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1999 Program
FRIDAY * 16 APRIL 1999
8:30am REGISTRATION OPENS
9:00am-9:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
1A * Using Phenomenology to Help Students Make Connections Between Academic Knowledge
and Everyday Experience
Stuart Miller, Psychology
Towson
University
Recently, phenomenology has been successfully used as a research method in defining and
understanding the dimensions of important aspects of human experience (e.g., the meaning
of home). In this hands-on session, we will explore together the utility of this method as
a teaching tool. By using it, instructors can teach course material in an involving way
while students gain an understanding and appreciation of their own and others’
experience of the world.
1B * The Well-Managed Classroom: Team Teaching Writing
Elaine M. Toia, English
Thomas J. Butler, Allied
Health
SUNY
Rockland Community College
We will explore team-teaching strategies and techniques used to help students successfully
complete writing assignments in a variety of technical degrees and certificate programs.
In writing-intensive courses, faculty in health sciences, computer studies, electrical
technology, and hospitality and tourism collaborate with their English department partners
through the writing process. Small group exercises will illustrate ways in which faculty
can adapt writing-to-learn strategies to their classrooms, and prepare students for the
writing tasks that will challenge them in the workplace.
1C * CANCELLED
1D * Uncovering Clues: How Should We Teach the Second Time Around?
Susan Isaacs, Art
Michael Jothen,
Music
Towson
University
Like many schools across the country, we are interested in finding interdisciplinary
coordination’s that respond to the interdisciplinary nature of the post-modern world.
A new course, Baltimore Visual and Performing Arts, addresses this agenda by
exploring the growth and development of an American city through an examination of its
cultural institutions. Team teaching across disciplines and connected to a specific site
has both its rewards and difficulties and this will be the focus of the presentation.
1E * Five Years of Team Teaching: Reflecting on How We Have Changed
Gregory W. Bryant & Marilyn L. Nichols,
Elementary Education
Towson
University
This session will demonstrate how two colleagues with varying teaching styles can work
together for professional growth and enrichment. The process of team teaching will be
highlighted using a case study, technology, and cooperative learning strategies.
10:00am-10:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
2A * The Sustainable University
Jan Sinnot & Lawrence Froman, Psychology
Towson University
The university has been criticized in recent years for failing to fulfill its contracts
with students, faculty, and society. Can society afford the university, or is it not
sustainable? What if the university shifted to a problem-focused curriculum and
organizational culture, but still nurtured complex thinking and scholarship? Participants
will explore the problem-focused model for a sustainable university, and will take part in
groups forecasting the implications of some university value shifts for faculty, students,
and administration
2B * Writing for the Reluctant Thinker
Kim Wilmot-Weidman, English & Mass
Communication
Towson
University
As educators we spend a great deal of time teaching students to write. What often gets
left out of the process is teaching students how to think. We ask them to think and
provide exercises that require thought, but rarely do we give them the tools to do so. By
describing and then modeling the three levels of thinking - literal, interpretative, and
critical - students develop skills that are necessary on personal, academic, and
professional levels. Stressing the thinking process as a part of the writing process
allows students to take responsibility for their own learning. The lessons in my
presentation are applicable to most subject areas and greatly improve the content of
papers
2C * Assisting Students to Identify Their Test-Taking Problems
Diane W. Aschenbrenner, Nursing
Johns Hopkins
University
Faculty can assist students to be more successful in their test-taking. Through critical
examination of missed multiple choice test items, faculty can identify why students did
not do well on an exam. In this session, faculty will be assisted to differentiate the
common causes of student test taking problems, such as test anxiety, misreading a
question, inability to apply knowledge to a case situation, and lack of knowledge of the
content.
2D * The Joys and Challenges of Team Teaching
Norma C. Holter, Accounting
William P. Darrow &
Donald J. Kopka, Marketing and Management
Towson University
The presentation provides an introduction to team teaching through an exercise for team
planning a course dealing with skills development. It builds on this exercise to explore
issues associated with team teaching, including course objectives and content, division of
course responsibilities, coordination among teachers, sources of team conflict, and
student perceptions and reactions to team teaching. This exploration then leads to
recommendations and suggestions to deal with and overcome these issues. The discussion
draws on the presenters’ two years of experience in team teaching and is intended to
generate ideas for making team teaching an effective and satisfying experience
11:00am-11:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
3A * Connecting on the First Day of Class and Beyond
Richard L. Faircloth & Michael Glasgow, Biology
Anne Arundel
Community College
This workshop will involve participants in demonstrating small group activities that
reliably encourage inclusivity among students, especially those with notable low levels of
confidence in their academic ability. The activities will model methods for introducing
students to one another and to the instructor on the first day of class and for
introducing new topics within the course. Relationships established in this way have
proven lasting and valuable for encouraging informal collaborative study activities
3B * Developing Critical Reading Skills Through Writing
Sharon Gibson-Groshon, English
Towson
University
This session will have three segments. First, I will share the assignment sequence I use
in my writing class and the theoretical underpinning for what I ask my students to read,
research, and write. Next, three students will read their essays. Copies of my assignment
sequence and their essays will be available for participants. The final 20 minutes will be
devoted to small group development of similar assignment sequences in three or four other
disciplines.
