Workshops & Working Groups

Throughout the school year, the Center organizes workshops on a variety of teaching topics and issues for Vanderbilt faculty, graduate and professional students, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and others.

We don't have any workshops planned for summer 2007, but we are offering a few working groups. See below for details. See also our list of related programs--relevant workshops, conferences and other events being offered by other organizations around campus. For information on past workshops, please see our workshop archive.

Summer 2007 Working Groups

Working Groups are small cohorts who commit to meet regularly to discuss either a specific teaching practice or a more conceptual set of issues. Interested participants should register by May 18th.

Course Design Working Group
(for faculty only)

Our course design group involves a small number of faculty who meet four times during a semester to design a new course or rethink an existing course. The group follows the "backward design" process outlined in Wiggins and McTighe's book Understanding by Design. Participants first establish learning goals for their course, then determine how to assess whether those goals have been met, then plan teaching activities that lead to those goals, and finally put it all together in a syllabus. Supplemental readings provide additional ideas and insight.

Below are a few quotes from past participants addressing the question, "What was most valuable to you about the working group?

• "Perhaps the most valuable element was having an opportunity to spend time with a group of colleagues who are thinking seriously about their teaching.  The sessions forced me to explain my thinking and assumptions – thus helping me clarify ideas and recognize areas that didn't make sense."

• "Just thinking out loud about my plans for the course and having a schedule to follow to make sure deadlines are met. Hearing the struggles of others is important because it helps to place your own teaching needs in perspective."

• "Discussing the syllabi in groups was helpful, because even though they were from different disciplines, discussing the good and not-so-good points made me think about things to keeping mind when developing my own syllabi."

Contact Derek Bruff for more information or to join the group.

Teaching and Learning Reading Group
(part of Cycle 2 in the Teaching Certificate Program)

Participants in this group will read and discuss selections from the established literature on teaching and learning in higher education.  Initial meetings will focus on core texts with broad, cross-disciplinary relevance.  Later meetings will offer participants the opportunity to focus on specific pedagogical topics, techniques, or methods related to their individual needs and interests. 

Contact Laura Taylor for more information or to join the group.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Working Group
(part of Cycle 3 in the Teaching Certificate Program)

This working group is designed to support its members in engaging in scholarly projects on student learning.  The working group will provide tools and guidance in generating researchable questions, information on qualitative and quantitative methods for investigating student learning, resources for "going public" with results, and feedback from peers on projects at all stages of development.

Contact Derek Bruff for more information or to join the group.

HOME | ABOUT CFT | PROGRAMS | SERVICES | RESOURCES