Agenda for University at Buffalo Spring 2007 Teaching & Learning Conference

8:30 - 9:00 am -- Sign-In and Welcome - A Continental Breakfast will be provided.

9:00 - 11:00 am -- Keynote: Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom - Charles C. Bonwell

Since educators agree that active learning is more effective than passive learning, why does so little active learning actually occur in a typical classroom? This highly interactive workshop will explore both the promise and the potential problems of using active learning techniques, while modeling ways that faculty can transform students from passive listeners to active learners. Specific topics will include:

What does active learning mean?
Why is active learning important?
What does the research say about active learning?
What obstacles or barriers prevent faculty from using active learning strategies?
How can these barriers be overcome?
What active learning strategies are appropriate for me?

It is a fundamental assumption of this workshop that everyone who attends will have something valuable to share with other participants. All are welcome.

11:00 - 11:15 am -- Break

11:15 - 12:15 pm -- How to Improve Your Teaching By Keeping Your Students in Mind: Some Guiding Principles - Christopher S. Cohan

Faculty often feel disappointed or even insulted when students don’t attend class or they submit poor evaluations. This situation can create resentment between faculty and students that can transform educational attitudes and negatively impact the learning process. This presentation will use video vignettes of student comments to explore what students think about instruction and what qualities they seek from teachers. With this in mind, a simple set of guiding principles for teaching will be discussed, which can be applied to any level of instruction and which will help to engage and motivate student learning.

12:15 - 1:00 pm -- Lunch

1:00 - 3:00 pm -- Critical Thinking and Active Learning: Teaching Critical Skills in the Classroom - Charles C. Bonwell

All instructors want students to become proficient at thinking logically, solving problems and making decisions. Ideas and tools for creating learning environments that foster thinking skills for students in all disciplines will be the focus of this session. Specific topics will include:

Varied definitions of critical thinking
How course structure can promote thinking skills
How questioning can develop thinking skills
How to assess thinking skills

Participants will explicitly identify important disciplinary thinking skills that students should possess and then devise specific active learning strategies to help learners extend their abilities within the context of a specific classroom assignment.

3:00 - 3:10 pm : Assessment and Wrap-Up

Spring 2007 Conference on Teaching & Learning: Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom

Agenda

Spring 2007 Conference on Teaching & Learning:
Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom