2010
Getting Students to Do the Reading: Pre-Class Reading Quizzes Using Blogs
Apr. 1, 2010—CFT assistant director Derek Bruff authored a guest post on the group blog ProfHacker last week. In the post, he described his use of pre-class reading quizzes in the math courses he teaches to motivate his students to read their textbooks before class. By asking students to respond to open-ended questions about the reading before...
Highlights from Recent “Sustainability Across the Curriculum” Workshop
Mar. 31, 2010—On Tuesday, March 30th, the CFT hosted a workshop titled “Sustainability Across the Curriculum” featuring four faculty panelists: Cecelia Tichi (English), Beth Conklin (Anthropology), James Clarke (Civil & Environmental Engineering), and Jack Barkenbus (Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management). CFT graduate teaching fellow John Morrell facilitated the session, and CFT assistant director Derek Bruff live-tweeted the...
Is Catching Students Who Cheat on Homework a Lost Cause?
Mar. 31, 2010—Jeffrey Young’s latest “College 2.0” article for the Chronicle of Higher Education is titled “High-Tech Cheating Abounds and Professors Bear Some Blame.” In the article, Young reports on recent research by David E. Pritchard, a physics professor at MIT, indicating that students frequently copy answers to online homework problems in science courses, sometimes by copying...
University of Louisville Clickers Conference June 4 – Talks by VU’s Derek Bruff, Corbette Doyle, John Seibert
Mar. 29, 2010—The 2nd University of Louisville Clickers Conference will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, June 4th this summer. “Clickers” are handheld devices that allow students to respond synchronously to multiple-choice questions posed by their instructors. Distributions of responses are displayed on-screen to inform subsequent teaching choices and motivate discussion among students. CFT assistant director Derek Bruff,...
Learning to Teach through Performance
Mar. 26, 2010—On Monday, March 22, nearly two dozen Vanderbilt faculty and graduate student instructors gathered at the CFT for experiential workshop sessions on “performance pedagogy,” an approach that develops creative thinking and deep understanding through active performance in both teachers and students. These sessions, offered by visiting faculty from the Creativity and Performance in Teaching and...
Teaching Certificate Participants Sharing Their Work at Friday’s Grad Student Research Symposium
Mar. 24, 2010—Vanderbilt’s annual Graduate Student Research Symposium (organized by the Graduate Student Council) will be held this Thursday and Friday, March 25th and 26th. Seven participants in the CFT’s Teaching Certificate program will be sharing their Cycle 3 “scholarship of teaching and learning” projects at the symposium. These projects all involve intentional and systematic inquiry into...
Educational Components in Your Grant Proposal? The CFT Can Help!
Mar. 24, 2010—“The CFT consultant’s comments and suggestions greatly improved the educational components of my NSF grant proposal, making it a true CAREER one.” – Assistant Professor, Arts & Science Many research grants now require faculty members applying for them to consider educational initiatives that will broaden the impact of the grant. CFT consultants are available to...
Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in One’s Teaching by Recent Workshop Participants
Mar. 22, 2010—Last week the CFT held a workshop titled “Show and Tell: Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in Your Teaching.” At the end the workshop, participants were asked to identify visual tools discussed in the workshop they wanted to try out in their teaching. Participants shared their ideas in words and pictures. Below you’ll find a...
Episode 20 – Teaching First-Year Students
Mar. 19, 2010—In this episode, we feature a panel discussion with Mark Dalhouse, Faculty Head of East House and Director for the Office of Active Citizenship and Service, Joseph Wehby, Associate Professor of Special Education, and Roark Luskin, Class of 2012. During the discussion, panelists answer two questions: Should Vanderbilt faculty and staff try to engage first-year...
Highlights from This Week’s Workshop on Visual Thinking
Mar. 19, 2010—On Wednesday of this week, the CFT held a workshop titled “Show and Tell: Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in Your Teaching.” During the workshop, graphic facilitator Peter Durand of Alphachimp Studio captured the presentation and discussion on a virtual white board. See his very visual notes below to learn about some of the ideas...