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2021 Events
Co-Writing 'Our' Classes: Engaging Students in the Course Design
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Building a Collaborative Community in the Classroom
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Student Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines: Assessing and Responding to Student Writing
Friday, March 5, 2021
Link to Box folder with related handouts (must log in with W&L credentials)
We've Got Data. Now What?
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Every three years, W&L participates in a nationwide effort to collect data on student engagement inside and outside of the classroom. Some of it's interesting and surprising, but . . . simply having surprising and interesting data doesn't deepen engagement and improve the experience of our students. The purpose of this session is to explore what's next: drawing from W&L's participation in The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Kristy Crickenberger will highlight several key findings from our results in 2020. Our role is to take what we know from our students' feedback on NSSE and brainstorm ways to improve their experiences at W&L. What can we do institutionally? Individually? What are our collective next steps? If you're interested in being a part of ongoing conversations about improving our learning environment, this is the session for you!
Link to Box folder with NSSE data and PowerPoint slides (must log in with W&L credentials)
Small Teaching: From Minor Changes to Major Learning
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Research from the learning sciences and from a variety of educational settings suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of college or university course, from traditional lectures to flipped classrooms. This workshop will introduce some of those principles, offer practical suggestions for how they might foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning, and guide faculty participants to consider how these principles might manifest themselves in their current and upcoming courses.
James M. Lang is a Professor of English and the Director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. He is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2016). Lang also writes a monthly column on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education and edits a series of books on teaching and learning in higher education for West Virginia University Press.
Teaching Distracted Students
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
As faculty struggle with the problem of distracted students, they have become increasingly frustrated by the ways in which digital devices can interfere with student learning. But are students today more distracted than they were in the past? This lecture draws upon scholarship from history, neuroscience, and education in order to provide productive new pathways for faculty to work with students to moderate the effects of distraction in their learning and even leverage the distractible nature of our minds for new forms of connected and creative thinking.
James M. Lang is a Professor of English and the Director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. He is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2016). Lang also writes a monthly column on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education and edits a series of books on teaching and learning in higher education for West Virginia University Press.
There is Work to be Done: Disrupting Systems in America
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
In the final session of our decolonization and anti-racism series, we will discuss strategies to disrupt systems of educational oppression and mobilize against the status quo. Undergraduate students, involved in decolonizing anti-racist work, will join us to share their experiences and support our process. Please bring any work/notes that you have on your process, along with questions for student participants that will inform/guide small group sessions. Students will facilitate these gatherings, providing consultative feedback to participants from the student perspective. Our hope is that you will leave the space energized and inspired to continue in your transformational journey.
Dr. Chanelle Wilson is an Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Africana Studies, at Bryn Mawr College. With over ten years of experience, and a lifelong commitment to revolutionizing education for justice, Dr. Wilson supports self-introspection for outer transformation and guides with the steady underlying premise of love, joy, and hope.