Associated Colleges of the Chicago-Area
Scholarship of Pedagogy Symposium
October, 2004
-Abstracts-
Conceptual
Physical Science in a Course for Pre-Service Teachers
Phyllis Anderson-Meyer,
Chemistry
Physical Science for Teachers is a content-driven, integrated
lecture/laboratory course for pre-service teachers, covering topics in
chemistry, physics, and geology. Each
major concept is presented in concrete form through interactive lecture
demonstrations and/or hands-on, guided inquiry laboratory activities. Student understanding of concepts is
constructed through direct participation in these activities and also through
individual and collaborative writing-to-learn assignments based on these
activities. Students
value the concrete learning and teacher preparation offered by the course,
which typically over-enrolls on the first day of registration. Examples are given of curriculum materials.
Professing: Higher Education Beyond Fact-Dispensing,
Proficiency and Mentoring
Brad
Breems, Sociology
Calling on John Calvin and several Reformed Christian thinkers, this piece asserts a "professing model" of teaching. From the freshman to the president, we all profess; we are all professors. As senior scholars in the Christian college, Christian professors stand beside their junior scholar students in community within their common calling to scholarship. The task of the "professor" at a religiously committed academy is to bring together two related features of professing: faith in God and knowledge of the world. I set this as a distinct model alongside other models of instruction: the factual, proficiency and mentoring models. Such profession leads to vocations worthy of graduates' dignity as image-bearers of God, faithful to God’s call to self-denial and professional service.
Interdisciplinary
Science Courses for Liberal Arts and Education Students
Anita Briedis, Marilyn Moehlenkamp and Deborah Serra
Natural Sciences and Geography
Biology, chemistry, Earth/space science, and physics share topics and processes. Integrating the disciplines of science allows one to study these shared topics and processes in greater depth and helps unburden the curriculum. Doing so in the modern context emphasizes the usefulness of science and enhances scientific literacy. Coordination among these four disciplines leads students to an awareness of the interdependence of the sciences and their place in the body of human knowledge.
Within the last six years the
faculty of the Natural Sciences and Geography Department at
Teaching Science Without Lectures
Bill Bromer, Biology
Most of us have walked past a classroom where the students were sitting in a circle discussing Shakespeare or Plato but rarely do we find these types of interactions during science lectures. Maybe during laboratory periods students will work in groups, discuss how to solve a problem or wrestle with data analysis, but not during lecture. Science professors seem particularly comfortable providing organized lectures of information and often passionately divulging intellectually exciting concepts and details to eager students. During lecture we usually hope students sit quietly, transferring the information they are told into their notebooks and eventually store it in their heads. Most students are able to pass the exams we give them a few weeks after stimulating lectures but how many do you think would pass the exams five years later? If we are interested in significant, long-term learning then lectures don’t seem to work. Personally, I have been disappointed in student responses when they were asked to take the basic information they just regurgitated on the test and apply it to a novel situation. I correctly attributed their inability to transfer knowledge to novel situations as a lack of true understanding, but incorrectly blamed them for not thinking. Students sitting passively in class rarely learn to think critically and creatively and are rarely motivated to investigate other topics outside of class. During the session, we will investigate a variety of ways to change lectures so they foster genuine understanding and actively engage students in critical thinking. Active learning vignettes can be inserted at key points in lectures or lectures could be eliminated altogether.
Exploring the
Autonomy/Connection Dialectic in the College Classroom
Cheri
Ellis Campbell, Communication
This paper applies a
dialectical perspective in examining teacher-student interaction in the college
classroom. Four college courses were
observed for a semester’s duration and their students and professors were
interviewed to provide insight as to the behaviors used to manage the resident
dialectical tensions between autonomy and connection felt in their interaction.
