Creativity in Teaching & Learning

Presented by: Dr. Punya Mishra, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University

Creativity is of increasing importance to educators both for their professional success and that of their students particularly given the complex, evolving knowledge information ecology in which we live. This workshop will focus on how one can become a more creative teacher. We will explore a range of questions related to creativity, including: What does it mean to be creative? How can creativity be developed and nurtured? What does the creative process look like? What is the relationship between creativity, play and humor? (In other words, do creative people have more fun?) How can we become more creative in teaching? What is the role of technology in this process?

A critical part of becoming creative is being to play – to play with ideas, with tools and with techniques. In an interactive series of activities participants will explore the meaning of creativity – how it is defined and explore some strategies for developing, nurturing and supporting creativity, particularly in their teaching. This will be an extremely hands-on workshop with multiple opportunities for discussion and exploration. Each of the issues/topics will also be illustrated with multiple examples from the world of education, psychology, and business, interspersed with games and puzzles connected to the ideas being discussed. A key part of the workshop will be helping participants develop a creative solution to a key problem of practice all instructors face.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will be able to define and identify creativity in professional, personal and institutional contexts.
• Participants will learn 5 standard steps in the creative process. Participants will engage in multiple creative tasks and will seek to extrapolate their learning from this task to their individual contexts.
• Participants will understand that creativity happens best under playful conditions (something difficult to capture in specific learning objectives – which turns out to be another paradox of trying to teach creativity). Participants will learn multiple strategies for applying creativity in their professional lives: as teachers, educator, and learners.

Defining Teaching Excellence & Promoting Instructional Quality at Mizzou

In 2019-2020, Mizzou will continue to refine and define characteristics of teaching excellence and effectiveness. Experts and peers from across the nation have accomplished varied and deep formative and summative processes to recognize and measure instructional quality across learning modalities. Let’s gather for the first of several conversations on the wide range of definitions and successful approaches. A special focus on peer observation models and the very way we choose to define teaching excellence will animate our discussion.

Featured guests:

Dr. Emily Miller, AVP for Policy, Association of American Universities

Dr. Ginger Clark, University of Southern California

Dr. James Lang, Assumption College

Flower Darby, MA, University of Northern Arizona

Dr. Carl Wieman, Stanford University

Dr. Victoria Mondelli, University of Missouri

Dr. Clark Peters, University of Missouri

Ben Trachtenberg, JD, University of Missouri

Anne Alexander, JD, University of Missouri

Dr. Casandra Harper Morris, University of Missouri

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will consider exemplar national models and methods with regard to measuring teaching effectiveness.
• Participants will discern between formative and summative processes for promoting instructional quality.
• Participants will discuss existing definitions of teaching excellence, offer constructive critique, and iterate definition(s).
• Participants will contribute to a campus culture of scholarly teaching that recognizes that multiple streams of on-going consistent information/feedback and reflection on one’s teaching practices leads to one’s own development as an educator as well as to improved student learning, experience, and overall success

Managing “Hot” Moments: Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom

Presented by: Dr. Elisa Glick, University of Missouri

This session will use actual Mizzou classroom scenarios as the basis for and interactive session on managing diversity-related issues and “hot” moments in the classroom. When such moments arise, faculty often feel uncertain about how to respond. Sometimes when we do respond, we may feel like we’ve missed the mark. This session will provide faculty with opportunities to refine their diversity and inclusion practices, and share concrete actions they can take to better negotiate difficult dialogues in the classroom.

Projected Outcomes:

• Consider instructor positionality and its impact on classroom climate.
• Refine pedagogical skills to address diversity-related challenges that might emerge in the classroom.
• Learn strategies for managing “hot” moments when they arise.
• Learn about campus resources for diversity-related educational/professional development and topic management.

