- applying gamification in your classroom (3-part series)
- enhancing student engagement through inclusion awareness and strategic response
- inclusive assessments and grading
- steal my success strategy
- navigating difficult conversations in the classroom
- lowering the stakes while raising the standards: un-grading in higher education
- mastering mentorship: strategies for supporting graduate students through challenges
- using brightspace and integrated brightspace tools to support capstone projects
- balancing teaching and research: strategies for effective course management and student engagement
- generative ai in the classroomfacilitated by jen wilson, ph.d.
- empowering teaching and learning through human centered design (hcd)
- using universal design of learning principles to improve the accessibility of your learning materials and brightspace environment
click here to find out more and register!
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we are proud to announce that jennifer ogg wilson has joined of the office of education design and development (formerly the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分) as its new director. as a vanderbilt alumna with a ph.d. and m.a. in political science, she is thrilled to be back on campus. a seasoned learning facilitator, she has created and led over 300 educational development workshops and programs for university faculty and staff. her areas of expertise center around active learning, metacognition, student engagement and belonging, teaching innovation, and educational research. her two most recent research projects explore the effects of personality on active learning and learning gains experienced by students taught through virtual reality. prior to joining the oedd in february of 2024, she was the director of teaching programs at the university of louisville. she also served for six years an assistant professor of political science at tennessee tech university, where she was the 2016 recipient of the outstanding teaching award in general education. jennifer holds b.a.s in french and international studies from the university of tennessee, which support her favorite hobby of travel. her other interests outside of higher education include downhill skiing, scuba diving, and cheering on the kansas city chiefs. please join us in welcoming jen back to vanderbilt!
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at this time in the semester when students are handing in an assortment of assignments, it is important to provide meaningful feedback to guide their growth. effective feedback can come in a variety of forms, but students find it most helpful when it is educative about what they are doing well and not so well, when it is timely, when it is personalized as much as possible, and when it provides models or examples of improved performance. given that effective feedback is often in tension with efficient feedback, and time is of the essence for faculty and students alike, there are several techniques that may make feedback timelier. these include using rubrics, possibly designed with students, that have pre-prepared language for different levels of performance on different criteria. one might also use self- or peer-feedback processes to both empower students in their own assessment, while also lessening the time faculty need to give to each assignment. lastly, one might look for common concerns or suggestions across a class’s assignments and give it to the students as a group, rather than in multiple individual assignments. for more helpful advice on giving effective and efficient feedback you might review this guide from the mit teaching + learning lab.
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despite our aspirations for our classrooms to be home to open inquiry and reasoned, informed debate, sometimes the intensely traumatic nature of current events can overwhelm us or our students. whether it is recurring incidents of mass violence, the persistence of social or environmental crises, or polarized political debate in our public sphere, just to name three, students may experience deep-seated emotions that can lead to disengagement from the learning process or reactive conflicts that can be unproductive or harmful. we at the cft know that the current moment is a particularly stressful time in which tensions are high, and all educators are in need of improving our strategies to help transform these reactions into moments of growth, individually and collectively.
towards this end, we have several events and resources that will prove useful.
first, we will have the workshop mentioned below, “transforming classroom conflict into learning,” with dana nelson (english), alan wiseman (political science and law), and allison anoll (political science), monday, november 13th, from 12:00 to 1:15pm at the cft (please register here).
second, we hope you will delve into the cft teaching guide, teaching in times of crisis, as well as those of our peer centers that emphasize many similar and complementary strategies:
- getting started with establishing ground rules (cornell 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 innovation)
- guidelines for discussing difficult or high-stakes topics (university of michigan center for research on teaching and learning)
- addressing disruptive social and political events (stanford teaching commons)
- addressing difficult events in the classroom (mit teaching + learning lab)
- teaching in difficult times (uc berkeley 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 and learning)
- handle difficult moments with respect and sensitivity (carnegie mellon eberly 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 excellence and innovation)
- using cognitive empathy in the classroom (unc charlotte 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 and learning)
- facilitating difficult conversations during class (johns hopkins 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 excellence and innovation)
lastly, please set up an appointment with the cft staff to help you develop strategies and models specific to your teaching context. you can find out more about our consultations for these or other subjects, along with contact information, here.
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facilitator: elizabeth meadows (associate director, robert penn warren center) and joe bandy (interim director, cft)
date: wednesday, november 15th
time: 12:00-1:00pm
where: 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 classroom, 1114 19th ave south, 3rd floor
facilitator: joe bandy (interim director, cft)
date: monday, november 13th
time: 12:00-1:15pm
where: 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 classroom, 1114 19th ave south, 3rd floor
facilitator: laura carter-stone (postdoctoral fellow, cft) & boni yraguen (instructional consultant, cft)
date: tuesday, november 7th
time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
where: 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 classroom, 1114 19th ave south, 3rd floor
facilitators: laura carter-stone (postdoctoral fellow, cft) and marcy pedzwater (instructional designer, ode)
date: thursday, october 26th
time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
where: 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 classroom, 1114 19th ave south, 3rd floor
teaching our students to think critically
with louis e. newman
october 31st, 12:00-1:30pm (lunch provided)
2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分, 1114 19th ave south, 3rd floor
we all want our students to become adept at critical thinking. but what exactly do we mean by this, and how do we teach it? in this session, we’ll explore these questions and consider specific pedagogical strategies for helping undergraduates develop the habits of mind we expect of them.
louis e. newman is the author of thinking critically in college, and has served as the dean of academic advising and associate vice provost for undergraduate education at stanford university, and was the humphrey doermann professor of liberal learning and the director of the perlman center for learning and teaching at carleton college. he is now the john m. and elizabeth w. musser professor emeritus of religious studies at carleton. he also is one of the country’s leading scholars of jewish ethics and the author of several previous books, including repentance: the meaning and practice of teshuvah (jewish lights 2010), past imperatives: studies in the history and theory of jewish ethics (suny press, 1998) and an introduction to jewish ethics (prentice hall, 2005), among others. he has been featured more recently in inside higher education as well. we are grateful to have dr. newman join us for this special event.
if you are interested in attending, please register here. lunch will be provided.
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f the semester when you may be wondering whether your course is going all that well and what students are thinking about it. we at the cft are here to help you collect just this kind of information and support you as you decide what to do with it. there are a couple of ways you can collect information. first, you could sign up for a mid-semester feedback consultation with the cft staff who would use a small group analysis (sga) process to gather student thoughts in your absence. this is not unlike a focus group process, which is described further here, and it only takes twenty minutes of class time. second, you could collect the information via an anonymous survey that you conduct yourself. if you prefer this option, you might benefit from reading a guide on how to do this by former cft graduate teaching fellow, robert marx, “soliciting and utilizing mid-semester feedback.” whichever method you choose, we are happy to help you make sense of the results and what, if anything, you might like to change in your teaching.
if you would like to schedule a mid-semester feedback consultation, please call juliet traub (615-322-7290) or write to us here.
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