2015
Vanderbilt CIRTL Programs for Future STEM Faculty
May. 28, 2015—The Vanderbilt University Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (VU-CIRTL) is offering three programs for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students and postdocs interested in future faculty careers. Details below, with information about CFT connections in parentheses. Evidence-Based Teaching Workshop – This two-day workshop (June 4th and 5th) is designed...
A Panel Discussion on Diversity in STEM, June 2nd, 2:30-4:00pm
May. 28, 2015—Next week, the Black Engineering PhDs project is hosting a multi-disciplinary panel discussion on diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). From the announcement: “On June 2, 2015, at 2:30 pm, there will be an all-star group of scholars assembled for an open conversation on the challenges and the potential solutions to address diversity...
From Math Major to Teaching Center Director: My #altac Journey
May. 27, 2015—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director. Cross-posted from Derek’s blog, Agile Learning. A while back, I was invited to contribute an essay to #alt-academy, a collection exploring “unconventional or alternative careers for people with academic training,” edited by Katina Rogers of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center, CUNY. The term #altac, short for “alternative academic,”...
CFT Teaching Guides Week: Day 5
May. 22, 2015—Day 5: Feminist Pedagogy In mid-February, the CFT hosted a committed group of graduate student instructors from different disciplines along with Graduate Teaching Fellow, Benjamin Galina, and former Assistant Director, Nancy Chick, to participate in a collaborative write-a-thon on feminist pedagogy. Those graduate student instructors, all of whom had expressed interest in feminist pedagogy in...
CFT Teaching Guides Week: Day 4
May. 21, 2015—Day 4: Peer Review of Teaching Today’s featured guide is fresh off the presses (so to speak) and is making its debut today on the CFT website: Peer Review of Teaching. Written by CFT Assistant Director, Dr. Joe Bandy, this teaching guide establishes a framework for talking about and engaging in peer review in teaching...
Thinking STEM, Teaching STEM: A Blog Series
May. 21, 2015—By Vivian Finch, CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow “Thinking STEM, Teaching STEM” is a blog series that spotlights some of the videos produced at Vanderbilt for the CIRTL MOOC course, “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching.” This course drew on the expertise of experienced STEM faculty, educational researchers, and representatives of university teaching centers. As previously mentioned,...
CFT Teaching Guides Week: Day 3
May. 20, 2015—Day 3: Keeping Stress from Evolving into Distress: A Guide on Managing Student Stress through Course Design If there can be one college experience that can be applied to all students, it is called stress. Whether students have to pull an all-nighter to finish an essay or they have to navigate taking coursework from various...
CFT Acknowledges Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows
May. 20, 2015— The CFT acknowledges these junior faculty who participated in the JFTF program this year! This year’s Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows, left to right: Jesse Blocher (Finance), John Bradley (English), Lily Claiborne (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Alex Da Fonte (Special Education), Ken MacLeish (Medicine, Health, and Society and Anthropology), Dan Morgan (Earth and Environmental Sciences),Haerin Shin (English), and...
CFT Teaching Guides Week: Day 2
May. 19, 2015—Day 2: Teaching Students with Disabilities Students of all abilities and backgrounds want classrooms that are inclusive and convey respect. For those students with disabilities, the classroom setting may present certain challenges that need accommodation and consideration. – “Teaching Students with Disabilities” CFT Teaching Guide Today’s featured teaching guide is “Teaching Students with Disabilities“,...
CFT Teaching Guides Week: Day 1
May. 18, 2015—Here at the Center for Teaching, we’re always having conversations around best teaching practices that promote student learning, and we look to develop content that shares these reflections and conversations in the form of our teaching guides and blog posts. Now that the academic year has come to a “close”, we’re excited to look back...