Graduate Students
Supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Teaching and Learning Institute (TLI), this series of pedagogy workshops for graduate students may be taken in its entirety for course credit (Social Work B508B) or individual workshops may be attended as stand-alone sessions (see list below and please contact Alison Cook-Sather prior to the workshop you plan on attending). Seven two-hour workshops focused on a variety of pedagogical issues are scheduled for both the Fall-2011 and the Spring-2012 semesters. These are interactive workshops, some of which require the completion of reading in advance and some of which include discussion of texts during the workshops themselves, but all of which focus on active, collaborative explorations of pedagogical issues. These workshops count toward the completion of the Dean's Certificate in Pedagogy.
The Pedagogy Workshop Series, 2011-2012
Alternate Thursdays: 9 am to 11 am; Location: SWSR G-4
September 8: CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF EDUCATION
For this workshop we read two chapters from Education Is Translation: A Metaphor for Change in Learning and Teaching. We use these chapters to ground a discussion of what we understand the process of education to be and how as teachers we can facilitate learning according to the definition(s) of education we generate.
September 22: LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING
This workshop will explore some of the basic understandings we have developed about how people learn, including: (1) Knowledge is constructed, not received; (2) Mental models change slowly; (3) Questions are crucial; and (4) Caring is crucial.
October 6: PREPARING TO TEACH
In this workshop we will explore four key questions from What the Best College Teachers Do: (1) What should my students be able to do intellectually, physically, or emotionally as a result of their learning? (2) How can I best help and encourage them to develop those abilities and the habits of the heart and mind to use them? (3) How can my students and I best understand the nature, quality, and progress of their learning? and (4) How can I evaluate my efforts to foster that learning?
October 20: STARTING WITH THE LEARNER/ KEEPING STUDENT INTEREST
This workshop focuses on designing prompts or exercises that invite students to make conscious and explicit their starting points in a conversation, activity, assignment, etc. and what kinds of courses and activities keep students engaged. We will draw on Learning from the Student’s Perspective: A Sourcebook for Effective Teaching, your own experiences, and input from Student Consultants who work through the TLI.
November 3: TEACHING STYLES
Teaching styles have much to do with assumptions and beliefs about what teaching is. Styles are not strategies anyone can simply adopt; rather, you need to create a style that is congruent with your commitments and personality. In this workshop we spend some time exploring different people’s notions of teaching, and then we discuss what kinds of teaching styles you might be comfortable developing.
November 17: COURSE DESIGN
This workshop gives you the opportunity to explore individually and as a group three key questions in course design from Understanding by Design: (1) What are the learning goals of the course? (2) What will count as acceptable evidence of student learning? and (3) What activities, sequence, and resources are best suited to accomplish your goals? Please spend some time prior to the workshop addressing those three questions about a course you teach or plan to teach, and we will build on your responses during the workshop.
December 1: GRADING: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Grading is embedded within the larger frame/context of how one conceptualizes (consciously or unconsciously) course content, student learning processes and participation, and assessment. A kind of formative assessment used throughout the semester to inform instruction as well as guide learners through the course, grading ultimately becomes a summative assessment that measures what you and students have achieved together by the end of the course. This workshop will help you think through grading for a course you teach or plan to teach.
January 19: THE CONDITIONS OF LEARNING/CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CLASSROOMS
What kind of classroom climate is open to learning in various ways and supportive of diverse learners? This workshop will explore the meanings of safety, risk, and trust in relationship to pedagogy and, drawing on a report from a project called “Toward More Culturally Responsive Classrooms,” help participants think about to create a classroom environment conducive to learning for all students.
February 2: LESSON PLANNING
In this workshop we will discuss your experiences as students to identify issues to consider in planning; analyze lesson plans and generate planning approaches to consider; and develop an actual draft of a lesson plan based on principles and practices discussed in the workshop.
February 16: LECTURES
Lectures can be an effective way to convey a lot of information in a short time, but just because a teacher says something doesn’t mean a student learns it. In this workshop we will explore the purpose of lectures, your own positive and negative experiences with lectures, strategies for creating, delivering, and assessing lectures generated by both bi-co faculty and students across the divisions and disciplines, and your hopes for and concerns about yourself as a lecturer.
March 1: LEADING DISCUSSIONS
Critical theorist Paulo Freire argued that only through dialogue can there be real communication and only through communication can there be genuine education. In this workshop, we will explore the purpose of class discussions, your own positive and negative experiences with class discussions, strategies for facilitating good class discussion generated by both bi-co faculty and students across the divisions and disciplines, and your concerns about yourself as a facilitator of class discussions.
March 15: INTEGRATING AND RESPONDING TO WRITING ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES Writing is essential to every discipline. In this workshop we will discuss the role of writing in your disciplines, forms of writing assignments you have used or seen used, and ideas about how writing could be used. We will also discuss and generate strategies for responding to writing.
March 29: MENTORING
In this workshop we will discuss what we mean by “mentoring”; your own experiences with being mentored or mentoring; your particular hopes and needs regarding mentoring in this context; and strategies/opportunities for mentoring.
April 12: DEVELOPING A PORTFOLIO AND STATEMENT OF YOUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
For this workshop, bring all your notes from workshops you have attended and other work you have done through these workshops. We will discuss ways to organize and build your portfolio, and we will focus specifically on writing a statement of philosophy. Please draft a statement before you attend with the goal of revising it during and subsequent to the workshop.
Comments from Participants
"I feel more prepared to handle some of the situations that occur as a teacher (e.g., running discussion groups more efficiently, grading materials in a fair manner). I feel that I am not just being 'thrown out there' into the world of teaching, but rather my skills in teaching are being fostered in meaningful and appropriate ways by those who are experts in the area."- Graduate Student
"I appreciate having an avenue to discuss and to think about pedagogy, since I anticipate this being an important part of my future career as a scholar. I strongly believe that teaching and learning are intertwined--that one who teaches is also learning at the same time, and that one who learns might also benefit from teaching or presenting the material to others." - Graduate Student
Questions?
Contact Alison Cook-Sather, Coordinator of the The Andrew W. Mellon Teaching and Learning Institute, acooksat@brynmawr.edu.
“All too often, graduate school programs emphasize high quality research but fail to teach students the tools they need to be effective future educators. Bryn Mawr is unique in that it offers rigorous training in both. Being a high-quality teaching professor is important to me, and Bryn Mawr, unlike any other school I looked at, cultivates the skills needed to be a well-rounded academic and scholar.”
"I think that the projects required by the Dean's Certificate (the teaching philosophy and portfolio) will help me to feel more prepared when I begin to teach my own courses because I will have had the opportunity to write a syllabus and plan a course, under the guidance of a faculty member."
"This kind of preparation is sadly lacking at many institutions of higher learning."
"I am more aware of what works and what doesn’t work for me as a student."
— Graduate Students