Last week I presented at the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning Conference where the theme was “The Learning Educator: Fostering our Own Development for Better Practice and Better Results.” I can’t think of a more pertinent experience to have fresh in my mind as I collaborate with Bill Caraher in launching the Teaching Thursday blog.
Every year the Office of Instructional Development, which I direct, sends a group of faculty to both the November and February conferences held by the Collaboration. The University of North Dakota is a founding member of this regionally based organization that “supports and promotes outstanding college teaching and learning at public, private, and tribally affiliated colleges and universities.” This spring’s conference featured a number of notable figures in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (including Kathleen McKinney and Anthony Ciccone), and a particularly challenging presentation by John Tagg. Tagg is noted for his 2003 book, The Learning Paradigm, which describes a shift underway in higher education from a traditional focus on offering instruction to a fresh approach that emphasizes learning outcomes, or results. His presentation asked faculty to consider the gap between their espoused theory of student learning (which usually references habits of mind like “lifelong learning” and “critical curiosity”) and their theory in use (which often does not connect to these more lofty goals). Thought provoking stuff.
This Collaboration Conference met the expectations engendered by its title. I benefited tremendously from the opportunity to join in a flourishing conversation about teaching and learning with colleagues from around the region. Most of the sessions allowed time for collective thought and reflection on the best practices and pedagogies being modeled. And I had the additional benefit of sharing travel and social time with a group from UND who are doing action research on the potential of blogs to enhance student learning.
On I94 heading west back to Grand Forks, I experienced that high we academics get from stimulating conversations with colleagues who think about the same things we do. It is so energizing to engage with new ideas in the midst of the comfortable familiarities of our disciplines. Before I got draw into formal work with pedagogy, I experienced that feeling most intensely at History Conferences and I imagine the same is true for many people at their disciplinary gatherings. That got me to thinking. We tend to identify ourselves in terms of our disciplines (and indeed life was much easier for me when I could just refer to myself as a historian. No one really knows what a “faculty developer” is and I would be the first person to resist being developed myself! I digress.) And we feel the obligation to attend to professional development around our fields of inquiry and disciplinary research. But I would argue that as university professors our role as teacher is also at the center of our work, and conversation, collaboration and research around our classrooms is equally thought provoking, enriching and needed (sometimes more so!)
This collaborative venture in blogging feels like a great place to start. We hope you will join our common endeavor by adding your essays, ideas and entries. We envision a post each Thursday and we’d be happy to incorporate new media and approaches if you have something in mind.
I look forward to sharing thoughts, reflections, strategies and whatever else comes to the virtual page with colleagues — both familiar and yet to be met– around this identity that we share as teachers
Opportunities to focus on the scholarship of teaching
Over the past few weeks I have been fortunate to attend and present at two conferences—both supported in some way by the Office of Instructional Development (OID). The first, The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning was held February 13th and 14th in Bloomington, Minneapolis and was entitled, “The Learning Educator: Fostering our own Development for Better Practice and Results.” The second conference was the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education 20th International Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina. The Collaboration conference focused on the scholarship of teaching. It allowed attendees to step away from the busyness that comes with responsibilities to a program and to a university and focus on our teaching. While SITE’s focus is primarily on the use of technology in teacher education, key note speakers called us to consider ways of engaging learners at all levels.
For over a year, four of us (P. Stonehouse, EdL, B. Gourneau, T&L, K. Smart, T&L & C. Shabb, T&L) in the College of Education and Human Development have collaborated on a project exploring the use of blogs to assess student’s learning. When we decided to incorporate blogs into our own courses we began to ask ourselves, “How will we know if our students are learning?” This led to our research project, first deciding how to implement blogs in our classes and then considering ways to interact with our students about the purposes of blogs. To analyze the blogs, we used HyperRESEARCH, a qualitative software product available in the College of Education and Human Development, to help code the blog entries.
I am grateful for the opportunity to attend and present at conferences where the focus is on how to improve teaching. The collaborative research project continues to inform my teaching. I have three main “take away” ideas that I have been considering since attending these conferences. First, one should continually look for ways to engage learners in authentic learning activities that are culturally appropriate. When I consider the learning outcomes from my courses, I try to offer enough flexibility in assignments and projects that should in some way be helpful to students as professionals in their fields. Second, it is important to explore the use of technology as a tool to enhance student engagement and of utmost importance to ensure that learning occurs. This is why we are analyzing the blogs. We are trying to determine whether asking students to blog meet our goals. Each of us might have different course goals, but we all wish students to be reflective within a community of learners. Third, collaborative projects can enhance our teaching. Working with three people offered an opportunity to hear different perspectives. I know that my teaching has benefitted from bouncing ideas off of others, whether with my colleagues who are directly related to the research we are doing, or with others at these conferences.