As you start to think about next steps in your academic and/or professional career, you may find that you will be asked to either write or revise a teaching statement or a statement of teaching philosophy. A teaching statement, or statement of teaching philosophy, is a reflective essay that often includes what you value as an educator and why this is important to you, a description of how you would teach, the justification for why you teach that way, and evidence of how you have been effective.
Teaching statements are more common these days and have become a largely important part of academic life.
The first time writing a statement like this can be a bit daunting, confusing, and often leads to questions on how to write an effective statement. Here are some questions I often hear:
What if I don’t have much teaching experience?
You probably have more than you think. Informal teaching experiences can also inform your statement. Some examples include training students in your lab (protocols, data analysis, etc.), summer students, mentoring student assistants in work environments, working with Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UGTAs), or participating in teaching professional development, such as CELT workshops. If you have been a graduate TA, can your course director give you some feedback on your teaching? Can you guest lecture in the course your PI or a colleague teaches? In absence of any of the above, you should show that you have thought intentionally about what you value as an educator, how you would achieve this in the classroom, and how you would tell you were effective.
How do I stand out from other applicants in the statement?
Hook your readers right at the start. Your opening sentence should be strong and reflect personal experiences that have made a large impact on your philosophy. Avoid cliche terms and academic jargon to engage your readers. Instead, focus on how you can not only “tell” your reader about your experiences but “show” them by bringing specific stories from your teaching experiences into your writing. Ultimately, an honest account of your experiences and passion towards your work in the field is going to be more impactful to your audience than a general statement.
Are detailed technical approaches in the classroom required in the statement?
The more specific you can be with examples and evidence, the stronger your statement will be. Different positions will weigh the teaching statement differently, such as research intensive vs. teaching intensive, but either way, the more specific details about your experiences that you can include in your statement the better. Your examples should be concise, however, as there is typically a 2-page limit for the statement. If you are applying for a teaching focused position, citing the learning sciences literature the same way you would in your research is recommended.
Should I include DEI elements in my teaching statement?
If you and the institution you are applying to similarly value DEI then yes, include specific elements of inclusive teaching in your statement. You may also be asked to write a separate diversity statement which would rely less on teaching and more on your lived experiences, mentoring, and community engagement. You don’t want the specific examples in the statements to overlap.
Can I incorporate positive comments received about my teaching in the statement?
Yes! You would not want this to take up a lot of text in your statement, so use sparingly and concisely, and be sure they speak to specific skills and successes that you have been recognized for (not: “they were a great teacher!”). This is another great way to incorporate evidence of your teaching effectiveness in your statement.
When your personal statement is relevant and authentic, it communicates the passion that you have for the work in your field clearly and confidently. Personal writing can be difficult but following the guidance from these common questions when writing your statement can put you in a great position to write an impactful statement!
By Luis Colon and Jenny Zhang
CELT Instructional Designers
luis.colon@stonybrook.edu and yi.zhang.13@stonybrook.edu
CELT Symposium on Teaching and Learning: Faculty, graduate students, staff and administrators attended the day-long event in the Student Activities Center.
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) held a Teaching and Learning Symposium on March 24. The theme for this year’s conference was Transitions.The theme reflects how we navigate across multiple changes, such as those with technologies, learning modalities, and in our teaching practices as we strive to provide a more inclusive environment for students. Close to 100 faculty, graduate students, staff and administrators attended the day-long event in the Student Activities Center. Participants from across the university attended sessions that explored transitions and discussed how to best navigate transitions as we are going through them while also anticipating and preparing for future transitions in higher education.
The event opened with a statement from Dr. Carl Lejuez, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and promptly launched into the keynote event. Dr. Kelly Hogan and Dr.Viji Sathy presented a highly interactive workshop on Inclusive Teaching that modeled concepts, strategies, and activities that instructors can adopt in their own teaching practice. Both Hogan and Sathy are award-winning instructors from the University of North Carolina who are deeply passionate about student success, equity, and inclusive teaching. They have been featured in national publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, and others. Their recently published book, Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom, analyzes ways that instructors can design their courses and their teaching practice to help students feel that they are welcome and that they can succeed in the academic space.