Teaching History through Story: Using Instructor Research in
the Classroom to Engage Students in History
Jeff Chamberlain, History
This session will deal with a
special course—"Conspiracy and Intrigue in the 18th Century"—created
by the instructor to increase student interest in history. The course utilizes research done by the
instructor to tell a riveting story to engage students in the history of the 18th
century. In the course of the story and
the class, students gain knowledge of the context of early modern
The Postcolonial Classroom: Learning in the "In-between"
Postcolonial criticism offers an unsettling paradigm for the classroom: professors as colonizers, students as colonized, the curriculum as both monument and gateway to the "disciplines," approved knowledge, authoritative education, the mother country of Culture. But postcolonial studies can also provide a helpful vocabulary with which to understand and reframe this potentially oppressive environment-where the professor, I mean, even with the best of intentions, is the colonizer, the oppressor. Student resistance to learning, for example, becomes not simply predictable or normal, but healthy and potentially productive. Authorized knowledge (represented by the professor) becomes not so much tool of control (or a commodity, to be consumed and replicate) as a site of struggle-the contact zone where the presumed "learned" and "unlearned" can argue, debate, reach an accommodation. In post-colonial studies, the issues involved in this moment are those of hybridity and the maneuvers both colonizer and colonized must undertake when confronted with the Other. In this paper, I’ll explore the pedagogical value of post-colonial critical terminology for understanding the classroom as an "in-between" space where identities of all learners-both instructors and students-are reshaped in the process of teaching and learning.
Teach for a Change:
Life and Learning in a Psychology Class
Mary Lynn Colosimo
Students
in the Lifespan Development course at
We
will have a conversation about some of the following teaching ideas that are
foundational to this type of course:
This
session will conclude with the video entitled "Celebrating What's Right
with the World."
You
Can Lead Students to Blackboard But You
Can't Always Make Them Think
Michael Cunningham, English
The intrepid instructor sets out to develop critical thinking and metacognitive skills in a general education literature course and discovers that the use of the discussion board component of the electronic course manager (Blackboard) provides a useful method for accomplishing this goal, though the end results are not as satisfactory as he expected.
How Effective is
the use of Chemical Demonstrations in Teaching Science Principles?
Salim M. Diab, Chemistry
For the second consecutive year,
twelve grade school teachers from the greater Joliet area schools have been
selected to participate in the summer
2004 workshop on "Teachers Workshop
on Chemical Demonstrations Using Household Chemicals." offered by the
ACS – Joliet Section and the University of St. Francis on Saturday, June 12,
2004, from 9 AM – 3 PM (complimentary breakfast and lunch were offered to all
participants). Sponsored and funded by a grant from the American Chemical
Society (ACS) and in collaboration with the
In return, the teachers will earn
6 CPDU’s and may choose to earn 1 hour of graduate credit from the
This presentation will focus on the pedagogy of teaching science to science teachers using hand-on science demonstrations. A few teachers who participated in the workshop. will share their experience and tell their story of the successes and challenges of the project.
Systematic
Implementation of a Modular
Progression for Learning
Effectively: Project SIMPLE
Michael Flahive* and Michael Chial **
*
**University of Wisconsin-Madison
A joint effort linking
Chem-History: Real People with Real Stories
J. Brent Friesen, Natural Sciences
It
is important that science majors appreciate that science may be understood as
an historical process aimed at understanding the nature of the physical
universe. During my teaching career have explored several approaches to helping
students realize that what they read in their textbooks was once "cutting edge"
science and susceptible to politics, personality conflicts and general
disbelief. In addition to the lecture-based historical presentation of certain
subject areas, I have adopted two tactics that communicate the historical side
of chemistry in an unconventional fashion. In my majors "Organic Chemistry"
course I use several student-assisted vignettes to portray an historical
chemist coming to grips with his discovery of important chemical principles. In
my "Chemistry of Natural Products" course the students are asked to read a
"popular" book that explores the historical, political, social, economic and
human side of science. Issues relating to the presentation of the historical
aspect of chemistry will be presented and discussed.
Walking And Talking With The Bard
Cathy Headley, Exercise and Sport Science Department
Terry Wantdke, and Robert McManus. Communication Arts
This presentation will focus on the physical demands of performing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We will be adding the element of physical fitness during practice and performance. Elements incorporated include the Humanities and Exercise/ Sport Sciences in an attempt to fuse the connection between the body and mind.
Presenters will summarize the
development of a hybrid course developed for
We will be discussing the structuring of the rehearsals to incorporate strength, cardiovascular and flexibility into the participant’s routine. With the addition of fencing to this program, these exercises will be critical.
