Previous CONNECT Conferences
What is CONNECT?
In 1993, Lee Shulman argued against “pedagogical solitude,” suggesting that for teaching to be most effective, we must “go public” more. We need more conversation about teaching, more opportunity to share what we do to promote student learning, and more venues in which this can happen.
To provide such a forum, the Bruce K. Nelson Faculty Development Center is proud to host the CONNECT Teaching Conference every year. The CONNECT Conference serves as an opportunity for educators to come together to learn about and reflect on effective and innovative teaching practices, and begin to develop ideas about how to integrate new practices into their own classrooms. Programs presented and conversations started at the CONNECT Conference are additionally important for developing teaching practices that encourage student-faculty collaboration and partnerships, which the FDC is increasingly committed to supporting. Thank you for joining us to take part in these exciting discussions and to share ideas about teaching and learning.
2024 Conference
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Address: Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Student Success
Speaker: Peter Felten
Description
Decades of research demonstrate that student relationships with faculty, staff, and peers are crucial to academic success and personal well-being in higher education, particularly for first-generation and students of color. Drawing on almost 500 interviews with students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities across the country, this interactive session will explore relationships (in and beyond the classroom) as a flexible, scalable, and humane approach to ensuring that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore the big questions that matter for their lives and our communities.
Biography:
Peter Felten is professor of history, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University. During the 2022-2023 academic year, he was named Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, at Carleton University in Ottawa. Peter has published six books about undergraduate education including (with Leo Lambert), Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). His next book, a student guide to relationship-rich education, co-authored with Isis Artze-Vega, Leo Lambert, and Oscar Miranda Tapia, was recently published by Johns Hopkins in 2023 (with an open access online version free to all readers). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and also of the POD Network, the U.S. professional society for educational developers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute, a foundation that works to advance equity, justice, and upward social mobility through higher education. Contact Peter at [email protected].
Sessions
By: Guey-Meei Yang - Professor, School of Art and Design
ARTE 360 (Technology in Visual Arts Education) prepares students to fuse technology into art teaching practices. In the National Visual Arts Standards, eleven anchor standards are grouped under four artistic processes, i.e., creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. One ARTE 360 module focuses on innovative uses of generative AI in the four artistic processes. This presentation highlights two situated learning choice projects. In one, students use AI to design game cards for teaching eight studio habits of mind and meet three creating anchor standards: #1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work; #2 Organize and develop artistic ideas and work; and #3 Refine and complete artistic work. In the other project, students curate an “Artists vs AI” exhibit juxtaposing artworks and statements created by human artists and generative AI bots to compare their characteristics and limits. The presenter hopes to spark innovative AI uses in various subjects and discuss critical issues.
By: Ron Flowers - Professor, Leadership and Counseling & Amy Bearinger - Associate Lecturer, Communication, Media & Theatre Arts
Amy and Ron have been participants in the Faculty Learning Community Building a Caring Classroom and will share what they have learned from workshop facilitators from the JED Foundation, Healthy Minds Network, Steve Fund, and Trevor Project to create a caring classroom.
By: Matthew Gregory - Title IX Coordinator & Director of the Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Office; Interim Director for the Disability Resource Center
In this session, we will review resolution options under the Title IX process, including formal and informal resolutions. Within this review, folks will learn about the ins and outs of a formal investigation and the developing ideas for how the office is looking to expand informal resolution options.
By: Kate Pittsley-Sousa - Professor, Library & Sara Memmott - Professor, Library
How do EMU students cope with high textbook costs? Do text costs limit their educational progress? Does access to free readings benefit students in ways beyond financial savings? Do textbook costs impact Pell Grant, first generation, and other student groups differently? Why do students so strongly object to access codes and inclusive access fees? EMU Library faculty recently surveyed EMU students about the impact of textbook costs, and more than 1100 responded. Students wrote many interesting comments in their responses. Come for a discussion of the most interesting results from the data and students' reflections.