The workshop started by bringing attention to how inequities can manifest within the learning environment. To address these inequities, Hogan and Sathy provided practical skills and strategies, saying, “It’s our job to ensure that all students have the ability to succeed.” Concrete examples included: “Provide [lecture] notes with blanks, so students can be prompted to recall and fill in the blanks. Use subtitles, visual prompts, and microphones. Pause in time to give people a chance to construct their ideas.”
Throughout the session, participants were encouraged to reflect on their own teaching experiences and to consider how they could use what they took from this session to reduce inequities in their own courses. Hogan and Sathy kept the workshop interactive by utilizing polling, think-pair-share, and other learning strategies to model the value to engaging learners and to keep the audience focused on the learning objectives of the session. The audience responded positively and many continued discussions later on as the event progressed.
Session One, titled Supporting Students Through Transitions, was led by Dr. Kristin Hall of CELT as well as Brandon Bjertnes, Jennifer Poma, and Jennifer Rodriguez of U-RISE. This session focused on the deluge of changes that higher education has experienced over the years and specifically addressed how to best support the next generation of students as they re-learn how to navigate the in-person learning environment in post-pandemic times. The presenters discussed how the definition of the “traditional college student” has changed as the next generation of college students bring more diversity to higher education institutions nationwide. This session provided strategies to address the different learning needs of these students by understanding how they learn best and prioritizing their success. The presentation combined local university data and research-backed practices to ensure that attendees would be equipped with new strategies that could make a difference in their teaching as soon as they would be implemented.
Following the first session were the Food for Thought concurrent table sessions where attendees would have lunch and the opportunity to seek out a table in the ballroom that would be focusing on a research topic of interest related to teaching and learning. The topics ranged from active learning, the utilization of virtual reality and/or augmented reality, TA training and assessment, and more to provide a space for attendees to delve deeper into topics that were of interest to them and would help them to develop their own practice further. Attendees that I spoke with expressed excitement at the opportunity to have time for discussions with others interested in similar topics and said it was a great experience to either learn new skills or reframe and refine old ones.
Virtual Reality
The CELT virtual reality team showcased the potential of virtual reality (VR) for enhancing education and collaboration through a captivating VR demo session. Held in the Student Activity Center (SAC) 302, the event drew faculty members who were eager to explore various VR applications for teaching and learning. Three interactive stations were set up, offering immersive experiences using 360 videos, WebXR Framevr, and Horizon Workrooms.
Station 1: 360-Degree Video
Mark Lang, a 360-degree video and photo expert at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), has been revolutionizing education through immersive experiences that enhance student engagement, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark’s collaboration with Dr. Darcy Lonsdale led to a virtual field trip to the Rocky Intertidal Zone at Crane Neck Point on Long Island Sound, allowing students to explore marine ecosystems remotely, and learn from Dr. Lonsdale’s narrative at the same time. Mark’s ingenuity in customizing equipment for challenging marine environments has improved the quality of the videos. His station attracted many interested faculty. In that demo, they were transported to a realistic sense of presence, observing the ecosystem through the Oculus headset. Faculty were thrilled to learn how this technology could be utilized to take their students on virtual excursions, making remote and inaccessible locations easily reachable for educational purposes.
The CELT virtual reality team showcased the potential of virtual reality (VR) for enhancing education and collaboration through a captivating VR demo session.
Station 2: WebXR Framevr
The second VR station introduced WebXR Framevr, an innovative platform for creating and sharing immersive content. Here, participants took a guided tour of a virtual CELT classroom, complete with interactive whiteboards, 3D objects, and multimedia resources. The experience was not only engaging but also demonstrated how virtual learning environments could help break down geographical barriers and foster collaboration between students and educators from all around the world. The WebXR virtual classroom can be accessed through VR headsets, computers, or tablets, making it a most sustainable VR solution.
Station 3: Horizon Workrooms
The third station allowed faculty to experience Horizon Workrooms, a virtual collaboration tool designed for remote meetings and team building. Participants who donned the Oculus headset or computers can join a virtual business meeting. The immersive environment enabled seamless communication and collaboration, showcasing the potential of VR to revolutionize how we work and learn together.
