CIRTL Work Featured at ISSOTL Conference

The second annual conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), “Commitment, Community, and Collaboration,” was held in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 14-16, 2005.  Several researchers from the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison participated in the conference.

Associate Researcher Shihmei Barger presented “A Student-Centered Model of Inclusive Teaching and Learning.” In an inclusive teaching and learning community, the learning experiences and outcomes of every student are valued. Barger’s session focused on existing models of teaching and learning and proposed a student-centered model of inclusive teaching and learning (ITL), integrating cognitive learning theories with the scholarship and knowledge of teaching. The ITL model contains each of the significant elements of the inclusive teaching and learning process: students, instructors, content, and pedagogy. Moreover, the model demonstrates the critical relationships among the elements. Thus the model can be used to better understand critical issues related to teaching and learning and foster inclusive teaching and learning communities.

Barger’s presentation was well received by the audience. Three college instructors later expressed their appreciation for the clarity and comprehensiveness of the ITL model, indicating that they would try to use it to create a student-centered, inclusive learning community and to reflect on and reinvent their own practice of teaching. Barger also learned that conference participants were impressed with CIRTL/Delta’s efforts, with a number of participants expressing an interest in helping STEM students on their own campuses improve their teaching.

Research Associate Joan Kwako and Student Services Coordinator Nancy Ruggeri presented, “Engaging future faculty in the scholarship of teaching and learning: Two distinct approaches.”  In their talk, Kwako and Ruggeri discussed two distinct programs that were developed at UW-Madison to better prepare current and future faculty for their roles in the professoriate in response to the frequently reported lack of pedagogical preparation doctoral students receive. Designed especially for graduate students, faculty, and staff in STEM disciplines, these programs provide an opportunity to discuss the interconnected cycle of learning, teaching, and assessment. The goals for the participants are to become active members of a learning community and reflective practitioners who focus not only on improving their teaching, but also on increasing their own, and their students’ learning. 

Kwako and Ruggeri described the two programs, Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment (CCLE) and Teaching Science and Engineering: the College Classroom (CC).  CCLE is a year-long forum which aims to create a diverse and inclusive environment emphasizing a collaborative, constructivist, and cooperative approach to teaching and learning. College Classroom is a semester-long course designed to develop skills and practices of effective teaching and assessment.  Program evaluations demonstrated that both programs are effective in reaching their goals, albeit differently. CCLE provides a forum to discuss teaching and learning across disciplines, roles, and experiences through open discussions, while CC highlights the application of effective theories and models to the design of teaching materials which are implemented throughout the course.

Assistant Scientist Lillian Tong presented, “Instructional Materials Development Course for Graduate Student/Faculty Teams:  Engaging Key Players in SOTL through Nested Learning Communities.”  Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) takes different forms depending on the institutional culture and the disciplines involved.  SOTL, in the form of teaching-as-research, is a natural fit for most research scientists.  The Instructional Materials Development (IMD) course, developed by Tong and Professor of Entomology Robert Jeanne, is structured to include nested learning communities for sustainability.  Faculty and graduate students enroll as a team to work on an instructional materials project to be used in the faculty member’s STEM course.  This presentation introduced the course structure and rationale, the research questions regarding integrated teams of faculty and graduate students, strategies for promoting effective intra- and inter-team interactions, and results.    

CIRTL Researcher Mark Connolly presented “Examining the Contributions of a SOTL-like Concept—‘Teaching as Research’—to the Professional Development of Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.”  Connolly and fellow CIRTL researchers Susan Millar, Shihmei Barger, and Jana Bouwma-Gearhart explored the professional development needs of STEM doctoral students and post-docs, and discussed how teaching-as-research--an approach to practitioner research that resembles SOTL--may help prepare them for faculty work at various types of colleges and universities.

For more information on the 2005 ISSOTL conference, visit http://www.issotl.indiana.edu/ISSOTL/.

For more information on the work being done at Delta, visit the Delta website at http://www.delta.wisc.edu/.

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