9:00am - Welcome & Keynote
10:15am - Welcome

Laurie Richlin
President & Conference Director
International Alliance of Teacher Scholars

Milton D. Cox
University Director for Teaching Effectiveness Programs
Founder & Director, Original Lilly Conference
Miami University

Donna Qualters
Director, Center for Effective Teaching
Northeastern University

Keynote

10:30am-11:15am - Concurrent Sessions

Teaching Moral Authority in Upper-Level Ethics Seminars
Perrin S. Cohen, Center for the Advancement of Science Education, Northeastern University
Student moral authority is the confidence and competence to address ethical concerns/issues that are experienced in the classroom, laboratory, or workplace. This presentation will describe the rationale, conceptual tools, research skills, opportunities for reflective discussion, and Internet resources used to enhance students’ moral authority in upper level undergraduate and graduate seminars on ethics in psychology. Presentation will include demonstrations and a discussion of results.

Learning Listservs: Linking Theory and Experience through Listserv Discussion
Anne Birge James, Health Professions, Occupatioanl Therapy, University of Hartford
Listservs can enhance learning by promoting links between classroom concepts and life experiences. A small qualitative study will be described that examined factors which contributed to a highly successful learning listserv. Active discussion will follow, based on these findings and participants’ experiences, to identify and discuss contextual and attitudinal factors that promote and inhibit effective learning through listservs. Based on the discussion, participants will begin to design listservs that they could use in their settings.

Turning Observers Into Participants
Sarah L. Mabrouk, Mathematics, Framingham State College
While some students readily ask questions and contribute their opinions/reactions to class discussions, others are reticent to participate. Those who do not contribute often become observers: their questions are unasked and unanswered, and their views are not shared. Thus, valuable questions and insights are not contributed to in-class analysis. In this session, participants are welcome to share their experiences and frustrations with "observers" in the classroom. Participants will discuss how observers can be encouraged to become active and will discuss assignments and activities that can be useful in actively involving students.

Charting Death: Students Personal Experiences in a Community
Diana-Maria Spillman, Physical Education, Health & Sports Science, Miami University
This presentation will explain how to form a community of students in a large class through collecting epidemiology data. The students review their own family health and death history. The communities and individuals view their own likelihood of developing fatal diseases and present their "death charts." The differences in presentation reflect styles of learning. The session will showcase a number of these presentations and will discuss community and individual behavioral changes.

11:30am-12:15pm - Concurrent Sessions

The Permeable Classroom: A Dialogue
Leo R. Sandy, Education, Plymouth State College
This session will provide examples of practices used in a "Permeable Classroom" where student learning is facilitated by providing connections between classroom material and the external environment. Experiential knowledge includes a combination of personal interviews, guest speakers, panel presentations, and service learning. Three college courses - two undergraduate and one graduate - are described relative to their application of permeability. It is suggested that if courses have experiential components, students make more meaningful connections with classroom learning. The format will include a brief presentation followed by dialogue.

An Innovative and Efficient Approach to First-Year Interest Groups
Karen Barrett, All-University Curriculum
Guy C. Colarulli, Academic Affairs
Robert Duran, Communication
University of Hartford
A PowerPoint™ presentation and one-on-one discussion will offer participants the opportunity to learn about an effective and efficient way of creating first-year interest groups (learning communities) that advance faculty development and improve student learning. The model encourages faculty to think about the integration of content and skills across courses and to incorporate collaborative and active learning techniques. Evaluation results show gains in student learning and positive student affect.

Problem-Based Learning in the Large (> 100 students) Classroom
Patricia Ann Mabrouk, Chemistry, Northeastern University
Recently there has been considerable interest in problem-based learning (PBL). Most of the work described by science educators to date has strongly favored work in the small to mid-sized classroom. Over the past five years, I have developed a series of strategies for successfully adapting a PBL style to the large lecture class containing over 100 students. In this session, participants will have an opportunity to experience several of the classroom excercises I have successfully used in teaching general chemistry and quantitative analysis courses. We will discuss solutions to obvious concerns such as the amount of effort required by a PBL strategy and infrastructure as it relates to materials and personnel.

Making a Difference: Creating a Learning Community on Aging
Evelyn Pezzulich, English
Roger T. Dunn, Art
Bridgewater State College
This presentation models making a difference through both methodology and subject matter. It explains how to create a learning community while also discussing a new field: age studies. Finally, it demonstrates how the juxtaposition of literary and visual depictions of aging - through an exploration of the Reifungsroman (novel of ripening) and works of art - provides a mutually reinforcing academic experience for students.