After testing the different VR experiences, faculty members engaged in discussions about the various features of each technology, as well as the hardware and software setup required. They also brainstormed practical applications for their own classes and considered how to integrate VR into their curriculums best to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
Anne Moyer, Sohl Lee, Daniel Amarante, Anthony Gomez III, and Kevin Reed served on a faculty panel discussion, ‘The Rebound After Remote: How Teaching Online has Transformed Current Instruction.’
Following the break for lunch, participants continued to Session Two, The Rebound After Remote: How Teaching Online has Transformed Current Instruction. This part of the program featured a panel discussion facilitated by Dr. Carol Hernandez and Jenny Zhang of CELT, where faculty discussed what they learned and how they grew professionally as a result of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel featured Dr. Anne Moyer from the Department of Psychology, Dr. Daniel Amarante from the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Sohl Lee from the Department of Art, Dr. Kevin Reed from SoMAS, and Anthony Gomez III, who is a PhD candidate in English Literature. The session not only provided a wealth of experiential knowledge but included inspiring anecdotes and stories as the panel shared what kept them motivated during the early days of the pandemic and how the experience allowed them to reflect and adjust their instructional approaches to meet their student’s needs. For the panelists, the time spent learning and growing during the era of remote learning would continue to be valuable to them to this day as many still use these strategies in their current teaching practice.
Session Three, Brightspace: Lessons Learned, was led by Diana Voss and Jennifer Adams of the Division of Information Technology and focused on some of the most impactful teachable moments that they have experienced as the university has shifted to using D2L Brightspace as the learning management system for Spring 2023 and beyond. The session was informative and useful as faculty, TAs, and staff were provided with some of the most useful and popular features in D2L Brightspace to help enhance the learning experience, create an inclusive classroom environment, collect student data, and more. The Q&A section of the presentation allowed the attendees to engage with the presenters and discuss some of the challenges that they have encountered throughout their transition to D2L Brightspace. Attendees either had their questions answered or were able to set up a time where they could consult with someone from the Division of Information Technology to find solutions to these challenges as soon as possible.
Overall, the 2023 Teaching and Learning Symposium delivered on its promise to address transitions in teaching and learning at the higher education level in an environment that celebrated growth and professional development for all. The event provided an open space for faculty, TAs, and staff to engage in discourse related to teaching and learning with their colleagues in a constructive manner. On the topic of education, theologian John Cotton once said that, “Those who teach, must never cease to learn.” That sentiment is as true today as when it was first written. Events such as the CELT symposium ensure that professional learning never ceases and that today’s educators become better each day.
If you’d like to learn more about the CELT Symposium, here is the Google Collaborative Note-Taking Document from the day’s events. If you have notes to share, please feel free to edit and add your notes. Also, here is a reference sheet from the keynote speakers Dr. Kelly Hogan and Dr. Viji Sathy that they shared after their session.
By Devon Coutts, Ph. D. Candidate
Student Instructional Assistant Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT)
devon.coutts@stonybrook.edu
When I was a teaching assistant, students often came to meet with me. Sometimes, especially before exams, there were so many that I had to offer additional sessions and bring in extra chairs to accommodate them all. But when I became an instructor, that changed. Suddenly, students rarely came in. And when they did, the meetings would be brief, lasting only the time it took for me to answer a question or two. I began to wonder: what happened? Why did my students stop coming? It could have been because they felt intimidated by my new role as an instructor, or because my office hours conflicted with their other classes. Or, perhaps my students did not believe that attending office hours would benefit them?
Are students coming to your office hours?
Mine is not an isolated experience. Overall, faculty report that students don’t come to office hours. However, research shows that both students and instructors benefit greatly from interactions outside of the classroom. Building positive relationships with instructors personalizes the learning experience, and encourages students to succeed in all of their courses. Conversations during office hours are less structured and more spontaneous than lectures, and can generate new research opportunities and insights into the course material on both sides of the discussion. At the same time, the instructor is gaining experience in the art of teaching–and more importantly how to revise their teaching practice to connect with learners.
