Here are just a few notes about upcoming events and projects at DCAL and other items of interest to teachers. Navigate the site's resources at the right. For more news, see DCAL News.
The Active Learning Institute (ALI) helps faculty develop and refine skills for learner-centered teaching in their courses. Additional topics include theories of learning, course and syllabus design, collaborative learning, peer assessments and information technology for active learning.
Once again this year Professor Chris Jernstedt (PBS) will address the institute with a presentation on how people learn and how learning changes brains.
ALI helps faculty members develop and refine their skills as learner-centered course designers and teachers. The ALI faculty designs this two-day workshop around the challenges identified by each year's group of participants. These challenges may include (but are not limited to) the following:
Every ALI focuses on designing courses that take full account of how people actually learn and we set aside plenty of time for participants to workshop each other's new designs and strategies.
How 'Flipping' the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture. It may not have the gee-whiz factor of high-tech innovation, but changing expectations for what happens in class may prove to be a bigger advance in teaching. Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education website.
From American RadioWorks: "Don't Lecture Me" featuring Eric Mazur (Physics, Harvard) and Joe Redish (Physics, U Maryland) by Emily Hanford. We have known for years how ineffective even the best and most entertaining lectures are for student learning. Now you can hear that again right from the mouths of some of the best lecturers ever. Follow this link for detailed information, an mp3 link and a transcript.
From Faculty Focus (10-19-2011): "Grading Practices: Liabilities of the Points System," By Maryellen Weimer, PhD. Does grading really motivate learning or something else? Try this link.
DCAL makes grants of up to $1000 to support attendance at conferences and programs devoted to the applicant’s professional development as a teacher. Please review the DCAL Mission statement before applying; these principles will guide the application approval process. Successful applicants will be asked to contribute to a DCAL professional development event in the year following the grant. First-time applicants are especially encouraged to apply for this opportunity to attend programs and conferences.
These funds are for travel, lodging, registration and other costs of participation. A faculty member in good standing may apply for one grant per fiscal year. To apply for a DCAL mini grant, please contact dcal@dartmouth.edu to request an application. The application must be completed and returned to DCAL for approval before the event. If you are approved for the grant, you will be required to submit original itemized receipts for reimbursement after the event has taken place.
Applications for events held during Dartmouth’s fall and winter terms should be received no later than November 1st; those for events held during spring and summer terms no later than March 16th.
Though mighty, words are often used without taking their consequences fully into account. The Dartmouth Centers Forum's 2011–2012 Words and their Consequences builds on the previous year's theme, Speak Out/Listen Up!, by focusing intently on the impact of words.
Used well, words can communicate positively. Uncivil discourse, however, permeates the airwaves and corridors of power. And, while institutions of higher learning seek to instill a culture of civil communication, even the academy is sometimes prey to vitriolic and intemperate language. Given the productive possibilities and the often dysfunctional realities of verbal communication, the DCF considers it an opportune moment to examine Words and their Consequences.
Flu season will be here before you know it. For information about conducting classes during flu season, please visit our page on managing interruptions caused by flu.
A syllabus template is now available on the DCAL website. We hope that this template will give you some ideas and make developing a syllabus for your course a bit easier. Please modify the template as needed to make your own personal syllabus and let us know if you have comments/additions.
Reducingstereotypethreat.org was created by two social psychologists and professors who sought to offer a resource for faculty, staff, and students regarding stereotype threat. This website offers summaries of research on this topic and discusses unresolved issues and controversies in the research literature on the phenomenon. Included are some research-based suggestions for ameliorating negative consequences of stereotyping, particularly in academic settings.
An excerpt from "Using the 'Beauties of Physics' to Conquer Science Illiteracy": A Conversation with Professor Eric Mazur of Harvard University (New York Times July 17).
Q. When you teach Physics 1b, do you give "fantastic performances?"
A. You know I've come to think of professional charisma as dangerous. I used to get fantastic evaluations because of charisma, not understanding. I'd have students give me high marks, but then say, "physics sucks." Today, by having the students work out the physics problems with each other, the learning gets done. I've moved from being "the sage on the stage" to "the guide on the side."