Dr. James Lang

James M. Lang is the Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he is also a professor of English and teaches courses in British literature and creative nonfiction writing.The author of five books and more than 100 reviews or essays, on topics ranging from higher education to British literature, Lang writes a monthly column for The Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as contributing regularly to America and Notre Dame Magazine. He edits a series of books on teaching and learning in higher education for the University of West Virginia Press.Lang’s recent publications include Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning and On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to your First Semester of College Teaching. He has a new book in the works titled Teaching Distracted Minds. His essay topics include Building a Better Discussion, The 3 Essential Functions of Your Syllabus and Stop Blaming Students for Your Listless Classroom.He has delivered public lectures and faculty workshops at more than 100 colleges or universities in the United States and abroad. In the fall of 2016, he received a Fulbright Specialist grant to work with three universities in Colombia on the creation of a MOOC on teaching and learning in higher education in Spanish-speaking countries.Lang lives in Worcester, with his wife and five children. When not writing or wishing he was writing, he likes to drag his younger children on nature walks, travel with (and sometimes without) his family, and listen to Irish music. He has degrees from Northwestern University (Ph.D.), St. Louis University (M.A.) and the University of Notre Dame (B.A.). He occasionally collaborates on writing projects with his older brother Tony Lang, who directs the Centre for Global Constitutionalism at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland.

Please contact Heather Tearney by May 3, 2019 at  tearneyk@missouri.edu|573-882-9547 to coordinate 2018 publications for the reception

Defining Teaching Effectiveness & Promoting Instruction Quality at Mizzou

Let’s gather for conversation and collaborative inquiry on the wide range of definitions that guide us in our understanding of teaching excellence and instructional quality.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will discuss existing definitions of teaching excellence, offer constructive critique, and iterate new definition(s).

Speaker: Victoria Mondelli

Creativity in Teaching & Learning

Creativity is of increasing importance to educators both for their professional success and that of their students particularly given the complex, evolving knowledge information ecology we live in. This session will mirror parts of the preconference workshop and will focus on how one can become a more creative teacher. We will explore a range of questions related to creativity, including: What does it mean to be creative? How can creativity be developed and nurtured? What does the creative process look like? What is the relationship between creativity, play and humor? (In other words, do creative people have more fun?) How can we become more creative in teaching? What is the role of technology in this process?

• Participants will be able to define and identify creativity in professional, personal and institutional contexts.
• Participants will learn the 5 standard steps in the creative process. Participants may engage in multiple creative tasks and will seek to extrapolate their learning from this task to their individual contexts.
• Participants will understand that creativity happens best under playful conditions (something difficult to capture in specific learning objectives – which turns out to be another paradox of trying to teach creativity).
• Participants will learn multiple strategies for applying creativity in their professional lives: as teachers, educators, and learners.

Speaker: Punya Mishra

Small Teaching Online

Online courses present unique challenges for both students and faculty. Small teaching can help. Join us to explore practical, evidence-based changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant gains in student engagement and learning. Whether you are new or experienced online faculty, you’ll leave with brief learning activities, minor course design modifications, and simple changes to your communication with online students, based on the approach outlined in James M. Lang’s book, Small Teaching. If you teach in blended and face-to-face formats you’ll also gain strategies to make better use of Canvas to enhance your efforts in the classroom. Come and see how rewarding online teaching and learning can be!

Speaker: Flower Darby

Helping Others Help Us: One Department’s Plan for Mentoring GTA

Graduate teaching assistants are an essential component of undergraduate teaching, yet there is considerable variance in their training and expectations. How can we best mentor students so that they are independent and critical thinkers, and yet provide a consistent experience for undergraduates? Using self-determination theory, this presentation will describe one department’s strategies for preparing graduates for the classroom.

Projected Outcomes:

1. Understand how self-determination theory can be used to prepare GTAs for the classroom
2. Identify one or two changes a department (or an individual faculty member) can make to better address GTAs’ autonomy, relatedness, and competence goals

Speaker: Ashlie Lester

Creating Media for Experiential Learning and Dynamic Feedback

Presenters from different departments showcase media use to enhance student-learning.  In the language classroom, one instructor uses classroom-generated media and individualized feedback to develop oral language skills.  Also, come learn about Trulaske’s modern uses of lecture capture and how Panopto is empowering experiential learning and the showcasing of student skills. Talking points include Trulaske sales competitions, creation of a Trulaske recording studio and lightboard, and next generation classroom AV for lecture capture.