By: Moderator: Olivia Ford - Associate Professor, Dietetics & Human Nutrition Programs, Suzanne Gray - Professor, University Library & Women's and Gender Studies, Raed Jarrah - Assistant Professor, School of Visual and Built Environments, Steve Krause - Professor, English Language & Literature & Sarah VanZoeren - Associate Professor, Social Work
Gen AI is a higher education game-changer that has permeated the academy - at this point, everyone is talking about it, or should be. And yet, most of us find ourselves somewhat in the dark, trying to wrap our minds around this new innovation without fully understanding it. Join our panelists as they discuss how they are thinking about Gen AI these days, from their multiple positions as faculty. How do they see their own classes, and the classes of others, changing in light of its emergence?
By: Sarah Ginsberg - Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Taylor Angsioco, Rachel Chatwin, Matt Eby, Alivia English, Gabrielle Heier & Samantha Kadian - Graduate Students, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Scobey describes the importance of making students feel welcome for the entire time they are with us at a university. Noting that it increases their sense of belonging within higher education, it plays a role in relationship-rich education (Felten & Lambert, 2020). In this session, one faculty member and six graduate students will discuss their perspectives on the "relentless welcome" in the classroom. This workshop will focus on what educators can do to increase students' feelings of being welcome, the value of it for students, and what behaviors that students feel signal to them that they are truly and relentlessly welcome in their learning spaces. Participants will have the opportunity to develop ideas that they can take into the classroom to increase their own creation of a sense of welcoming and belonging for students.
By: Liv Overbee - Senior, Neuroscience/Pre-Med
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pre-professional program students has been profound. Restriction to in-person activities, clinical opportunities, lab environments, and increased responsibilities/hardships outside the classroom have negatively impacted the journey of pre-professional students. I entered Eastern as a Fall 2020 freshman, the first semester post-initial onset of the pandemic. Although I am now graduating college in a post-pandemic world, the implications of these things on my graduate education applications is evident. In pre-law programs, researchers found a decrease in discussion based on career plans, student engagement, and partnership post-pandemic. Even though we are currently entering a world post-COVID (LSSSE Annual Results, 2021), researchers found that students, specifically first-generation and underrepresented minority students, faced increased disadvantages with accessing resources that could benefit their post-graduate applications (Rohr-Kirchgraber et al. 2021). In my presentation, I will present the disparities felt by Eastern’s students in these programs, and small, but impactful, experiences faculty in these disciplines can implement into their classes, syllabi, etc., that can work towards providing support for this incredibly diverse student population.
By: Becca Spragg - Associate Professor, Orthotics & Prosthetics & Alivia English - Graduate Student, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Being a professional is more than skills and responsibilities. It involves thinking and feeling like a professional, including roles and values, and applying them to the various situations one will encounter in the workforce. To be successful, student learning needs to encompass professional socialization. Educators can support students in developing a professional identity and feeling a sense of belonging in their profession. This session will explore professional socialization and identify methods educators can incorporate to inspire student persistence.
By: Leslie Blome - Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Cynthia Macknish - Department of World Languages, SoTL Group Co-Facilitator, Cam McComb - School of Art & Design, SoTL Group Co-Facilitator & Jeffrey L. Bernstein - Department of Political Science and Faculty Development Center
Many people in higher education are talking about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), but it is not always clear what exactly this work looks like in practice. In this session, members of the Faculty Development Center’s SoTL learning community discuss the broad principles of our SoTL projects, why we chose to pursue these investigations, and how we have approached these studies. We pay particular attention to ways we use this work to feed back into our teaching, helping us to not only generate publishable work on teaching and learning, but also to enhance our practice in the process.
By: Zach Lewis - REC/IM Esports
This presentation describes modern scholastic esports and how it can be leveraged as a new supplementary interdisciplinary learning vehicle, particularly for college-aged students. Two main tools of learning will be covered, classroom projects and professional internships. Classroom projects extend into esports by allowing students to engage with the esports program in accomplishing projects that are new or already exist in collegiate course syllabi. Professional internships offered by the esports program provide intensively brief, highly valuable hands-on entrepreneurial experiences to upperclassmen students seeking to diversify or deepen their knowledge set. With these tools in mind, esports in a scholastic environment can be viewed not only as a recreational outlet, but also as a multifaceted resource for student developmental success.
