Centre for Learning and Teaching
Email: CLT@Dal.Ca
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 (B400, basement, Killam Library)
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.
Doing Interdisciplinary Research
Dr. Julie Klein is Professor of Humanities in the English Department and Faculty Fellow in the Office for Teaching and Learning at Wayne State University In Detroit, Michigan. Klein is past president of the Association for Integrative Studies (AIS) and former editor of the AIS journal, Issues in Integrative Studies. Her books include Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (l990), Interdisciplinary Studies Today (co-edited, 1994), Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities (1996), Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem Solving among Science, Technology, and Society (co-edited, 2001), Interdisciplinary Education in K-12 and College (edited, 2002), the monograph Mapping Interdisciplinary Studies (1999), Humanities, Culture, and Interdisciplinarity: The Changing American Academy (2005), and Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures (2010). She was also Associate Editor of the Oxford Handbook on Interdisciplinarity (2010), and author of numerous chapters and articles.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
2:00 - 3:30PM (B400, basement, Killam Library)
