Teaching and Learning Days - May 23 & May 25, 2022
Join us for a two-day virtual event on Monday, May 23, and Wednesday, May 25, to hear Merrimack faculty and staff present best practices, strategies, reflections, tools and more to promote engagement and student-centered teaching and learning.
How to Join Sessions
Please RSVP now and we will email Zoom links to you upon registration. You may also pre-order a complimentary copy of Teaching Change by José Antonio Bowen at the RSVP link.
Moderated by Kathryn Nielsen
Sessions will be moderated by Kathryn Nielsen, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Teaching, Learning & Digital Innovation and Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Email Kathryn Nielsen
Schedule of Events
Monday, May 23, 2022
| Session Info | Resources |
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11-11:45 a.m. - Keynote: Teaching Change with a New 3RsPresenter: José Antonio Brown Learning something new—particularly something that might change your mind—is more difficult than teachers think. A new 3Rs of Relationships, Resilience and Reflection can help us lead better discussions and reach more students. Without sacrificing content, how can we design courses to increase effort and motivation, provide more and better feedback, help students learn on their own and be better able to integrate new information now and after they graduate? The case for a liberal (or liberating) education has never been stronger, but it needs to be redesigned to take into account how human thinking, behaviors, bias, and change really work. Recent and wide-ranging research from biology, economics, psychology, education, and neuroscience on the difficulty of change can guide us to redesign an education of transformation and change. |
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Noon-2 p.m. - Workshop: Inclusive Teaching: Reaching More StudentsPresenter: José Antonio Brown Even when we care deeply about equity and inclusion, we may not be reaching as many students as we think. Diverse students bring different assumptions about you, your material, themselves and our world. Taking the time to consider inclusion issues (yes, even in STEM fields) can make you a better teacher for everyone. All good teaching is inclusive teaching, and there are some easy and practical things you can do today (like greater transparency, belonging, scaffolding and engagement) that will improve learning for all but dramatically change the experience of under-represented students in your classes. |
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Wednesday, May 25, 2022 |
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| Session Info | Resources |
9-10:15 a.m. - One Best Thing (on Moving to Canvas!)Faculty Facilitators: Shannon Butler-Mokoro, Jessica Peacock, Michael Stroud and Sharon Shore Taitelbaum This session centers on the voices of the faculty who piloted Canvas during the Spring 2022 semester and invites questions from participants. Come hear what worked especially well (and what’s ahead for you!) to increase learning experience satisfaction for students and faculty alike. Hint: From Jessica Peacock, “I got my weekends back!” on the use of Speedgrader. |
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10:30 a.m.-noon - The Art and Praxis of FacilitationWith facilitation expert Dr. Laura Greenfield This workshop aims to support college educators to inspire tomorrow’s change makers by facilitating equitable, engaging, and transformative classroom experiences. Whether you’re striving to reach more of your students, inspire greater participation, build community, interrupt bias, or simply feel a little less nervous when you’re in front of your students, this workshop will change the way you think about engagement and facilitating dialogue. |
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12:30-1:45 p.m. - Wicked Grad Pedagogy: Mastering the Transition to Teaching Graduate StudentsFaculty Facilitators: Drs. MT Davila, Susan Marine, Bill McDowell, and Omer Unsul What should instructors do differently when teaching graduate students as compared to teaching undergraduate students? This session will discuss important considerations to graduate teaching and learning including in hybrid, online, or face-to-face formats. Participants will be invited to consider and discuss important differences in course style, course structure, class policies, and community building with this diverse population of learners. |
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2-3:15 p.m. - The Benefits of Proactive Preparation - Tips, Tricks, Strategies & Resources to Successfully Teach all Types of LearnersFaculty Facilitator: Dr. Kathryn Welby With an increasing number of students with various learning profiles, abilities, and diagnosed disabilities in our classes, whether on ground, hybrid or online, we as faculty, need to think about strategies to teach all our students. This workshop focuses on neurodiverse students entering higher education and the growing challenge for faculty. This workshop will discuss tips, tools, and strategies to accommodate our students’ diverse learning profiles while maintaining high expectations. |
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