March 26, 2007
SoCTL
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at CTL
Faculty-Student Collaborative Projects
Previous SoCTL articles focused on the relationship between the college students’ success and the amount and quality of their contact with faculty members outside of the classroom. Each article cites research showing that positive faculty-student relationships, both in and out of the classroom, lead to higher student success rates. They lack, however, specific examples of successful faculty-student collaborative projects. The following are two of many such projects (one of which I know quite well as it is my own) .
"Civil Society Census" of Camden
This is the most recent student and faculty collaborative project to come out of Rutgers University’s Program in Urban Studies and Metropolitan Planning. In this project, Professor Jon Van Til worked with students to study leadership and participation in the Camden communities of New Jersey. The project resulted in a paper which was presented at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) conference in 2000. The title of the paper is Associations as Assets in the Urban Community: A Study of Two Inner-City Neighborhoods in Camden and was co-authored by five Rutgers undergraduates: Leroy Gould, Meghan Murtha, Suzanne Brennan, Twana Cisse, and Claude Wallace.
Community Education: A Photographic Essay
Community Education was a photographic essay conducted at Inver Hills Community College in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, in 2006. It started with my giving my students and myself an assignment: to document in photographs our lives and the lives of our peers once we exited the classroom doors. In doing this work, my students and I saw first hand the many challenges facing our respective groups of peers, and the result was the development of a mutual respect for our respective workloads and the many challenges we face in becoming a model student and model instructor. Student photos depict the reality of attending multiple institutions, as well as balancing work with school with home and family life. Faculty photographs, likewise, bring to the fore the many duties faculty have outside of the classroom.
An unforeseen outcome of this project was the development of a student-driven photography group independent of my institution. The members of this group (including me) continue to meet once a month to critique our most current work.
You can read about many more successful faculty-student collaborative projects at the following Web sites:
Dickinson College Library and Information Services
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire Foreign Languages Department
Baldwin Wallace College Faculty-Student Collaborative Scholarship
Hartwick College Student-Faculty Collaboration
- Martin Springborg
Dates to Remember!
Spring Discipline Workshops
APR 2: PROMOTING HEALTHY BEHAVIORS
APR 18-20: HEALTH EDUCATORS – GROWING TOGETHER: EDUCATING, ENRICHING, AND EMPOWERING
Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, Alexandria.
APR 21: WHAT NEW SIGN LANGUAGES CAN TEACH US ABOUT ASL
APR 27-28: MATHEMATICS: SHARPEN THE FOCUS
MAY 1: LIBRARY REFERENCE AND INFORMATION LITERACY SERVICES IN THE DIGITAL AGE
North Hennepin Community College.
Discipline Workshop Information
Classrooms of the Future: Teaching, Learning, and Technology: In That Order
MAY 22: CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE: Teaching, Learning, and Technology: In That Order. Keynote speaker: Steve Gilbert, The TLT Group
Hamline University.
JULY 8-12: INTERNATIONAL DESIRE2LEARN USER CONFERENCE - Keynote speakers: Ruth Clark, Will Richardson, Nancy White
CTL Resources for Faculty
Grants for Some, Resources for Many
CTL grants have supported many projects that assist other faculty as much as they help students. A great example is Presentation Help Online, a Web site that can help you design oral presentation assignments that work, no matter what your subject area—and no matter how shy your students (see Teaching Tips on page 1).
Created by St. Cloud State University Communication Studies Professors Diana Rehling, Paula Tompkins, and David Warne, the site is designed as a resource for faculty and includes a detailed section on designing and evaluating assignments, sample assignments, and evaluation forms to download and modify. It also provides links to other useful Internet sites. PHO, as the site is known, was funded by the Bush Foundation’s support for CTL’s Learning By Doing project.
Another helpful resource is the Clay County Web Museum, a virtual historical museum created by Professor Helen Sheumaker and her American Studies students at Minnesota State University Moorhead. It presents materials and artifacts from the Clay County Historical Society's Museum and Archives. The Historical Society has thousands of items that it can not display regularly, and the online museum is intended to bring those materials directly to as many people as possible.
The museum provides a fascinating look at the multicultural history of Clay County, including not only the many Scandinavian-American residents, but Hispanic-Americans and immigrants from Bosnia, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Nepal, India and more. Funds from CTL’s Bush Foundation grant for Learning That Lasts sponsored the project.
Teaching Tip of the Week
Encouraging the Shy Student
Many instructors have learned to project themselves in class, so they may not be able to relate to working with shy students. Even though a student may not offer much orally in class, they may be engaged. Several reasons for a lack of verbal participation may stem from a lack of knowledge, experience or comfort with a topic, a lack of confidence in their ability to say anything important, or the need to process the information first to form their thoughts and opinions.
As an instructor, there are several ways to help your students develop oral skills. Preview their presentation allowing them time to prepare what they are going to present. Give them ability- or level-based assignments to present. Meet with shy students during office hours to go over what they are preparing. In blended classes, have students share some of their online threaded discussions to read to the class to build their confidence. Overall, start where the student is and build from that point.
-Zala Fashant
CTL Report
Distance Counseling Discipline Workshop
Language Workshops in March
Two CTL Discipline Workshops were held on March 16. English Composition: Cross-ing Lines, Forging Connections & Extend-ing Opportunities brought together at Century College 80 faculty from the system’s universities and colleges. Keynoters were Harvard’s Steven Pinker, on “The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature,” and Mike Palmquist from Colorado State University, on “Forging Digital Connections: Rethinking our Approach to Web-based Writing Instruction.” At St. Cloud State University, the inter-disciplinary workshop, Using Technology to Teach Foreign Languages”
was well-attended by faculty interested in using technologies (including keyboards for specific languages) to improve language instruction. The facilitator was Marlene Johnshoy from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.
CTL Faculty Coordinators Martin Springborg and Yvonne Shafer visited both workshops to make short presentations thanking the planners for their excellent efforts in faculty development. Martin and Yvonne also awarded memento gifts from the CTL to each of the planners. Comments from participants showed their appreciation for these workshops that give faculty opportunities to learn from each other and to use new skills for advancing learning in the classroom.
Featured Event
HEALTH / PHYSICAL EDUCATION DISCIPLINE WORKSHOP
The CTL Discipline Workshop Promoting Healthy Behaviors will take place at Inver Hills Community College on Monday, April 2 from 8:00 am - 3:00 pm. State Director for Health/Physical Education, Mary Thissen-Milder will provide the keynote address. The goals of this workshop are to disseminate discipline-specific information to Health, Physical Education, and Exercise Science faculty and to provide an opportunity to share best teaching practices within the disciplines. Some specific goals include providing information on the state of health and physical education within the state of Minnesota, presenting information on resources available from the Minnesota Department of Education that could aid in teaching and student learning at the community colleges and state universities, and discussing online teaching best practices within health and physical education.
Any questions about this workshop should be directed to Kathleen DeDeyn at 651-450-8544 or kdedeyn@inverhills.edu.
Discipline Workshop
Inver Hills Community College
April 2, 2007
Keynote Speaker: Mary Thissen-Milder
State Director for Health/Physical Education
-Martin Springborg