3C * Student as Researcher: Risks, Regulations, and Community
Resources
Susanna Sayre, English
Patricia Alt, Health
Science
Towson
University
Requiring undergraduates to undertake original research enhances learning, yet when
students pursue sources outside the university community they may put themselves and
others at risk. Can students safely tackle issues like binge drinking and pornography?
Participants will discuss this dilemma and develop strategies for assigning and monitoring
research projects, while emphasizing the safety of students and subjects. Ethical issues
and limitations imposed by federal regulations and university institutional review boards
also will be discussed..
3D * Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Bob Hope and Bing Crosby?
Batman and Robin? Abbott and Costello? Green Hornet and Cato? Team Teaching and YOU!
Sharon B. Buchbinder & Donna Cox, Health
Science
Towson University
This presentation will provide participants with an overview of the design and
implementaton of a team-taught course. Practical examples of what to do and, more
importantly, what NOT to do will be provided, along with tips for not stepping on each
other’s toes while dancing through the semester. Attendees will participate in
delineating the framework of the who, what, when, why, and how of conducting a team-taught
course.
3E * DeBono's Hats and Other Simulations: Enhancing Understanding
of Diverse Viewpoints
Barbara Laster &
Poonam Arya, Reading, Special Education & Instructional Technology
Towson University
This session will involve participants in three different simulations that can be used in
college classes in the fields of social science, humanities, psychology, and education. By
participating in these simulations, students will advance their critical thinking skills
and expand their understanding of diverse viewpoints through working in small cooperative
groups.
12:00noon LUNCH * Tables by Discipline
sit at the table of your choice. Choose from among:
1. Accounting, Business, Management, Marketing
2. Lab Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology
3.Computer Science/Computer Information Systems
4. Economics
5. Education
6. Engineering
7. English/Writing, Journalism, Communications
8. Fine & Performing Arts
9. Humanities/Languages/Philosophy/Interdisciplinary Studies
10. Mathematics/Science
11. Medical, Nursing, Health-Related
12. Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Social Work
13. Teaching & Learning Centers, Faculty/Instructional Development
1:15pm-2:45pm CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
4A * I Really Liked The Way You Organized Your Presentation But . . . .
Lynn Dipietro & Maria G. Parker, English
for International Students
Duke
University
This workshop will engage participants in a discussion of ways to give feedback to
students. Participants will critique a variety of feedback forms for efficiency and
effectiveness. Participants and presenters also will address issues of when and how
feedback should be given to be most productive and the use of non-verbal cues to generate
self-correction during an actual presentation.
4B * The University of the 21st Century: Putting the Student
First
Michael Sanow, Sociology
Community College of Baltimore County, Cantonville Campus
Peggy Walton, English
Howard Community College
Using O’Banion’s ideas from A Learning College for the 21st Century,
participants will have the opportunity to design an institution for the new millenium. In
this new institution, students will be at its heart and learning will be student-centered.
Using a simulation, we will create an image of education for the approaching century. Join
us in generating ideas for a progressive, innovative institution!
4C * Co-Planning for Active Learning: Adding Learners to Your
Team
Mary-Jane Eisen, All-University
Curriculum
University
of Hartford
Have you learned anything lately from traditional, semester-end course evaluations? Many
educators wind up with a set of "smile sheets" but little, if any, specific
information about how to improve their courses. Co-planning, an innovative form of
classroom research, recognizes learners’ role as partners in shaping courses while
still in progress, or re-designing them for future semesters. By reaching beyond passive,
summative evaluations, co-planning operates in a formative, collaborative mode, creating
an interactive forum for course development. In this highly participatory session, you
will be introduced to the principles and practice of co-planning and you will have a
chance to experience it as well.
4D * Cooperative Learning for Creative and Critical Thinking
Neil Davidson, Curriculum & Instruction
University of Maryland
For years educators have been searching for a way to teach students to think – not
just to apply rote formulas or spew memorized facts, but to be able to think clearly,
creatively, and independently. The thinking movement has found an answer and an ally in
the cooperative learning movement. This session will offer a number of strategies that
will include the levels of data analysis, think-trix, concept attainment, and
concept-formation models.
4E * Collaboration and the Teaching of Diversity
Emile C. Netzhammer, Academic Affairs
Kerran L. Sanger, Arts
and Humanities
Buffalo
State College
Courses that take a multi-cultural perspective are becoming essential offerings at many
universities around the country. This is particularly true as campuses implement some form
of a diversity requirement. Success in these courses – which can be controversial and
take great sensitivity – require faculty who are confident and prepared. This
workshop focuses on strategies for overcoming obstacles to teaching matters of cultural
diversity, development of assignments, and classroom climate.
4F * The Mathmatics of Information Sciences
Jay Zimmerman, Mathematics
James W. Smith, Computer
and Information Sciences
Towson
University
This presentation describes an interdisciplinary team-taught course, The Mathematics of
Information Science. Presenters will document effectiveness of the course in teaching
problem-solving techniques and abstract mathematical ideas. The students constructed their
own knowledge from laboratory experiences involving digital logic circuits and
subsequently abstracted this knowledge. The mathematics of encoding information
constituted the mathematical content of the course. Participants will participate in a
laboratory to lead them to discover principles leading to the 7-bit Hamming Code.
3:00pm-3:45pm CONCURRENT SESSIONS
5A * Using Active Learning to Develop Critical Thinking
Lori Murphy & Marybeth Ruscica, University
Learning Support Services
St.
