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.
Who’s doing all the work? Who’s having all the fun?
May. 15, 2019—Part 1: Five steps to incorporating productive failure into your course by Cynthia J. Brame, CFT Associate Director Several years ago, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing a talk by Barb Stengel, Professor of the Practice in Vanderbilt’s Teaching and Learning Department. She had a mantra that she repeated throughout the talk to frame her comments: “Who’s...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Mary Lauren Pfieffer, Anna Richmond, and Pediatric Simulations
May. 13, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Teaching Advanced Practice Nursing in Primary Care of the Child is a challenge: students need to understand a range of concepts for caring for children and adolescents across a large developmental spectrum, building knowledge that has cognitive, psychosocial, and motor components. Mary Lauren Pfieffer, Instructor in Nursing, and Anna...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Daniela D’Eugenio and Selective Technology Use
Apr. 29, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Personal technological devices, such as phones and laptops, are ubiquitous in society as well as the classroom. Their use is banned outright by some professors and encouraged by others, but just as outside of the classroom, the exact role and extent they should be used is still being explored....
Season 2 Coming Soon!
Apr. 25, 2019—Thanks to the Vanderbilt students and faculty who contributed to the first season of VandyVox! We were thrilled to share student-produced audio from anthropology, game studies, health policy, human and organizational development, law, mathematics, and women’s and gender studies. Be sure to listen to our final episode of the season, which features the audio introduction...
Students as Producers: Collaborating toward Deeper Learning
Apr. 25, 2019—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director If you’ve been following my work, you know that I’m a proponent of engaging the students in the courses we teach not only as consumers of information, but also as producers of knowledge. My Vanderbilt Center for Teaching colleagues and I have been sharing this “Students as Producers” approach to...
Engaging Possibility: Digital Literacy, Disability, and Design
Apr. 25, 2019—by Chelsea Yarborough, Graduate Teaching Fellow, and Derek Bruff, Director On March 15, 2019, the Center for Teaching’s Digital Learning Community engaged in an important conversation centered on digital literacy and accessibility. The goal of this session was to focus on the real concerns of different learners already present in our classrooms and to consider...
Junior Faculty Spotlight: Josh Caldwell
Apr. 23, 2019—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Josh Caldwell, Mechanical Engineering, talks about his teaching philosophy and interests. . . I joined the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Vanderbilt University in May 2017, moving here from the US Naval Research Lab where I had been for the...