1. Key Concepts in Teaching and Learning
Rebecca Johnson
Instructional Design Researcher & Consultant,
Teaching & Learning Services

2. Session Overview At the end of this session, you should be able to
Describe key elements of student engagement
Identify opportunities for teaching support from Teaching and Learning Services
Identify resources that may be useful to you as you learn more about teaching and learning

3. Teaching and Learning Services
myCourses support and training
workshops on creating a syllabus and on instructional design
20-Minute Mentor screenings and discussions
consultations
Teaching and Learning Services

4. What sets the tone for a good class?
On your own, on one side of your index card, think about a class that you were excited to attend and write down the main reason why.
Now think about a class that you dreaded attending and write down the main reason why.
In groups of four, each person takes turns, introduce yourself and your program, and in 2 minutes share your positive and negative experiences.
Spend another five minutes. Come to consensus as a group. What makes an exciting class? A less exciting class?

5. Classroom Atmosphere Exciting Less exciting New things to learn
Reads off of slides
Exciting and inspirational
Required courses that aren’t interesting
Ditto to above but outside of class
Enforced hierarchy
Structured with clear goals
Cramped classrooms
Passionate and energetic and cares
Not excited
Applicability of what you’re learning
Professors admit mistakes
Accomodating of student difference
Terrifying faculty
Flexible and responsive
Not grounding theory in application
Dismissive of question/too much content

6. Classroom Atmosphere—2017 GTA Orientation
Good vibes
Less-good vibes
Listening to students
Not listening to students
Passionate and engaged
Fast and monotone
Bringing energy and a good mood
Not interested in teaching or in interacting
Knowledgeable
Diverging from a goal
Energizing students with a variety of teaching strategies or materials
Not doing that
Caring about what you’re doing and sharing in a way that gets students excited
Condescending and not willing to put the work in
Be open-minded and open to not knowing stuff

7. What Is Student Engagement?
Value: Relevance to their personal, academic, and professional interests
Real-world relevance
Varied forms
Your excitement for your discipline
Expectancies: Students need to know that with hard work, they can succeed
Clarify your expectations
Tell students to put down the highlighter and pick up a pen
Normalize “failure” or at least struggle

8. Three Things to Do Before Class
Ask “How Are You?”: relationships formed with adults (faculty or not faculty) are critical
Display the framework: Learners need to know how this all fits together (See How Learning Works)
Create a sense of wonder: NASA picture of the day, what new development or current event has you excited? --James M. Lang, “Small Changes in Teaching”

9. Resources I Like
The Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University and How Learning Works by Susan Ambrose, et al
Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University
Ken Bain
James M. Lang
Maryellen Weimer
Raul Pacheco-Vega
Barkley and Major’s Learning Assessment Techniques

10. Identifying Elements of Your Personal Learning Network
Your department: your advisor, other faculty, your graduate school colleagues
Your fellow graduate students: outside of your department
Teaching/learning-focused centers at RIT: Teaching and Learning Services, CASTLE, Gray Matter
Resources out in the world: pedagogy journals, Chronicle of Higher Ed, Faculty Focus, Magna 20-Minute Mentor, Center for Teaching and Learning websites (so many), Academic Twitter (sometimes)

11. GTA Community of Inquiry
Meet roughly once per month
Reading and discussing literature on learning
Community sets the agenda
Application will go out in the next week or so

12. On the back of your index card, answer these two questions:
What will stick with you from this hour?
What is your most urgent question about teaching or learning?
Pass these index cards to the side of the room.

13. Questions?