By: Moderator: Rita Shah - Associate Professor, Criminology, Jonathan Dailey - Undergraduate Student, Ecology, Maria Goodrich - Lecturer, Biology, Jackie LaRose - Professor, Teacher Education & Dayanara Sanchez - Graduate Student, Criminology & Criminal Justice
The panelists (professors or students who have been part of "ungraded" classes) will discuss what ungrading means, how it works for them in practice, the challenges it presents, and how they see its use contributing to improved outcomes in the classes they teach or take.
By: Emma Wuetrich - LGBT Resource Center Coordinator
A brief overview of the complex identities within the LGBTQ+ umbrella and how queer experiences may manifest at EMU.
By: Moderator: Ann Blakeslee - Professor, English, Davis Clement - Assistant Professor, Education, Beth Currans - Professor & Department Head, Women's and Gender Studies, Marianne Laporte - Associate Professor, Biology, Jackie LaRose - Professor, Teacher Education, & Cam McComb - Associate Professor, Visual Arts Education
Faculty members and students from a variety of disciplines and types of classes (e.g., smaller and quite large) who have been using Hypothesis will share experiences, benefits, and challenges in using social annotation with course readings. The university currently has a limited site license for Hypothesis, a social annotation tool embedded in Canvas. This will be a great opportunity to learn about this newly available tool and its affordances in promoting our students' engagement with course reading.
Plenary Discussion
By:
Peter Felten (Moderator), Professor, History and Executive Director Center for Engaged Learning (Elon University)
Estelle Hackos, Junior, Political Science Major
Cam McComb, Associate Professor, Visual Art Education
Christopher Robbins, Professor, Social Foundations of Education
Anthony Webster, Director, TRIO Student Support Services
It is easy to talk about the importance of relationships in higher education, but how do we make that a reality? This panel will feature a diverse set of voices from different positions in the university, all of whom have successfully enriched their time at EMU through the relationships they have made here. The panelists will discuss how important these relationships have been in their time here, and what each of us, regardless of our position at the university, can do to make this a reality for more students.
2023 Conference
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Address: Teaching and Learning Together: Principles and Possibilities
Speaker: Alison Cook-Sather
Description
In this talk, Dr. Alison Cook-Sather presented a definition and underlying principles of pedagogical partnership, reviewed arguments in the scholarly arena for the potential of partnership work, and provided examples of some of the most common outcomes of pedagogical partnerships as articulated in student and faculty participants’ words. She then highlighted faculty work at Eastern Michigan University that embodies partnership principles, and she invited all participants to explore ideas for (further) developing pedagogical partnership work at Eastern Michigan University.
Biography:
Alison Cook-Sather is Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education at Bryn Mawr College and Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. Alison has developed internationally recognized programs that position students and teachers as pedagogical partners, published over 100 articles and book chapters, and spoken or consulted on partnership work at over 80 institutions in 13 countries. Author or co-author of eight books, including Pedagogical Partnerships: A How-To Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in Higher Education (2019), Promoting Equity and Justice through Pedagogical Partnership (2021), and Co-Creating Equitable Teaching and Learning: Structuring Student Voice into Higher Education (2022), she is founding editor of Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education and founding co-editor of International Journal for Students as Partners. Learn more about Alison’s work at https://www.alisoncooksather.com/.
Sessions
Presentations
Trauma Informed Teaching in Higher Education Expand dropdownBy: Dibya Choudhuri - Professor, Leadership and Counseling
We focus on ways in which trauma is ubiquitous in higher education and significantly impacts learning, through student characteristics, delivery of subject content, educator behavior and interaction. This presentation offers ways to think through pedagogical assumptions and develop syllabi, assignments, and course content presentation using trauma-informed principles to maximize effectiveness of student learning, retention, and future success of trained professionals. Geared primarily for higher education and referencing mental health training, many of the suggestions may be broadly implemented.
Link to Trauma Informed Teaching in Higher Education Slideshow.