There are several reasons why students don’t come to office hours. Griffin et al. (2014), noted that the most important determining factors include things like perceived convenience of the office hours, the course level, or whether the course is required or an elective. In a recent National Public Radio story (Nadworny, 2019) students described office hours as “‘intimidating’ or ‘terrifying,’ ” because attending office hours means “talking to the smartest, most powerful person you know.” Because of such anxieties or the perceived inconvenience of attending, some students prefer to email, to ask questions during class, or to meet with a TA instead. In a research article titled, “Office hours are kind of weird:” Reclaiming a resource to foster student-faculty interaction, the authors studied survey responses from 625 undergraduate students and found that oftentimes students do not really understand what office hours are for or why attending could benefit them Smith et al. (2017).
So, how can instructors take a more active role in encouraging students to seek meetings outside of class? One option is to require students to come to office hours as part of their grade. An instructor who takes this approach assigns 5% of the final grade and requires students to complete two one hour office visits with him, the TA, or one each. In an editorial for Inside Higher Ed, the instructor explained his approach and reported that many of his students said they found it very or extremely useful (Nowak, 2021). Another option is to reframe office hours as tutoring sessions or review (Joyce, 2017). “Tutoring” has a clearer purpose than the traditional, open-ended “office hours,” and its benefit for students needs no explanation. Alternatively, holding office hours in public spaces on campus, in libraries, cafes, or even in the hall outside of class, can help students feel more comfortable approaching professors for help. Offering virtual sessions can also be a good way to make office hours more accessible to students whose schedules prevent them from attending in person.
As instructors, if we want students to take advantage of office hours, then we ought to make it clearer to them why office hours are valuable. However, raising student interest in attending office hours is only one part of it: instructors also need to make an effort to anticipate student anxieties and be available to meet with students.
The approaches mentioned here offer a few ideas that instructors can think about for restructuring their office hours to make them more accessible. In my next few posts, I’ll explore the barriers preventing students from attending office hours, and discuss ideas for instructors looking to restructure their office hours in greater detail.
How do you approach office hours? If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment. Join us for a CELT Inclusive Teaching Discussion Panel on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. ET.
Griffin, W., Cohen, S. D., Berndtson, R., Burson, K. M., Camper, K. M., Chen, Y., & Smith, M. A. (2014). Starting the conversation: An exploratory study of factors that influence student office hour use. College Teaching, 62(3), 94-99.
Joyce, A. (2017). Framing office hours as tutoring. College Teaching, 65(2), 92-93.
Nadworny, E. (2019). College students: How to make office hours less scary. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/10/05/678815966/college-students-how-to-make-office-hours-less-scary
Nowak, Z. (2021). Why I require office hours visits. Opinion: Teaching and Learning, Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2021/12/15/benefits-requiring-students-come-office-hours-opinion#.YyoRGLBq4Q0.link
Smith, M., Chen, Y., Berndtson, R., Burson, K. M., & Griffin, W. (2017). “Office Hours Are Kind of Weird”: Reclaiming a Resource to Foster Student-Faculty Interaction. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 12, 14-29.
By Hyunjin Jinna Kim Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction
Postdoctoral Associate
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) hyunjin.kim.4@stonybrook.edu
Practicing inclusive teaching, especially in the STEM fields, is recognized as a challenge. A 2017 study by Oriana Aragón and colleagues found that an instructor’s values provide a clue as to their ability to implement pedagogies that embrace equity.
In the article Colorblind and multicultural ideologies are associated with faculty adoption of inclusive teaching practices, which ran in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, researchers investigated the relationship between faculty beliefs and the adoption of inclusive teaching practices in STEM. Results demonstrated higher adoption of inclusive teaching practices from those who endorsed multicultural ideology compared to the endorsement of a colorblind ideology.
Using survey data from 628 attendees of the National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Science Education, the study measured faculty ideologies and the influence on inclusive teaching adoption processes. In terms of ideologies, the study measured colorblind and multicultural ideologies as opposing viewpoints. The colorblind ideology refers to beliefs that emphasize sameness and equal treatment with no attention to students’ differences. The multicultural ideology, on the other hand, is a set of beliefs that embraces differences and seeks to support underrepresented or marginalized students. The measurement of adopting equitable teaching practices included instructor actions such as adopting diverse teaching methods, reducing implicit biases, or providing classroom content with contributors from diverse backgrounds.
