Professional Development Workshops

Invited Guest Speakers

Although there is no registration fee, please register to ensure adequate materials are available. Contact CLT at 494-1622 or email CLT@Dal.Ca with your name, department, and phone number.

Your fellow workshop participants may be scent-sensitive.  Please refrain from wearing scented products to this workshop.

The Power of an Open Question

David Sable has been teaching at Saint Mary's University since 2000 and this spring he will complete his doctoral research in the Interdisciplinary PhD program at Dalhousie University. He is the author of Contemplative Interaction: A key to transformative learning online, a chapter that appeared in Transformative Learning and Online Education (Yuzer and Kurubacak (Eds.), 2010). Several journal articles supporting his classroom research will be submitted in 2012.

Wednesday, March 7 and 14, 2012
1:30  - 3:30PM
Killam Library, Room B400

Recent research confirms that learning is regarded by almost half of undergraduate students as acquiring and being able to reiterate information presented by a teacher or a text.    They do not demonstrate much inclination toward reflection and independent critical thinking.  Yet by using a range of reflective practices in the classroom we can bring out students' underlying dispositions for critical thinking and enrich the learning process in general.  In this way students discover the possibility of engaging others creatively to enrich their understanding of each other as well as the course content, even when there is disagreement among them. They can develop active listening and inquiry skills and distinguish critical thinking from argument for the sake of winning.

In this two-part workshop participants will engage in a variety of reflective practices that can be used in the classroom and will explore their application to an open question. In the second session, pedagogical research on the impacts of these reflective practices will be presented so that participants can assess which approaches best suit their own disciplines and will also consider the possibilities inherent in posing interdisciplinary open questions for student reflection.

Please note that there are two parts to this workshop.  When you register for this workshop you will be registered for both parts.