Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences

While the classroom can be a space for open, respectful discussion of sensitive or controversial topics, facilitating such discussions can be a challenging prospect. This advanced-level workshop for graduate students and postdocs in the humanities, arts, and social sciences will provide the opportunity for participants to develop strategies for fostering […]

Research overwhelmingly supports the idea that active learning, “opportunities for students to meaningfully talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues, and concerns of an academic subject” leads to greater learning gains than methods of teaching that situate students as passive receptors of knowledge (Meyer & […]

While as instructors we hope to engage student learners, facilitating a true discussion in the classroom is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching with active learning. In this workshop, participants will consider the benefits of discussion as a pedagogical methodology, examine strategies for structuring a successful, inclusive discussion, […]

While the classroom can be a space for open, respectful dialogue, it can also feel isolating or even hostile for student learners. What can an instructor do to promote a space for positive, fruitful collaboration? What does it take to create a truly inclusive classroom climate? In this workshop, participants […]

While the classroom can be a space for open, respectful dialogue, it can also feel isolating or even hostile for student learners. What can an instructor do to promote a space for positive, fruitful collaboration? What does it take to create a truly inclusive classroom climate? In this workshop, participants […]

Summative assessments are modes of classroom assessment that are designed to evaluate how much students have learned in a unit or a course. These assessments are often high stakes, graded, and formal. The vast majority of college courses have summative assessments (e.g., exams, papers, projects, presentations), but what does it […]

As AIs and instructors, we dedicate many hours each semester to commenting on and evaluating student writing, but is this feedback helping students to improve their writing and critical thinking skills the way that we want it to? In this workshop, we will draw on writing pedagogy scholarship in an […]

Educational research suggests that students acquire and retain knowledge most effectively by engaging in collaborative learning in groups with their peers. In this advanced-level workshop, participants will examine the potential benefits of collaborative learning as well as common pitfalls in an effort to better understand what makes group work really […]

Students who are motivated learn more and learn better than those whose interests, attention, and self-esteem lag during the semester. Participants in this advanced-level workshop will examine the various factors which in recent research on social belonging and affect have been found to shape student motivation in the classroom. They […]

While the classroom can be a space for open, respectful dialogue, it can also feel isolating or even hostile for student learners. What can an instructor do to promote a space for positive, fruitful collaboration? What does it take to create a truly inclusive classroom climate? In this workshop, participants […]

Designing effective writing assignments that foster intellectual development and critical thinking among students can be a challenge for instructors. This is an even tougher challenge when students may be unaware of or unschooled in disciplinary expectations for writing. Participants in this workshop will discuss strategies for writing transparent, well-crafted assignment […]

Undergraduate students often face an uphill battle as they learn to recognize, read, and join disciplinary conversations. Central to this difficulty is the fact that the challenges and expectations associated with reading in one discipline may be very different than those they face in another. In this workshop, participants will […]