A Community-Based Literacy Project for At-Risk Preschoolers

Jennifer C. Friberg, Communication Sciences and Disorders; Courtney McGill, Communication Sciences and Disorders; Morgan McCaslin, Communication Sciences and Disorders

This presentation will provide an overview of a service- learning project completed by six undergraduate students in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Students developed and implemented this project with the support of a Community Engagement Learning Grant in an effort to support the literacy development of at-risk preschool-aged students in the community surrounding Illinois State University. Specifically, students created a lending library of children’s books and take-home activities designed to teach parents of preschoolers how to best support early developing literacy skills (e.g., vocabulary development and phonological awareness). The process of completing this project will be discussed from three perspectives: a.) the perspective of the faculty member who oversaw the development and implementation of this project, b.) the viewpoint of a student project manager who liaised with her faculty supervisor and directed the efforts of student workers, and c.) the outlook of a student who assisted with the completion of this project. All stakeholders will describe the benefits of their participation (in the areas of teaching and learning) in this project’s completion.

Art for Diverse Populations: A Review of Art Education Teacher Candidate Thoughts About Issues in Urban Education

Judith Briggs, School of Art

In 2012 I taught Art 307, Art for Diverse Populations, to all art education seniors during the semester before their student teaching. Half of the semester focused on issues of race and class and how they affect school students. The second half focused on teaching students with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities. The course also included several readings, videos, class discussions, and reflections about the meaning of White privilege. In addition to submitting weekly journals, all students participated in a one-day clinical observation field trip to two high schools in Little Village, Chicago. Students visited classrooms at Little Village Lawndale and Farragut Career Academy, toured the Museum of Mexican Art, and ate a meal with high school students in a local restaurant. Art 307 students wrote a three-page clinical reflection about the experience, citing material from the course as reference. In a qualitative research study I reviewed students’ class materials, journals, class assignments, and clinical reflections to discern: “What are art education teacher candidates’ thoughts about urban education issues within a one-semester Art for Diverse Populations course?” I also asked students if their thinking about urban issues had changed as a result of the course. Responses indicated that attitudes towards urban education had improved.

Changing Teaching and Learning through Primary Source Instruction

Rick Satchwell, Teaching with Primary Sources; Judy Bee, Teaching with Primary Sources; Joan Brown, Teaching with Primary Sources

Through technology, teachers and students have instant access to a wide variety of digitized primary sources from the Library of Congress website. The Teaching with Primary Sources Program at Illinois State University has a wide range of activities and resources to help educators change the way they approach teaching and learning. These include a new iPad app that allows teachers and students to find and analyze these sources. In this session, participants will be introduced to various forms of digital primary sources available at the Library of Congress website and learn how to access and navigate the educational features. Participants will also explore how primary sources can be used to meet the needs of their students.

Reflections on Chaos: Teaching Classroom Management to Pre-service Secondary Teachers

Erin Mikulec, Curriculum and Instruction; Kira Hamann, Curriculum and Instruction

One of the primary concerns of pre-service secondary teachers is negotiating classroom management. For many, developing a sense of authority can be a difficult process (Pellegrino, 2010), especially given that good classroom management will be an integral part of the evaluation process once they are hired (Stoughton, 2007). To further complicate the development of these skills, there are a number of misconceptions when it comes to whether or not classroom management can be taught. For example, some have argued that classroom management can only be learned in an actual classroom (Clement, 2010). This presentation reports the findings on an initial iteration of an action research study of pre-service secondary teachers confronting various classroom management issues during a microteaching project in a general methods course. The 40 participants wrote reflection papers before and after engaging in a microteaching experience during which they would have at least one disruption to address. The preliminary findings indicate that the simulated discipline issues helped the pre-service teachers become more aware of the specific problems that can occur in a high school class and understand the need to “think on their feet” in order to effectively address such problems.

ReggieNet: How Our New Course Management System Affects Your Teaching

Mayuko Nakamura, CTLT; Megan Koch, School of Communication; Kimberly Judson, Marketing; Monica Noraian, History; Cyndee Brown, School of Theatre and Dance; Richard Satchwell, Milner Library; Rose Marshack, School of Music; Susan Kossman, Mennonite College of Nursing; Lucille Eckrich, Educational Administration and Foundations; Jean Sawyer, Communication Sciences and Disorders

A panel of ISU faculty from the Spring 2012 ReggieNet pilot program will share their insights, experiences and expertise about teaching with the University’s new course management system, ReggieNet. The panel discusses how ReggieNet has affected their online assessment, communication, and content presentation.

