Symposium shares changing outcomes, common ground

Is the game “Angry Birds” a disruptive Web phenomenon or a new opportunity to reach students? This year’s Teaching and Learning Symposium may offer some answers.

“What Teachers Can Learn From Rock Band, Facebook and Angry Birds,” presented by DoIT’s David Gagnon, is among dozens of presentations taking place Wednesday and Thursday, May 25-26. Most sessions take place at the Pyle Center, with campuswide breakout sessions and a bus tour of South Madison taking place on the afternoon of May 26.

The annual symposium provides much more than just a demonstration of the latest new media tools. For two days, faculty, staff, postdocs and graduate students will share best practices, celebrate accomplishments, discuss new pedagogy and explore themes of mutual interest in a community of educators dedicated to enriching the learning experience on campus.

“Nationally, the way we’re engaging with students is shifting,” says Maureen (Mo) Noonan Bischof, assistant vice provost and co-chair of this year’s symposium planning committee. “I’ve seen questions of ‘How do I get students in big classes to do the group thing? How do I engage them in networking online?’ There’s a focus on learning and student engagement.”

Combining these themes with many new opportunities — such as service learning or individual study — can be challenging. The results, however, can inspire even the most experienced professors to explore new ways of thinking about what and how they teach.

“It’s an interesting conversation to have with faculty who have been teaching for many, many years: ‘I know you’re an excellent teacher. How do you know that your students are learning?’” says Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning and professor of social work. “A successful class used to be ‘I got through my syllabus, and I got really good papers in the end.’ Now it’s ‘My students are thinking differently about culture and methods.’”

Brower, Noonan Bischof and their cross-campus colleagues on the planning committees have taken a step-by-step approach to programming recent symposia. Four years ago, “From Teaching to Learning” shifted the focus from teaching practice to its impact on students. This year’s theme, “Learning — Doing — Being,” is the latest step: using learning as a vehicle for action and transformation.

Two major themes connect this year’s presentations. Transformational learning examines teaching outcomes, showing how students take what they have learned outside the classroom. A second, somewhat technical theme discusses techniques to engage classrooms and promote critical thinking within groups.

Each year, the format has changed slightly to address the needs of a changing campus environment. Workshops have varied sizes; roundtables offer immediate discussions of ideas brought forward in a keynote speech.

To that end, the Teaching Academy will sponsor a lunch on May 25 to foster discussion of the day’s two keynotes. Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science, will open with a plenary address at 8:30 a.m. titled “Back to the Future? Liberal Education in the 21st Century.” At 11:15 a.m., Chancellor Biddy Martin will speak on “The Role of Undergraduate Education for Global Citizenship.”

The global theme will also take center stage at a reception on Thursday, hosted by the Division of International Studies.

May 26’s keynote speech, “Partnering to Engage and Learn,” will also serve as a campus welcome of sorts for presenter Linda Jorn, director of academic technology for DoIT since late January.

“My experience has been that the use of technology helps us unbundle the complex and exciting process of teaching and learning,” says Jorn. “It allows for new insights and innovations surrounding teaching and learning practices.”

A May 25 poster session replaces the traditional resource fair. Graduate and postdoctoral teaching fellows from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will join partner faculty members in sharing innovative approaches to improving teaching and learning and assessments of student learning outcomes.

The symposium now resembles a professional conference more closely. A competitive submission process, broad framework and increasing attendance has built trust among faculty members eager to share their findings — particularly senior faculty, well past the tenure process. But the environment has also proven fertile for a generation of more junior faculty members, sharing new and different skill sets with their colleagues.

The results have paid off, with more presentations by graduate students and teaching assistants. Most importantly, faculty in a wide variety of disciplines have used the support of their colleagues to try new things, reporting on their successes and challenges.

In many ways, the symposium serves as a companion to the fall First-Year Conference, addressing students transitioning to UW–Madison from high school or other college experiences. In the fall, faculty discuss how to draw new students into the information they teach; in the spring, faculty discuss ways of drawing this information back out of their students again.

“Faculty come to universities not just because they want to do research; they would join private research operations if they wanted to do that,” says Brower. “The symposium has pulled people together to have a voice on campus, and put a face to campus teaching. That’s the thing that’s grown so much.”

For Noonan Bischof, the reward comes through being able to address needs in clearer, more specific ways. From understanding why a service learning class may or may not succeed to evaluating new approaches in engaging students of color, the sense of community created by the symposium has lasting effects.

“This is a way to extend the conversation,” she says. “The big piece is to encourage what happens at the symposium to continue throughout the year.”

And if Angry Birds helps students, teachers and staff find common ground, perhaps it has a place in the classroom after all.