The Summer Institute curriculum was designed based on an EPIC model: Expose, persuade, identify, and commit. In the study, educators were exposed to inclusive teaching practices; then persuaded by personal values, a sense of duty to the organization, and the negative consequences of not implementing them. Next, educators identified with the inclusive teaching practices by seeing the compatibility of the practices with their teaching approaches. Commitment is the final step where educators implemented new teaching practices. This was measured by asking participants to indicate the inclusive teaching practices they applied to their teaching as a result of the Summer Institute.
The data collection started in October 2014, when a request to respond to a survey was distributed to all who attended the National Academies Summer Institutes between 2004-2014. The Summer Institute was sponsored by the National Academies and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and ran annually from 2004 to 2015. Typically, the program is a 4-day intensive training where participants focus on active learning, assessment, and inclusive teaching practices. Results of the study showed a higher rate of changes in the implementation of inclusive teaching practices after attending the Summer Institute.
The results are important to educators as they suggest that critical self-awareness is key for faculty who seek to eliminate exclusion of traditionally underrepresented students in STEM courses. Despite the self-report biases and the well-intended faculty who committed their time to attend the Summer Institute, it is critical to recognize that faculty ideologies and orientations could potentially affect efforts in implementing inclusive practices. The good news is that faculty can play an active role in reviewing their own biases regarding their teaching ideologies and in revising their teaching practice.
What are your thoughts on this study? On making your own teaching practice more inclusive? Leave a comment below.
Reference
Aragón, O. R., Dovidio, J. F., & Graham, M. J. (2017). Colorblind and multicultural ideologies are associated with faculty adoption of inclusive teaching practices. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 10(3), 201-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000026
Google Calendar invitations will be sent to registrants and all sessions will be held on Zoom.
Seminar 6: Course Design Considerations
What is Backward Design? How can it help you plan/align all the elements of your course or lesson?
Wednesday February 2nd, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
Seminar 7: How Do Selected Learning Theories Support Pedagogy? What are Constructivism & Metacognition & how can you incorporate them into your teaching?
Wednesday February 16th, 3:30 – 5:00pm
Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
Seminar 8: Effective Teaching Online
How can you engage students online, both in asynchronous and synchronous courses and sessions?
Wednesday March 3rd, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
Seminar 9: Panel Discussion with IRACDA Postdocs
How have our IRACDA Postdoc implemented what they learned in these seminars? Ask your questions!
Wednesday March 16th, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Facilitators: Panelists TBD
Seminar 10: Applying Your Pedagogy to Different Institution Types
How can you teach effectively at different institution types with different populations of students?
Wednesday March 30th, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
Did you know that the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) supports Postdoctoral Associates (Postdocs), Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs), and Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UGTAs) in all aspects of your teaching? We offer several programs and initiatives either specifically designed for Teaching Assistants, or with specialized cohorts for Postdocs and TAs!
If you have questions about any of these programs and initiatives and/or have an idea for collaboration, please contact our *new* Teaching Assistant Development Specialist, Kimberly Bell, PhD: kimberly.bell@stonybrook.edu.
Teaching Assistant Teaching Orientation
In a partnership with the Graduate School, CELT began offering online Teaching Orientation for all new graduate TAs starting in Fall 2020. This has expanded into a 2 part Orientation, with an online asynchronous Blackboard “course” in the Fall. There are four topic areas, or learning modules to complete in Bb, and there are Zoom sessions, such as a Q&A with Graduate School staff and discussions on classroom management. Part 2 continues in the Spring with a Zoom seminar series, with topics chosen based on feedback from Fall participants, with additional, interactive Blackboard modules. For more information or if your program is interested in additional components or small in-person sessions, please contact us!
