{"id":31855,"date":"2019-08-19t09:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-19t14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=31855"},"modified":"2019-07-30t12:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30t17:51:51","slug":"teaching-innovations-at-vanderbilt-chris-candelaria-and-poster-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2019\/08\/teaching-innovations-at-vanderbilt-chris-candelaria-and-poster-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"teaching innovations at vanderbilt: chris candelaria and poster sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"
by faith rovenolt, cft undergraduate intern<\/em><\/h5>\n

for the first time in this blog series, i was able to go and see the teaching innovation i would write about. during 2019 spring semester, i visited the end-of-semester poster sessions held for hode 3225: introduction to public finance of education, which is taught by chris candelaria<\/a>. candelaria is an assistant professor of public policy and education in the department of leadership, policy, and organizations in peabody college.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>when candelaria first taught this course three years ago, he had his students prepare a final presentation using powerpoint. he observed that students were not particularly engaged with the format: students had a single opportunity to present to their peers and address a few questions; all the work students had done to prepare for the final presentation was condensed into 12 minutes. inspired by colleagues in other departments like computer science and mathematics\u2014and also motivated by wanting to engage students\u2019 interests more\u2014candelaria switched to having students give poster presentations. students form groups and choose a policy topic to focus on, ranging from universal pre-k to charter school caps. then, they analyze the policy using economic theories and models learned in the course and give recommendations for their policy based on their analyses. in preparation for the presentation, the students use diigo<\/a> to store and disperse papers (a practice candelaria adopted on the recommendation of corbette doyle<\/a>).<\/p>\n

two class days are dedicated to the students\u2019 poster presentations, with one-half of the students presenting and the other half evaluating one day and switching the next. each group has twelve minutes to present, which includes plenty of time for questions.<\/p>\n

the setup is intentionally like a poster session you would see at a conference, with presenters discussing their poster multiple times as new people come by. that way, it not only mimics a real-life scenario, but it also gives students several chances to present. in fact, between each poster session rotation, candelaria would call out to the class things like \u201ceach time is a new opportunity. how might you revise your approach with your new audience?\u201d he mentioned that the first time a group gave a presentation would likely not be as good as their last, and he encouraged them to modify and hone as they went.<\/p>\n

poster presentations, then, allow students to:<\/p>\n