Workshop on Academic Civility - Week Three: Academic Civility by Design

After reading the activities described in the third part of the workshop on academic civility, consider the different ways in which civility was addressed--in the syllabus and course climate, as part of in-class content, and as part of an assignment for a class.

• In what ways do these approaches to designing with civility in mind reflect rhetorical listening, dialogic civility, or epistemological differences?  
• If civility is "collaboratively owned," how can designing for civility contribute to academic civility?
• In what ways do you address in/civility in your classes?
• How can you enhance civility in your classes, from course climate to assessment activities?
• Which of these activities has the most relevance for your own teaching? Why?

To respond to these questions, feel free to post a response below. (No login is required.)
Or, email your thoughts to vtlc@uwc.edu

Workshop on Academic Civility - Week One: An Introduction to Academic Civilty

In week one of the spring 2012 VTLC workshop on civility, you were introduced to the concepts of civility, pedagogical considerations, and best (and worst) practices of civility in the classroom:  Given what you've read and your experiences with teaching:

• How do you define academic civility?
• What problems with incivility do you have in your classes?
• Are there ways in which this behavior extends beyond the classroom to other environments at the university?
• How can we help students understand when their behavior is interfering with their learning?
• How do you already do any of these successfully? 
• Which one(s) do you want to try to improve, and how might you do that?

Feel free to post a comment below or to email your response to vtlc@uwc.edu 

White Paper on Learning Styles

After reading the VTLC's white paper on Learning Styles, consider the following questions:


Questions for Reflection

• What ways of thinking are required by your discipline?
• What modes of instruction do you most often use?  What is the relationship between the way you teach and the ways of thinking required by your discipline?
• How do you gauge your students' learning preferences? What role do they or should they have in your teaching?

VTLC Reading Circle 2012 (part 3 of 7)

This post is the third in the series on the 2012 VTLC Reading Circle on How Learning Works by Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman.  There are several ways to participate, including reading and reflecting on this series of blog posts.  For more details, see our website.

The previous post asked reflective questions about students' knowledge organizations.  The third concept in the book is "Students' motivation generates, directs, and sustains what they to do learn" (69).

The authors state, "if we want our students to gain the deep understanding that comes from exploration and intellectual risk-taking (a learning goal) but they want only to do what is necessary to get a good grade (a performance goal), we may not obtain the kinds of learning behaviors and outcomes that we desire" (72).

Questions for Reflection

• What goals do you have for student learning?
• What performance (or performance-avoidance) goals do your students have?  What affective and social goals do your students have?
• In what ways are student goals aligned or misaligned with your goals for student learning? 
• What "outcome expectancies" do your students have?  How do you address these in your course?
• What strategies to "establish value" and "build positive expectancies" are you using?  Which ones would best address differences between your goals and those of your students?
• Finally, in what ways have you created a "supportive environment"?  Are there ways in which the learning context (environment) can be improved?  

Reflecting on Podcast with Dr. Bill Cerbin

Greetings VTLCers,

I hope you enjoyed listening to Drs. Nancy Chick and Bill Cerbin discuss learning styles.

Here are a few questions for your consideration:

• Dr. Cerbin mentions several misconceptions about "learning styles," ultimately concluding that "learning styles" as we often think of them, do not exist:  Do you agree?  What have you found in your own teaching and learning that supports or undermines this?  
• At about the 24-minute mark, Nancy summarized a useful response to misconceptions about learning styles as "thinking less about student's learning styles and thinking more about the ways of thinking that are required by my subject."  What kinds of thinking are required by your subject?  What are the most effective ways to teach students to think in these ways?
• Dr. Cerbin offers a few practices that enhance student learning: "free recall retrieval practice: "expressive writing" and "solution analysis."  How might you use one or all of these in your courses?
• To paraphrase Dr. Cerbin's question in the podcast, what makes your field difficult for someone who doesn't know about it? 
• What background knowledge do students need as a "framework" for your course? 

Feel free to reflect on your own or leave comments below.

UWC VTLC Podcast 3: A Conversation on Learning Styles with Dr. Bill Cerbin

Greetings colleagues and VTLCers,

Welcome to the second UWC VTLC podcast of the 2011-12 academic year, a conversation on learning styles between Dr. Bill Cerbin, Professor of Psychology at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he has taught for more than 20 years, and between our inaugural director, Dr. Nancy Chick, who is now the Assistant Director at Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching. Dr. Cerbin also directs the UW-La Crosse Center for Advancing Teaching & Learning, which sponsors programs and activities to support teaching and learning. Active in the scholarship of teaching and learning, he has twice been a Carnegie Scholar with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. His work focuses on understanding the relationship between teaching and college student learning and thinking.       

You can listen on your computer by clicking here or always on the title above, or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen there or on your MP3 player.  See here for more details on subscriptions.

VTLC Reading Circle 2012 (part 2 of 7)

This post is the second in the series on the VTLC Reading Circle on How Learning Works by Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman.  There are several ways to participate, including reading and reflecting on this series of blog posts.  For more details, see our website.

The previous post asked reflective questions about students' prior knowledge.  The second concept in the book is "How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know."

Questions for reflection:

• What knowledge organizations do students need in order to understand your course content? 
• Around what knowledge organizations do you organize your course content, syllabus, and/or lesson plans? 
• One recommendation in the text for helping students organize their knowledge meaningfully around "deep features" of the domain is to give students problems that are already solved and explain the solutions to themselves.  This seems like a strategy that works in any discipline.  Do you employ this strategy?  What knowledge organizations does it/would it reveal to students?
• In what ways do you make the needed/optimal knowledge organizations "visible" to students in your courses?
• Which of the strategies suggested by the research do you plan to use? 

New Year, New Semester, New Director

As you can see on the calendar for the semester, the UW Colleges VTLC has an exciting semester planned: reading circle activities for How Learning Works, a podcast interview with UW-LaCrosse Psychology Professor Bill Cerbin, a white paper on learning styles, to name a few of the highlights.

Our outgoing inaugural Director, Nancy Chick, has started in her new role at Vanderbilt University, and Jennifer Heinert, a former Advisory Committee and Executive Committee member, was chosen as the new Director for the VTLC.  Jen plans to build on the excellent foundation Nancy built and continue the momentum of the last year of programming.  

New developments: 

You can now follow us on Twitter: @uwcVTLC 

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