Past Newsletters
Volume 1, Issue 1, January 24, 2005
Inside this issue:
The New Office for the Teaching and Learning Center
PKAL Initiative | Universal Design | Sources | OPID
Who's Who at the Teaching and Learning Center
SENCER | Carnegie Foundation | AACU |
Our New Office
Did anyone notice the construction on the second floor of
the library? What you may not know is that we are moving our office.
As many of you may know the Teaching and Learning Center is currently
located at WYLL 267, but by the time you read this newsletter we will
(we hope) have moved to our new location (WYLL 247). Our new office is
being built next to the faculty/staff lounge which is getting a make-over..
We will be looking out over Main Place. We will have a beautiful view,
more room and a greater ability to serve our professors. We will
have a conference table so that you can do research or have a
small meeting. There is also an area just for conversation or
quiet study with comfortable chairs and table. Along with our
new location we will also be bringing you this newsletter on a
quarterly basis and have evening and daytime office hours for
your convenience. We also hope to have a brochure and website
before long. Please come make yourself at home in our new office,
check out our books and other materials, and feel free to give
us the titles of books, magazines, videos or anything else that
you feel would be a valuable addition to our library. We will
continue with our Spring 2005 programs, look for the schedule
in your mailbox.
If you have any questions or suggestions please
email tlc@uwp.edu, contact Chris Evans, the director, at evansc@uwp.edu
or at ext. 2171, Judy Ayers at ayers@uwp.edu
or the office, ext. 2068. We look forward to the new changes
and better ways to serve you in 2005 and beyond.
Our office hours beginning January 31, 2005 are:
MTR: 3:30-6:00 p.m.
W: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
F: 1-3 p.m.
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Who's Who at the Teaching and Learning Center
If you are wondering who is who at the Teaching and Learning Center than this is the article to read. Chris Evans is our Director. Many of you have met her at the Brown Bag lunches this past semester, but if you are from a different part of the University and don't get to the sciences area often, Chris is Chair of the Geosciences Department. She teaches courses in Environmental Sciences, Surficial Processes (dirt in layman's terms) and she has a strong interest in Science Education. The Project Coordinator is Judy Ayers, UWP alumni, current student finishing her teaching certification and the person who creates fliers, brochures, newsletters etc. I am what, around the University, is called the program assistant.
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Universal Design
Universal Design is a concept that is becoming an integral part of education. While this may be oriented for a k-8 classroom there is also great validity for using this method in the university setting. The goal of universal design is “to ensure that all students have the option of learning from instructional materials and practices that suit their abilities and learning styles in settings and facilities that can accommodate their various needs.” The point is not just to make the classroom physically accessible and comfortable but also to make the instructional materials accessible through a variety of methods to each student in the classroom. These methods include not just the traditional lecture method, but also include videos, online aids (such as the D2L UWP provides), multimedia presentations computer-based simulations and other visual and learner adapted instructional materials. The VARK questionnaire demonstrated in one of our brown bag lunches by Dr. Skendzic (I have also taken this questionnaire in one of her classes), is truly a valuable tool in determining how your students learn. Knowing if your students are visual, reading/writing or kinesthetic oriented in their learning can help you arrange your instructional materials to best suit the class; give greater meaning not just to their learning, but also give you greater enjoyment teaching. If you would like to see more information on this design check out the following websites: www.k8accesscenter.org, www.cast.org, http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/.
*all quotes are from their website
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Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID)
This resource, formerly known as the Undergraduate Teaching and Improvement Council (UTIC), is run by the University of Wisconsin System and was established in 1977. It is administered by the UW Systems faculty and administrators from our 15 universities. OPID's focus is to provide the leadership that enables instructors to develop more innovative and effective teaching that fosters student learning. To this end, OPID offers several conferences and has Teaching Fellows for untenured faculty, Teaching Scholars for tenured faculty, grant programs and two other annual programs that offer teaching awards for outstanding faculty within the UW system. If you are interested in applying for any of these programs please contact the Provost's office for applications or go to http://www.uwsa.edu/opid/index.htm for more details. This website gives you all the details you will need and also provides some valuable links to other resources within and outside the UW System.
