Summaries of 2005-06 LES workshops

Did you miss an LES workshop or do you just need a reminder of what was discussed?  The following are descriptions of the LES workshops held during the 2005-06 academic year.

Creating Community in the Classroom in FYS and Beyond
Designing Tests and Paper Questions
Using WebCT to Enhance Learning
What Can Liberal Arts Faculty Learn from the Pedagogies of the Professions
Working with Students with Learning Disabilities
Multicultural and International Student Experiences in the Classroom
Experiential and Active Learning in the Classroom
Small Groups: Good Practice or Just the Latest Fad?
Writing to Learn: Helping Students by Assigning (but not grading) Writing
Embedded Assessment: Using Classroom Assignments to Achieve Our Assessment Goals
New Library Tools for the Humanities and Fine Arts, the Sciences, and the Social Sciences
What Makes a Good Learning Experience? The View from the Other Side of the Desk
Teaching Through Case Studies to Enhance Student Learning
Grants and Grant Writing: Doing It Right

Creating Community in the Classroom in FYS and Beyond

LES and the First Year Symposium Program invite you to a discussion on creating community in FYS and beyond.  We know students learn more if they are comfortable with each other and the professor, but we also know too much of a good thing can have undesirable consequences.  How can we foster a rich learning community in FYS, and our other classes, without having our students see us as "mommy," "daddy," or a "pal?"  Join Karen Erickson (MCL), Ken Jones (LES/History), Cindy Malone (English), and Sister Lois Wedl (Education) to share ideas about activities that work and strategies for finding and maintaining an appropriate balance.

Writing Tests and Paper Questions

Part of our job is to evaluate student learning.  Unfortunately, few of us have had any formal training is how to do this, and most of us would rather read in our disciplines than think about how to test.  This session is designed as a quick reminder of key issues we ought to consider on the subject.  Ken Jones (LES/History) will summarize some of the recent literature and present concrete suggestions for designing evaluation instruments, from multiple-choice to essay topics.  For more information on writing tests......

Using WebCT to Enhance Learning!

WebCT can be an effective supplement to a class for a variety of reasons, including organizing course material, saving paper (fewer handouts), extending classroom discussion, providing opportunities for peer editing, and providing multi-format resources (e.g., visual and sound clips).  Join Kelly Berg-Nellis (Communication) and Jeanne Cook (Communication) to learn how easy it can be to begin using this tool in your classes.  We'll explore some existing WebCT sites during this session, but come ready to think of ways you might use this in your own classes.

What Can Liberal Arts Faculty Learn from the Pedagogies of the Professions?

Lee Schulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, recently argued that the professions of law, medicine, engineering, and the clergy are successful in educating new practitioners because they have developed "signature pedagogies."  Shulman believes that these pedagogies work because they push students beyond understanding to action, while also developing character and values that generate trust.  Please join Carrie Braun (Nursing) and Ken Jones (LES/History) for a discussion of Shulman's article, Signature Pedagogies in the Professions.  We hope for a lively conversation that will reflect on Shulman's conclusions, challenge his assumptions, and above all, explore ways we can translate the successful practices he describes into our own classrooms.  We strongly recommend you read the article in advance.  It appeared in Deadalus in Summer 2005, and can be accessed at......

Working with Students with Learning Disabilities

What are some of the challenges that a student with learning disabilities faces? How can we help them? What are our responsibilities? What procedures and institutions support can we call on?  If you are interested in answers to these questions, please join us at next week's LES workshop.  We will watch a short video that illustrates some of the barriers to learning faced by LD students, and then Susan Douma (Academic Advising), Michael Ewing (Counseling), and Michelle Sauer (Academic Advising) will help us understand our obligations, procedures, and the support that their offices can offer.

Multicultural and International Student Experiences in the Classroom

What is best practice when working with multicultural and international students in the classroom?  How can we be welcoming and supportive?  Are you aware of potential classroom issues?  What resources are available at CSB and SJU to help students and faculty succeed?  Do you know about the relevant state and federal academic requirements?  If you are interested in these questions, please join us for a presentation by Amy VanSurksum (Academic Advising - International Students), Theresa Anderson (Academic Advising - Multicultural Students), and Addy Spitzer (Director of International Students). 

