Faculty retreat aims to enhance teaching and learning

Four new teaching certificates to be offered The Center for Teaching Excellence is offering four new teaching certificates to address faculty members’ and teaching assistants’ professional development needs and interest in teaching excellence and enhancing student learning. For many years, the CTE has offered a Graduate Teacher Certificate for TAs, and this year the center has developed several additional certificates so that faculty members, academic professionals, instructors and TAs can have additional opportunities for professional development and can document their efforts accordingly, said Cheelan Bo-Lin, head of instructional development in CTE. The new certificates: Certificate in Foundations of Teaching, for graduate students who have limited teaching experience (less than two semesters), provides an opportunity to explore teaching and prepare for academic responsibilities. Teacher Scholar Certificate, for all teachers (faculty members, academic professionals and TAs) who teach at least three semesters, provides a structured process for exploring pedagogy from a discipline-based perspective. Certificate in Technology-Enhanced Teaching, for all teachers who use educational technologies, provides an opportunity to explore educational technologies and to practice and assess technology-enhanced teaching. Citizen Scholar Certificate, for teachers of service learning courses, provides an opportunity to explore and participate in the scholarship of engagement. To receive announcements about teaching development workshops, sign up for the CTE Listserv.

More than 250 faculty members and instructors met at the Illini Union on Jan. 31 for the 14th annual Faculty Retreat, titled “Using the Science of Instruction to Foster Learning.” The annual retreats aim to help participants become more knowledgeable about enhancing teaching and learning by sharing techniques and information and by inspiring new initiatives among teachers on campus.

Peter E. Doolittle, director of the Educational Psychology Research Program in the department of learning sciences and technology at Virginia Tech, was the keynote speaker. Doolittle’s current research focuses on the investigation of learning efficacy in multimedia learning environments. Doolittle’s morning keynote talk was titled “Bogus and Beneficial Pedagogical Concepts: From Common Sense to Common Science,” and his afternoon talk was titled “Multimedia Learning: The Science of Instruction in a Multimedia World.”

During a special session the afternoon before the retreat, Doolittle also presented the pedagogical concepts talk to about 30 teaching assistants.

“It was a great opportunity for the TAs to hear Peter Doolittle because they are currently teaching our undergraduate students and are the future professoriate,” said Cheelan Bo-Linn, head of instructional development in the Center for Teaching Excellence. “They will be able to implement what they learned today in their classes and have an immediate positive impact on their students.”

Faculty members from various units on campus led concurrent sessions throughout the day on topics related to active learning, such as techniques for increasing student engagement with the community and in large lectures, enhancing students’ leadership skills and innovative uses of technologies such as clickers and video.

“The longevity, the vitality of this event is really the commitment that has been shown by you,” said Ruth Watkins, vice provost, during her welcoming remarks. “It would not happen without a deep commitment on this campus to teaching, a commitment to excellence and to your desire to improve your teaching practices on an ongoing basis. … There are administrators, faculty members, instructors, lecturers and teaching associates, from all levels and all units around campus here, another very strong statement about our commitment to excellence in teaching.”

The 2007-2008 Distinguished Teacher/Scholars, Walter Hurley, professor of animal sciences; Prasanta Kalita, professor of agricultural and biological engineering; and Bruce Michelson, professor of English and director of the Campus Honors Program, were recognized.

Hurley and Kalita conducted one of the concurrent sessions, “Engaging Undergraduates in Inquiry,” about their joint project, a learning community that they established on campus for people interested in incorporating inquiry-based and community-based learning activities into their curricula.

Participation in the annual retreat continues to grow each year, and about one-third of this year’s participants were first-timers, said John Ory, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. “We’re always pleased to see the number of people on campus who come out for the retreat. It’s really exciting to see how many people want to learn and share what they know about teaching.”

The organizers of the retreat implemented a new feedback technique this year, asking participants not only for feedback about the presentations and the retreat in general, but also asking them to jot down their thoughts throughout the day on “brainstorming forms.”

“It’s an opportunity for us to stop a moment and think about what we just learned,” Bo-Linn said. “Perhaps this moment will result in thinking more deeply about a concept or how we can implement a strategy or even raise a question.”

Bo-Linn was pleased with the response rate from the brainstorming forms, which garnered comments such as “It left me wanting to learn more,” and expressing appreciation for the networking opportunities the event offered.

A poster session showcased scholarly research about teaching and learning by UI faculty members, some which faculty members have presented at conferences in their disciplines.

The faculty retreat was co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Teaching Advancement Board and the Center for Teaching Excellence.

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