2010
Tackling Grade Inflation through Data and Transparency
Dec. 31, 2010—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director The New York Times published an article earlier this week titled “A Quest to Explain What Grades Really Mean” that reports on efforts at a few schools, notably the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to tackle the problem of grade inflation. UNC-Chapel Hill sociologist Andrew Perrin is...
Belmont University’s January Teaching Center Symposium
Dec. 30, 2010—Our colleagues down the street at Belmont University are hosting their 5th Annual January Teaching Center Symposium on Monday, January 10th, just before classes start for Vanderbilt. The theme of the event is “Creativity and Invention in Teaching.” The Belmont Teaching Center director, Merrie King, has extended an invitation to interested Vanderbilt faculty and graduate...
Call for Proposals – NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering – Due March 14, 2011
Dec. 29, 2010—The National Science Foundation is requesting proposals for the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (EESE) Program. From the call for proposals: The Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (EESE) program aims to deepen the understanding of ethical dilemmas in science and engineering, and provide cutting edge, effective research and educational materials to train the...
Call for Applications – THATCamp Southeast 2011 – Due January 9th
Dec. 27, 2010—THATCamp Southeast is a free “unconference” for anyone working at the intersection of the humanities and technology. (THATCamp = The Humanities and Technology Camp.) It will be held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 4-6, 2011. We’re currently accepting applications from students, faculty, librarians, technologists, museum professionals, archivists, and anyone else who is...
Teaching about WikiLeaks
Dec. 16, 2010—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director You’ve probably seen a news story or two about the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks recently (or perhaps a few hundred). Given that the WikiLeaks story is relevant to so many disciplines (political science, computer science, business, journalism, law), it’s not surprising that college and university instructors are including discussion of...
CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow Lily Claiborne Wins TA Award!
Dec. 8, 2010—At the College of Arts & Science Faculty Meeting on Dec. 7th, 2010, CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow Lily Claiborne received the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award in the College. Here is the commendation read for her by Associate Dean of Graduate Education Russell M. McIntire: “Each year we recognize two graduate students with proven...
Measurement of ‘Learning Outcomes’ Comes to Graduate School
Dec. 6, 2010—“I just know it in my bones” is the rationale some professors might give to explain how they know whether or not their students have learned, writes David Glenn in an article posted in the Chronicle of Higher Education. This article focuses in particular on graduate education, since even those programs that consist of more...
Episode 25 – Service Learning for Sustainability: David Padgett
Dec. 1, 2010—This podcast features a presentation given by David A. Padgett, Associate Professor of Geography and Director of the Geographic Information Sciences Laboratory at Tennessee State University. Padgett’s audio excerpt was recorded during a one day workshop about integrating service learning and sustainability education co-hosted by the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching and the Tennessee Higher Education...
GradSTEP 2011 – Teaching 3D: The Many Dimensions of Teaching
Dec. 1, 2010—Held in January each year, our Graduate Student Teaching Event for Professional Development, better known as GradSTEP, provides workshops and discussions on teaching, learning, and professional development issues across the disciplines. All Vanderbilt graduate and professional students, as well as post-doctoral fellows, are invited to attend. The theme for GradSTEP 2011 is “Teaching 3D: The...
Ideas for Motivating Students
Nov. 30, 2010—By Lily Claiborne, CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow In the “Motivating Students” workshop on October 26, 2010, a group of grad students and postdocs discussed what, as teachers, we wished motivated students and what actually motivates them in practice. We established that, while extrinsic motivators (such as grades, parental approval, potential earnings of a career) are...