Effective Teaming and Meeting Mechanics Expand dropdownBy: Celeste Gentile - Part-Time Lecturer, Special Education & Communication Sciences and Disorders
Meetings are an important part of sharing information and making decisions that help us capitalize on the strengths and experiences of a group of people with common goals. The most efficient and effective meetings adhere to a defined process and agreed upon guidelines that the group follows to execute the goals of the meeting.
Experience tells us that certain key ingredients are important for meetings to achieve their purpose, for example getting the right people to the table, staying on task, making decisions based on accurate information, problem solving, and executing plans in a fair and timely manner. Each of these steps, among others, are defined in this manual to assist teams to accomplish their meeting goals and work more effectively.
The Effective Teaming and Meeting Mechanics processes and tools are both universal for all meetings and customized for specific types of meetings so that it will function as a resource for various meetings. (START, GVSU https://tinyurl.com/EffectiveTeamingMtgMchncs)
Collaborative Interdisciplinary Learning Expand dropdownBy: Jillian Graves - Associate Professor, Social Work & Alankrita Pandey - Associate Professor, College of Business
We will discuss the use of the InterProfessional Education Simulation for Complex problem solving pedagogy in a graduate classroom. We will discuss our experiences of using the process with Management and Social Work Students. We will talk about the process, learning objectives, methodology and student reactions. We will then discuss how the process can be employed to teach complex concepts involving different disciplines which nonetheless deal with similar problems (HRM and Social Work, Management and Engineering, Healthcare and Management etc).
Empowering College Faculty to Support and Advocate for International Students Expand dropdownBy: Zuzana Tomas - Profesor, ESL/TESOL
The presenter shares a framework for promoting international student success in academic courses. Concepts and strategies are based on a book she co-authored for use in faculty development. The target audience is instructional faculty with emerging knowledge about teaching students from varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Attendees get familiar with core second language acquisition theories underpinning international student successes and challenges, reflect on key effective classroom instructional practices that promote scaffolding, interaction, noticing, and connections which foster learner success; list alternative assessments that broaden the opportunities for students to demonstrate learning; and identify institutional resources on their campus that sustain and supplement efforts made in the classroom. Attendees will also receive a handout that outlines a framework for fostering international student success in academic courses. We will engage in a short discussion about challenges participating instructors are grappling with, sharing firsthand experiences.
Link to Empowering College Faculty to Support and Advocate for International Students.
CIDI Labs Expand dropdownBy: Rebecca Pietrowski - Instructional Designer, Center of E-Learning & Garrett Whitehead - Instructional Designer, Center for E-Learning
CIDI Labs is an enhancement to Canvas that instructors can use to apply more sophisticated organization and layout to their course content. Join us for training on this tool that can make your online course materials easier to navigate and study.
Learning Partnerships Outside of the EMU Classroom Expand dropdownBy: Mark Whitters - Full Time Lecturer, History & Philosophy, John Milkovich - Graduate Student, Philosophy, Justice Carlton - Graduate Student, Philosophy & Kuma Gordon
This is a platform for former EMU students to share how their learning partnerships with EMU teachers continue to serve them in life. Two speakers will describe the dividends of their learning experiences at EMU as they currently study in grad school, one about such benefits in the workplace. Their topic: How do partnerships forged at EMU still impact members of the EMU community?
Empowering Students as Class Coaches Expand dropdownBy: Mark Whitters - Full Time Lecturer, History & Philosophy
This presentation profiles several students who explain what got them so excited to serve without pay for an entire semester (and longer) as class coaches. They will describe their role as course designers, their participation as non-enrolled members of the class, and their involvement as social and learning community bridge-builders. Their experience is based on a methodology called "Reacting to the Past," using tools of role-playing, team-building, and educational gaming.
