An Alternative to Lecture: Peer Instruction using Clickers

Two independent faculty learning communities will include instructors wanting to explore best practices in peer instruction including classroom management techniques, anatomy of effective questions and supporting technology.

Peer Instruction is an active-learning pedagogy in which most lecture time is replaced with students responding to multiple-choice questions displayed on the classroom screen.  As directed by the instructor, students discuss their thinking with a neighbor, each attempting to convince the other that his or her own reasoning is correct.  Changes in student responses from before to after the peer dialogue guide the instructor to decide whether to spend more time on the topic.  Students have had a positive reaction to this approach in several disciplines including physics, chemistry, computer science and mathematics.

Peer instruction is often implemented using standalone ‘clickers’.  However, recent innovations allow students to use their phones, tablets and laptops instead of a clicker, called Bring Your Own Device.  GVSU recommends one of two software vendors: Top Hat and Learning Catalytics.  FLC members can choose to use physical clickers or one of the two BYOD solutions.  Student fees can vary from no cost to $30 per year depending on instructor choices.

Facilitators: Scott Grissom, Computing and Information Systems

Effective Pedagogies in STEM Undergraduate Research Labs

This faculty learning community (FLC) will explore a wide array of issues involved with mentoring undergraduate students in a laboratory setting.  Discussion topics will include setting research directions, recruiting students, the logistics of training, building a culture of excellence, advising for post-GVSU life, teaching students to maintain notebooks and much more.  Special sessions will cover the unique issues involved in obtaining funding for undergraduate research (both external and internal) and the dissemination of results through conferences and publications.  By the end of the FLC, each participant will create a set of goals and a strategy to achieve them.

Facilitators: Merritt Taylor, Biomedical Sciences and Dave Leonard, Chemistry

Exploring the Development of an Online Strategy for HTM via the QM Lens

Facilitator: Michael Sciarini, Hospitality & Tourism Management

Fostering Student Accountability and Managing Assignment Load

Facilitator: Kate Remlinger, English

Motivating and Supporting Adult Learners

This faculty learning community will be comprised of an interdisciplinary group of faculty working over the course of the Fall 2013 semester to understand best practices in educating adult learners (by this term, we are referring to students who are over 25, who have been in the workforce for a number of years, and who are typically returning to further their education.)

Returning adult learners usually have multiple commitments and challenges, and their learning styles and strengths are often different than our traditional age students. They also bring a variety of experiences that can enhance the classroom learning for all students. In this learning community faculty will explore the literature on effective learning methods for adult students, as well as learn from each other’s experiences. We will explore how we can design our courses to be inclusive of and responsive to adult learning, in both online and in-seat classroom environments. Proposed readings will be from Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn by Raymond Wlodkowski, Margery Ginsberg’s work on Culturally Responsive Teaching, and/or Stephen Brookfield’s Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. We also look forward to your suggestions.

This learning community is primarily focused on teaching undergraduate students and we welcome faculty who work with veterans on our campus. Faculty who are interested in teaching accelerated courses for adult students are particularly encouraged to participate.

Facilitators: Judy Whipps, Liberal Studies and Glenna Decker, Instructional Designer, IDeL and part-time faculty, Adult and Higher Education

Quality Matters for Liberal Studies

Facilitator: Danielle Lake, Liberal Studies

Quality Matters Teaching Circle - COE

Facilitator: Dorothy Armstrong, College of Education

Strategies for Collaborative Research with Faculty Peers and Undergraduate Students

With the support of a National Science Foundation WIDER grant (Widening Implementation & Demonstration of Evidence Based Reforms), we are able to support a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) related to strategies for conducting collaborative research with faculty peers and undergraduate students. The FLC will focus on approaches that are particularly effective in successful collaboration by faculty peers and undergraduate students representing different disciplines. Examples of such strategies include networking, identifying a question or problem of interest that can benefit from multiple disciplinary perspectives, reading from literature in each discipline, developing common language, frequent meetings, and clear expectations from team members.

Facilitators: Peter Wampler, Geology and Shaily Menon, Biology

Strategies for Engaging Undergraduate Students in Qualitative Methods of Inquiry in the Humanities and Social Sciences

In collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS), we are able to support a Faculty Learning Community related to strategies for conducting qualitative research with undergraduate students. 

In their report The Heart of the Matter, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences recognize the role of the physical and biological sciences in contributing to scientific achievements, but charge the higher education community to invest “invest more time, energy, and resources in research and education in the humanities and the social sciences” (pg. 9)  This FLC will take on that charge by exploring methods and approaches that are effective in preparing and working with undergraduate students in qualitative methods from disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Examples of such strategies include networking, identifying a question or problem of interest that can benefit from qualitative inquiry, group inquiry, scaffolding skill development in data collection, frequent meetings and clear expectations.

Facilitator: Melissa Morison, Classics

Teaching Students to Think Historically

Facilitator: David Zwart, History

Teaching World History as Mystery

Facilitator: David Eaton, History

The Inverted/Flipped Classroom: A Gateway to Student Engagement and Lifelong Learning

The inverted or "flipped" classroom is a course design model in which information transfer takes place outside the class meetings and assimilation of information takes place inside the class meeting. Rather than focus class time on listening to lecture and taking notes, students encounter course material on their own schedules through print and video resources, usually stored online. And with the time freed up in class, students can engage in the most challenging material while under the direct and active coaching of the professor.

Facilitator: Robert Talbert, Mathematics