The Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching promotes university teaching that leads to meaningful student learning. Our offerings are available to any members of the Vanderbilt community interested in developing their teaching practices.
Giving Students Feedback
Nov. 9, 2023—At this time in the semester when students are handing in an assortment of assignments, it is important to provide meaningful feedback to guide their growth. Effective feedback can come in a variety of forms, but students find it most helpful when it is educative about what they are doing well and not so well,...
Teaching in Tumultuous Times
Nov. 7, 2023—Despite our aspirations for our classrooms to be home to open inquiry and reasoned, informed debate, sometimes the intensely traumatic nature of current events can overwhelm us or our students. Whether it is recurring incidents of mass violence, the persistence of social or environmental crises, or polarized political debate in our public sphere, just to...
Interdisciplinary Teaching workshop
Nov. 1, 2023—Are you teaching a subject that is inter- or multi-disciplinary and somewhat outside of your comfort zone? Are you team teaching a course with someone from another discipline and adjusting to their discipline’s ways of thinking or “signature pedagogies”? Are you hoping that your students develop a thoroughly multi-disciplinary understanding of a topic, but not...
Transforming Classroom Conflict into Learning workshop
Oct. 30, 2023—In these times of political polarization and contentious dialogue throughout our society, it is not uncommon for educators across the curriculum to experience, or at least fear, student conflict in the classroom. Whether it is due to differences sparked by ideology, identity, or simple intellectual disagreement, student conflicts may stray beyond productive debate into highly...
Developing Collaborative Assignments workshop
Oct. 26, 2023—Research indicates that collaborative assignments and projects can promote meaningful learning by inviting students to address complex problems while engaging the insights and perspectives of others. In this workshop, participants will develop an outline for a collaborative group project or assignment that they plan to deploy in the spring semester. Co-facilitated by Boni Yraguen (PhD, Mechanical Engineering) and Laura Carter-Stone (PhD, Teaching and Learning),...
Using a Process-Oriented Approach to Student Writing to Deepen Learning and Engagement workshop
Oct. 19, 2023—Research suggests that providing students repeated opportunities to create, evaluate, and revise various types of writing, especially for authentic audiences, can catalyze deeper forms of learning. Through this workshop, we will discuss research-based strategies for improving student writing and content learning in a variety of disciplinary areas. Participants will either revise an existing writing assignment...
Teaching Our Students to Think Critically
Oct. 9, 2023—Special Event Teaching Our Students to Think Critically with Louis E. Newman October 31st, 12:00-1:30pm (lunch provided) Center for Teaching, 1114 19th Ave South, 3rd Floor We all want our students to become adept at critical thinking. But what exactly do we mean by this, and how do we teach it? In this session, we’ll...