal course that helps students “learn through experience” (Best Practices in Experiential Learning) in your course at Kalamazoo College. Accomplishing this task might be easier after thinking about the K-Plan, how you could use structured reflection in some way in your course (see the one-pager about structured reflection at K.
Schwartz, Michelle (accessed July 28, 2017). Best Practices in Experiential Learning.
Why did we choose this reading?
At Kalamazoo
College we believe in experiential learning; i.e. learning from experience or
learning by doing. Such learning occurs in every dimension of the K-Plan.
However, having experiences is not enough; having experience presents the
promise of learning, but to learn students must reflect on their experiences
and analyze the outcomes. This reading helps define experiential learning and
provides guidelines for how to incorporate experiential activities into our
courses. It also discusses the role of the instructor and how to end the
activity through student reflection. In short, the reading provides some ideas
for how to incorporate experiential learning into our courses.
Friday, 6 September 2019
8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast at the Teaching Commons (attendance expected)
8:30 – 11:15 Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing 2nd floor classrooms)
11:15 – 12:00 Presentation of backwards design and the K syllabus
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch with participants from the 2018 TLW
1:00 – 1:45 One Year Later: Perspectives and Insights on the first year of teaching at K
1:45 – 2:00 Introduction to Mentoring Expectations and Workshop Evaluation
2:00 – 2:30 New Faculty Orientation Event: Business Office, HR, Registrar (Mandelle Lobby)
2:30 – 5:00 Follow-up appointments with Jennifer Williams, Human Resources (Mandelle 201)