Category Archives: Pedagogy
Fostering a Comfortable Classroom Environment
It’s that time of year again when faculty are thinking about how to better engage their students in the classroom. The first class meeting can often set the tone for the whole semester, and establishing norms for classroom interactions goes … Continue reading
New STEM Mentoring Seminar Announced
Conducting research can be a transformative experience for undergraduate students, especially when their research supervisor serves as an effective mentor. We invite you to join us for a 10-hr faculty seminar, beginning in late August, that examines how faculty can … Continue reading
Sustainability GenEd News and Events
Some big news for sustainability at UVM: on Monday, March 9th, UVM’s Faculty Senate passed the resolution to require all undergraduate students entering UVM in Fall 2015 to meet the General Education Sustainability Learning Outcomes (SLO). While this is a … Continue reading
Universal Design for Learning and Kolb’s Learning Theory
Recently, a new faculty member asked me about how David Kolb’s Learning Styles, that developed out of his Experiential Learning Theory, and the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) intersect or relate to course design. Why and when would … Continue reading
New iClicker Resource!
We’ve created a new website to help instructors using iClickers in their classes. Check it out here: www.uvm.edu/ctl/iclickers. If you have any suggestions for the site, please contact Inés Berrizbeitia: iib@uvm.edu
Last Call for Applications – Hybrid Course Initiative
Applications are now being accepted for the UVM Hybrid Course Initiative program (phase 3). The deadline is Monday, November 3rd at 5pm! Read more about teaching hybrid courses, about the initiative, and the benefits in applying to teach one of these courses.
Exploring Contemplative Practices in Higher Education
This fall, the CTL sponsored a book group exploring contemplative teaching/learning methods. The book, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning (Barbezat and Bush, 2013), describes a pedagogy that is based on long-established meditative practices … Continue reading
Getting Students in Gear for Learning
I wrote this post a couple of years ago and I want to share it again because the resources are so valuable. Getting students in gear for learning is really about preparing students to become active agents in their own … Continue reading
“PowerPointless”?
Read (or rather, view), on Slate.com, one faculty person’s evolving position about teaching with this tool and allowing students to present their work with it.
Some Tips for the First Day of Class
Tip #1: Learn names. Jonathan Leonard (CDAE) makes the effort to learn every student’s name, even when he has hundreds of students! His strategy is to open the class roster page in Banner and display the students’ photos and, while … Continue reading