Learning Objectives:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Classify a learning objective based on Bloom's taxonomy and reformulate the learning objective to achieve an alternative level of Bloom's taxonomy

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Teaching and Learning STEM: Section 2.2 - 2.4 (pgs 30 - 37), Section 3.0 - 3.2 (pgs 41 - 46)

  2. Identifying Roles: The Effective Teaching Assistant, Drexel University Office of Graduate Studies, 6th edition, 2008, pg 5.

     • Link: Identifying Roles

Pre-Session Activity:

• Search through syllabi from courses in which you were a student, teaching assistant, or instructor, and identify one example of a well-articulated learning objective. Please make a first attempt at classifying the learning objective based on Bloom's taxonomy and bring the example objective with you to our next meeting.

Learning Objectives:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Formulate and evaluate a rubric to effectively communicate expectations to students and facilitate fair and effective grading

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Teaching and Learning STEM: Section 8.3 - 8.6 (pgs 164 - 183)

  2. How Learning Works: Appendix C (pgs 231 - 243)

  3. Optional: How Learning Works: Appendix G & H (pgs 255 - 259)

Pre-Session Activities:

• 1. Read section 3.2.0 and 3.5.2 in the kinematics lab handout. Feel free to read the rest of the document for additional context but we will collaboratively draft a partial rubric for grading this lab report in session.

     • Link: Kinematics Lab Handout

  2. Familiarize yourself with the meta-rubric.

     • Link: A Rubric for Rubrics

Learning Objectives:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Successfully introduce and frame active learning in multiple ways

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Teaching and Learning STEM: Section 6.0 - 6.9 (pgs 111 - 129)

  2. Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415.

     • Available at the below link through the University of Washington Libraries (with UW NetID).

       • https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/lvbsh/TN_medline24821756

Pre-Session Activity (you are not required to answer both prompts):

• As an instructor or student, recall an active learning attempt that could have gone better.

• How do you introduce and frame active learning at the start of the term in order to garner willing and earnest student participation?

Learning Objectives:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. At a basic level, analyze, critique, and improve a lesson planning decision

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Teaching and Learning STEM: Section 4.0 - 4.10 (pgs 67 - 87), Section 5.0 - 5.1 (pgs 91 - 96)

Pre-Session Activity:

• Think back on good and bad experiences you've had in a class session (e.g., lecture, section, lab). Identify the lesson planning decision(s) the educator made (consciously or otherwise) that you thought were particularly effective or not so effective. We will spend some time discussing what made them/could have made them more effective.

Learning Objectives:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Identify and develop an observable and measurable learning objective

  2. Articulate why it is worthwhile to form these learning objectives

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Teaching and Learning STEM: Section 1.1 - 1.2 (pgs 3 -7), Section 2.0 - 2.1 (pgs 17 - 30)

  2. How Learning Works: Appendix D (pgs 244 - 247)

Pre-Session Activity:

• Search through syllabi from courses in which you were a student, teaching assistant, or instructor, and identify one example of a well-articulated learning objective and one example that could use improvement. Please bring the two example objectives with you to our next meeting.

Learning Objective:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Provide two contrasting examples of each of the final two principles (5 & 6) in teaching/learning application

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. No reading this week.

Reflection Questions:

• For each of the next two principles (5 & 6) from How Learning Works, reflect back on your past experience as a student and describe something that one of your teachers has done (or could have done) that is consistent with the principle. You are not required to answer both example questions for principle 5.

  1. For example, for Principle 5, how has one of your teachers designed repetition of practicing a skill or applying a concept into a course? (e.g., applying a concept in lab/homework and again in a subsequent exam problem)

  2. For example, for Principle 5, when you have received feedback that has been helpful in guiding your learning, what made that feedback effective?

  3. For example, for Principle 6, how has one of your teachers integrated non-cognitive development (e.g., social, emotional, professional) into a learning experience?

Learning Objective:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Provide two contrasting examples of each of the second two principles (3 & 4) in teaching/learning application

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. No reading this week.

Reflection Questions:

• For each of the next two principles (3 & 4) from How Learning Works, reflect back on your past experience as a student and describe something that one of your teachers has done (or could have done) that is consistent with the principle.

  1. For example, for Principle 3, how has one of your teachers influenced how you value their course to motivate you to study and learn? What has one of your teachers done to help you feel like you can succeed in their course?

  2. For example, for Principle 4, how has one of your teachers helped you to learn when and where some knowledge or skill applies?

Learning Objective:

• After this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Provide two contrasting examples of each of the first two principles in teaching/learning application

Pre-Meeting Readings:

• 1. Make it Stick: Learning is Misunderstood (pages 1 - 22; all subsections)

  2. How Learning Works: (pages 1 - 8; up to Intended Audiences)

Reflection Questions:

• For each of the first two principles from How Learning Works, reflect back on your past experience as a student and describe something that one of your teachers has done (or could have done) that is consistent with the principle.

  1. For example, for Principle 1, how has one of your teachers designed their course experience to account for (or even honor) the wide range of prior knowledge and experience students bring to the course?

  2. For example, for Principle 2, how has one of your teachers shown you how experts organize a set of skills or knowledge - i.e., how these skills/knowledge are related to each other or how this course relates to the rest of the curriculum?