Let's Talk Teaching

Learn about a new summer reading program for faculty, staff, and graduate students at Illinois State University. In this brief bonus episode, Claire and Jim discuss how this new initiative, in partnership with Milner Library, challenges participants to move a little out of their comfort zones to explore new aspects of teaching and student learning.

As we continue to explore How Learning Works, Dr. Julie-Ann McFann joins Jim to talk about learning, leaping, and... Wile E. Coyote. Learn how concept or mind maps can help students organize their experiences for deep, critical thinking.

Students’ prior knowledge-- what they bring to the classroom from their other learning experiences-- can be the proverbial double-edged sword. This week, Claire and Jim dive into the book How Learning Works and the first of the seven research-based principles it describes. Learn why “knowing” is not enough, and how we as teachers need to activate the knowledge students bring with them before we can build upon it. We also discuss the perils of situations when students’ prior knowledge is inaccurate, and why it’s important for teachers to identify what knowledge is important for our particular learning environment (think “grammar”). Plus, we discuss strategies for helping a handful of students “catch up” without boring the rest of the class!

We’re back in 2018 to talk teaching, learning, and Fulbright awards with Dr. Erin Mikulec. She’s offering a new workshop series at CTLT that explores the many Fulbright teaching and research options available to faculty. In addition to previewing the workshops, Jim and Erin explore her experiences with the Study Abroad program her recent, award-winning scholarship in the field of teaching and learning, and how all of this ties back to the classroom. Plus, the virtues of mushy peas as a teaching tool!

What do our students need to acquire knowledge and make new meaning in our disciplines? What kind of literacies do they bring to the learning space that we must understand in order to guide them on their educational journey? In this episode, we discuss the theme of the 2018 University-Wide Teaching & Learning Symposium, Expanding Notions of Literacy.

Claire, Dana, and Jim sit down and explore just what “new literacies” means and how this year’s annual conversation about student learning will encourage faculty to not only look beyond reading and writing, but also to consider how the perspectives of other disciplines can inform our own teaching. The Symposium aims to bring together colleagues from across campus and across disciplinary siloes.

Plus, we discuss Claire’s grammatically formal text messages, Jim’s (more learned and famous) namesake, and the important intersection of teaching, learning, and wine.

The deadline to register for the 2018 Teaching & Learning Symposium is Friday, December 15, 2017.

Claire has wrapped up teaching her eight week Learning in Communities course. We reflect on what she learned teaching freshmen for the first time in a decade, what worked, and what she'd change. We also explore her one bad day teaching the class, when a conversation went "off the rails."

Illinois State's 2017 Homecoming theme is "Building a Legacy." In this special bonus episode, Claire and Jim discuss what teaching legacies they are a part of, whose shoulders they stand on, and what advice they'd give to their younger teaching selves.

Take the pain out of evaluating the subjective elements of your students’ learning. In this episode, we explore the advantages of developing and using rubrics. What makes a rubric more than a checklist? And how can rubrics help us gut-check out teaching, to make sure we’re really focusing on what’s important to students? Dr. Julie-Ann McFann, CTLT’s Program Team leader, joins us to talk rubric construction, why language is as important as concepts when putting your “grid” together, and whether or not your should share your rubric with your students before they begin the assignment.

This week, we catch up with CTLT Director Dr. Claire Lamonica, who is back in the classroom for the first time in years. She's teaching a special half-semester course called Learning in Communities, so her "midterm" has already come and gone. We discuss how well her expectations matched with the reality of teaching freshman after 12 years, what she found unexpected about their behavior, and how she decided to assess the course at its mid-point. We talk about prior knowledge, about common misperceptions concerning digital natives, and we ponder how high school may inform how this cohort of students use (or abuse) smartphones. Plus-- a shocking confession about lesson plans!

There’s no way to truly learn about teaching, about the effectiveness of various practices, or about how behaviors and attitudes of students shift as they learn, without a foundation of scholarship. Dr. Jennifer Friberg joins Jim to discuss her role as the Cross Endowed Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, a position unique to Illinois State. Jen and Jim make the connection between scholarship, successful student learning, and the research-based professional development in teaching that links them. Find out how you can introduce SoTL scholarship into your own course as a way to enhance not only your discipline, but the profession of teaching as a whole.