CELT’s annual Fall Teaching Conference that opened the 2007-08 academic year set another record for attendance. Held Aug. 16 in the Science Building and Neff Hall, the conference attracted 106 faculty members plus another 20 participants from Ivy Tech. Last year’s conference attracted 85 attendees, all from IPFW.
“Our goal is to help energize you as you start a new school year, and to provide fresh ideas for improving student learning,” reported Gail Rathbun, the director of CELT, in her opening comments for the conference, which promised, by its title, to provide “Solid, Sane, and Successful Strategies for Learner-centered Teaching.” Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University, did just that.
“Research demonstrates that having fun while learning helps the learning process,” he reported during his keynote address. “But we are not to confuse fun with work. Whistling while we work is fine, but it can get tricky – this is why I believe standards in education are massively important,” he added.
Zakrajsek urged the group to set standards they can live with and stick to them. “It’s too easy to let your standards drift a little, because there is so much work involved in maintaining those standards,” he noted. Late polices, for example, tend to be draconian, but then the professor is faced with mitigating circumstances and is tempted to apply the policy erratically. “So, therefore, you need to get to a policy that you can enforce evenly,” he continued, reporting that his own policy is graduated and enforced across the board.
A psychologist, Zakrajsek also told the group that teachers should avoid over-interpreting non-verbal communications from their students. “Like it or not, we are all performers, and we look for cues from our audience to see how we are doing,“ he noted. “But what we see can be misleading, because it’s not cool for students to look engaged. The best way to find out is just to ask them.” He also reported that today’s students really can multi-task, and thus just because students do not appear to be paying attention, that does not mean they aren’t getting the material. “So the key is to multi-task yourself, to keep them more fully engaged.”
Zakrajsek practiced what he preached, showing a two and a half minute video while he spent two and half minutes passing out handouts. And, of course, he praised the use of CATs (brief classroom assessment techniques that provide an instant snapshot of how well the class is following the material at that point). “Unless you can get the student to pull the information out and present it, you can’t really know how you are doing.”
Another key issue in classroom planning, he said, is to understand the rhythm of a typical class. “We’re up there walking around and bouncing from one thing to another, while the students’ biggest worry is not falling asleep,” he said, showing a graph that revealed the declining heart rates of students the longer they sit. “Your best, most productive class time is right at the beginning and right at the end, so think of something different to break up the middle,” he urged. In his own case, he always saves class announcements for the middle of the period, and in a 75 or 90 minute class he gives breaks.
Last but not least Zakrajsek singled out Chickering’s and Garrison’s 1986 study, “The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” as a teaching guide every teacher should be familiar with. “The research is solid on this,” he reported. “You need to know your students names, you need to get them talking to each other, you need to provide active learning techniques, you have to give prompt feedback, you to have to spend the right amount of time on the tasks, you must communicate high expectations, and you have to respect the diverse talents and ways of knowing of your students.”
Zakrajsek also provided a smaller, concurrent session titled, “Using Solid Psychological Research to Build Environments for Learning.” Other concurrent sessions, provided by IPFW faculty, included:
· Assess for Success: Using Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) to Enhance Learning, Linda Lolkus, Associate Professor, Consumer and Family Science, and Vince Maloney, Associate Professor, Chemistry
· Critical to Success: Fostering Critical Thinking with Web-based Tools, Tiff Adkins, Reference Librarian, Helmke Library, and Stevens Amidon, Assistant Professor, English and Linguistics
· Strategies for Staying Sane and Successful with Online Discussion, Michelle Drouin, Assistant Professor, Psychology, and Lesa Vartanian, Associate Professor, Psychology
· Staying on Solid Ground with Rubrics, Carolyn Stumph, Assistant Professor, Economics, and Daniel Callison, Professor and Dean, IU School of Continuing Studies
· Successful Strategies for Nurturing Responsible Writing with Turnitin, Cathleen Carosella, Center for Academic Support and Advancement.
Rathbun reported that in addition to setting another attendance record, this year’s conference evaluations provided comments like the following: " A typical well-done CELT conference." "I learned a lot. Lecture provided by Todd Zakrajsek will help me to be a better teacher." "Keynote address was excellent." Learned tools and concepts I can immediately utilize and invigorating to preparation for upcoming semester." "Every session was useful, practical, and motivational." "Well-organized. Kudos to Stephanie."
The conference was recorded on video, and DVDs with the keynote speech and concurrent sessions may be borrowed from the CELT office, KT 234.
More conference photos can be seen at:
http://www.ipfw.edu/celt/assets/images/Fall%202007/index.html