We will be doing pre- and post- fitness testings. These include: body composition; blood pressure; heart rate; flexibility; muscular strength and endurance; and cardiovascular endurance. We will be studying the effects on the flexibility and cardiovascular endurance of the participants, looking for improvements in these areas. As we have proceeded in the study, we hope also to see cognitive improvements in the studying of the memorization and the implementation of the fundamental acting process.
The student will:
- Discuss the different sides of academia and how they may be interrelated with regard to a theatrical performance.
- Understand ways to design a performance schedule that incorporates the body, mind and spirit of the participant.
- Evaluate the health benefits of physical activity on a theatrical performance.
Teaching Intro to Lit Without Spoiling It for Everybody
(A Proposal Not as Modest as It May Sound)
Vin Katilius-Boydstun, English
We all want our students to be more independent and involved thinkers, but they can seem only to want to figure out what they need to do for a good grade from us, stubbornly oblivious to the aesthetic and intellectual pleasures and insights offered by great literature. Students tend to see literature as a school subject, which means a necessary hurdle in the grueling obstacle race toward real life. We begin to expect them to dislike what we love, and we begin to dislike teaching them. So literature, or the teaching of it, in the teaching of it, is easy to spoil for both teachers and students. And this happens, in large measure, I believe, because the easiest way to school the young (though not to educate them) is to reduce a subject to a simple collection of "elements," such as, for instance, plot, character, theme, symbol, etc. that can be "learned" one by one and tested in various ways in relation to assigned readings that might actually have been enjoyed and learned from in more meaningful ways if they were read and talked about in more humane conditions. More humane conditions are, however, possible, not even all that hard to all to exit in a classroom. And this doesn’t necessarily mean that rigor and discipline go out the window. This is a much bigger subject than can be "covered" in a short presentation, but I intend to bring up some relevant literary-theoretical, pedagogical, and political ideas, as well as some evidence of success in giving both teachers and students a more enjoyable and meaningful experience of literature in introductory courses.
Pedagogy During War:
Academic Freedom vs. The Thunder of the Right"
Peter
Neil Kirstein, History
The paper will summarize the events surrounding my suspension in the fall of 2002 for antiwar protest and its relationship to teaching as a moral act. I will then challenge Stanley Fish’s major op-ed piece in the New York Times that academicians should avoid public advocacy and instead confine themselves to campus activities that are more insular. The paper will provide a brief history of repression from McCarthyism to the present in which case studies of professors who became quite controversial due to extramural utterances will be mentioned. I will then explore public assumptions about teaching based upon non-teaching activities for the purpose of demonstrating that there must a firewall that divides one’s teaching from one’s public advocacy. One cannot make inferences about the former from the latter in any reasonable manner as a substitute for peer review.
Relevant concise AAUP statements on academic freedom will be mentioned both in terms of professors’ rights and student rights in the classroom. I will conclude with reflections on the need to allow pedagogy explore original and different pathways and not be confined or tethered to institutional culture, course evaluations or public standards of ought and must.
An Example of Cooperative Service Learning in Computer Science
Ray Klump, Computer Science
Software Engineering students at
Introducing Math Majors to Journal Article
Dawn Wagner Lindquist, Mathematics
Experimental Pedagogy
As instructors of undergraduate math majors, our mission in many courses is to cover the basic theorems, proofs, methods, and classic problems in a particular area of mathematics. Pressed for time, focused on our particular interests, and utilizing textbooks already packed with problems, we run the risk of failing to expose our students to the rich world of mathematics journals. We then expect our seniors to be able to satisfy the requirement of a capstone course project in which they must select a topic or problem which is new to them, locate acceptable journal resources accessible to their reading and comprehension levels, actually read and understand such materials at a level where they can successfully narrow down the topic, and finally produce a paper and presentation which we assess for evidence of scholarly mathematical growth worthy of baccalaureate recognition. I will present examples of assignments designed to familiarize majors with the existence of mathematics journals and tools to assist them in reading articles.
