The 10th Annual UW-La Crosse Conference on Teaching & Learning
Achievement, Equity and Retention: Key Pedagogical Changes that Can Make a Real Difference in ANY College Classroom
Dr. Craig E. Nelson, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Indiana University
Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 8:30-3:00
Cleary Center, Great Hall
Registration Required
Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff are invited to attend the 10th annual UW-La Crosse Conference on Teaching & Learning to be held Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Great Hall of Cleary Center. Continental breakfast and lunch are included. The 2008 conference will be a day-long workshop, Achievement, Equity and Retention: Key Pedagogical Changes that Can Make a Real Difference in ANY College Classroom by Craig Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Indiana University. Registration. Seating is limited so registration for the workshop is mandatory. Register by email to catl@uwlax.edu. Direct questions to Bill Cerbin, cerbin.will@uwlax.edu.
Workshop Description. When diversity issues are cast in content-centered ways, many faculty may view them as irrelevant to their own teaching. However, examination of pedagogical practices reveals a need for major changes in nearly all courses. We will examine at least three types of pedagogical changes that can make a real difference in achievement and retention in almost any college or university classroom.
Specific topics will include:
How can I radically reduce or eliminate low grades in lecture courses without lowering standards?
How can I make my students brighter and harder working using only 1 hour of class time (in ways that level the playing field for all groups)?
Does my assessment system unfairly and unnecessarily favor particular groups?
Throughout we will ask what else we can do to increase achievement and fairness.
This interactive workshop will involve brief lectures alternating with writing and discussions of applications to your own teaching.
Presenter: Craig E. Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington, where he has been since 1966. His biological research has been on evolution and ecology. In addition to several courses in biology, he taught intensive freshman seminars, great books and other honors courses, several collaboratively-taught interdisciplinary courses, and regularly taught a graduate course on "Alternative Approaches to Teaching College Biology." His articles on teaching address critical thinking and mature valuing, diversity, active learning, teaching evolution, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). He has presented numerous invited workshops on these and related topics. He was founding Director of Environmental Programs in IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and instrumental in the development of IU's award-winning SoTL program (www.indiana.edu/~sotl/). Craig has received several awards for distinguished teaching from IU, including the President's Medal for Excellence, "the highest honor bestowed by Indiana University," in 2001, as well as nationally competitive awards from Vanderbilt and Northwestern. He has been a Carnegie Scholar since 2000, and was named the Outstanding Research and Doctoral University Professor of the Year 2000 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He retired from teaching in 2004. In 2005-06, he was the founding President of the new International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He has been a presenter at the UW System Faculty College on five occasions and in 1991 presented a workshop, Fostering Critical Thinking and Mature Valuing across the Curriculum, at UW-La Crosse.