* all quotes are from their website
“PKAL's aim is to foster vital connections to the ideas and activities, people and institutions shaping the future and to facilitate informed and persistent action.”
PKAL is an “informal national alliance” and is also focused on the STEM disciplines and seeks create a learning environment that will not only attract students but keep them engaged in the STEM disciplines and hopefully foster careers within those fields. It also works with faculty and administration teaching them how to serve their students better. PKAL has a tripartite approach: first, to have a holistic approach to the learning environment, not as individual pieces but as parts of a whole, second, reforms also must be a group effort not based on one individual's work and finally, that all changes be initiated based on a custom fit for that college or university, realizing that it is not a one size fits all reform. If you would like more information go to: http://www.pkal.org/.*all quotes are from their website
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Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
CASTL, a Carnegie Foundation initiative begun in 1998, looks to develop the scholarship of teaching and learning in the following ways: first, they are trying to create valuable, long-term learning for students, second, they seek to improve instruction and the profession of teaching itself and last, they are recognizing and rewarding faculty accomplishments on par with other types of scholarly work. One of their major goals is to make teaching a public activity, no longer an isolated activity that cannot be critically evaluated; they desire to have teaching be usable to scholars and to the community. CASTL has many programs for the advancement of teaching; not just for higher education, but also for k-12. This is, I believe, very important because the students that are being taught in our grade, middle and senior high schools should also have qualified scholars teaching them, not just when they get into college. Carnegie's 2005 Colloquium on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Evidence of Student Learning is being held in Atlanta , GA on March 16 and 17th, 2005. If you are interested in attending there is still time to sign up. The early registration deadline is January 31, 2005. For more information on CASTL, its programs or the Colloquium head to the following website: www.carnegiefoundation.org. Also, check out their new publications here; they look interesting.
*all quotes are from their website
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Other Internet Resources
The following list contains other resources that might be of interest to you concerning the scholarship of teaching and learning:
http://www.nt.armstrong.edu/FDteachingST.htm
http://titans.iusb.edu/josotl/
http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/links.html (especially good link)
Web Tutorial about SOTL:
http://webcenter1.aahe.org/sotl_tutorial/home.html
Or, just type in “scholarship of teaching and learning” in a Google search and take a look around; there's a lot there.
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Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU)
The AAC&U has a slightly different focus. It is “concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education . . . committed to extending the advantage of a liberal education to all students, regardless of their academic specialization or intended career”. They are committed to liberal education at all levels and look to help individual universities and colleges rise to the challenge of keeping quality education while they try to deal with new social and economic issues. AAC&U's four goals are: 1) “Preparing all students for an era of greater expectation”, 2) “Educating students for a world lived in common”, 3) “Making excellence inclusive” and 4) “Taking responsibility for the quality of every student's liberal education”. Their website at: www.aacu.org lists resources for you at the click of a mouse. Check out their summer institutes and other upcoming conferences under “meetings” at the top of their web page. AAC&U has a 90 year history as being a leader in educational reform, so just drop by their site and see what they have to offer; I am sure you will find it a valuable resource.
*all quotes are from their website
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Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities
(SENCER)
SENCER is a “national dissemination project” and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Its goal is to create stronger programs and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM, as is it known). This program facilitates and supports faculty development with various types of services; these include the SENCER Summer Institute, SENCER Clusters (a forum for group discussion on its program and activities), SENCER Models , and the SENCER Virtual Community (a listserv and e-Newsletter combined to link educators together in dialog). The Models “teach ‘through' science to the complex, capacious, and unsolved public issues”, have clear learning outcomes which are assessed on a continuous basis while at the same time responding to the interest of the students. The title of one of their 2004 Models is: Chemistry and Ethnicity: Uranium and American Indians. The Summer Institute which is being held August 5-9, 2005 at Santa Clara University in San Jose , CA is still accepting applications until February 28, 2005. If you are interested in applying go to Sencer.net and apply online or talk to Chris Evans at ext. 2171, call Judy Ayers at ext. 2068 or email me at ayers@uwp.edu for more details.
*all quotes are from their website
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