First
Year Seminar: It’s About Time
Johnny K. Lloyd* and Jodi Koslow Martin**
* Natural Sciences and Mathematics
**Dean of First Year Students,
The course, It's About Time, is a multidisciplinary approach for students to explore and discover the impact of time on their lives. Topics include the concept of time management: making priorities in academics, social interactions, and personal health and wellness (diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management). Students conduct self-personality assessments and investigate the connection between college major selection and career plans. The physics and philosophy of time, the biological clock in humans, the brain's interpretation of time, and man's fascination with "time travel" are discussed. Films and music with time themes are also reviewed.
"Chaucer for the Non-Major:
Teaching Troilus and Criseyde
in an Interdisciplinary Humanities Course"
Marcia Smith Marzec, English
My essay concentrates on the problems associated with teaching Troilus and Criseyde to lower-level undergraduate students in a general education curriculum, most of whom are not English majors. The essay offers suggestions for how to deal with the problems of 1) the general lack of interest of the non-major in literature, 2) the lack of historical/ cultural/critical background on the part of the students, 3) the more segmented pace of the study, and 4) the different aim in using this text for general education, necessitating another approach from what one might use in a Chaucer course for majors. The essay then explains how Troilus and Criseyde is a superb text for study in a sophomore interdisciplinary humanities core, what the work shares with other great literature of the Western tradition that might also be included in the course, and why the students, almost without exception, respond positively to it.
Application
of Vocal Tract Resonance in Achieving Optimum Tone Quality in Woodwind and
Brass Players
Martha M. Morris and
Jan E. Bickel, Music
Hypothesis: A woodwind or brass player uses his/her instrument as an extension
of the human vocal tract in order to produce tones, which are pleasant for both
the listener and the player. Therefore,
teaching these instrumentalists how to utilize appropriate singing posture,
diaphragmatic-costal breathing, and resonating techniques should improve the overall tone quality of the
instrumentalist by adding appropriate formants to the tone produced.
For
several years we have studied the effects of the application of appropriate
vocal posture, diaphragmatic-costal breathing, and vocal tract resonance on the
development of flute tone quality and the production of a variety of timbres and
dynamic colors in undergraduate flute students. In 2003, we widened the study to include all
woodwind and brass players. Our research
process includes the education of undergraduate woodwind and brass players in
understanding the anatomical structure of the human body; particularly the
vocal tract with its various shapes and sizes as a variety of tongue vowels are
produced. The application of the diaphragmatic-costal breathing method in
opening and relaxing the vocal tract as well as providing appropriate breath
support so that optimal resonance can be attained is also an important
component of the education process.
Students are taught correct posture, diaphragmatic-costal breathing, and
shown how to utilize particular vowel shapes in order to add additional
resonance factors to the tone produced on the instrument. Our research demonstrates that a more
resonant tone quality as well as a wider variety of timbres and dynamic colors
can be produced when these vocal technical components are added to the process
of producing tone on a woodwind or brass instrument.
With the help of a Research Grant from the Center
for Educational Practice at Saint Xavier University, we have been able to
document, using the Canon MiniDV Camcorder and an 822 ONEPOINT Stereo DAT
microphone, the immediate results of the application on high quality film. With the aid of the Apple PowerBook G4, we
have produced a PowerPoint presentation; including video clips of
representative students in their first session, and in subsequent sessions,
which demonstrate the differences in their vocal sound as well as their
instrumental production.
Digital
tapes from 50 individual sessions at
Our Poster Presentation for the ACCA Symposium will be supplemented by a PowerPoint program demonstrating the process and results of our research, in addition to providing information on the structure of the vocal tract, its resonance properties on particular vowels, information on "formants" for adding resonance, and the process of utilizing vocal pedagogical techniques with woodwind and brass players in order to improve tone quality.
Picturing
Laurence Musgrove, English
The
purpose of this presentation will be to share research related to the Picturing
Reading Project at
This
research project was designed to collect drawings from approximately 200 first
semester college students at
In
our presentation, we will share our research design, a number of the student
drawings, and our conclusions about the value of this research for teaching
reading in college.
Student
Journal Writing: Strategies to Foster
Spiritual Integration of Theological Knowledge
Richard A. Nicholas, Theology
The study of theology has the ability to transform one's life. If this is to occur, it is essential that theological knowledge be integrated spiritually into the person's inner life. There must be a movement from mere knowledge on the cognitive level to personal acceptance and transformation (metanoia) on the affective level. One way to facilitate this process is through reflective journal writing. This paper discusses how such writing can be successfully implemented in an introductory theology course. It will cover three aspects: 1) the practicalities of the project; 2) the disposition and attitudes of the instructor and students; 3) the benefits for the students.