John's University
Surveys of college teachers and business leaders have shown that well-developed critical
thinking skills are fundamental to success. These skills do not just blossom, they must be
developed. This presentation will use low tech, teacher-developed materials and activities
to demonstrate the teaching of critical thinking and its application to students’
lives.
5B * Integrating Team Teaching, Teamwork, and Technology with
Subject Matter
Jeanine Meyer, Information Systems
Linda Anstendig, Literature/Communications
Pace
University
Team teaching and integration of subject matter study and technology has been successful
and enjoyable for us. We believe students become more engaged in learning and, as a
consequence, drive themselves to higher achievement. We will describe some of our
experiences integrating web research with other assignments and then lead an off-line
session in which participants generate plans for on-line web research. We designed this
activity as part of a sequence of meetings between first-year college students taking Composition
101 and senior citizens.
5C * How Do You Get Them Back in the Classroom After They've Used the Net?
Louise W. Smith, Marketing
Towson University
Internet courses are the new competitors of professor-taught classes. Fighting time
poverty, many students view long-distance learning as equivalent to a live course and as
superior in convenience. How does a professor offer a live class that is regarded by
students as worth the driving and parking hassles and the inflexible class time schedule?
This session will offer an explanation of one professor’s alternative classroom
structure that has been constructed to meet this challenge.
5D * Promotion & Tenure: The Time Has Come . . .
Jack D. Osman & Daniel L. Agley, Health
Science
Towson University
The Promotion and Tenure system has been around for over a hundred years. Faculty not in
the decision-making circles often view the process differently than those who make the
decisions. Hundreds of hours are invested putting together a portfolio for promotion,
tenure and merit. Is the squeeze worth the juice? What options/alternatives are available
to us? The structure of this session will be an open mike, town-meeting forum.
5E * Peer Advising: An Experiment in Service Learning
Trudy Somers, Honors
Margaret Faulkner, Academic
Affairs
Towson
University
This session focuses on a peer advising class that creates an academic community that
combines focus on the life of the mind through intellectual pursuits with service and
leadership opportunities. Each student has 10 clients, sophomores who have not yet
declared a college major, who are guided through the career clarification and major
selection process. The session includes discussion by students, professional advisors, and
course facilitator.
5F * Use of Sequential Case Studies to Integrate Perspectives in
Interdisciplinary Teaching
Barbara Harris, Social Work
Creighton University
Interdisciplinary teaching requires more than teaching different perspectives on a single
topic. Facilitating the integration of this material requires activities that force
students to think outside their discipline. The sequential case study method provides
opportunities for students to focus on the strengths and limitations of interdisciplinary
approaches in their future practice. This session is designed for professional programs in
which students actually collaborate as professionals after graduation. This workshop
briefly reviews theory on the use of case study method in teaching and provides a
sequential case study used in a senior perspective course designed for interdisciplinary
collaboration.
4:00pm-5:45pm 6 * WELCOME & KEYNOTE
Welcome
Laurie Richlin, President
& Conference Director
International
Alliance of Teacher Scholars
Milton Cox, University
Director for Teaching Effectiveness Programs
Founder & Director, Original Lilly
Conference
Miami
University
John Haeger , Provost
Towson
University
Keynote: Confessions of a
Closet Thespian: The Classroom as a Dramatic Arena
Linc. Fisch, Educational Consultant
Lexington,
Kentucky
There are many similarities between theatre and education. In particular, actors and
teachers share three important objectives: gaining attention, stimulating response, and
engaging the audience in the material. But you don’t have to be a comedian or an
experienced thespian. You don’t have to entertain or be flamboyant. You don’t
have to play a role that doesn’t fit you. And you don’t have to pander to
students. There are many lessons to be learned from Life Upon the Wicked Stage that
can be adapted to significant advantage in teaching. This workshop will explore and help
you identify some of the possibilities that you can employ easily and without extensive
training – even if you feel that you’re not quite ready for prime time.
6:00pm DINNER
7:45pm-9:00pm OPENING RECEPTION & POSTER SESSION
Join your colleagues for libation and snacks while you visit
with poster session presenters.
Session 7A * Cultural Visions Through the Arts: A Cooperative
Learning Experience
Gail Abrams, Dance
Scripps College
This poster will demonstrate several teaching partnerships utilized in the
course Cultural Visions Through the Arts, a culminating course in a three-part core
curriculum. The session will include a description of course goals, content, and
structure, as well examples of students’ research and creative projects, which
explored numerous cultural issues as represented in the performing and visual arts, from
historical and personal perspectives. In particular, the variety of ways in which students
were given responsibility for facilitating class sessions will be emphasized
Session 7B * A New Taxonomy for Student Questions
Gili Ad-Marbach
& Phillip Sokolove, Biological Sciences
University of Maryland - Baltimore
This poster describes a new taxonomy for evaluating students’ questions. Prior
research provides taxonomies for questions that teachers ask. We focused on how students
in active-learning introductory biology and in inquiry-based labs formulate good questions
and develop hypotheses. This taxonomy provides a useful tool for evaluating students’
questions. It has enabled us to investigate the improvement of student’s questions
over time and to identify teaching methods that promote question formulation.