12:15pm - Lunch 

1:30pm-3:00pm - Concurrent Workshops

Undergraduate-Faculty Partnerships in Teaching and Learning
Judith E. Miller, Center for Educational Development, Technology & Assessment, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Miguel Paredes, Mathematics, University of Texas - Pan American
Jean Henscheid, National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
David Gosser, Chemistry, The City College of New York
Milton D. Cox, Teaching Effectiveness Program, Miami University
This session introduces the use of undergraduates in instructional roles (e.g. peer mentors, tutors, facilitators, faculty development consultants). We will present various models of such undergraduate-faculty partnerships. Co-presenters will facilitate groups of participants in conceptualizing possibilities for their institutions, and in identifying issues they might face. Participants will leave with examples of undergraduates in instructional roles, a model that they have begun to explore for possible implementation, and useful materials.

Creating Integrated Web Sites for Seamless Learning Environments
Melissa McDaniels & Fred Davis, Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University
In this interactive session, presenters will introduce a Web site planning process for faculty and administrators interested in creating Web environments that empower students to connect their academic, professional, and extracurricular learning. Northeastern’s Behavioral Neuroscience On-line will be used as an example of a site that meets the cross-functional needs of undergraduate students in one place, rather than directing students to a series of departmental pages.

Active Learning Demonstrations: Faculty Playing the Role of Students
Bonnie S. Wood, Science & Math, University of Maine at Presque Isle
The presenter will briefly describe a successful series of active learning demonstrations by diverse faculty and then illustrate a typical demonstration by teaching to conference attendees who will participate as students. Some participants will be invited to teach a topic (using any type of active learning) from their own disciplines. Alternatively, participants will describe active learning techniques they have used in their classes.

The Grade Trap: Going in Underneath the Radar
Laura Godtfredsen & Elliot Brook, Student, History & Society, Babson College
Students extrinsically obsessed and motivated by grades constitute a dilemma for those educators who seek to enable students to develop an intrinsic desire to learn and to create an atmosphere for encouraging and developing curiosity and creativity. This workshop examines how grades are impediments to learning and evaluates ways educators can help students develop an intelligent process for dealing with societal pressures and obsession with grades.

3:15pm-4:00pm - Concurrent Sessions

Gingerly Respect: One Way of Moral Teaching
James S. Kelly, Philosophy, Miami University
We will examine one way in which moral discourse can serve a teaching function and aid in moral perception. Our main concern in this session will be to focus on the attention that must be given to understanding the conditions of dialogue, for this is crucial to the enhancement of moral perception. We will see that an important role of the teacher is to direct the student’s attention to the moral aspects and relationships of the situation being examined and to understand the importance of doing this "gingerly."

Using Technology to Develop Learning Partnerships Between Faculty and Students
Denis J. Sullivan, Political Science, Northeastern University
This session highlights a learning partnership developed between faculty and students in social sciences. The activities include presentation of a Web page designed to promote interactive learning about the Arab-Israeli peace process; an overview of on-line communications; discussion of the benefits of student participation in a faculty research project; and an assessment of experiential learning, focusing on student participation in the Cairo International Model Arab League.

Learning: Brain Use or Brain Change?
Robert N. Leamnson, Biology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
This session is an introduction to the biological basis of learning and memory. Learning will be discussed in terms of those highly personal brain charges that occur in the learner. Emphasis will be on how external factors can affect these internal private changes. Participants will present teaching problems/methods to be discussed in terms of learning as brain change.

Understanding Social Issues: From the Culture to the Individual
Kimberly Eretzian Smirles, Psychology, Emmanuel College
This session will showcase a semester project that moves from examining the experiences of women as a group, to the experiences of individual women within the community. The presentation illustrates how to integrate literature research, applied research, and community research. The presenter will discuss the flexibility and utility of such a project to any course interested in providing students with a "hands-on" experience with a contemporary social issue. Participants will be provided with copies of the project and have the opportunity to ask questions regarding course logistics.

4:15pm-5:00pm - Concurrent Sessions

Using Literature and Service Learning to Learn a Foreign Language
Stephen A. Sadow, Modern Languages, Northeastern University
Participants will learn how to create a foreign language course in which students learn about culture two ways: they read "great works" of literature in that language and, through service learning, work directly with members of the same culture. Participants will learn about organizing the syllabus, doing cross-cultural observation, reviewing foreign language group work methods, and coming to cultural conclusions. At Northeastern University, upper level students of Spanish and French may take a course during which they read selections from the masterpieces of the relevant culture and work in the community one day per week.