CIE/CELT College Teaching Seminars
In partnership with the Center for Inclusive Education, CELT offers the College Teaching Seminars, a bi-weekly seminar series open to all graduate TAs and Postdocs. The series continues throughout the academic year with 1.5-hour sessions on relevant topics in college teaching such as Inclusive Pedagogy, Evidence-based Teaching Practices, and Teaching Online. The Fall 2021 series will take place on Zoom. Register here and check back to this section for session materials and recordings.
Online Teaching Certificate (OTC)
CELT’s Online Teaching Certificate course is a facilitated online asynchronous course with a 5-week or 2.5 week accelerated option. There are 5 modules to dive deeper into theory and practice of effective online teaching and learning. Register here for the 5-week Fall offerings which starts on 10/18, or here for the 2.5 week version, which starts on 10/13. These are open to all faculty as well. If you or your program/department are interested in a specialized cohort, please contact kimberly.bell@stonybrook.edu
Teaching Observations
CELT offers both informal and formal teaching observations. Using the Classroom Observation protocol for Undergraduate STEM, or COPUS tool (also adapted for Humanities), we can assess how you incorporate active learning into your teaching. If you want more informal feedback, we can schedule a visit to your class and provide you with feedback about your teaching materials, student engagement, assessments, syllabus, etc. A consultation prior to the observation is recommended to discuss your teaching practices and goals. If you are interested in being observed or for more information, please complete this Google form.
Consultations
You can make an appointment for a consultation with a CELT staff member to discuss your teaching. Our TA Development Specialist can also help review Statements of Teaching philosophy and provide iterative feedback, watch a teaching demo and provide feedback, as well as consult on other aspects of your teaching. If you are interested in a consultation please send an email to celt@stonybrook.edu
New for 2021/2022:
Become a Teaching Ambassador through a Learning Community
Learning communities are groups that work together toward a common goal. Each learning community below will meet three times per semester for the academic year for 2 hours. We will discuss research, topics, and experiences relevant to college teaching. At the end of the meetings, you will be ready to go back to your departments and programs and be able to offer teaching advice to your peers.There will be three groups: Postdoc, Graduate TA, and Undergraduate TA. The first cohort will begin in Fall 2022, if you are interested in joining us, please complete this Google Form and a CELT staff member will contact you.
Join the TA/Postdoc Teaching Initiatives Advisory Committee
We are in the process of forming an advisory committee to collaborate on existing and new teaching initiatives for TAs and Postdocs. It will be a mix of TAs, Postdocs, faculty and staff. If you are interested in joining, please complete this Google Form and tell us why you are interested. The first meeting will take place in Spring 2022.
Attention all Teaching Assistants and Postdocs! The Center for Inclusive Education (CIE) and the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT) is excited to announce the Fall 2021 College Teaching Seminars!
Register below for the Fall 2021 College Teaching Seminars! You can attend one, some, or all of the seminars. All seminars will be held on Wednesdays from 3:30pm – 5pm on Zoom. Please register for each session you plan to attend. The series will continue in the Spring.
Seminar Topics and Descriptions:
10/6: Building a Foundation for a Teaching Philosophy Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
In this session, you will reflect on how you teach or how you would like to teach with the goal of building a solid foundation for your Teaching Philosophy. A full Statement of Teaching Philosophy will be a required component of your job applications and a condensed version is often used as part of faculty profiles on department websites.
10/20: Developing Inclusive Pedagogy Facilitator: Kimberly Bell, PhD – TA Development Specialist, CELT
In this session we will reflect on the connections between social identity, privilege, and equity and how these can influence both you and your students. By becoming aware of our own biases and the identities that may be present in our students, we make great leaps in being able to prevent negative influences, and perhaps more importantly develop strategies for open and honest communication to help us when we inevitably make mistakes.
11/3: Overview of the Scientific Teaching Framework Facilitator: Marvin O’Neal, PhD – Director of Introductory Biology Labs
Scientific Teaching is a framework of teaching designed specifically for teaching science in higher education. Drawing on large domains of effective pedagogy practices including Diversity, Active Learning, and Assessment we can reframe how we think of science courses and begin to develop strategies to bring these foundations of effective learning into our teaching.
