2007-2008 Teaching Effectiveness Program

In Search of a Silver Bullet: Teaching Large Classes
Linda Wayne, Assistant Professor, Women's Studies
November 2, 2007; 1.5 hrs

If your blood pressure creeps up in step with your enrolment, this workshop could be for you. We will start by identifying anxieties that often accompany the large class scenario and work toward tips, tricks, and solutions. Issues that we will cover will include the use of technology to teach large classes, the problem of classroom authority, the spectre of failure on a grand scale, and syllabi design to enhance large-group learning.

Getting the most out of multiple-choice questions
David DiBattista, Professor, Psychology, Brock University 
November 12, 2007; 2 hrs

Multiple-choice tests are the most widely used form of objective assessment in college and university settings, but using them effectively is not always a simple matter. Because writing 
structurally sound, high-quality items requires some expertise, we will begin by considering guidelines that can make the task much easier. In addition, we will consider how to write multiple-choice items that assess higher-level cognitive skills rather than rote memory. This session is designed to provide instructors with very helpful and practical tips that they can start using immediately in their everyday teaching.

Scratch and win! Promoting learning during multiple-choice tests
David DiBattista, Professor, Psychology, Brock University 
November 12, 2007; 1 hr

The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT) is a new multiple-choice response form that is commercially available at a reasonable cost. An important feature of the IFAT is that it provides students with immediate, corrective, item-by-item feedback while they are taking the test. The IFAT thus actually promotes learning, which traditional response forms do not. Moreover, students strongly prefer the IFAT over other response techniques. Participants will have the opportunity to use the IFAT, will learn about its advantages, and will receive tips on how to incorporate it into their multiple-choice tests.

Resisting mass education, hopefully
Ray Dart, Associate Professor, Business Administration
November 28, 2007; 1.5 hrs 

Large first year and second year classes have become all-too-common at Trent in recent years. There are concerns that courses such as these are becoming increasingly standardized, impersonal and 'un-Trent-like'. This workshop will discuss attempts in a first year Business 
Administration course to retain a personal, eclectic, thoughtful, non standardized, hopeful and intellectually worthwhile learning structure and environment in a course whose enrollment has reached 350 students.

Secondary School Evaluation and the Student Success Initiative 
Rob Andrews, Kawartha-Pine Ridge District School Board & Alan Slavin, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy (moderator) 
January 25, 2008; 2 hrs

The Ontario Ministry of Education implemented some major changes in high-school expectations of its students. The first change came into effect nine years ago; this change was designed to modify the evaluation practice to better reflect the demonstration of key expectations of teaching and learning. Changes related to student success and student retention were implemented in 2003 and 2005 respectively. Examples of such changes include the following: (1) removing lateness as a reason for deducting marks for assignments (students who can not make a deadline are encouraged to negotiate an alternative deadline with their teachers); (2) providing means of "credit recovery" for students who fail a course (this may include extra course work that results in the submission of work that covers only the portion of the course where they were deficient); and (3) including an explicit statement on the student's end-of-semester report which identifies the portion of the course which resulted in the failing grade.

The University Classroom: Managing the Current Profile 
Meri Kim Oliver, Senior Director, Student Affairs and Community Partnerships
February 4, 2008; 1.5 hrs
February 5, 2008; 1.5 hrs

The profile of a university campus has changed in many ways that have had direct and indirect impact on the campus classroom. One of the fundamental changes that effects the classroom setting is the profile of the individual student and of the university cohort as a whole. Diversity, disability, rights, parental involvement, shifting social norms, expectations of technology . . . all change the classroom experience. What hasn’t changed is that faculty have the most consistent contact with students and the greatest opportunity to observe when deeper issues than shifting social norms are becoming visible in individual students. Depression, anger, stress or threats of harm can become visible in behaviours or in written assignments, before being visible elsewhere on campus.

• Do you know when a behaviour is threatening versus merely odd?
• Do you have strategies for classroom management that help to identify when a student is no longer able to function well in the classroom environment?
• What are indicators in written assignments that should raise your concerns?
• Do you know what is required of you by law when you become aware of a student who may be a risk to self or others?

The workshop time will be spent on the following:

1. The student profile in 2008.
2. What the profile means for the classroom and the institution.
3. Identifying risk behaviour.
4. Balancing the rights of the individual with the rights of the other students in the class.
5. What about your rights as a faculty member?
6. Safety first.
7. Resources

Queering the Classroom: Resisting Homophobia 
Karleen Pendleton Jiménez, Assistant Professor, School of Education & Professional Learning
February 20, 2008; 2 hrs

This presentation offers insight into the homophobia faced by university students, as well as pedagogical strategies utilized by professors to create more inclusive environments. We will explore heterosexism in language, humour, and curriculum, in addition to issues of personal comfort and fear. The choices we make in our classrooms are as much about our epistemologies as our sense of social relations and responsibilities; for example, notions of truths, norms, and constructions of knowledge shape the way we present material and the types of interactions we offer our students. Through a discussion format, participants will have the opportunity to pose questions, and/or to share experiences and approaches. Resources for supporting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students and faculty will be available. 

Fostering a community of learners within an online environment 
Cathy Graham, Lecturer, Trent-Fleming School of Nursing
Kim English, Fleming College Faculty 

March 3, 2008; 1.5 hrs

Recognizing that "the moral arts of community building and social integration of new recruits (is) required" (Brenner) within the nursing field, the School of Nursing has been flexible in curriculum delivery to respond to the unique needs of their BScN students in year 4. Final year students are engaged in an independent clinical and theoretical learning experience. Due to the need to meet the remote and diverse location of some of practice locations for students and the theoretical components, the School of Nursing has found new ways to engage students and develop a community of learners. The courses are now supported with an online learning community whereby students apply theoretical concepts to their practical experience. In this workshop, Kim English and Cathy Graham will describe the course they have developed with their colleagues Janice Lee-Foxon, Wendy Fucile, Dr. Janet Rush and Irene Swinson. They will also outline the lessons they have learned and share successful strategies that promote critical inquiry and increase student-student interaction.

Resources for Integrating Community-Based Education into Teaching and Research
Todd Barr and Adam Guzkowski, Trent Centre for Community Based Education 
March 27, 2008; 1.5 hrs

Community-Based Education offers unique opportunities to integrate aspects of community service-learning, community-based research and experiential education into both teaching and research. At its best, Community-Based Education can provide a mutually beneficial relationship wherein students connect real-life experience to more theoretical classroom study, faculty enrich their own teaching and research endeavours, and community partners meet pressing organizational needs. Join us for a lively discussion on the local, national and global contexts of this work, and walk away with ideas, insights and resources on how you can integrate this into your own teaching and research.