Whose Class is This Anyway?
Leonard J. Glick, Human Resource Management, Northeastern University
Premise: Student involvement increases student responsibility, which in turn, increases student learning. Question: How much should students be involved in our classes and how can they be involved? Based on the presenter’s experience, this highly interactive session will propose (and invite participants to contribute) "low cost" methods of involving the class in such areas as: developing mutual expectations, weighting class requirements, providing feedback, selecting presentation topics, class discussion, and scheduling assignments.

Multiculturalism Meets the Five Paragraph Essay
Tiane Donahue, English, Northeastern University and University of Paris
Multicultural themes and readings have become an established part of most writing and language arts programs today. But the actual teaching of writing seems to have opened up more slowly to this shift, even though there is a growing body of literature about cultural differences in learning styles and in composition practices. Based on a five-year study I have done of writing in two cultures, I will present our practices through the lens of another culture. Our discussion will focus on certain "American" practices which might put students from various cultures at a disadvantage: comments on student writing, teaching paraphrase and citation as formal tools, emphasizing revision and process, and valuing the narrative or the personal example.

Pedagogy: 15 Strategies and a Web Page
Peter Doolittle, Teaching and Learning, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
As has often been said, " You need the right tool for the job." Within the profession of teaching, instructional strategies are the tools of the trade. Indeed, the more strategies one knows, the more likely one will use the right tool (strategy) for the job (teaching). This session will explore 15 instructional strategies, their implementation and appropriate use, using a series of interactive activities and modeling. In addition, a plethora of handouts will be given along with examples and references to a web page designed to assist in the use of these instructional strategies.

5:15pm - Reception

Join your colleagues for libation and snacks. There will be refreshments and an open beverage station (sodas, wine, and beer) at this before-dinner Reception. This is lots of fun and gives you an opportunity to talk with others in a relaxed atmosphere about the exciting work your colleagues and you are doing (or thinking about doing).

6:00pm - Dinner

7:15pm Teaching With [a] Difference – Educating Rita

The 1983 film Educating Rita is a charming demonstration of college students' cognitive development. Michael Caine and Julie Walters develop a highly "different" teacher-student relationship in this smashing comedy about a young working-class woman on the path to self-discovery. Rita (Walters) desperately hungers for an education. To escape her dreary life as a hairdresser and confining existence at home, she enrolls in literature tutorials at a British university. Much to her bemusement, she is assigned to Frank Bryant (Caine), a disillusioned English professor who encourages his student to forsake dead poetry and enjoy life. Despite her husband’s resentment, Rita learns and grows. As witness to her radical transformation from oppressed housewife to free spirit, Frank himself is forced to confront the deterioration of his own life. The film is the best example to date of differences in cognitive development, social class, and educational systems.

9:00am-9:45am Concurrent Sessions

Freshman Central: A Virtual Space for First-Year Engineering Students
Alicia Russell, Educational Technology Center
Thomas C. Sheahan, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Susan M. Kolls, Engineering
Jacqueline A. Isaacs, Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
David S. Navick, Engineering
Northeastern University
This presentation will describe the development and implementation of a Web-site, known as "Freshman Central," for first-year engineering students. The primary goal of the site is to help students transition from high school to the critical first year in engineering. The presentation will include the background of the problem being addressed and the site’s evolution, including needs assessment, content development, and implementation issues. The site’s features will be shown, including the student Webfolios, model syllabus for first-year courses, and the "Student Lounge" area designed for discussion and question answer forums. A panel discussion among the presenters will include audience interaction to further describe the site’s use and effectiveness, obstacles faced in site implementation, use of the site as a model, and the future evolution of the site.

How Learning Quantitative Concepts is Enhanced by Cross-Functional Teaching
Abdul Ali, Marketing & Norean Radke Sharpe, Math & Science, Babson College
An interactive scenario using survey data will demonstrate how an intergrated approach to learning introductory statistical concepts and techniques can emphasize the interpretation and inferential aspect of quantitative analysis, as opposed to the technical and tool-oriented approach. In addition, highlights and difficulties of the intergrated approach will be shared: a) case teaching at the introductory/intermediate level; b) multiple cross-functional courses objectives; and c) team assessment of the students and faculty.

Student Perspectives on Undergraduate Research
Patricia Ann Mabrouk, Chemistry, Northeastern University
In this session, the results of the first national study of undergraduate research (UR) will be reported and in light of these results, a series of strategies will be presented for effectively mentoring undergraduate researchers. The study, itself the product of an undergraduate research experience, was an effort to define and assess the UR experience from a student perspective. The results from this survey provide insight into how colleges and universities, departments, and individual faculty can ensure a high quality research experience. In the second part of this session, the presenter will share specific strategies she has found to be effective in mentoring over 25 undergraduates over the past 10 years.

