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Talking About Teaching
Conversations will be held in the CST, DeWitt Wallace
Library Suite 338 from 12:00-1:00.
Friday, February 8, 2008 - Why
We Write. Martin Gunderson (Philosophy)
Most of our discussions about writing concentrate on the mechanics
of writing and the art of teaching writing. I would like to begin
by asking why we should be so concerned with writing in the first
place. I take the question seriously. (No philosopher is more famous
than Socrates, yet he did not write the Socratic dialogues for which
he is remembered.) Why should we demand that our students write
and, for that matter, that our faculty publish? If we can clarify
the values that inform our demands for writing, we will have a better
idea of what to emphasize in the teaching of writing.
Friday, February 15, 2008 - Oral
Reports: Kick-Back Day in the Classroom? Adrienne Christiansen
(Political Science)
Many faculty members require students to give oral reports,
research presentations, or group presentations in their courses,
only to be disappointed at the poor quality of many students' formal
speaking abilities. I will begin the discussion by describing some
of the most common pitfalls faculty make in designing such assignments.
I will also recommend simple strategies to enhance audience members'
learning, and improve the quality of student presentations.
Friday, February 22, 2008 - Setting High
Expectations for Writing Assignments. David Moore (International
Studies)
How do you set high expectations for student achievement in your
classroom? I will discuss strategies such as assigning instructor
draft writing, assigning prior-course student writing, and multi-week
workshopping.
Friday, February 29, 2008 - Sentences, Paragraphs,
and Composition. Terry Boychuk (Sociology)
At the level of sentence and paragraph construction, a few general
principles of good writing hold across disciplinary boundaries.
At the level of overall composition, expectations and conventions
vary considerably across fields. I will discuss the sociology department’s
quite specific guidelines (download handout) for writing senior theses as an example
of how to distill and communicate standards for research reports.
Friday, March 7, 2008 - Taking Groups into
the Field: Action Research and Cooperative Writing. Laura Smith
& David Lanegran (Geography)
For several years advanced geography classes have engaged in collaborative
action research projects with a variety of community and government
organizations. Our discussion will focus on the problems and promises
of academic team work, student-public interactions and assigning
grades to cooperative learning projects.
Friday, March 28, 2008 - Collaborative
Learning in Groups. Libby Shoop (Math/CS)
The challenges to implementing group work where all team members
learn include establishing student learning goals, designing effective
assignments to meet those goals, developing fair assessment measures,
deciding on group membership and size, monitoring the group’s
progress, and examining the individual participation of the group
members. Whether you have experience to share or wish to try these
techniques, please come and discuss the ways in which we can improve
group learning in our courses.
Friday, April 4, 2008 - Responding to Student
Writing: Challenges and Opportunities. Mark Davis (Biology)
Responding to student writing is one of our most time-consuming,
and, for many of us, probably among our least favorite tasks as
teachers. Yet, it is a very important one. Is there a way to spend
less time responding to student writing and yet be more effective?
Quite possibly.
Friday, April 11, 2008 - Promoting
Deeper Understanding with Blogging. Chad Topaz (Math/CS)(download reading and handout)
We have developed a “The Just-in-Time Teaching”
variant which generalizes to many disciplines, and which centers
on student blogging. We will discuss how this methodology can benefit
student learning by promoting conceptual understanding, metacognitive
reflection, and increased exposure to course material. We will cover
our own experiences with this method, present some indicators of
success, and answer questions about the pedagogical and technical
aspects of implementation. Finally, w will discuss future design
plans to incorporate audio and video blogging (podcasting) into
our teaching practice.
Friday, April 18, 2008 - Who Are These
People: Understanding Today’s College Students. Keith Edwards
(Director of Campus Life) and Jim Hoppe (Dean of Students)
Have you ever questioned why students last semester responded so
differently to your exercises, questions, and courses than students
did just five years ago? Have you wondered what new teaching strategies
might be more effective with today's college student? We will discuss
some of the trends in today's college students' backgrounds, developmental
needs, aspirations, and generational perspectives. National trends
as well as Macalester specific patterns will be covered.
Friday, April 25, 2008 - PowerPoint: Too
Much of a Good Thing? Pete Ferderer (Economics)
With the touch of a button PowerPoint allows us to project pictures,
text, mathematical equations, graphs, tables, and other information
that is important to teaching. Of course, given our cognitive limitations,
it is possible that PowerPoint can be overused and adversely impact
student learning. I share my experience using PowerPoint in the
classroom over the past six years and invite discussion about the
potential costs and benefits.
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