Experiential and Active Learning in the Classroom

Traditional higher education pedagogies (lecturing and limited classroom discussion) - regards the teacher as the authority and controller/owner of knowledge while students are passive receivers whose job is to absorb and regurgitate knowledge.  On the other hand experiential and active learning methods shifts the focus from the teacher and her delivery of course contents to the student and his active engagement with the material changing the passive role of students.  Students are encouraged to be active learners by taking knowledge, applying it and reflecting on the results.  As active learners students become "co-learning" partners.  This presentation discusses selected active and experiential learning methods in the classroom.

Small Groups: Good Practice or Just the Latest Fad?

We all know that putting students into small groups is a pretty popular teaching strategy, but is "just letting them talk" really doing any thing for their learning?  We will get an early start to the semester with a conversation about the strengths and pitfalls of small groups.  Join Ken Jones (LES/History) for a dialogue on small groups.  You'll come away with a better understanding of the pedagogical theory behind the practice and lots of concrete suggestions for using small groups effectively. For more information on using small groups....

Writing to Learn: Helping Students by Assigning (but not grading) Writing

Do you want your suggestions to know the class material more thoroughly and be able to apply what they have learned in new situations?  Do you want higher levels of student engagement in your course?  Research literature suggests we can achieve both of these goals by asking our students to write more.  The even better news is that this writing can be, in Peter Elbow's phrase, "Writing without teachers."  We can get substantial gains in understanding and engagement without teaching writing and with little or no grading of the written work.  Intrigued?  Join Ken Jones (LES/History) at a discussion of how we can use writing to help our students learn with minimal cost to us.  For more information on writing........

Embedded Assessment: Using Classroom Assignments to Achieve Our Assessment Goals

Assessment doesn't have to be a task we perform solely for some outside entity.  Good assessment practice can be tightly linked to our teaching and to our desire to maximize student learning.  One way to do this is through embedded assessment, and approach that begins with the grading we do already, and modifies the process to produce meaningful information for course or program evaluation.  Join Ken Jones (LES/History) for a conversation about embedded assessment.  He will show you how this approach can provide information you really want, improve your teaching, and save some time in the long-run by avoiding less integrated assessment approaches.  For more information on embedded assessment..........

New Library Tools for the Humanities and Fine Arts, the Sciences, and the Social Sciences

Libraries continually add new tools that can make both faculty and student research easier and better, and ours are no exception.  Please join our staff librarians for an exploration of how these new resources can benefit your work and be integrated into what you do in the classroom.  We'll have an overview of how the Libraries are approaching electronic information resources and some ideas on where we are heading in the future.  The workshops will be offered by Division so you will get only the information you need for your disciple.

What Makes a Good Learning Experience? The View from the Other Side

What do our students think creates a good learning experience?  What kinds of environments and faculty approaches work best from their perspective?  A group of articulate seniors will provide their viewpoint during a lively discussion of what they see as the best techniques, methodologies, and systems they have encountered.  The panelists will be Evan Creed (Psychology), Lewis Grobe (German/History), Kate Lawson (Management), Blanca Munguia (Communication), Scott Nestberg (Economics), Sophia Polasky (Environmental Studies), Elizabeth Poleski (English), and John Ratelle (Biology).  A similar session, in 2004, was enormously popular and we hope you, too, will enjoy hearing about good teaching and learning from those on the other side of the desk.

Teaching Through Case Studies to Enhance Student Learning

Cases are short vignettes about a particular situation or patient or controversy.  These stories are used in a variety of ways, as homework or exam questions, to promote small group discussions, or to direct students toward outside resources in their research.  Please join Jane Byrne (Nutrition) and Marcus Webster (Biology) as they describe how they have used case studies to capture student interest, focus attention on the application of course content to real world situations, and provide additional ways for students to learn challenging material.  They will explain not only what they do, but will use a model case to promote discussion during this session. 

Grants and Grant Writing: Doing it Right

Would you like to know more about the grant-writing process works at CSB/SJU?  Do you have an idea for a grant you would like to pursue?  Or are you just curious about what possibilities there may be?  If the answer is yes to any of these questions, please join Diane Calabria (Institutional Advancement), Dave Lyndgaard (Provost's Office), Catherine Stoch (Institutional Advancement), and John Taylor (Institional Advancement) for a very informative session.  Topics to be covered include researching online databases, and tips on planning and the process of grant writing that will enhance your application.