First Contact - Setting Up the Atmosphere for the Term
Sarah L. Mabrouk, Mathematics, Framingham State College
We experience a period of "first contact" with each new term. What we do, say, do not do, and do not say during the first day/week of the term affects our developing rapport with the students in our classes. In this session, we will discuss tools that are useful in setting up a positive, open learning environment in which students feel that their contributions are welcome and respected. Participants are welcome to share first day/week tools and experiences, and the presenter will contribute additional tools as well as some student reaction.

10:00am-11:30am - Concurrent Workshops

Work Smart: Turn Your Teaching Into Scholarship
Kathleen T. Heinrich & Anne James, College of Education, Nursing & Health Professions & David Demers, Faculty Center for Learning Development, University of Hartford
Ernest Boyer called for an expanded view of scholarship that values teaching as a scholarly activity. The scholarship of teaching explores how educators come to know about teaching, the links between educators’ understanding and students’ learning, and what educators learn through the process of teaching students. This experiential workshop engages participants in learning about the scholarship of teaching and learning by generating questions, projects, and products that meet the criteria for this type of scholarship.

Experiential Exercises for a Team-Taught Graduate Course
Krishna Mallick, Philosophy, Salem State College
In this session the presenters will discuss several experiential exercises-mock trial and debate that work successfully in a graduate level team taught course. Specific areas to be covered include curriculum, assessment, and evaluation. Emphasis will be placed upon the methodology and techniques used by the instructors to incorporate the theoretical and applied aspects of the field of business ethics.

A Student-Assisted Demonstration of Peer-Led Team Learning
David Gosser, Chemisty
AE Dreyfuss, PLTL National Dissemination Project
Noah Burg, Andrei Lalla & Elina Yusufova, Student Leaders
The City College of New York
This session provides an introduction to the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model by both faculty and students. A brief outline of a widely tested model of peer-assisted teaching will be presented. Participants will gain first-hand experience with the model by engaging in an actual workshop led by undergraduate students. A faculty member and learning specialist will lead a follow-up discussion for the issues involved in implementing the PLTL model in diverse institutional settings.

Mastering the Art of Discussion Teaching
Steve Nathanson, Philosophy, Northeastern University
Have you tried to use discussion teaching in classes but run into problems? Do you find that: students don’t talk? What they say lacks substance? Students are unsure of what they have learned? Important material doesn’t get covered? This workshop will be interactive/discussion methods to: a) clarify the educational reasons for valuing discussion, b) analyze the features of successful and unsuccessful discussion; and c) strategize about how to create successful and avoid unsuccessful discussions.

11:30am - Lunch

1:00pm-2:30pm - Concurrent Workshops

The Focus Group Method for Cross-Cultural Learning
Judith Y. Weisinger, Human Resources Group/CBA, Northeastern University
This interactive workshop will illustrate/evaluate the focus group method for cross-cultural learning. Participants will complete a brief assessment of a written cross-cultural conflict scenario. Then, using the "fishbowl" technique, a subset of participants will engage in a focus group to discuss the scenario while remaining participants observe and evaluate the process. Debriefing will emphasize: how focus groups can surface cultural assumptions, cross-cultural learning as "situated learning," and key considerations in a pedagogical context.

Active Teaching for Active Learning: Before-, During-, and After-Lesson Strategies
Deborah Mael, Arts, Science, & Technology, Newbury College
This workshop presents teachers with easy-to-prepare and easy-to-use strategies to get and keep students involved from the beginning to the end of the classroom time. The workshop is designed as a model of this active classroom by involving participants before learning, during learning, and after learning techniques. The underlying philosophy is that students not only retain more when they are asked to actively learn, but that teaching is more fun in the active setting.

Improving Assessment Practices: Making a Difference for Students and Faculty
Pamela D. Sherer, Management & Sally Thibodeau, Education, Providence College
This interactive session will examine the use of grading criteria to better communicate faculty expectations for student assignments. Presenters will facilitate a hands-on workshop that will provide participants a framework to use in developing grading criteria, identify specific strategies to improve grading schemes, and explore how to enhance learning through better assessment practices.

Effective Teacher Feedback: Creating New Behaviors
Donna M. Qualters, Center for Effective University Teaching, Northeastern University
Peer feedback is a powerful tool to begin dialoguing with colleagues about teaching to improve instructional quality. However, few faculty are trained in how to observe classroom interactions and deliver feedback that will facilitate a change in behavior. This session will introduce a Feedback Model that focuses faculty observation skills and introduces language models to allow for more effective feedback. Participants will have the opportunity to practice the model and share additional tips.

2:45pm-3:30pm Closing Plenary

4:00pm