11/17: The Flipped Classroom Facilitators: Rose Tirotta, EdD – Director, CELT and Bill Collins, PhD – Associate Professor, Neurobiology
Want to know more about LIVER activities? Learn how the hybrid course format is implemented in a large Biology lecture course. A hybrid course is a mix between an online and a face to face course. Lecture material is delivered online, for students to access nearly anytime. During scheduled class time, students participate in activities. In addition, general strategies for putting the flipped classroom into action will be discussed.
12/1: Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) Facilitator: David Matus, PhD – Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences, or CUREs are a great way for students to get involved in research. Involving students in authentic research is more engaging than traditional lab courses and encourages deeper critical thinking and analysis. In this session, we will hear about a CURE lab offered at SBU, BIO 327: Developmental Genetics Lab.
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has always been dedicated to the belief that excellent teaching in all its forms is vital to student success. Recently, to better align with our mission, we have been moved to the Office of the Provost under Elizabeth Newman, PhD, Vice Provost for Curriculum and Undergraduate Education.
This semester, we are excited to begin a new initiative: Teaching Tuesdays. During these sessions, CELT experts will discuss evidence-based practical strategies and reflective questions aligned with the research expertise of staff in our department. Please join us at 11:15am in the Faculty Commons (Melville Library E1332) for any of the following topics:
The pandemic has made clear that social identities, both those of our students as well as our own, shape not only how we are experiencing the fallout of the crisis, but also how we experience teaching and learning. Our session will address how reflecting on the intersection of our identities is a crucial catalyst to improving an educator’s inclusive teaching practice.
Grading and assessment are an integral part of any teaching experience. In addition to the technical details of entering and submitting grades, time management and biases also play an important role in grading and assessment, and these are often more challenging to overcome. Join this workshop to hear more about time saving tips and strategies for reducing bias in your grading and assessment.
In this workshop, we will go over the importance of self-regulation skills and how they are linked to academic achievement and academic success. We will also discuss how to model and help students develop these skills in your course.
Not all students learn in the same way. Creating courses that allow for diversity in how we interact with the content helps students to find different ways to engage and to connect with the course material. In this course we will discuss Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and redesign a course activity to be more inclusive.
In July of 2021, the US Department of Education updated the Distance Education and Innovation Federal Regulations to align with updated pedagogical research and technological capabilities. This session will review these changes in parallel with evidence-based practices to reflect on future and current course development and organization.
How can you help your students craft new ideas in their area of study, create new products, or design new models for problem solving? Ideation is the process of creating many new ideas using generative thinking strategies. Ideation takes advantage of creativity to create new ways of thinking about problems and creating solutions. In this session we will cover generative thinking, project models that can be applied and take on a design challenge.
Logic models are often required when submitting grant proposals. So what are they? Why do you need one? And how can you create your own? Join this workshop to have these questions answered and leave with a template to help you create your own.
Active learning can improve student outcomes and keep students engaged during and in-between your class meetings. Getting started incorporating active learning, implementing it, and assessing its effectiveness can seem challenging. Join this workshop to hear more about why active learning works and strategies you can implement and assess easily in your courses right away.
Please register prior to the session using the links above and email us if you have any questions.
2/17- How Selected Learning Theories Inform Pedagogy (rescheduled from 2/3)
In this session we will discuss a selection of current learning theories and strategies/considerations for your teaching. Learning Theory elements discussed include Constructivism, Metacognition, and Growth Mindset and how to implement them in your classes.
2/24- Effective Teaching Online (rescheduled from 2/17)
Effective teaching online has become critical with the ongoing pandemic, and will continue to be a valued skill. In this seminar, we will discuss strategies and tools for student engagement in both asynchronous, synchronous, and blended classes.
3/3- Panel Discussion with CIE/IRACDA Postdocs
In this panel discussion you will hear from IRACDA Postdocs who have taught in local institutions – Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Old Westbury, and Brooklyn College.
3/17- Different Student Populations and Institution Types
We will discuss the ins and outs of applying the teaching strategies you have developed. This will focus on the different types of institutions you may teach at and their varied student populations.
This semester, we are excited to begin a new initiative: 