Using Classroom Observations to Improve your Teaching

Monday 1:30pm-4:00pm UMC 247

Mini Workshop

Convener

Rachel Teasdale, California State University-Chico

Small changes can make a big difference in engaging your students! This workshop will briefly review some of the results of the RTOP research project, in which more than 200 introductory and majors geoscience classes were observed in an effort to understand how classrooms are able to engage students and improve learning. We will focus on pedagogical practices that help make courses more student-centered. As a participant, you will develop a set of simple strategies that fit the constraints of your course content, student population and classroom dynamics to increase student engagement in your next course.

Goals

Review results of the On the Cutting Edge research on Understanding and Improving our Teaching (many participants may have had a RTOP observer attend one of their classes and are part of the 205 observation data set we'll review)
Review easily-adaptable teaching practices used by faculty who teach Student-Centered classes
Participants will set goals for improving student engagement in their own courses and develop a set of strategies you can use in your next course to engage students in the class period, and improve their learning.

Program (in progress!)

1:30 Welcome & Introductions

1:45 Introduce the RTOP observation project, what do geoscientists do in undergraduate classes and how that impacts student participation and learning

2:00-2:30 Review student-centered teaching practices- from the easy to use, to those that might seem more complex to adapt

2:30-3:00 Set goals for your course(s), report out

3:00-3:45 Work on teaching strategies to use in your next course(s)

3:45-4:00 Share ideas

4:15 Adjourn

Contact Info: (for more info or to volunteer to be an RTOP-er or to be RTOP-ed) rteasdale@csuchico.edu