Faculty from STEM departments across campus are invited to sign up for an ongoing NSF-funded professional development workshop series to be offered this spring. These well-received workshops, which have already been attended by 46 faculty from eight departments across campus, introduce participants to instructional practices proven to enhance student learning in various class sizes and levels.
Two sets of workshops on two different but complementary instructional practices will be offered. The goal of these practices is to help faculty develop an active learning environment for students in their classrooms, increasing student engagement and comprehension without having to completely revamp existing lectures notes. Although these practices originated in physics, their effectiveness has been demonstrated throughout the STEM disciplines, and for various class sizes and levels (from introductory to graduate level). More details about each practice can be found by visiting the workshop website: https://sites.google.com/site/unlscientificteachingworkshops/scientific-teaching
Faculty can decide to participate in one or both workshops. Each workshop will take place every other week over lunch (lunch will be provided). In total, the workshop will consist of eight 1-hour meetings. Faculty will receive a book and $200 as compensation along with the lunches.
The first implementation of these workshops was extremely well received: 90% of workshop alumni plan on implementing what they learned, and 94% would recommend the workshop to their colleagues! The following are comments about the workshops provided by several past participants:
--- "I learned more techniques than I anticipated, and I was happy to see that the recommendations were based on solid research focused on student learning outcomes."
--- "I enjoyed the focus on implementation, it helped give me the sense that I could achieve this in my classroom."
--- “I had not heard of JiTT before taking this course so I did not know what to expect. Even so, I expected any teaching strategy to require my time to implement and was pleased to realize I could modify/improve one of my current strategies to incorporate JiTT.”
--- "I've already been using clicker questions for some years, and this workshop helped me to understand how to use them more effectively."
--- "My class is more fun, less boring."
--- "It's easy and effective. What more do you need to know?"
Registration will close on Oct. 11, 2013. Faculty can register through the following website: https://sites.google.com/site/unlscientificteachingworkshops/registration
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Marilyne Stains at: mstains2@unl.edu