Workshops
Civics Across the Disciplines Expand dropdownBy: Brigid Beaubien - Professor, Teacher Education & Amanda O. Maher - Assistant Professor, History and Philosophy
Universities play an essential role in preparing students for civic life and sustaining democracy. For some disciplines, this responsibility is directly tied to our content and teaching. For others, it seems a distant objective. This workshop is for any faculty or instructor who is interested in beginning or honing their civic teaching practices in their disciplines and areas of expertise. Participants will explore what citizenship engagement looks like in our students, examines multiple theories of civics and citizenship education, and provides practical activities for participants to take immediately back to their classrooms.
Addressing Challenges Faced by Neurodivergent Students Expand dropdownBy: Lake Braendle - Student, Women's and Gender Studies & Kaycee Johnson - Student, Psychology and English
Typical classrooms have been built for people with neurotypical brains, which poses obstacles for neurodivergent people. Many neurodivergent students struggle with conventional teaching strategies, leading us to conduct research on strategies to better accommodate neurodivergence in the classroom. Our main areas of interest and research for this project are focus and environments, both of which affect learning experiences. The workshop will consist of a presentation of our research findings, small-group discussions, and a final whole-group discussion exploring strategies to assist neurodivergent students. Overall, this workshop will provide our audience with knowledge of how neurodivergence affects the classroom and learning experience, how teaching and learning can benefit from being more accommodating, and specific actions students and faculty can take to better their own and others’ learning experiences.
Link to Addressing Challenges Faced by Neurodivergent Students Slideshow.
Making Mistakes in the Classroom: Rupture and Repair Expand dropdownBy: Dibya Choudhuri - Professor, LDCN
An inevitable, and I argue necessary, component of teaching is making mistakes in the classroom. These can occur from a variety of sources involving the juicy juxtaposition of the instructor, the students, the topic, the teaching method, and the sociopolitical context.
In this workshop, I share some of my mistakes; ways I addressed them, and both successes and failures of my strategies. I then invite you to work on case studies in small groups; analyzing what pedagogical assumptions and beliefs led up to this situation, and then generate strategies. Finally, I invite you to volunteer to share a mistake and your thoughts about repair, or a current situation (described FERPA safe) with which we can assist. We then go on our ways with thoughts, insights, and some collected resources on repairing interpersonal relationships.
Link to Making Mistakes in the Classroom: Rupture and Repair Slideshow.
Developing Inclusive Excellence in STEM Expand dropdownBy: Vernnaliz Carrasquillo - Associate Professor, Product Design Engineering Technology & Kristi Judd - Professor, Biology
We will have a panel made of 3 faculty members curently participating in the MOOC facilitated by Andrew Ross. The faculty will talk about what they've learned and what they've put into practice into their classroom.
Empowering Students Through Interviewing and Writing Expand dropdownBy: Elizabeth M. Donovan - Assistant Professor, Paralegal Program
Understanding their potential to play an important role in issues that matter to them can motivate students to obtain skills that allow them to express their views, support their views with reliable information, address contrasting views, and build consensus.
I will share an assignment, student work, and student feedback, and facilitate a conversation addressing the benefits of a multi-week assignment that includes the following elements: topic, interview, research, writing, outlines, peer-review, self-review, and assignment management.
We will discuss how such an assignment enables students to learn and practice soft and hard skills while exploring a topic of interest to them, in an inclusive learning community that is caring and supportive. We will also share strategies to encourage students to discover connections between the course material, their personal experiences, and broader societal experiences.
Discussing Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion in Online Course Design Expand dropdownBy: Marisol Garrido-Gutierrez - Professor, World Languages
One of the challenges of online teaching is designing courses that allow all students to feel welcome, and able to engage in class regardless of their background or abilities. This session aims to discuss and evaluate inclusiveness and equity teaching practices. Participants will have the opportunity to self-evaluate one of their courses (using a rubric adapted from the Peralta equity rubric) to determine areas to improve).
Let's Chat about ChatGPT Expand dropdownBy: Michael McVey - Professor, Teacher Education, Susan Bushinski - Associate Professor, Nursing & Ann Blakeslee - Professor, English Language and Literature
ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence (AI) driven chatbot launched as a prototype in late fall 2022. It has gained the attention of teachers across a range of disciplines since it provides detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge. Faculty have shared concerns about widespread cheating despite uneven factual accuracy and just as many have found interesting uses for it as an instructional tool. In this open-ended discussion, we will share examples of ChatGPT's potential uses (and abuses) in the classroom and we expect the audience to chime in with their own examples and insights as we work toward understanding its potential impact on our teaching.