Reaching the Adult Working Professional: Some Lessons Learned From
Teaching a Saturday Morning CSC 454
William F. Opdyke, Computer Science
Many working technical
professionals are experiencing fundamental changes in
their job roles as companies increasingly outsource and offshore some of their
work. How does one effectively orient a course toward meeting the needs of
these technical
professionals?
In this talk I will discuss lessons learned from teaching our "Object-Oriented
Analysis and Design" (CSC 454) course, to a class of mostly full-time working
professionals. My talk will focus on the
following topics/ questions:
Classroom Strategies to Enhance Learning in
Chemistry Courses
Chetna Patel, Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Teaching chemistry to Biology and Health Science majors who have a weak background in math and chemistry as well as poor study skills is extremely frustrating and challenging. Students also tend to fear chemistry and often are set up for failure even before the course begins. They need to feel confident and be in control of their learning. Several classroom strategies, including in-class assignments and group quizzes will be discussed. The use of these strategies in my courses has resulted in students showing increased confidence in learning as measured by better classroom participation, higher exam grades and a higher percentage continuing in advanced chemistry courses.
Team-Taught
First Year English Composition: Writing
and
Photography
Debora Rindge, Art
Anna Leahy, English
At
In this course we critically examine relations between the written word and the art form of photography, including short stories and poetry about photography and photographers, literary responses to photographs, examples of the history of photography, photographic criticism, and writing by professional photographers. Finding parallels in each form, we compare and contrast photography and writing as art and media, considering the craft, technique, and capacities of each.
We will present our syllabus and assignments to the conference audience, discuss our experience in relation to recent theories of team-teaching, and analyze the development of writing skills we have observed in our students through this ten-week course. Some of the concepts from the course include: the temporality of short stories and poems in relation to the fragment of time represented in a photograph, the concept of narrator and photographer as an "eye", themes of death found in photographic history and in fiction on photographic subjects, and the development of photographic vocabulary in the English language beginning in the 19th century and its use by writers.
Student Authored Cases: Innovation and Integration in Student Learning
Al Rosenbloom, Marketing and International Business
Case studies are a well-know tool for student learning and teaching. Traditionally, the roles in the case development process have been rather strict: Faculty write cases which students study and analyze. An innovative approach to student learning was undertaken in which the student role in case study was radically changed. In a year long experiment, students in four upper division business classes were asked to become case writers. In lieu of a final exam, they were required to write both a case and an accompanying teaching note. This presentation will
* Review the nascent literature on student-written cases
* Describe the rationale for this year long experiment
* Analyze the findings of an anonymous student survey that evaluated the student case writing assignment
* Describe the lessons learned and present recommendations to others who may wish to have students write cases
A recently developed revision to Benjamin Bloom’s well-known Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was used to analyze part of the survey data.
Overall, students found this case writing assignment to be exceptionally demanding. Yet in the end, students concluded that the case writing assignment encouraged a more complete synthesis of course material than traditional final exams and should be kept in future classes.
Modeling Discourse Management
Peter Sandberg, Math and Physics
Much
has been written in recent years about the need for students to have a more
active and participative role in their own education than traditional lecture
methods allow. One of the alternatives developed by the Physics community
is known as the Modeling Method. The key idea is to use modeling cycles
where students in small and large group discussions construct, communicate,
evaluate, and refine models of physical phenomena. They take previous
knowledge and try to adapt it to new situations and seek to establish a
community consensus of how best to do so.
Modeling
Discourse Management is a variation on this approach that specifically speaks
to how the instructor interacts with students during the process.
Although the instructor retains control on the direction of the course and
provides technical details, they allow the students to drive the development of
ideas while exerting subtle influences.
I
received instruction in this teaching method from its originators and after
applying it to my Physics classes was sure that it could be adapted to other
kinds of classes. I have tested it in several sections of a general
education/quantitative literacy mathematics course at
Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone: A Model for Service-Learning in
Olga Vilella, English and Foreign Languages
The Oaxaca Project at