William FitzGerald | February 1, 2013
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Welcome to TMAC!

Welcome to the online home for the Teaching Matters and Assessment Center! TMAC’s mission is to support Arts and Sciences faculty and departments in sustaining a culture of teaching excellence through best practices in pedagogy and assessment.

Through workshops, colloquia and consultations with faculty and departments, the Center seeks to foster success in traditional and online learning and the productive mentoring of undergraduate and graduate researchers. 

We expect this TMAC website to become a ‘go to’ resource for all faculty as a clearinghouse for information and online repository of the Center’s wide-ranging activities. We invite you to make frequent use of the site and to contribute to its development. 

Please explore the site and scroll down for the latest postings.

Category: What's New? |
William FitzGerald | March 6, 2013
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Learning and Transfer, Part II

In Part II of “Why They Don’t Apply What They’ve Learned” (CHE, 2/19/13), James Lang observes: 

Whatever subject you are teaching, you probably believe your students will transfer that knowledge or those skills to at least some of their subsequent courses or to their lives after graduation. But the research on this topic could not be clearer on the difficulty that humans have with knowledge transfer, especially in new or introductory learning environments.

Lang cites the work of Susan Ambrose et. al. in How Learning Works (Jossey-Bass, 2010) and Ken Bain in What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard, 2004) and What the Best College Students Do (Belknap, 2012). 

I believe we too easily equate teaching with learning–I know I do–and consistently underestimate what is required to promote deep learning, or “far transfer.” Among the factors that Bain, in particular, points to for long-term learning is the importance of big questions at the center of our educational experiences, questions that enable us to connect materials from different courses and domains.

So what works? In the weeks ahead, I will post (and invite you to contribute) strategies that studies in the scholarship of teaching and learning indicate have a positive effect. In the meantime, feel free to post responses to Lang’s article below.

 

Category: transfer, What's New? |
William FitzGerald | February 20, 2013
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NCTE Framework for 21st Century Literacy and Assessment

This month, the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), updated its 2008 “Framework for 21st Century Literacy and Assessment” (also here), a document designed to support curriculum development in the language arts for k-12 and beyond. The broad implication of this document is that we are all teachers of literacy in our various disciplines. The entire text is worth reading, but here is the preamble: 

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology

• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and

cross-culturally

• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of

purposes

• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous

information

• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

 

Category: assessment, literacy, policy statements |
William FitzGerald | February 18, 2013
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The Writing-to-Learn in STEM Bibliographic Database

In coordination with an emergent database on writing-to-learn (WTL) in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), this essay on “Writing-to-Learn in Undergraduate Science Education: A Community-Based, Conceptually Driven Approach” offers an extended rationale and conceptual framework for this database of 324 published sources and a set of implications for future research. 

 

From the WAC Clearinghouse, a brief description of the project:

The Writing-to-Learn in STEM (Sciences, Technologies, Engineering, and Mathematics) Bibliographic Database represents the contributions of a team of scholars and teachers in STEM research and education. The database is meant to be a tool for

  • STEM teachers seeking improved tools of student learning
  • STEM researchers seeking useful methods and examples for conducting research on teaching and learning
  • scholars of writing in disciplines (WID)
  • WAC and WID program leaders seeking useful classroom methods and assessment techniques for colleagues in the STEM disciplines.

The database was conceived and developed through a grant from the National Science Foundation (2010) to Duke University. The grant brought together a “WTL in STEM Working Group” made up of STEM researchers and educators, who began compiling published resources and designed a full-day workshop for the November 2010 conference of the Reinvention Center in Washington, DC. The Reinvention Center (http://www.sarc.miami.edu/ReinventionCenter/Public/Home/ ) is a consortium of research universities that focuses on the systematic improvement of undergraduate education

Category: database, resource |
William FitzGerald | February 14, 2013
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Bringing Theory to Practice Project

Funding Opportunities for the Bringing Theory to Practice Project 
Proposals Due June 15, 2013

The Bringing Theory to Practice Project invites proposals for projects that will promote engaged learning, civic development and engagement, and psychosocial well-being of college and university students. We are especially interested in efforts that will enable students to have transformational educational experiences, and proposals for how institutions can transform and sustain their priorities and practices.

Proposals for Seminar Grants (up to $1,000) and Program Development Grants (up to $10,000) are due Saturday, June 15, 2013. (All proposals should be electronically submitted by 5 p.m. ET on the 15, and hard copies must arrive by the following Monday to be considered.) Complete information about the 2012–2014 cycle of funding is available in the current RFP.

For answers to common grant related inquiries, please visit BTtoP.org’s Grant Applicant FAQ page. Brief summaries of hundreds of funded initiatives are available on the Campus Grants page. While the Project does not offer any specific recommendations regarding potential proposals, questions not covered in provided materials may be directed via email to Dylan Joyce.

Proposals should be submitted through our online submission form as well as mailed to the address below. We look forward to reading your proposals for projects aligned with our joint purposes and priorities.

With anticipation,

The Bringing Theory to Practice Project
1818 R St., NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.884.0805

BTtoP.org - Facebook

Category: Conference |
William FitzGerald | February 12, 2013
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Announcement of Global Learning in College Conference

GLOBAL LEARNING IN COLLEGE:
Asking Big Questions, Engaging Urgent Challenges

October 3-5, 2013
Providence, Rhode Island 
Proposals Due February 19, 2013

AAC&U invites proposals for concurrent sessions at the 2013 Network for Academic Renewal conferenceGlobal Learning in College: Asking Big Questions, Engaging Urgent Challenges. This meeting will explore essential learning outcomes that students need to achieve if they are to navigate in a world that is increasingly multicultural, multilingual, and interdependent. It will focus on ways to design global learning opportunities for all students, highlighting campus practices that address “big questions” and engage the world’s urgent problems.

Conference Themes Include:
Theme I:  Gathering and Using Evidence to Strengthen Students’ Global Learning
Theme II:  Liberal Education, Diversity, and Global Learning
Theme III:  Engaging Problems/Engaging Projects
Theme IV:  Civic Engagement, Equity, and the Ethics of Global Learning

Visit the Call for Proposals to find out how to submit a proposal to share your work at this conference.

For more information, please call 202.387.3760, or write to Siah Annand at gro.ucaanull@krowten.

Category: Conference |
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