Projected outcomes:

• Instructors will learn ideas for how to create and use media for teaching and learning

Speakers: Sara Sulko, Drew Reeves, Andrew Ewing, Justin Ferguson

Classroom Magic: Ideas for Hands-On, Phones-Off Active Learning

Explore methods to turn your classroom into a magic show. Learn how to capture student engagement in a traditional classroom. Learn how to captivate students’ attention using academic theory. Learn how to locate classroom champions then leverage them to hypnotize others. Learn how to use in-class extra credit activities for both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The session will reveal the secrets of the Disappearing Lecturer Trick.

Projected Outcomes:

• Instructors will be able to increase students’ intrinsic motivation and their joy for learning by granting students their extrinsic reward need for points.
• Instructors will be able to leverage peer-to-peer teaching more and may rely less on instructor-to-student teaching.
• Instructors will understand how to transfer pleasure inside of a classroom rather than pain.

Speaker: Tim Waid

Don’t Panic: How to Build and Teach a High-Quality Course Online

Are you interested in teaching online? Have you ever wondered how to set up an online course or improve the one you already teach? This session helps you understand the rules and regulations governing quality online courses and how to use the Quality Matters rubric to translate traditional course material to the online environment and/or improve your current online courses.

Projected Outcomes:

• Faculty will become aware of the laws and regulations governing quality in online education
• Faculty may be more likely to teach online if they are aware of practical tips for ensuring a quality course
• Help faculty currently teaching online improve their course quality by making them aware of the quality matters standards
• Inform faculty considering teaching online of campus resources: Online Teaching Foundations course (OTF) and Quality Course Review

Speakers: Dorina Kosztin, Heather Hunt, Mark Kuhnert, Laurie Wallace, Bethany Stone

A Blueprint for Learning: Creating an Assessment Map for your Course

Ever wondered if your tests really show what your students are learning or if your assessments align with your total course points or if you are testing at the right cognitive levels? This hands-on session will show you how to create a map for your course using simple office supplies so that you can identify exactly what learning is being assessed and how.  Attendees at this session will also get a sneak peek into Coursetune, which is a curriculum development software being piloted at MU.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will create a “map” to align instructional objectives with learning assessments for their courses.
• Participants will be able to use their maps to identify areas within their courses where more or different assessments of learning are needed and be able to make changes for future semesters.
• Participants will review a new software tool for designing curriculum.

Speaker: Danna Wren

Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching

No time to read?  Still interested in this book and topic?  Your colleagues provide a team read approach and will lead a discussion around the materials in this title.

Projected Outcome:

• Participants will become aware of educational research to inform their own instructional choices.

Speakers: Jeannette Pierce, Dorina Kosztin, Katey Hagely, Suling Zhang

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Too many teachers are inadequately prepared to teach ethnically diverse students (Gay, 2002). To successfully move the field of teacher education beyond the fragmented and superficial treatment of diversity that currently prevails, teacher educators must articulate a vision of teaching and learning in a diverse society and use that vision to systematically guide the infusion of multicultural issues throughout their teaching. Culturally responsive educators must be socioculturally conscious, have affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds, see themselves as responsible for and capable of bringing about change for equity, understand how learners construct knowledge and are capable of promoting knowledge construction, know about the lives of their students, and design instruction that builds on what their students already know while stretching them beyond the familiar (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). No one teaching strategy consistently engages all learners and as educators it is our duty to increase our cultural competence so that we are engaging appropriately with our diverse classrooms.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will be exposed to several culturally responsive teaching models.
• Participants will review a curriculum proposal for preparing culturally responsive teachers.