Session 7C * Reciprocal Science Success: A Innovative Model
for All Disciplines
Virginia Anderson,
Biology
Towson University
This poster describes an in-progress project to facilitate reciprocal science success for
university science faculty who have taught less than five years and science education
faculty who have taught more than five. The model engaged faculty pairs in direct
observation and reflection of science-in-action in urban public schools to prepare them to
teach more effectively on their home campuses. The components of this NSF-funded project
are highly transferable to all disciplines. Pictures, campus project reports, assessment
tools, collaborative rubrics, and participant comments will be displayed and essential
components and assessments handout distributed.
Session 7D * Creating an Active Learning Environment in Introductory
Science Courses
Laurence
J. Boucher, Chemistry
Towson University
Materials and approaches that create an active learning environment in chemistry courses
are being developed by several NSF-funded national projects on the systemic reform of
undergraduate chemistry. We have adapted/adopted the products of the New Traditions
Project (NT) housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in our introductory chemistry
program. In particular we use Concept Tests, Challenge Problems, Guided Inquiry Laboratory
Experiments, and the Field-Tested Learning Assessment Guide Tools from NT, as well as
those we have developed. This poster will provide examples of the materials we used and
show their effectiveness in promoting student learning.
Session 7E * R.L. Moore's Discovery Method of Instruction -- How He Sent Three Students
to the National Academy of Sciences
Jerome Dancis, Mathematics
University of Maryland
R. L. Moore was, by far, the instructor most successful at using discovery learning. He is
the only state-university professor with the distinction of having three students that he
trained become members of the National Academy of Sciences. He taught at the University of
Texas from the 1920s through the 1960s. His method was highly competitive and extremely
rigorous. Students worked individually at home with no textbooks and presented results in
class..
Session 7F * An Interactive Collaborative-Group Science Classes
Judith E. Heady,
Natural Sciences
University of Michigan
Instructors who primarily lecture in science disciplines know that students come to
introductory courses with deeply entrenched misconceptions that have never been
challenged. There is no dialogue. Allowing students, to discuss basic ideas, to solve
problems, and to obtain feedback from the instructor in small collaborative groups begins
to uncover current and potential difficulties.
Session 7G * Integrating the World Wide Web and Computer
Simulations in Biology Courses
Erik Scully, Biology
Towson University
Computer simulations and the World Wide Web are often used merely as additions to course
activities, and may not be integrated into the courses in a manner that makes effective
use of these resources. This poster will show how computer simulations are used in two
biology courses as a way of presenting concepts in a dynamic fashion.
SATURDAY * 17 APRIL 1999
8:00am BREAKFAST
8:30am REGISTRATION OPENS
9:00am-9:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
8A * Student Ratings: Boon or Bane?
James M. Furukawa, Psychology
Towson
University
Do student ratings improve teaching or lead to useless descriptions, such as
"the instructor has a good sense of humor" or "was poorly organized"?
We will present a summary of responses from students to a request to describe poor
teaching practices, plus viewpoints for attaining teaching effectiveness. Additionally,
participants will have the opportunity to discuss student ratings.
8B * How Do You "Parse" the Holocaust? Student
Responses to Human Cruelty
Karen Wyndham, Comparative
Cultural & Literary Studies
University of Arizona
In an episode of My So Called Life a beleaguered high school teacher asks her
students about The Diary of Anne Frank. One student responds completely from her
own experience of having a teenage crush. She says that Anne Frank must have been happy,
because she could stay in the attic with a guy she liked. The teacher is aghast at this
answer. We will discuss problems with over-dependence upon student-centered teaching
vis-à-vis sobering histories.
8C * From The Other Side of the Podium: Shifting the Focus from
Teaching to Learning
Mike Awalt, Teaching
Improvement Center
Joyce Blair, Math/Computer
Sciences
Pete Giordano, Behavioral
Sciences
Steve Simpler, Religion
George Sims, History
Belmont
University
Rosemary Ingram, Education
University of Mississippi
Our presentation will examine the perennial issues that surround interactions between
students and between students and faculty members within organized classes for the purpose
of identifying how specific kinds of interactions enhance or inhibit student learning. In
particular, we will examine how learning is affected by the way students interact with
their peers, faculty members, new information, and unfamiliar ways of thinking. Also, we
will examine how differing expectations and various modes of assessing learning affect
student learning within the organized class. Our examination of the interactions between
students and faculty will be based on our common experience as students in each
other’s classes. Influenced by the authors of Teaching Within the Rhythms of the
Semester, each of the presenters enrolled in a class outside of his or her academic
discipline. Throughout the semester, each presenter kept a personal journal of experiences
as a student and as a teacher
8D * Teaching/Learning Partners IUS Style: Learning Through
Collaboration
Robin K. Morgan,
Psychology
Annette Wyandotte, English
Indiana
University Southeast
Want a dynamic, flexible interaction that improves your course? This presentation
will describe a teaching/learning partnership program where, through a multi-step process,
faculty develop partnerships that allow them to address specific goals for one of their
courses. In this session, participants will be able to complete Step One of this process
and be ready to institute the program for their courses on their individual
campuses.
