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Coupling curriculum revision and scholarship in the School of Nursing

May. 18, 2016—We need to have coordinated lectures throughout our curriculum so that students get key concepts early and then build on that solid foundation. We need to avoid undesired redundancy. We need to keep students engaged throughout the three 8-hour days they spend with us in block. We need to quit powerpointing students to death. In...

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Graduate students present investigations of teaching tools and approaches on May 18th

Apr. 28, 2016—Several programs at Vanderbilt help graduate students address questions of teaching and learning within their discipline. Among these are the BOLD Fellows program, sponsored by the Center for Teaching and CIRTL, which focuses on creating and assessing online instructional approaches for use in a Vanderbilt course; the TAR Fellows program, a flagship CIRTL program; and...

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Biological Sciences Seminar Series features Biology Education Researcher Kimberly Tanner on April 18th

Apr. 4, 2016—Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University and 2012 national Outstanding University Science Teacher, will give a seminar in the Biological Sciences Department Monday, April 18, 4:10-5:15 in Medical Research Building III, room 1220. Professor Tanner directs the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory, which facilitates and investigates the impact of...

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Dept. of Chemistry’s Colloquium Series Features Brian Coppola on March 28th

Mar. 21, 2016—Real Work is Better than Homework Dr. Brian Coppola, American Chemical Society Fellow and 2009 CASE/Carnegie US Professor of the Year will give a Chemistry Department Colloquium Monday, March 28, 4:15-5:30 in Stevenson Center 5211. Prof. Coppola is well known for his work in Instructional development; the abstract for his talk and two relevant recent...

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Campus encouraged to participate in Blackboard feedback survey

Mar. 18, 2016—The CFT, as the administrative home for Blackboard, Vanderbilt’s primary course management system, is conducting an assessment in March to determine the extent to which Blackboard is meeting the needs of campus users. Results of this needs assessment will inform Vanderbilt’s decision to renew its contract with Blackboard, set to expire in 2017, or to...

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Class, Race, and the First-Generation Student Label

Mar. 7, 2016—by Ben Galina, Senior Mellon Graduate Teaching Fellow In a recent article for the Atlantic Monthly, “How Low-Income Students Are Fitting in at Elite Colleges” (24 February 2016), Richard Kahlenberg explores the shifting narratives around students who are the first in their families at four-year universities. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and...

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Writing the Pedagogy for Professional Schools and Students Guide

Mar. 4, 2016—by Richard Coble, Graduate Teaching Fellow Is there a problem with professional schools? A growing number of commenters and scholars have decried the professionalization of education, the perceived movement in colleges and universities away from the liberal arts and preparing thoughtful citizenship to meeting market-based needs. But does this critique necessarily apply to professional schools?...

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We are recruiting graduate students to participate in the BOLD Fellows program beginning in January 2016.

Oct. 13, 2015—The BOLD Fellows program is designed to help graduate student/faculty teams build expertise in developing online instructional modules grounded in good course design principles and our understanding of how people learn. STEM faculty members partner with graduate students or postdocs to design and develop online modules for integration into a course, either as a tool to promote flipping the classroom, a module...

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Thinking STEM, Teaching STEM: A Blog Series

Jun. 4, 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,...

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Thinking STEM, Teaching STEM: A Blog Series

May. 28, 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,...

Read more