Retreat Recap: Learning Matters (Jan 17, 2014)

RELATE: Rethinking Effective Learning and Teaching Engagement

Why Does the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Matter?

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is the process of asking ‘what should I do to enhance learning in the long-term?’ It matters because this inquiring mindset helps instructors rethink the meaning and value of their teaching to promote effective, long-lasting learning in higher education.

This is the message the 2014 UW-Teaching Academy Winter Retreat shared among its 123 participants from across campus on Friday, January 17th in Union South. Program.

Dr. Beth Martin, Teaching Academy Co-Chair, kicked off the event with a succinct and inspirational introduction to the Teaching Academy. Dr. John Karl Scholz, Dean of the College of Letters & Science, started the program with an energetic welcome talk. Dean Scholz remarked that our graduates have a long tradition of serving in the Peace Corps as well as leading Fortune 500 companies.  He then challenged the audience to consider teaching practices that are proven to be effective and that promote the Wisconsin Experience – where students apply their learning inside and outside of the classroom.  He encouraged us to embrace the Essential Learning Outcomes (http://www.learning.wisc.edu/welo2010.pdf) and encouraged us all to embrace teaching as the vital dissemination of scholarship. He also committed L&S the largest unit at UW-Madison to support undergraduate career initiatives.

Dr. Anthony Ciccone, Director of the Center for Instruction and Professional Development at the UW-Milwaukee, gave a keynote on Learning matters: reflections on SoTL and the value of inquiry. According to Dr. Ciccone, learning matters because we inquire into not only what learning is, but more important, what learning is for, to both students and instructors. Dr. Ciccone quoted Kreber (2008), that “success is defined by students not only as learning lots about a subject, but knowing how they learned it and why what they learned matters to their understanding and interaction with the world around them”. Seeing learning and teaching this way asks us to consider how students grow in their learning and how we, as instructors, grow in our effectiveness. Dr. Ciccone also encouraged us to consider a threshold concept: in addition to metrics of our own performance such as student evaluations, and metrics of student performance (what percent of the material did they recall), we must look at the longer-term learning outcomes (what did the students learn and how long was it retained?). Finally Dr. Ciccone endorsed the UW Teaching Academy’s efforts when he quoted Shulman (1999) on the spirit of teaching academies. Slides.

“…as a combination of support structures and sanctuaries: places where faculty whose scholarly interests include teaching and learning can find safety and even colleagueship for doing good work.”  (Shulman 1999)

After the keynote, Dr. Sarah Miller, Associate Director of the Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence Program (MTLE, mtle.wisc.edu) moderated a panel on Rethinking effective teaching. The three panelists, Jenny Higgins from Gender & Women’s Studies, Aurelie Rakotondrafara from Plant Pathology, and Stephen Young from Geography and International Studies, have all participated in the MTLE Program as early-career faculty. They each expressed their deep appreciation for the valuable learning-community that the MTLE program has successfully created for them, and the peer feedback and support that allowed them to integrate highly effective educational innovations into their courses.

The panel was followed by table discussions facilitated by Dr. Adrian Treves, the Teaching Academy Co-Chair. Attendants were asked to share a success and a failure they’ve had in improving their teaching or attempting innovation, as well as their experiences related to giving/receiving peer feedback. Dr. John Martin, Teaching Academy Communications Sub-committee Chair, shared a vision for the new Teaching Academy website as a proactive virtual learning community that will be open to all UW-Madison.

The Retreat ended with Vice-Provost for Teaching and Learning Dr. Chris Olsen’s talk on Food for thought/thought for food. Dr. Olsen encouraged us to think of teaching the way we think of our scholarship – we must look for evidence to evaluate if we are succeeding. He introduced more campus resources that instructors can avail themselves of in improving, reshaping, and promoting their effective teaching and learning.

Many attendants left the retreat with much food for thought. The Winter Retreat ignited a conversation on scholarship of teaching and learning in hopes of promoting further reflection by faculty on their own SoTL and the value of inquiry.

*Carolin Kreber (2008) The University and its Disciplines: Teaching and Learning Within and Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries. Routledge.

L.S. Shulman (1999) “Visions of the Possible: Models for Campus support of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.” Comments made at meetings during November and December, 1999, accessed January 25, 2014 athttp://www.carnegiefoundation.org/elibrary/visions-possible-models-campus-support-scholarship-teaching-and-learning

*******

Retreat Organizing Committee:  Beth Martin (Co-Organizer), Adrian Treves (Co-Organizer), Chris Olsen, Ruth Olson, John Martin and Erica Halverson.

This event is co-sponsored by UW-Madison Teaching Academy, Vice-Provost Office for Teaching and Learning, Office of Professional & Instructional Development, Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence Program, and DoIT Academic Technology.


Teaching Academy 2014 Winter Retreat on January 17: Rethinking Effective Learning and Teaching Engagement (RELATE)

Submitted by ta on Thu, 12/12/2013 – 12:41

To Register: https://uwmadison.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6sAFc9yL6jfnIQ5

Tentative program is available at: https://tle.wisc.edu/teaching-academy/teaching-academy-2014-winter-retreat

 

RELATE: Rethinking Effective Learning and Teaching Engagement

Campus conversation is building around engaging and improving effective teaching on campus, and the Teaching Academy invites you to be a part of the conversation!

Join us for our annual winter retreat:

  • Friday, January 17, 2014
  • 8:30am – 12:30pm
  • Varsity Hall II, Union South
  • Keynote Presenter: Dr. Anthony Ciccone, Director, Center for Instructional and Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Over the course of the morning, we will RELATE our successes and failures around improving teaching, and discuss learning, reshaping and promoting effective teaching on campus.

Retreat activities include:

  •  Keynote address by Dr. Anthony Ciccone, Director of the Center for Instruction and Professional Development, UW-Milwaukee: “Learning Matters: Reflections on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the Value of Inquiry”;
  •  Panel discussion by recent UW-Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence (MTLE) Program fellows who will describe their learning community;
  •  Small group discussion among attendees to strengthen our learning community and move toward collaborative improvement.

The retreat is open to the whole UW-Madison community, and we hope you’ll be part of the conversation. Continental breakfast, coffee and boxed lunches will be provided. More information will be posted soon. Space is limited to 120, so register soon!

To register: https://uwmadison.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6sAFc9yL6jfnIQ5 

This event is co-sponsored by UW-Madison Teaching Academy, Vice-Provost Office for Teaching and Learning, Office of Professional & Instructional Development, Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence Program, and DoIT Academic Technology.