Update on Teaching
February 1999
Contents:
From the Director...
Preparing Future Faculty
Program
UTIC Faculty College (May 24-27)
CIS/CIPD Small Grants Competition
Faculty/TA Web Project
UWM Faculty/Staff Development
Program Guidelines
TIC Conference Development Grants Program
UTIC Spring Conference
(April 9-10)
Revised RFP for
Curricular Redesign Grants
From
the Director...
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Tony Ciccone |
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In my 25 years at UWM, I’ve had the pleasure of
discussing teaching-related issues with many truly dedicated faculty, academic staff and
graduate students. Our commitment to professional development and student success is
evident throughout the campus. We often discuss our successes and failures, share our
expertise through workshops, teaching circles, and conferences, and design new courses and
programs, often with few additional resources.
And yet, many of our individual and group efforts are extremely difficult to sustain,
let alone expand. The reason for this is clear: whatever we try to accomplish is often
attempted as an addition to our usual responsibilities. We succeed only as long as those
other responsibilities can be kept at bay. In other words, our efforts do not usually lead
to any systemic change in either our own or the institution’s way of doing business.
I’ve often wondered how we could change this situation. Should we seek some
fundamental agreement on the important questions about teaching and learning at a research
institution and then implement the findings across the board? If we do, here’s a
short list of some of the questions I’ve been asked.
What are the best ways to improve ourselves as teachers? Will the improvement be worth
it? That is, wouldn’t we and our students be better served if we paid more attention
to our scholarship?
What are the best ways to improve student learning? Can we afford the time and
resources to make significant improvements based on this information? And isn’t the
real problem that our students are so poorly prepared for university work?
Does our reward structure encourage or discourage teaching excellence? Isn’t
teaching excellence too subjective to judge anyway? Isn’t the current system
functioning well enough?
Reaching consensus on any of these questions seems unlikely, doesn’t it? On the
other hand, it’s clear that we cannot continue to subscribe to the "I’m ok,
you’re ok, things are probably ok" school of pedagogical and institutional
thought.
Rather than design another workshop or open forum, the Center has instead decided to
sponsor a different approach to the problem of achieving systemic change. During the next
twelve months, as part of the AAHE/Carnegie National Teaching Academy Initiative, CIPD
will organize a campuswide discussion designed to help us reach a deeper understanding of
teaching as scholarly and intellectual work and, in the context of that understanding, to
identify the issues that need the most attention.
The philosophical part of the discussion is something
we’ve rarely taken the time to do at UWM, although each of us has a philosophy of
teaching and learning that undergirds our positions on specific issues. It will prove to
be the most difficult yet interesting part of the process. What does it mean to treat
teaching as an intellectual endeavor? Are there similarities to the way we understand our
research? If teaching is an intellectual endeavor, what are its salient characteristics?
Are student results part of the definition? Is peer review an essential aspect?
If we can achieve some agreement on the characteristics of scholarly teaching, we will
be in a much better position to identify the important issues to work on and thus to
justify the support needed to implement any changes.
Systemic change requires rethinking all the important parts of the system before
attempting change. CIPD hopes that you will join the discussion as it unfolds. Look for
more information soon.
The Preparing Future
Faculty Program is happy to announce another semester of development programs. This year,
a series of "Brown-Bag Teaching Workshops" will be led by PFF mentor/mentee
team, Professor Alice Gillam and Graduate Student Christie Launius. Workshops will take
place approximately every other week, and will be held over the lunch hour (noon-1:30pm).
The workshop panelists will present some brief remarks to kick off the session, and then
the workshop will commence in full force.
These workshops are open to teaching faculty, staff, and
graduate students campus-wide; they are not discipline-specific. Scheduled topics will
include: managing classroom conflict/exploring questions of teacher authority, creating an
interactive classroom, incorporating new technologies in the classroom. Please access the
CIPD web-page for detailed workshop descriptions, dates, and names of presenters <http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIPD/>. Questions can
be directed to the PFF Coordinator, Ben Schneider at 229-6638 or <terrapin@uwm.edu>.
Additionally, PFF would like to welcome and congratulate
the latest PFF Grant recipients. Professor Rob Yeo (Film) and Meredith Root (Grad.
Student, Film) have received support to design and implement a new undergraduate course in
motion picture animation, and Professor Madeleine Velguth (FICL) and Helene Wimmerlin
(FICL) have received support to examine and further develop UWM’s translation
curriculum. Finally, PFF is planning a half-day mini-conference that will showcase all of
the campus’ PFF participants. Stay tuned and congratulations again to our newest
PFFers.
2/26 Becoming a Reflective Teacher
3/10 Incorporating New Technologies in the
Classroom
3/26 Creating an Interactive Classroom
4/7 Conceptualizing and Proposing New
Courses
4/23 Managing Classroom Conflict / Exploring
Questions of Teacher Authority
5/5 Perils and Epiphanies of First-Year
Teaching
workshop locations to be announced...
