November, 2010
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...
Disciplinary Thinking and Metacognition – A Conference Report
Nov. 29, 2010—By Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director One of the sessions I attended earlier this month at the 2010 POD Network Conference in St. Louis was offered by Matt Kaplan and Deborah Meizlish of the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT). The session was titled “Using Metacognition to Foster Students’ Disciplinary...
Call for Proposals – 2011 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference
Nov. 22, 2010—The 8th annual conference of the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 20-23, 2011. The conference is an opportunity for higher education faculty and staff from around the world to share their scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL). SOTL involves asking questions about...
CIRTL Coffee Hour, November 18 – Using Your Teaching-as-Research Project to Strengthen Your Professional Life
Nov. 10, 2010—The 2010-2011 Coffee Hour Series provides an opportunity for STEM (science, technology, engineering, & math) graduate students and post docs to get together online and talk about careers and the academic job search. The series will be facilitated by a mix of young faculty who have recently secured positions and more seasoned tenured faculty. The...
Cryptography: Nby Bcmnils uhx Gunb iz Wixym uhx Wcjbylm
Nov. 8, 2010—CFT assistant director Derek Bruff is teaching a new first-year writing seminar this fall. The course is titled “Cryptography: The History and Mathematics of Codes and Code-Breaking.” Topics include: military cryptography, like the efforts of British cryptographers at Bletchley Park during World War II to figure out the German Enigma Machine codes; cryptography in popular...
Service Learning for Sustainability
Nov. 5, 2010—The CFT is proud to be a part of this event that addresses issues of environmental sustainability in the curriculum. On November 12th, from 8:30am to 4pm in the Wyatt Center on the Peabody Campus, the CFT and the Tennessee Higher Education Sustainability Association (THESA) will co-host a one-day workshop on integrating service learning and sustainability...
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow Spotlight: Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman
Nov. 3, 2010—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Law talks about his teaching philosophy and interests. As a teacher, I hope to inspire a spirit of inquiry and engagement in my students. Historically, my teaching has focused heavily on...