8E * The Immigrant Experience(s): A Team Taught Interdisciplinary
Approach
Minna Doskow, English
Mark Hutter, Sociology
Rowan
University of New Jersey
The presenters taught an interdisciplinary seminar entitled The Immigrant Experience(s)
which explored the relationship of historical events, sociological perspectives, and
literary expressions of immigrant experiences in the United States from the 1880s to the
present. Combining students from various majors, it utilized some innovative teaching
strategies and activities and proved very successful. The presenters will reflect on the
course, discuss their experience with participants, and will model some activities with
the session participants as well.
8F * Creating College Courses Through Student-Faculty Partnership: The Case of
Censorship and Banned Books
Joanie Friedman, History
Meera Viswanathan, Comparative Literature
Brown Univeristy
How do an enthusiastic undergraduate and an established professor create an original
interdisciplinary course? How can that partnership produce a syllabus that is both
rigorous and innovative? We invite you to participate in a simulation of our seminar Censorship
and Banned Books in America. Using visual aids, we will facilitate discussion
regarding the paradoxes of censorship on the Internet. Through a mini-version of our
seminar, we will illuminate the larger issues of collaborative course development and
execution.
10:00am-10:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
9A * Getting To The Big Picture: Can We Lead Students To
Synthesis?
Jan Sinnot, Psychology
Towson University
The information explosion and cultural patterns may have contributed to fragmented
thinking in students, making activities such as "building cases
for/against______," creative teamwork, or making syntheses difficult. The
undergraduate path from desire for truth to relativism seems more likely to end before
reaching a place where multiple views and ways of thinking are honored, but one can still
synthesize and make choices. This session explores the problem, its effects on learning,
and possible solutions.
9B * Teachers Helping Teachers: Settings Up a New Teaching Center
Jack Child, Language & Foreign
Studies
American
University
In this session the presenter will tell the story of his university’s ten-year quest
to establish a permanent teaching center and how emerging educational technologies have
changed the direction of the quest along the way. Audience members’ participation
will be requested in terms of their own experiences in setting up a similar center, or
what they could seek in a such a center.
9C * The Collaborative Case History: A Tool to Improve Learning
and Retention in a Content-Rich Course
David A. Sandmire, Life
Sciences
University of New
England
How can we motivate students in content-rich courses to move beyond memorization to deeper
conceptual understanding of a field? This presentation describes a case-history approach
to learning that reinforces collaborative problem solving while simultaneously
illustrating the relevance of the course content to the students’ chosen professions.
Come see how one professor utilized this technique in a neuroscience course to re-energize
students during those "mid-semester blues," and explore how this tool may be
used in your field.
9D * Teaching Psychomotor Skills Using Video-Based Demonstration
and Integrated Practice
Susan Appling, Nursing
Johns Hopkins University
Videos are often used to teach students a variety of nursing techniques. However, it is
not clear how much faculty assistance is needed to guide practice. We compared student
knowledge and performance of a specific technique after being taught by either traditional
teacher-lead small-group practice or a video demonstration with varying amounts of faculty
assistance. Students performed essentially the same in all four scenarios. Implications
for independent student learning and faculty-versus-technology cost will be discussed.
9E * Business and Medical Ethics
Richard L. Wilson, Philosophy
Towson
University
This session will involve demonstrating how to conduct ethical analysis in two subject
areas, business and medicine. I shall present examples of ethical analysis. At appropriate
intervals in the session I will present interactive exercises and the audience will break
into small groups to work on the exercises. My discussion will focus upon the nature of
arguments, ethical arguments, ethical principles, and how ethical principles apply to
cases and issues.
9F * Epidemics and AIDS: Team Teaching an Interdisciplinary
Science Course for Non-Science Majors
Karen Barrett, All
University Curriculum
University of Hartford
Are interdisciplinary curricula and course design worth the trouble? What happens when
professors from different fields must cross disciplinary boundaries, when literature
professors must teach about DNA, and immunologists about poetry? We will discuss the
stresses and successes of our team teaching. Participants will examine case studies to see
what they can bring to these cases and how collaborative teaching can evolve as they learn
to work from individual strengths to form a solid teaching team.
11:00am-12:30pm CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
10A * Using Warm-ups and Icebreakers to Make the Most of Small
Group Work in the Classroom
Jenna Celaine
Yeager, Occupational Therapy
Towson University
Small group work is becoming popular as a strategy for increasing student classroom
involvement through interactive and experiential activities. Warm-up activities and
icebreakers are valuable tools for creating positive group dynamics and improving the
productivity of the working group. This session will introduce attendees to a variety of
fun and non-threatening activities that may be used to prepare students for small group
work.
10B * Making New Media in Everyday Classrooms
Barbara K. Iverson
& Andrea Polli, Academic Computing
Columbia College - Chicago
Want to create web pages or other non-linear information presentations with your students?
Not sure where to start? This presentation shows how to use and adapt the skills teachers
already possess to create active, project-based learning assignments which integrate
technology at the level available in any particular educational setting. The workshop
demonstrates the knowledge map as a stepping stone to the kind of metacognition
(thinking about thinking) needed to begin such projects. It provides hands-on experience
in how to organize and outline non-linear information into interactive presentations from
simple to highly interactive forms and how these can be transformed into projects where
students are knowledge creators, not simply knowledge consumers.
10C * Alternative Methods of Assessment
Gloria Holland, Center for Instructional Advancement and Technology
Towson University
This highly interactive workshop is designed to allow participants the opportunity to
examine different ways to assess students’ knowledge and abilities that focus on
transferring the responsibility for learning to the student. Such assessment techniques
(learning contracts, self-assessment, peer review) are intended to develop skills for
independent and life-long learning for the students without creating more work for the
professor. Participants will work together to examine topics they teach and share ideas
with others.
