- Assessment
- Found Wisdom
- From the Director
- Grants
- Professional Development
- Scholarship
- Teaching
- Technology
- Writing Across the Curriculum
From the Director
My Students Catch Me Dancing
April is National Poetry Month, and because I’m a poetry fan, I decided to consult the poets (and not the researchers this time) about the life and work of the professor. Click through to read Ann Johnson's interview with Leslie Adrienne Miller, author of six collections of poetry and professor of English at the University of St. Thomas.
April 2013 From Director
April is National Poetry Month, and because I’m a poetry fan, I decided to consult the poets (and not the researchers this time) about the life and work of the professor. My first thought was a recollection – of reading Leslie Adrienne Miller’s 1990 poetry collection, Staying Up For Love, and finding the lovely poem called “My Students Catch Me Dancing.”
From the Director: Take your time: finding balance in the classroom
Dr. Ann Johnson, Faculty Development
The old lecture format certainly hasn’t disappeared, but we seem to have made an important shift toward believing that learning occurs best when students actively engage with course materials inside the classroom and in collaboration with professor and peers.
From the Director: IDEA -- Ideals and realities
Dr. Ann Johnson, Faculty Development
It’s not unusual for me to field complaints about the IDEA system for student evaluation of courses; every system has its flaws. But over J-Term, I talked with a faculty member who voiced concern of a different sort. His conversations with other faculty had convinced him that IDEA feedback was, in some cases, having a demoralizing impact.
Student evaluations: What's in it for me?
By: Dr. Ann Johnson, Faculty Development
I’ve been thinking a lot about student evaluation of teaching recently and reading up on the research – some critical and some affirming its value for helping faculty improve teaching practices. I feel positive about our adoption of IDEA but lately have come to think we’re not optimizing its possibilities for giving faculty formative feedback about teaching.
From the Director: Meditating on . . . Contemplative Pedagogy.
At two recent conferences, I’ve attended sessions on “contemplative pedagogy” – integrating strategies for promoting quiet reflection, prolonged opportunities for focusing, and even meditation in the classroom.
From the Director: Bridging teaching and learning – moving from the grey zone to the comfort zone
“There are gaps, sometimes considerable ones, between what was taught and what has been learned. By the time faculty notice these gaps . . . it is frequently too late to remedy the problems.” Angelo & Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques
Beth Bergfield joins Faculty Development
Join us in welcoming Beth Bergfield to the Center for Faculty Development.
From the Director: Begin afresh!
Professors often say that the beginning of a new school year is like January first – a moment when we hit the reset button, make new resolutions, and greet all that is new in our work lives. In Philip Larkin’s poem “The Trees” May is the month of rebirth, when trees perform their “yearly trick of looking new” and seem to call out “Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.” For academics, September offers that kind of promise.
From the Director
In a recent essay in The Teaching Professor, Keith Starcher from Indiana Wesleyan University tells of his transition from private industry executive to college professor: “I had long dreamed of being a college professor and imagined I’d be joining a collegial community where faculty would help each other improve as teachers. But that didn’t happen. Instead, I discovered that professors are just too busy teaching to help one another become better teachers.”
From the Director: Can we de-stress yet?
It is that time of the semester again. After Spring break, everything seems to speed up, particularly for those with heavy student advising loads.
Welcome Peter Weinhold - IRT Liaison
We are happy to welcome IRT Client Services Associate Director Peter Weinhold who will serve as IRT liaison to Faculty Development. As more and more faculty engage creatively with new strategies and make effective use of technology in the classroom, our connections with IRT have become stronger and better. I'm excited to hear of Peter's plans to create an "ongoing technology dialogue" with departments and units and looking forward to working together. --Ann Johnson
From the Director: The State of SoTL at UST
For so long, teaching has been a private, closed-door enterprise; the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) advances a fresh air policy that allows teachers to share ideas, successes, failures, strategies, and innovations.
From the Director: Impressions from the Academically Adrift reading group.
During J-Term, Faculty Development sponsored weekly breakfast meetings to discuss Academically Adrift by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa – a book that has been receiving lots of attention in higher education circles this past year. Twenty-one UST faculty and staff members committed to meeting weekly and discussing Academically Adrift, and we had some rich conversations about Arum and Roksa’s findings and suggestions.
From the Director
Are we academically adrift?
In her convocation talk to faculty this Fall, Sue Huber mentioned a book that’s been getting a lot of attention in Higher Education circles this past year: Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. The timeliness of this book is enhanced for us because...
News from the Director
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."
--Bertolt Brecht
New Faculty Development Director Comes On Board
Ann Johnson, who will begin as FD director this July, talks about her hopes for Faculty Development.
From the Director's Desk
"I taught a 300 level physiology course once a year for eleven years straight, and was relieved to finally give the course over to a colleague. I had polished, modified, refined, revised, etc. the course until there was nothing left to tweak; I was getting stale. What do you do when that happens? How do you keep the courses you teach exciting for both you and your students?"