Upcoming Conferences

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

Friday, March 30, 2012 from 8:30 am - 2:45 pm in the Walb Union Ballroom

Resourceful critical thinking and problem solving is one of six fundamental knowledge and skill goals that IPFW graduates must attain. What is critical thinking in your discipline? What methods are most effective in teaching critical thinking? How do you assess critical thinking as a learning outcome? The day long interactive workshop will be led by Bill Roberson, Director of the Institute or Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership at SUNY Albany, and advocate for transforming the way we define and structure learning experiences for novices in our disciplines. Using a hands-on experiential approach, Bill will guide workshop participants in the creation of a plan that will allow them to design a new course or revise an existing course in ways that promote stronger student engagement with the materials, as well as greater student mastery of disciplinary thinking. This conference will benefit new and experienced faculty, and should be of special interest to teachers of Area VI General Education courses.

8:30 am - 9:00 am Registration & Refreshments

Beverages and fruit will be provided.

9:00 am - 10:15 am Thinking Critically about the Teaching of Critical Thinking

An introduction to the challenges of inducing students to think more rigorously, systematically, and reflectively both within and across disciplines. Participants will step into the role of critical thinking learners, in order to experience and reflect upon the precise structures and formats of university teaching that will engage students.

10:15 am - 10:30 am Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm The Courage to Think

Designed for faculty seeking ways to decouple for their students and themselves the idea of "correctness" from learning. Participants will experience activities that help unpack the assumptions underpinning the tradition of procedural instruction. These activities and subsequent reflections will also allow construction of a new rhetoric and conceptual framework for transforming teaching. Participants will be asked to analyze their own teaching practices, and to begin developing new strategies for “reproblematizing” learning in their courses and classrooms.

12:00 pm - 12:45 pm Boxed lunch

12:45 pm - 2:45 pm Course and Syllabus Design for Active Learning and Critical Thinking

Participants will walk out of the conference with a course design plan that will include activities that motivate students to use critical thinking and effective evaluation strategies.

Register Now

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