10D * Encouraging Active Scholarship Through Problem-Based Learning
Toni Cascio, Social
Work
University of South Carolina
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative teaching approach that combines the case
study method with cooperative learning. Students taught using PBL demonstrate a higher
level of independent learning, increased use of the library and professional literature,
enhanced reflective abilities, and improved critical thinking skills. This presentation
will explain the PBL process and give participants the opportunity to engage in the
initial problem identification stage as well as construct cases relevant to their
educational setting.
10E * Supporting Team Learning With In-Class Activity Using
Worksheet and Presentation Slides
Kuruvilla Zachariah, Chemistry
Ohio
University Eastern
Cooperative learning technique will be used in this presentation. Participants will work
in small groups on a worksheet based on a topic in general chemistry with minimum help
from the presenter. Presentation slides will be used to aid in the instruction and also to
display the answers to problems on the worksheet. Compare your performance at the end of
the session by taking a post-test of the same questions that you take as a pre-test. The
presenter will share practical tips learned in converting presentation slides to web pages
and in the designing of on-line quizzes.
10F * CANCELLED
12:30pm LUNCH *
Tables by Topic
You may sit at the table of your choice. Choose
from among:
1. Classroom Assessment/Research
2. Collaborative/Cooperative Learning
3. Creating Learning Communities
4. Evaluating Teaching
5. Ethics in the Classroom
6. Grading
7. Teaching in the Diverse Classroom
8. Teaching in Research-Intensive Universities
9. Technology Across the Curriculum
10. Writing Across the Curriculum
1:45pm-2:30pm CONCURRENT SESSIONS
11A * The Effect of Humor on Productivity, Participation, and
Morale Within a Graphic Arts Laboratory
Nona Woolbright,
Robin S. Williams & April Graham, Technology
Appalachian State University
This presentation will discuss the relationship between the use of humor and increases in
student productivity, participation, and morale in a laboratory setting. We will examine
the results of an on-going study where the use of successful humorous practices
found within business/industry were applied within the educational environment. Examples
of those practices will be demonstrated.
11B * Use of Portfolios for Program Assessment and Professional
Growth
James Lawlor, Gloria A.
Neubert, & Sally McNelis, Secondary Education
Towson University
This presentation, for personnel involved in teacher training – teacher educators,
curriculum supervisors and student interns - will focus on teacher training partnerships
made possible with the implementation of the program portfolio throughout secondary
education. Special emphasis will be placed upon the Essential Dimensions of Teaching standards,
the tools for providing authentic data to measure preservice teachers’ achievement,
understanding, and professional growth as they proceed through campus-based programs, to
field experiences, to professional practice as teachers.
11C * Stress-Proofing Professors
Jack D. Osman, Health Science
Towson
University
Why should professors have any stress? They’ve got it made! Tenure. Summers off.
Sabbatical leave. Those of us on the inside, however, realize that being a teacher-scholar
comes with a desk full of stressors. Find out why most of our stress is between our ears.
Come and relax to music, view graphics and suggestions, and enjoy a good laugh. Share in
the discussion and learn new ways of stress-proofing your life.
11D * Increasing Minority Student Retention at Towson University
Through Research
Gail Gasparich, Biological
Sciences
David M. Schaefer, Physics
Daniel Wubah, Biological
Sciences
Towson
University
This session will describe how the presenters’ departments have instigated a
competitive program for minority students to become involved in independent research
projects. Proposed outcomes include increasing the number of minority students who pursue
a graduate school education and aid in the recruitment of minority science majors. This
program will increase the supply of skilled workers for the next century and create role
models for the next generation of minority science students.
11E * Learning Through Student Organization: Students in Free
Enterprise
Donald Kopka, Marketing
and Management
Christine Adamo, Brad
Barker, Monica Daily, & Jennifer Keel, Students in Free Enterprise
Towson University
Students in Free Enterprise is an international organization that involves
college students in teaching the principles of free enterprise and business skills for
competing effectively in business. This presentation examines the learning benefits that
have come to students through their involvement in this program. It considers the
professional development that students experience as a result of collaborating with
faculty members and outside organizations on projects outside the classroom.
11F * An Online Science Tutoring Center
Lynn Tracey, Chemistry
Carol B. Veil, Biology
Michael S. Rapport, Physics
Michael S. Glasgow, Biology
Anne Arundel
Community College
The Online Science Tutoring Center (OSTC) is a multidisciplinary, web-based service that
includes online chat capability, e-mail communications, frequently-asked-questions
for selected courses, and online self-evaluation modules for problematic course topics.
The presenters will demonstrate the major features of the OSTC, discuss the process of
creating it, and assess its strengths and weaknesses.
2:45pm-4:15pm CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
12A * Transforming the Teacher and Learner Role: A Seven Step
Plan for Designing Learning - Centered Teaching
Jane K. Vella, Chairman
Global
Learning Partners
The presenter will model a researched, accountable approach for designing
learning-centered teaching. In this approach, participants do what they are learning.
Learning-centered teaching calls for congruence, which is modeled through the Seven
Steps of Planning. Participants will experience the "student" as subject of
their own learning, dialogue as learning, and engagement through learning tasks.