Speaker: Nicketa Coombs

Engaging and Valuing All Learners: The Power of Universal Design for Learning

Universal design for learning (UDL) is a framework to connect students with the why, what, and how of learning. It promotes an equitable, flexible learning environment designed to meet the needs of diverse learners using multiple means of engagement, expression, and representation. We’ll discuss strategies for minimizing barriers and maximizing learning for all students.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will be exposed to a UDL framework and several strategies.
• Participants will be empowered with UDL strategies which are proactive about accommodating students with documented disabilities while benefiting all learners.
• Participants will understand how to maintain rigor while applying multiple means of engagement, expression, and representation with course content.
• Participants will observe that there are opportunities with UDL for more authentic assessment.
• Participants will be informed on how UDL strategies can be implemented incrementally, without redesigning an entire course at once.

Speakers: Laura Foley, Mary Decker, Lisa Goran

Creative Problem Solving: Hacking Solutions to Classroom Challenges

Hackathons are events that engage individuals in creative problem solving. They can be used to engage students in the classroom, build creative thinking skills, and spark innovation. In this session, participants will first reflect on barriers to student learning specific to their classroom (e.g. engagement during class time, attendance, etc). Session facilitators will then lead participants in a hackathon to brainstorm solutions to their academic dilemma. This session will be fun, engaging, and participants will leave with an innovative new idea ready for implementation and study.

Projected Outcomes: Participants will have not only an idea, but an artifact produced in the session that they will be able to further develop for their own classroom. This idea may be implemented and studied.At the conclusion of the session, each participant will be able to:

• Describe the use of hackathons in an education setting
• Reflect on barriers to student learning specific to the participant’s classroom
• Develop an idea to address a common challenge in academic settings through creative thinking, collaboration with peers, and participation in a hackathon
• Produce an artifact to aide in the transfer of ideas from the hackathon to the participant’s classroom
• Recognize evidence-supported aspects of the ideas generated during the hackathon

Speaker: Sarah Cox, Greg Cox

Inclusive grading and assessments – not “dumbing it down”

Many common grading schemes and practices inadvertently disadvantage students from underrepresented and underserved groups and contribute to their higher D/fail/withdraw rates. These can be replaced by inclusive teaching practices which improve learning of all students and decrease the ‘achievement gap.’ In this session, we will introduce such inclusive teaching and assessment practices. We will discuss their merits, how they help to improve student success and persistence, and how the can be incorporated in an existing course. The session also addresses that inclusive grading maintains the rigor of traditional classes and does not lead to ‘dumbing down.’ Participants will work in groups on ways to convert their courses to inclusive grading and assessments.

Projected Outcomes: At the end of the sessions, participants will be able to …

• reflect on the effects of their current grading practices on students from underrepresented and underserved groups.
• identify inclusive grading and assessment practices suitable for their courses.
• explain how inclusive grading improves learning without reducing the academic rigor of a course.

Speaker: Johannes Schul

Energize your Teaching Using Graphic Syllabus and Outcomes Maps

Are you tired of students not reading the syllabus or not being able to navigate your course? Do you want to help them and make the course more attractive? Consider converting your (several pages) text only syllabus to a graphic one as well as including an outcomes map in it. The graphic syllabus can convey the same information in a more structured way using the language of  graphics while the outcomes map can be presented as a flowchart that shows students how their knowledge and skills will progress and be assessed during the course.

Projected Outcomes:

• Faculty will learn about the pedagogical power of graphics and how the old syllabus can be made more appealing and therefore used to energize their teaching.
• Faculty will be provided with examples of graphic syllabi and outcomes maps that they can use to set up their own.

Speakers: Dorina Kosztin, Silvia Bompadre

Becoming Critically Reflective Teacher and teaching Race

No time to read?  Still interested in this book and topic?  Your colleagues provide a team read approach and will lead a discussion around the materials in this title.  Find out why this topic is so important, what are some sensitive topics and take away some practical advice.