Engagement and Partnerships in the Asyncgronous Community: The Potenial of Gaming Expand dropdownBy: Mark Whitters - Full Time Lecturer, History & Philosophy & John Bruenger - Instructional Designer, Center for E-Learning
As higher education turns increasingly to online learning and especially asynchronous classes, the challenges of building "a learning community" over time and space mount. This workshop describes an attempt to capitalize on teamwork, role-playing, and gaming strategies as a way to foster engagement in a cyberspace world. The immersion involves workshop participants enrolling in a "sand-box" classroom, listening to short lectures about the difficulties facing course designers, and then reacting to the "veteran" students who took a Fall 2022 course called "Global History of Islam," but now asynchronously are members of the Connect 2023 virtually constituted community learning about gaming. By the end of this process, the workshop aspires to incentivize an active response among its Connect 2023 participants as if involved in the same teamwork, role-playing, and gaming that motivated those who previously took the Global History of Islam.
Sandbox
Learning to Approach Difficult Conversations with Caregivers about Autism Concerns: A Qualitative Study Conducted in a Graduate Communication Disorders Course Expand dropdownBy: Leslie Blome - Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education and Communication Sciences and Disorders
Lack of confidence about conducting difficult conversations is one barrier to timely diagnosis of autism and access to. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are often in the position of broaching these conversations with caregivers, particularly given the prominent role of communication deficits in the diagnosis of the disorder. However, future SLPs rarely receive instruction about how to perform this complex and delicate task during their graduate education. Teaching future clinicians a structured framework (PEWTER – Prepare, Evaluate, Warning, Telling, Emotional Response, Regrouping) to approach this delicate task may ease anxiety, increase the likelihood that crucial conversations will take place, and improve the experience for both clinicians and caregivers.
What are the Best Practices for Creating Immersive Learning Experiences that Lead to Effective Bilingual Education Programs? Expand dropdownBy: Michael Foster - Assistant Professor, French and Bilingual Education
The aim of this research project will be to study effective pedagogical approaches and practices used in established bilingual education programs at different universities in Canada and then replicate those practices in the bilingual education courses taught here at EMU. This presentation will briefly present one model, describe some best practices in the model, and then discuss preliminary research questions using the SoTL framework of how teaching practices in bilingual education can be better informed through replicating and analyzing the established model for courses here at EMU.
Introducing and Expanding Mentorship in Graduate Programs using a First Year Meeting Expand dropdownBy: W. John Koolage - Professor & Director of General Education, History and Philosophy, ENVI
Students entering graduate programs face the same sorts of questions that students entering college face: can I do this, do I belong here, and do I want to do this (Golde 1998)? In general, students are left to answer these questions on their own. Student success metrics, such as graduation rates, retention rates and placement rates, can indicate how and to what degree students are answering these questions in the affirmative. Further, the ‘this’ in the question (do I want to do this?) is typically brought into focus for students by way of ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (Lortie 1975). That is, students are left to figure out what the profession and graduate work is like by observing those around them: peers and faculty, primarily (Austin 2002). One solution to this problem is to create a more formal mentoring system. Philosophy at EMU has done so, and I intend to study and assess this teaching and learning intervention. This sandbox touches on the basics of both an introduction to a formal mentoring intervention and its potential assessment.
Creating a Culture of Belonging for BIPOC Students Expand dropdownBy: Dyann Logwood - Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies
This sandbox discussion provides an opportunity to discuss a project centered on the mentoring and academic experiences of BIPOC students. A central goal of the project is to determine how faculty can cultivate safe and nurturing spaces for our diverse student population. We will explore the challenges faculty mentors may encounter in their efforts to support BIPOC students and provide space for faculty to share ideas to support our diverse student population.