Participants will be able to apply this approach immediately to transform their teaching
into accountable learning that lasts.
12B * Frank Sinatra, Elvis, the Gypsy Kings, and Sid Vicious:
Finding Your Voice
Debra J. Abrams, English
Montgomery
College - Germantown
Using music and poetry, this multidisciplinary exercise, grounded in Piaget’s
principles of active learning, combines critical thinking, listening, and collaborative
learning with free and guided writing assignments to help students identify their writing
voices and the writing voices of others, while they learn to appreciate and use literary
language and poetic forms.
12C * The Rubric's Cube: Adding the Dimension of Difference to
Your Teaching
Milton D. Cox, Teaching Effectiveness Programs
Miami University
Consider extending the rubrics you have designed for meeting course objectives, evaluating
students, etc. to include additional differences. We will briefly survey differences such
as Gardner's multiple intelligences, the positions/epistemologies of intellectual
development (Perry, Belenky, et al.), and McIntosh's phases of otherness in curriculum
development. Each of us will then select a difference of interest to read about and
discuss in small groups. Finally, we will explore ways to incorporate additional
differences into our teaching and our students' learning.
12D * Collaborative Teaching with Students
Emily M. Crawford, Marketing
Savannah
State University
Participants will work in groups in the role of students to determine how a class should
be facilitated. This must include the date for a test, how many tests, what kind of tests,
what chapters to be covered, etc. The outcome of this activity may surprise you! The
education industry is currently experiencing greater cultural and educational diversities
that require significant changes in the way students learn. We need student participation
in the teaching process to motivate students to learn more about their discipline. The
purpose of this innovative approach is to expose students to research, practical
experiences, and collaborative opportunities in their major.
12E * Student-Centered Learning in Freshmen Biology: Integrating
Lectures and Labs
Lark Claassen & Phillip G. Sokolove,
Biological Sciences
University
of Maryland - Baltimore
Typically, basic concepts and principles in freshman biology are first presented in
lectures and are then experienced in labs. This workshop will present a
lecture-and-laboratory pair connected by common learning objectives and approaches rather
than content. We will demonstrate how student-centered teaching methods can be implemented
in both environments. Our common goal is for students to gain appreciation for what
scientists do by learning to do science and to think like scientists.
4:30pm-5:15pm CONCURRENT SESSIONS
13A * Creating and Facilitating Course-Based Computer-Mediated
Participation
Janice Gasker, Criminal
Justice/Social Work
Kutztown University
Toni Cascio, Social
Work
University of South Carolina
This presentation answers the question "How do we keep the human factor present in
technology-enhanced education?" A discussion of the meaning and function of
relationships in the learning environment provides the context for a step-by-step
demonstration of the development of a course-based, computer-mediated discussion as a
method of facilitating relationship and learning. Each participant will develop methods of
motivating students, evaluating participation, building educational helping relationships,
and managing ethical issues related to computer-mediated interaction.
13B * A Guided Small Group Discovery Method
Jerome Dancis, Mathematics
University
of Maryland
In my classes, group learning is a non-graded, nurturing learning system which trains
students to solve problems. It exposes and deals with the variety of misconceptions
students have collected. I give much semi-personal attention (tutoring) to the students in
the form of one-on-four instruction. I use a mixture of my variations on
traditional lecturing and Neil Davidson’s Small Group Discovery Method to
engage the students in guided discover and rigorous development of mathematics. This is
empowering
13C * Enhancing the Preparation of Future Middle School Teachers
Robert Gates, Education
Bloomsburg University
Scott Mato, Principal
Kathy Brautigam, Technology
Danville Middle School
Jodi Cramer & Dan
Kerwin, Student Teachers
Bloomburg University
The presentation will highlight the collaborative effort of a university and a middle
school to restructure the field and student-teacher experiences for future teachers.
University students, school district personnel, and university faculty will outline how
the collaboration has created a collegial team structure with higher education and basic
education in a problem-solving and developmental atmosphere. The presentation will
identify the key components of the partnership so that participants may apply it to their
setting.
13D * Using Theories of Feminists of Color to Plant Seeds of
Activism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Lena Ampadu, English
Evangeline Wheeler, Psychology
Esther Wangari, Womens’s Studies
Towson
University
This session will analyze approaches for teaching activism from an inter-disciplinary
perspective, using black feminist theories and those of other women of color as a
backdrop. Presenters will offer practical suggestions that can be used in a variety of
disciplines. To further an understanding of the topic, they will use collaborative
learning strategies and a call-response type lecture-discussion format, an antiphonal
pattern rooted in African culture.
13E * Disciplinary Differences in Instructors' Classroom
Experiences
Jiali Luo, Educational
Administration
University
of Nebraska
Teaching takes place in a cultural context of discipline and institution. Based on a
survey study, this presentation will examine Graduate Teaching Assistants’ (GTA)
classroom experiences across academic disciplines. The presenter will report major
classroom problems that GTAs encountered in their undergraduate instructional activities.
Participants will be asked to explore the implications of the study and discuss issues
concerning the professional development of GTAs and the improvement of undergraduate
instruction.
