Thursday, January 31
Self Reflections on Teaching through Classroom Observations
Professors Iva Deutchman and Patricia Mowery
Tuesday, February 12
Publishing Across Disciplines
Professors Jodi Dean, Catherine Gallouët, and Jim Ryan
Thursday, March 6
Evaluating Student Learning
Professors Kristy Kenyon and Jim MaKinster
Wednesday, April 2
Critical Pedagogy Transforming Practice
Grant Recipients Cynthia Current, Mary Kelly, Kristy Kenyon and Missy Pfohl Smith
Cynthia Current – Pre-Dissertation Fellow
Fisher Center for the Study of Women and Men
Making Memory: The Genealogical Analysis of Student DNA
Do human cells carry the stories of our past? How does DNA analysis make memory by contributing to, or subverting, understandings of personal history? How are preconceptions of race and gender both challenged by such science and structured into its discourse? The grant from the Center for Teaching and Learning will allow students in the spring Fisher Center course, “Making Memories: Cells, Archives, and Picturing Personhood,” to become directly involved with such critical questions. Each student will have their DNA analyzed to trace their genealogical history. This process allows students to directly assess the results of such technologies, forming an immediate connection to the basic themes of this course—how personhood, identity, and cultural memory are derived from cells, archives, and databases. Pedagogically, this kind of instructional setting promises to incorporate what scholar Deborah G. Johnson insists theorists of gender and technology must come to understand and integrate into their research and teaching—“the values, practices, and culture of engineering, with its emphasis not just on knowing but on doing.” The incorporation of “knowing” and “doing” in this course means that, as individuals and as a group, we will be rigorously engaged with the social practices that DNA analysis enacts.
Mary Kelly – Assistant Professor
Education Department
Technology to Enhance Learning & Self-Determination:
A Service Learning Partnership
The goal is to develop a collaboration between Hobart and William Smith college students and local students with disabilities to enhance academic and self-advocacy skills through the use of technology. Specifically, college students enrolled in Education 306 “Technology for Children with Disabilities” will learn how to use technology to assist individuals with disabilities and will participate in a service learning project to tutor and mentor individuals with disabilities using technology. Service learning projects will include assisting middle school students to use technology to develop reading and math skills, participating in an after-school program for middle school students with academic difficulties, and working with individuals to develop self-advocacy style multimedia & video presentations.
Kristy Kenyon – Assistant Professor
Biology Department
Bridging the Gap Between Novice and Expert
A major goal of undergraduate science education is for students to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for understanding the complexity of scientific research. To this end, advanced students often spend significant time reading primary scientific papers in their upper level coursework. This is a challenging task given that students must be able to comprehend unfamiliar terminology, apply critical thinking skills in analyzing and interpreting experimental findings, and ultimately formulate their own understanding of how new data fits into a broader context. This spring, I plan to implement a new strategy for teaching students how to evaluate scientific papers in my senior seminar course, Stem Cells & Human Diseases. With the generous support of CTL, I will be able to create an opportunity for students to directly interact with the scientists that have authored the papers that they will study. Funds will be used to either bring scientists to the HWS campus or for travel to visit the laboratories of selected individuals. The objective of this learning experience will be to facilitate a meaningful dialogue between the students and scientists regarding stem cell research and the issues that impact the field. This interaction will be an engaging way for students to explore their ideas directly with stem cell biologists and to discover the impact that personal, political and socioeconomic factors have on the process of scientific research.
Missy Pfohl Smith – Assistant Professor
Dance Department
Big Oil
Professor Smith will create with her Dance Ensemble students a choreographic, multi-media dance project investigating Big Oil in America. The course will involve research into the oil industry (with assistance from Environmental Studies Chair Tom Drennan), a collaborative community component to gather content for the dance, a multi-media component that will serve to provide statistics, text and a visual backdrop for the live action on the stage while enhancing awareness of the timely environmental issues of energy consumption on a global level, but more specifically a national level. There will also be a regional touring component that will broaden and enhance the performance aspect of the course as well as the HWS involvement in the community. Collaborating with NYC Composer David Homan and local filmmaker Matt Costanza, this project will also address collaborative aspects of art-making.
In Spring 2008, "Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher" by Stephen D. Brookfield will be read and discussed.
This institute, held January 14-15, will address both intercultural communication competence and the use of oral communication to achieve inclusivity and will include workshops that tackle navigating difficult dialogue and designing oral communication assignments. Dr. Julia Johnson from Southwestern University will lead the institute.
All sessions will be held at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Harris Hall from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Wine and Cheese will be served.
If you'd like to learn more about any of the upcoming events or if you'd like to see additional events offered, contact the Center for Teaching and Learning.