Analyzing Reflections: A Work in Progress Expand dropdownBy: Cynthia Macknish - Associate Professor, TESOL
Reflecting on teaching is an important aspect of transformative learning (Gorski & Dalton, 2020), but the reflection process is not always well understood (Farrell, 2019). Moreover, assessing learning through reflections is challenging. The often-limited quality of reflections by preservice teachers in my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) courses has prompted me to examine ways to be more intentional in guiding reflective practice and to explore models of assessing learning through reflections. In my research, I plan to analyze pre and post samples of reflections using a model of analysis that will effectively demonstrate learning. I would love to hear about how others assess learning through reflections in other contexts.
Link to Analyzing Reflections: A Work in Progress Slideshow.
Towards Best Practices in Role Playing Assignments Expand dropdownBy: Mary G. Strasma - Associate Professor, History & Philosophy
In debates, simulations, role-playing games, and other deep-immersion pedagogies, how much impact does role assignment have on student learning? Should students be given input into what role they will play, and if so how much? Can we discern a set of best practices that will stretch students while also ensuring safety, promoting persistence, and furthering DEI goals? Participants in this session will examine these questions, take a look at some preliminary ideas and tips, and discuss this developing research area.
Plenary Discussion
Building a Broader Tent to Support Student Success Expand dropdownBy: Sean Woolf (Moderator), Associate Director, Office of Wellness and Community Responsibility, Wayne Doyle, Director, Veteran Student Support Services, Lucas Langdon, Director, Campus Life & Jeanette Zalba, Director, Housing and Residence Life
Faculty are not alone in their concern for, and in working toward, student success. Our colleagues in the Division of Student Affairs, and in closely-related other offices on campus, share our goals, and bring unique and valuable skills to the table in helping to best support our students in their intellectual and personal growth. Join us for this plenary to hear more about some of these offices on campus, what they do, and how they can be allies for instructional staff. Following this panel discussion, our panelists will be available during lunch to continue the conversation.
2023 CONNECT Photos
Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.
2022 Conference
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speech of Connnect 2022: Trauma-Informed Education & Bearing Witness to Challenges and Resilience
Speaker: Dr. Mays Imad
Description
In The Book of Joy, the Dalai Lama invites us to develop our “mental immunity,” the skills we need, individually and collectively, to help ourselves and our communities guard against chronic stress so we may continue to learn and thrive. A key to developing such pivotal skills is understanding how our brains perceive and react to “triggers.” In this interactive session, we began by considering the neuroscience of traumatic stress, especially as it relates to work-related traumatic experiences. We then considered the research behind the burnout epidemic and why this global phenomenon is something we must, as educators and leaders, not take lightly. Finally, we examined the notion of healing, at the individual and community levels, and what key ingredients are needed for us to move forward in a meaningful, elevating, and sustainable way. This session offered a combination of theory and practice.
Biography
Mays Imad received her undergraduate training from the University of Michigan–Dearborn where she studied philosophy. She received her doctoral degree in Cellular & Clinical Neurobiology from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. She then completed a National Institute of Health-Funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona in the Department of Neuroscience. She joined the department of life & physical sciences at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona as an adjunct faculty member in 2009 and later as a full-time faculty member in 2013. During her tenure at Pima, she taught Physiology, Pathophysiology, Genetics, Biotechnology, and Biomedical ethics. She also founded Pima’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC).
Mays is a Gardner Institute Fellow and an AAC&U Senior Fellow within the Office of Undergraduate STEM Education. Dr. Imad’s research focuses on stress, self-awareness, advocacy, and classroom community, and how these impact student learning and success. Through her teaching and research she seeks to provide her students with transformative opportunities that are grounded in the aesthetics of learning, truth-seeking, justice, and self-realization.
Outside of the classroom, Dr. Imad works with faculty members across disciplines at her own institution and across the country to promote inclusive, equitable, and contextual education–all rooted in the latest research on the neurobiology of learning. A nationally-recognized expert on trauma-informed teaching and learning, she passionately advocates for institutions to make mental health a top priority and to systematically support the education of the whole student.
View Mays's recent publications
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Sessions
2021 Conference