November 13, 2006
SoCTL

In 1995, Robert Barr and John Tagg, respectively director of institutional research and planning associate professor of English at Palomar College in San Marcos California, wrote an article for Change Magazine entitled From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education. This article proposed some dramatic changes in how we approach higher education, the overarching change being a shift from teaching- to learning-centered institutions.

A question stemming from Barr and Tagg’s radical proposition, and relative to a rather grim outlook offered by Derek Bok in his recent book Our Underachieving College, is how far has higher education reform come since 1995? Barr and Tagg’s article almost instantly and has ever since spurred debate and discourse among faculty, faculty developers, and administrators. Has the article led to positive change? Reading Derek Bok, it is hard to believe that it has.

In a section entitled Why Colleges Underperform, Bok calls attention to one problem in particular: the training of prospective faculty. Citing information gleaned from The American College Teacher: National Norms for the 1989-1990 HERI Faculty Survey (1999), Bok asserts that “Arts and Sciences departments, for example, have never made a serious effort to prepare Ph.D. candidates as teachers, even though most of their graduate students over the course of their careers will be primarily interested in their teaching and will spend more time at it than they devote to scholarship.”

So what can one person do to affect change in the higher education machine? They can break the cycle of traditional instruction and TEACH DIFFERENTLY. They can look to the advocates of faculty development on their campus for guidance. They can experiment. Finally, they can share what works work with their peers.

Barr, Robert B. and Tagg, John (1995). From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education. Change, November/December, 13-25.

Bok, Derek. (2006). Our Underachieving Colleges. Princeton : Princeton University Press.

 
Dates to Remember

NOV 15: REALIZING STUDENT POTENTIAL / ITEACH 2007 CALL FOR PROPOSALS DEADLINE
Join over 100 of your colleagues as a presenter for this systemwide three-day faculty development conference. Share your experiences about working with the First-Year Student in the 21st Century. For conference information or to submit a proposal

NOV 17-18: MOTIVATING STUDENTS FOR BETTER RETENTION, LEARNING, AND ACHIEVEMENT
The Collaboration's Fall Conference will be held at the Sheraton Bloominton Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Conference details

MAR 1-3: REGISTER NOW FOR REALIZING STUDENT POTENTIAL / ITEACH 2007 CONFERENCE
Be among the first to register for our largest statewide faculty development conference. By doing so today, you know that you can begin to prepare for the best networking and systemwide educational experience. Conference details

 
 

Teaching Tip of the Week
Using the Fishbowl in Your Class

The fishbowl, also known as the inner circle, is a great class within a class teaching strategy. The set up is simple; create two concentric circles of chairs. The inner circle can be set with 5 - 15 chairs with the remaining chairs forming the outer circle. The students in the inner circle are a topical discussion group while the students in the outer circle observe the discussion.

Upon completion of the discussion, the outer circle students share their observations with the entire class. This can generate a review of the conversation and provide both the opportunity for reflection of the material and generation of additional questions or viewpoints.

A couple of hints to make this work well:
1. Tell students you are planning on doing this. You may even want to ask for inner circle volunteers.
2. Share the topic with the inner circle students prior to the experience. This strategy allows quieter students the chance to think before having to share something aloud about the material.

Source: McKeachie, Wilbert J. (2006). McKeachie's Teaching Tips p. 48. Houghton Mifflin.

CTL Report

Biology Discipline Workshop

On September 21 and 22, system Biology faculty met at Rainy River Community College in International Falls for a CTL-sponsored Discipline Workshop entitled Field Research Projects: Meeting the Environment in Your Courses. The workshop focused on the incorporation of student research projects into biology courses, specially involving the use of the natural environment as field sites.

Biology faculty and workshop planners Dave Ongaro, Hibbing Community College; Don Graves, Rainy River Community College; and Matt Julius, St. Cloud State University report that the main benefit to participants was the opportunity to meet with colleagues and discuss experiences and ideas in biology related to teaching. They added that those faculty members who are willing to take time to better their teaching and network with others will naturally make a workshop like this a productive and worthwhile effort. There is excitement in the discipline of biology to keep the conversation going and continue to meet each year.
     

November 13 , 2006