Speakers
Conference Keynote Speaker: Dr. Todd Zakrajsek
Teaching for Learning in Harmony with the Brain
As faculty, we accept the opportunity and obligation to educate the next generation of learners. The challenge in front of us is how best to teach students who often appear to be indifferent and apathetic about the process. Unfortunately, most college and university classrooms are not consistent with how humans typically learn. Through understanding and addressing the factors that impact the learning process, we become better educators. In this interactive session, we will examine the best methods to create opportunities for learning to occur in harmony with the brain.
Todd D. Zakrajsek, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he serves as the Associate Director of the Faculty Development Fellowship Program. In addition to his work at UNC providing resources for faculty on various topics related to teaching/learning, leadership, and scholarly activity, Todd serves on several educationally-related boards, including the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching; International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; and Higher Education Teaching Learning Portal. In recent years, Todd served on boards charged with creating resources and opportunities related to teaching and learning: Education Research Initiative (Lenovo Computer); Technology Enriched Instruction (Microsoft); and Communicating Science in K-12 (Harvard).
As faculty, we accept the opportunity and obligation to educate the next generation of learners. The challenge in front of us is how best to teach students who often appear to be indifferent and apathetic about the process. Unfortunately, most college and university classrooms are not consistent with how humans typically learn. Through understanding and addressing the factors that impact the learning process, we become better educators. In this interactive session, we will examine the best methods to create opportunities for learning to occur in harmony with the brain.
Todd D. Zakrajsek, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he serves as the Associate Director of the Faculty Development Fellowship Program. In addition to his work at UNC providing resources for faculty on various topics related to teaching/learning, leadership, and scholarly activity, Todd serves on several educationally-related boards, including the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching; International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; and Higher Education Teaching Learning Portal. In recent years, Todd served on boards charged with creating resources and opportunities related to teaching and learning: Education Research Initiative (Lenovo Computer); Technology Enriched Instruction (Microsoft); and Communicating Science in K-12 (Harvard).
Plenary Speaker: Dr. Anton Tolman
The Interactive Nature of Student Resistance: Building A Better Learning Environment
Student resistance to learning is ubiquitous in higher education, contributing to reduced student motivation, hampering learning, and increasing both faculty and student frustration. By shifting our paradigm and assumptions about students and recognizing how faculty and student expectations and behaviors interact, faculty can begin to take effective steps to reduce resistance, increase student engagement, and increase motivation and satisfaction for all.
Anton Tolman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in Clinical Psychology in 1991. After spending several years in private practice and in leadership positions in a state psychiatric facility, he joined the academy at Grand Valley State University in Michigan in 2000. He is past-Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor of Behavioral Science, and continues to work with the Office of Teaching and Learning at Utah Valley University. His areas of scholarly work focus on student metacognition, student resistance to learning, faculty metacognition, and issues of power in the classroom. He is the senior editor of the recently published Why Students Resist Learning: A Practical Model for Understanding and Helping Students. He is married with two grown children living in California (one an attorney and one the Prince in the Squatty Potty commercials) and is an avid reader and board gamer.
Student resistance to learning is ubiquitous in higher education, contributing to reduced student motivation, hampering learning, and increasing both faculty and student frustration. By shifting our paradigm and assumptions about students and recognizing how faculty and student expectations and behaviors interact, faculty can begin to take effective steps to reduce resistance, increase student engagement, and increase motivation and satisfaction for all.
Anton Tolman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in Clinical Psychology in 1991. After spending several years in private practice and in leadership positions in a state psychiatric facility, he joined the academy at Grand Valley State University in Michigan in 2000. He is past-Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor of Behavioral Science, and continues to work with the Office of Teaching and Learning at Utah Valley University. His areas of scholarly work focus on student metacognition, student resistance to learning, faculty metacognition, and issues of power in the classroom. He is the senior editor of the recently published Why Students Resist Learning: A Practical Model for Understanding and Helping Students. He is married with two grown children living in California (one an attorney and one the Prince in the Squatty Potty commercials) and is an avid reader and board gamer.
Pre-Conference Workshop Options
We have the following pre-conference workshop options:
- Using Decision-Based Learning to Help Students Develop Critical Thinking in Your Subject Area (Taught by Ken Plummer of BYU's Center for Teaching & Learning): In this pre-conference workshop, participants will develop a lesson using an innovative methodology entitled Decision-Based Learning. This approach to learning has been shown to dramatically increase students' critical thinking and confidence in multiple disciplines. During the workshop participants will create three elements: a simple decision model, concise learning modules, a small problem or scenario bank. These will be combined into one to two lessons to be used in actual courses. This is a full-day workshop.
- Creating OER with EdTech Books: An Easy, Accessible Open Textbook Platform (Taught by Royce Kimmons of Brigham Young University): Research shows that open educational resources (OER) perform just as well or better than traditional textbooks, but various barriers prevent educators from creating their own open textbooks—like lack of technical expertise, time, or resources. To help overcome these barriers, this workshop introduces EdTechBooks.org: a new [university]-created open textbook authoring platform that brings together best practices of UX/web design, data management, instructional design, and print design into a single platform that is made available at no cost to instructors, students, and anyone else. Come learn how to create your own open textbook and leverage the power of OER. This is a Half-day workshop and will be taught in the morning of March 4th.
- POGIL: An Introduction to Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning for Those Who Wish to Empower Learners (Taught by Shawn Simonson of Boise State University): Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is a learner-centered pedagogy based on research into how people learn that results in improved student content and process skill outcomes across a variety of academic disciplines. This workshop serves as an active introduction to POGIL and an exploration of the benefits of this approach to active learning in the classroom. Participants will experience a POGIL-based learning environment, analyze activities to understand how guided inquiry is structured in a POGIL classroom, and consider classroom facilitation and other issues related to the implementation of POGIL. This is a Half-day workshop and will be taught in the afternoon of March 4th.
- Sorry, this session has been canceled! -
Designing Courses for Significant Learning(Taught by Lynn Sorenson of Dee Fink & Associates): This workshop provides participants a hands-on experience with Fink's systematic way of designing courses for significant learning, that is, for "learning in harmony." In this workshop, you'll work through one of your own courses (or workshops) identifying learning outcomes, learning activities, and learning assessments. You'll have opportunities to get feedback from the facilitator and the other participants--and to share your own ideas, too. All materials (including the Powerpoint) are copyright-free for faculty members and faculty developers to share with colleagues. This is a full-day workshop.
ED Talk Speakers
We have the following Ed Talk Speakers:
- Alyson Froehlich: Retrieval Practice: Pumping Iron for Learning -
- Andrew Holmes: Enhancing Collaborative Learning With a Free Technology Tool: Using BungeeLink ™ in the Classroom
- Gideon Burton: Learning by Making: Podcasting as Project-Based Pedagogy
- Deidre Tyler - Show Me What You Know
- Richard Swan - Harmonizing Knowledge Types
- Emma Larsen - A Student’s Perspective: Getting the Bang for Your Buck