This seminar series is held during the spring semester and is offered to postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, on various topics in teaching and learning. These sessions cover everything from how to engage and motivate students to developing a teaching philosophy statement for academic job applications. Each session of the 2023 seminar series was virtual, hosted via Zoom. The Spring 2024 schedule will be posted in November.
Name | Department | Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Xiufeng Liu | Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education | Feb. 8 4-5 p.m. | Essential Elements of Effective University Teaching | This session will provide an overview on how college students learn and what college teachers should do to support their learning. Essential issues include engagement and motivation, learning goals and strategies, creating learner-centered environments, understanding learning processes and designing active learning tasks. |
Kevin Hittle | Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation | Feb. 15 4-5 p.m. | Active Learning | This introductory workshop will give an overview of active learning and discuss barriers to adoption. Participants will learn the definition of active learning and the rationale for incorporation of active learning activities into instruction. |
Margaret Grady | Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation | Feb. 22 4-5 p.m. | Facilitating Effective Group Work | Group work can effectively mimic the professional environment that includes team- and project-based work. However, most students' class experiences with it are frustrating and inefficient. In this workshop, you will get an overview of tools and techniques you as a facilitator can use to create a better group work learning experience. |
Jacqueline Conroy | Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation | March 1 4-5 p.m. | The Benefits of Inclusive Teaching | University at Buffalo is a highly diverse institute of learning. As an instructor, you will be working with students from every walk of life, each coming in with varied knowledge, abilities, and skill levels. In this workshop, we will be examining how our pedagogy and practices affects student learning. Through inclusive teaching and differentiated instruction practices we can reach more students and ensure they feel welcomed, secured and comfortable in any learning environment. By the end of our discussion you will be able to (1) define inclusive teaching and differentiated instruction, (2) identify the benefits of diversity in the college classroom, and (3) recognize and incorporate different inclusive teaching methods into your own practice. |
Cathleen Morreale | Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation | March 8 4-5 p.m. | The Syllabus: A Contract Between Faculty and Students | A good syllabus will help your students understand what the goals and objectives of the course are, what they will do in your class to progress towards achieving those goals, and the assessments used by you to evaluate their progress and to improve your own teaching effectiveness. In this seminar, we will discuss how to develop good learning objectives, how to develop objectives appropriate for the level of the students and how to assess student achievement. |
Kristin Muller | Office of Postdoctoral Scholars | March 15 4-5 p.m. | Teaching to Reduce Test Anxiety | Although test anxiety is a common concern for students and their instructors, it is a complex topic. The complexity of test anxiety shows itself in the diverse ways it is experienced by students, conceptualized by researchers, the variety of intervention practices applied and how instructors respond to this student challenge. This session will provide an overview of these complexities as they have been presented in the literature, focusing on the conclusions that there are different kinds of test anxiety and, therefore, not a universal intervention. With this in mind, we will discuss approaches for teaching to reduce test anxiety. |
| Kelly Ahuna | Office of Academic Integrity | March 29 4-5 p.m. | Handling Academic Integrity Matters | This session will review the fundamental role of academic integrity in the learning process. Ensuring that students submit original work is critical for all instructors to guarantee that real learning and fair evaluation are taking place. In this workshop we will discuss (1) prevalent causes of academic dishonesty, (2) common cheating scenarios, (3) UB’s Policy and Procedures for handling incidents and (4) helpful tips to prevent cheating in your classroom. |
| Kristin Muller & Kristen Ashare | Office of Postdoctoral Scholars | April 12 4-5:30 p.m. | Teaching Philosophy Statement (Session 1 of 2) | In this two-part online workshop, participants will draft and edit a teaching statement, often required for U.S. academic job applications. We will discuss elements of teaching statements, evidence of effective teaching tailored for different academic jobs, and strategies to get started or polish existing teaching statements. Participants from all disciplines will become better equipped and prepared to communicate their teaching practice through this workshop's collaborative peer-review process.
Please commit to attending BOTH workshop sessions. |
April 19 4-6 p.m. | Teaching Philosophy Statement (Session 2 of 2) |
