Teaching for Student Success – Reducing the Achievement Gap

Teaching for Student Success – Reducing the Achievement Gap
A Symposium for ALL who Teach at WSU
In the New Scale-Up Classroom Building (be among the first to learn in it!)
Free Conference, Catered Lunch, Cash prizes for selected submissions

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Student Success Building

9-11:30            Poster Set up

11:30-12          Registration opens, secure box lunch

12-1:30 pm      Welcome & Plenary: Kathy Koenig "The Flipped Classroom: Strategies for Successful Implementation and Evaluation”

1:30-1:45         Break

1:45-2:45         CONCURRENT ROUND TABLES

Teaching Untethered: Pedagogy-Driven Technology. Boesch, Zemmer, & Kenyon

Discusses the use of mobile technology in the classroom, which allows faculty to untether themselves from the podium and provides an avenue for creating a more engaging course. The roundtable includes an overview of pedagogical benefits, video-clips sharing authentic learning experiences, and demonstration of using this technology

Help! Teaching Practices that Enhance Student Engagement. Davis

When faculty and students perceive learning as a shared endeavor, retention and course completion are strengthened. A discussion of theory and practice of pedagogy or the art of teaching to help faculty engage students in course and program content, and increase students understanding of expectation, completing high quality assignments and participating in learning.

Active Learning and Engagement Activities. Gruys

The focus of this session is on how to best manage the process of assigning students to teams, creating assignments and activities that work well for teams, and managing team problems such as team member lack of contribution.

Development of a Modular Game-based Environment for Learning. Schroeder & Deffet

This project presents an educational game to facilitate learning, which can be used across multiple subject domains. The Student-centered Interactive Modular Performance-based Learning Environment (SIMPLE) will be presented. The premise of SIMPLE is that humans are traveling on a spaceship run by robots, but the robots turn on the humans and the humans must escape the ship and return to their home planet. As learners move through levels, they solve progressively more difficult learning problems to get through checkpoints. Learning occurs implicitly as the content is interwoven into a compelling narrative.

Designing Classes Using Brain-Based Learning Principles. Stover

The best learning strategies involve retrieval-based learning where students are required to actively recall answers without prompting or cues.  This session includes examples of teaching methodologies and technologies that can be used in the classroom, including retrieval-based learning and spaced study that can increase students’ course-relevant long-term memory.

International Student Achievement. Fenton

Students from other countries and cultures are valued members of the WSU community. There may be particular challenges in adjusting to school life and achievement in programs of study. This session focuses on cultural knowledge and strategies that can be useful for fostering international student achievement.

Enhancing Student Learning in Introductory Physics Courses. Deibel

This presentation discusses the impact of active learning approaches and curriculum reform on student outcomes. The findings stem from development and teaching of a calculus-based physics course in Scale-Up classrooms. Course development included other institutions, the physics department, and collaboration across departments that are serviced by the introductory physics course.

2:45-3              Break

3-4                   Active-Learning/SCALE-UP Panel

4-5                   Poster Session

5-6                   Awards & Reception