Projected Outcome:

• Participants will become aware of educational research to inform their own instructional choices.
• Participants will learn strategies to put to use immediately

Speakers: Elizabeth Hornbeck, Hoa Hoang, Clarissa Steele, Christy Goldsmith, Tamara Hancock, Kate Kelley, Anna Valiavska, Jennifer Fellabaum-Toston

BOPPS: A Lesson Plan Formula

Participation is the key for creating crystallized, long-term learning.  To incorporate participation, I have a formula I use for each of my classes which is based on Gagne’ Nine Events of Instruction.  The formula is BOPPS.  The B stands for bridge in.  I start each class with a funny story or by simply reviewing the key points of the prior lesson.  The O stands for objectives.  Without clear objectives, it is difficult to focus on what is important.  I state the objectives for each lesson at the beginning of the class period.  The first P stands for previous knowledge.  I ask the students a series of questions right after discussing the objectives to determine how much they already know about the topic of discussion.  The results will determine how much time is spent on each section of the lesson.  The second P stands for participation.  I keep lecturing to a minimum. Instead I conduct a discussion about the topics with the students.  This can be difficult with some of the more technical material I teach.  When appropriate, I develop a project for the students to work on during class that demonstrates the lesson and promotes active participation.  After the discussion/lecture I present the students with a case study.  Having the students work through a case study lends a real world feel to what they have just learned.  Finally, the S stands for summary.  I usually do this in the form of a post question and answer session to ensure the students understand the concepts I wanted to impart on them during the day’s lesson.

Projected Outcomes: Participants will:

• Be provided with several examples on how to get students’ attention to start a class.
• Learn why providing the students with objectives for class are so important.
• Discuss ways to assess subject knowledge already possessed by students.
• Explore different forms of participative learning for different subject matters.
• Summarize their lectures in a way which will assess the students’ knowledge gained during the lecture

Speaker: Linda Lair

How Your Learning With Technology Helps Your Students

We’re all lifelong learners, and when we commit to learning with technology we can create more meaningful experiences for our students. During this moderated panel, you’ll learn more about the ways in which professors have enhanced their teaching following various interactions with instructional designers. This session will focus on Educational Technologies-led programs, such as course redesign grants, Quality Matters reviews, and Online Teaching Foundations.

Projected Outcomes:

• Participants will be able to identify which Educational Technologies-led programs and opportunities meet a specific teaching need.
• Participants will distinguish between the purposes of course redesigns, Quality Matters, and Online Teaching Foundations.
• Participants will understand and appreciate the benefits of each offered program based on specific teaching needs and interests.

Speakers: Amy Simons, Kerri McBee-Black, Briana Johnson, Carmen Beck, Enos Inniss, Dana Martin

Sarah Rose Cavanagh

Sarah Rose Cavanagh is a psychologist, professor, and Associate Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College. Her research considers whether the strategies people choose to regulate their emotions and the degree to which they successfully accomplish this regulation can predict trajectories of psychological functioning over time. Her most recent research project, funded by the Davis Educational Foundation, focuses on whether giving students tools from emotion regulation at the start of class can improve their same-day and semester-long learning. Sarah’s first book, The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion, was published in 2016. Her second book, HIVEMIND: The Power and Perils of Our Collective Social Selves, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in 2019. She gives keynote addresses and workshops at a variety of colleges and regional conferences, blogs for Psychology Today, and regularly writes essays for venues like Darling magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She’s also on Twitter too much, at @SaRoseCav.

Spark of Learning

Traditional views of education assume that reason should reign over emotion, and that the classroom should be a quiet, dispassionate space where students and instructors impartially engage with facts, figures, and theories. However, emotions possess the power to arrest attention, enhance memory, and mobilize efforts. Cavanagh brings to bear a wide range of evidence from the study of education, psychology, and neuroscience to suggest that targeting emotions in your presentation style, course design, and assignments is a highly potent teaching strategy.