When: May 24-27, 1999
Where: UW-Marinette
Application Deadline: April 10, 1999
Topics: Teaching
and learning in the diverse classroom; case studies and discussion of teaching situations;
using computers in Writing Across the Curriculum efforts; critical thinking
Speakers: Dr. Stuart Robertshaw,
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse;
Matthew Ouellett, University of Massachusetts at Amherst;
John Boehrer, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government;
Cynthia Selfe, Michigan Technological University;
Craig Nelson, Indiana University.
To apply for one of UWM’s four spots, please send a one paragraph statement of
interest to CIPD.
Deadline: March 26, 1999
In cooperation with the UWM Center for Instructional and Professional Development, the
Center for International Studies sponsors a Small Grant Awards competition. Grants are
awarded to support the development of new
courses or the enhancement of existing courses with international studies content.
A broad range of activities designed to improve, enhance,
or expand international and foreign area studies and foreign language instruction at UWM
is eligible for funding. Collaborative projects between departments or between schools and
colleges are especially encouraged. Funded projects must fall within the scope of the
Center for International Studies' mission under its grant from the US Department of
Education.
Proposals will be judged on their potential for enhancing
teaching and learning in international studies. Preference will be given to those
projects that will most likely make a permanent contribution to UWM's instructional
program. Please contact CIPD for an application at x6638.
The UWM Learning Technology Center has been awarded
UW-System funding for January 1999 through June 2000. The funded project involves
partnership of UWM faculty and teaching assistants with UW-College faculty in Sheboygan
and Washington County. Eight three-person teams who teach the general education
requirement courses for their discipline will collaboratively design and develop Web pages
for these classes, which will appear online in September 1999. Teams will give
presentations of their work at UWM and the UW-Colleges,
and informally serve as consultants for other faculty and graduate students who wish to
build their own web-based materials. Those interested in participating --faculty, teaching
academic staff, or TA's who will be offering GER courses in Fall 1999 --should contact the
LTC (ltc@uwm.edu) or the Project Coordinator, Alan Aycock
(aycock@uwm.edu) for further details. A formal
invitation to participate is forthcoming.
Deadlines: Category ONE & TWO April 2,
1999 (to Dean)
Category THREE March 26, 1999 (to CIPD)
Eligibility: All Faculty and academic staff
The UWM Program has three categories, each designed to meet individual/group faculty and
staff developmental needs as well as support UWM and unit (i.e. department, school/college
or division) initiatives. Those submitting proposals are asked to indicate how the
developmental activities to be pursued will assist UWM in meeting its Strategic Plan
Initiatives. While the thrust of this year's Program is student learning (direct and
indirect support) and enhancing instruction/learning through the use of technology, this
is not intended to exclude proposals that support other major campus priorities less
directly tied to student instruction.
Guidelines and a more thorough explanation for UWM’s
Faculty/Staff Development Program are located on the Academic Affairs Web page: <http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Acad_Aff/>
for Fall 1999 events
Deadline: April 2, 1999
Purpose: To promote cooperation and
exchange among System faculty and focused on the improvement of undergraduate teaching.
Activities: Workshops, presentations, or mini-conferences on
teaching-related subjects, travel, supported materials, and some expenses incidental to
the funded event.
Amount: up to $500
Eligibility: Faculty, instructional
academic staff, and/or graduate teaching assistants.
Submission Process: For
further grant information and assistance, contact the Center @ x6638.
Teaching for Learning: From Theory to Practice
CIPD will coordinate UWM’s participation in "Teaching for Learning: From Theory
to Practice," a conference on student learning and development, to be held on Friday
and Saturday, April 9-10, at Union South on the UW Madison campus. The conference is
coordinated by the Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council (UTIC), and co-sponsored by
the UW System Office of Academic Affairs, the Learning Technology Development Council, and
the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. This second annual
conference is part of a series of programs intended to help faculty, staff, and
administrators make better use of knowledge about student learning to improve teaching,
and to help departments and campuses foster a climate that supports such efforts.
This year’s program features a keynote address by Lee
Shulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Through a
variety of concurrent sessions and workshops, the conference will showcase the best
practices and progress made as student learning efforts move from theory to practice. The
program will focus on such issues as diversity and international education, new research
on teaching and learning, pedagogies to promote student understanding and skilled thinking
(including technology-based pedagogies), service and community-based learning,
undergraduate research programs, and organizational strategies to enhance student learning
and development. Lee Shulman will also direct a discussion session on the Carnegie
Teaching Academy’s new Campus Program.
For registration and additional details, please contact
CIPD @ x6638. All travel and on-site costs are covered by CIPD and UTIC. A copy of the
Spring Conference schedule is on the UTIC web page <http://www.uwsa.edu/utic/conf/stlrncn2.htm>
Deadline: April 16, 1999
CIPD will again coordinate the development and
review of proposals to be supported by System-wide Curricular Redesign Funds for the
remainder of 1998-99 and for fiscal year 1999-2000 . The purpose of this fund is to
support curriculum redesign and related faculty and staff development in the effective use
of technology in teaching and learning within the University of Wisconsin System.
Please see <http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/ltdc/curedrfp.htm>
for more information and to download all required forms or call the Center at x6638 for
more information.
updated 11/28/01 |