13F * Developing a Community-Building ITA Program
Lynn Dipietro & Maria G. Parker, English
for International Students
Duke
University
This presentation will demonstrate a variety of hands-on and interactive activities used
in a pilot International Teaching Assistant (ITA) course. Since ITAs often remain
marginalized despite courses to help them, this course addresses issues of
language, culture, and pedagogy as well as those of building community among ITAs, their
native-speaker peers, undergraduates, and faculty. The presenters will describe the
program goals and components and invite discussion of the successes and pitfalls they have
encountered.
5:15pm RECEPTION
6:00pm DINNER
8:00pm POSTPRANDIAL ACTIVITIES
Reader's Theatre
"Shattering the Silences"
SUNDAY * 18 APRIL 1999
8:00am BREAKFAST
8:30am REGISTRATION OPENS
9:00am-9:45am CONCURRENT SESSIONS
15A * Helping Students Commit to Socially Responsible Lives
Doris C. Van Doren, Marketing
Loyola
College in Maryland
Louise W. Smith, College of Business & Economics -
Marketing
Towson University
The idealism of youth makes the traditional college years a fertile time for students to
explore, practice, and commit themselves to the values inherent in ethical living. This
session will describe how the teaching of ethics has been approached in a variety of ways.
What has proven to be valuable? What are the demands of ethics teaching on those who teach
it?
15B * A Comprehensive Three-Pronged Approach for Peer Mentoring
Sabrina Marschall,
Faculty Development
Inez Giles,
Distance Education
University of
Maryland, University College
Peer mentoring is time-honored method of gaining insight into a faculty member’s
approach to teaching and learning. A comprehensive mentoring program for the learning
environments and faculty of the future will be described. The comprehensive, three-pronged
program consists of a one-time classroom visit, semester-long classroom mentoring and
semester-long mentoring for distance faculty members. The feedback given as the result of
the mentoring should lead to either specific changes or to reinforcement of already
effective practices.
15C * Partnering with Undergraduates: The Ozymandias Project
Holly Cowan Shulman,
Scholars Program
Bonnie Benson, Computer
Science Major
Jonathan Black, Computer
Engineering Major
Hank Kuo, Computer
Science Major
Victoria Scott, Chemical
Engineering
University of Maryland - College Park
This presentation will illustrate an instance of teaching partnerships. It will
demonstrate the ways in which undergraduates with backgrounds in technical disciplines
such as computer science can team up with faculty members in both the humanities and the
sciences. The case study is a two-semester, one credit per semester, internship on digital
publishing in which four undergraduates are working with a faculty member to create a
website on Soil Conservation and the New Deal.
15D * Introducing First-Year Students to Primary Research
Literature
Susannah T. R.
Feldman & Sarah A. Bruce, Biological Sciences
Towson University
Presenters will share the method they use in a general education course, Using
Information Effectively in Science, for introducing freshman science majors to the
primary research literature. This method allows students to be guided through the analysis
of peer-reviewed scientific papers in a stepwise, participatory fashion, over a 3-week
period. Participants in our interactive demonstration are encouraged to read an article by
Spiller, et al (available at the registration desk), prior to the session.
15E * Toward Defining an Honors Course
Susan Isaacs, Art
Trudy Somers, Honors
Towson
University
One of the key questions facing university faculty who teach honors courses is to
determine exactly how the honors course is different from a "regular" course.
Should the definition be size of class, or degree of difficulty? Should an honors course
require more work, more thinking, different means of testing, or unusual methods for
presentation of materials? Do we expect an honors course to be more creative? Explore
these issues in an honors workshop.
10:00am-11:45am * FEATURED WORKSHOPS
16A * Ethical Dimensions of College and University Teaching
Linc. Fisch, Educational
Consultant
Lexington, Kentucky
Though we often emphasize preparing students for ethical decisions in their vocational
fields, we seldom focus on ethical behavior in our own teaching – a cornerstone of
professional responsibility. The neglect is particularly unfortunate, since our visible
attention to ethical behavior would present models that speak more eloquently to students
than any rhetoric. Our workshop discussions will be triggered by video and print cases. We
will seek better understanding of common and persistent problems and issues, particularly
with regard to fairness, power, and relationships with students. We will consider some of
the ethical issues in the teaching of ethics and values. We will briefly examine the
values which underlie our behavior, and we will try to identify practical principles to
guide our actions – not only in teaching but in all our professional endeavors. The
workshop also will provide some ideas that you could adapt for use in classes, seminars,
or case studies on ethical issues that you might wish to conduct for your students or
colleagues.
16B * Twelve-Step Recovery Program for Professors Addicted to
Lecturing
Neil Davidson, Curriculum
& Instruction
University of Maryland
This experiential session will employ a balance of mini-lectures, class discussion, six
cooperative learning procedures, and other active learning methods. A series of activities
will address the key questions presented above as well as other steps in our recovery
program.
16C * Effective Grading: Enhancing Your Classroom and Career
Virginia Anderson,
Biology
Towson University
Based on the new book Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment, by
Walvoord and Anderson, this workshop will engage participants in an active and interactive
discussion of effective grading processes and how they can enhance both student learning
and personal professional success. Key topics, workshop activities, author examples, and
handouts will focus on making assignments worth grading, constructing more explicit
criteria, developing a larger repertoire of assessments needs, using what you can document
about student learning for publications, and constructing better assessments for
externally funded grant proposals.
12:00noon CLOSING LUNCH |