Reinvent Your Course for Civic Engagement: The Course Redesign Project

Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Jeffrey Walsh, Criminal Justice; Gina Hunter, Sociology & Anthropology; Alycia Hund, Psychology; Connie deVeer, School of Theatre and Dance; Gardenia Harris, Social Work; Gary Creasey, Psychology

This past year, work continued on the development of the interdisciplinary minor in Civic Engagement and Responsibility through the use of a Course Redesign Project to embed civic engagement across the curriculum. The Course Redesign Project provides funding for faculty and affords them the opportunity to enhance their curricular interests through course integration with civic engagement components. The redesigned courses broaden the interdisciplinary collection of available courses with relevant civic learning outcomes and demonstrate ISU’s commitment to the values of citizenship and institutionalization of civic engagement. This university-wide initiative is available to all tenured, tenure-track, and full-time non-tenure track faculty as well as staff with teaching responsibilities. Based upon learning outcomes, the initiative allows faculty to integrate service learning opportunities and civic engagement components into existing courses. Panelists will describe their current redesign projects, the redesign process, and provide relevant information for individuals interested in applying for this coming year’s Course Redesign Project.

Saying “Yes, and …” to Changing the Way You Teach: Utilizing Improvisation in Pedagogy

Rosie Hauck, Accounting; Colin Stewart, Educational Administration and Foundations; Terry Noel, Management and Quantitative Methods; John Hooker, School of Communication

Additional Materials

Improv: Teaching Out of Your Mind

As educators, we are constantly searching for effective ways to engage student learning and development. In this panel session, we will explore the use of improvisation in the classroom as a novel method of changing not only the way we teach, but also the way students learn. While improv is typically used for entertainment purposes, this technique is gaining attention in other areas, e.g., in management and leadership, as a means to not only promote team-building, but to also foster idea-generation and understanding in an engaging and active way. We believe that the skills developed when engaging in improv games strongly parallel the skills that we as educators try to develop in our students, e.g., creativity, problem-solving, and adaptation. For example, one of the most important tenets in improv is the concept of “Yes, and…”. This “Yes, and…” concept is about supporting one another by taking an idea, comment, statement, or suggestion to a deeper level while retaining the original intent/goal/focus. In the classroom setting, improv activities using this concept not only engage the learner, but also create a sense of community, where students work together to explore and/or elaborate on a theme, idea or concept. During this panel session, not only will we discuss the benefits and research supporting the use of different improv activities in the classroom, but session participants will get an opportunity to engage in this experiential learning technique first-hand.

Supporting and Increasing STEM Knowledge-Able Teachers, Researchers, and Students

Amy M. Bloom, CeMaST; William J. Hunter, CeMaST

The Illinois State University Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (CeMaST) provides support to faculty, staff, and students with interests in integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In this session, we share examples of current CeMaST projects and services, including the new Illinois Pathway Energy Learning Exchange, recently published K-12 STEM curricula, various professional development workshops for pre-service and in-service teachers, grant and journal support for faculty and staff, and a variety of campus and community outreach programs and events, such as our annual Family Science Day, ISU High School Research Symposium, Illinois Summer Research Academy, and the new CeMaST STEM kit/equipment loan program for pre-service and in-service PreK-16 teachers. We hope that sharing these examples will spark new ideas about how we can assist you in your teaching and research in order to support and increase STEM knowledge-able students.

Budget 101: Understanding the University Budget Process

Mardell Wilson, Office of the Provost; Barb Blake, Vice President for Finance and Planning

Yes, budgets can be fun! Challenging economic times often prompt concerns and confusion about the University budget process. Therefore, developing a basic knowledge regarding the guidelines and principles related to how the University budget is established and managed can be very beneficial. Join us as we outline the budget process at Illinois State University and share aspects relevant to everyone.

Connecting Theory and Practice through Participatory Action Research: An Experiment in Political Inquiry

Michaelene Cox, Politics and Government

Additional Materials

Participatory Action Research: An Experiment in Political Inquiry

This presentation shares lessons learned in a recent graduate seminar that emphasized the “thinking, doing, and writing” of political science. Called Introduction to Political Inquiry, the seminar is a new core course that acquaints first-year master’s students with the historical development of political science and initiates them to various qualitative and quantitative research practices in the discipline. I taught the course for the first time in Fall 2011 and assigned a number of theoretical readings about participatory action research (PAR), such as Paulo Freire’s perspective on community-based problem-solving. Student research teams were then assigned to design and implement a study to examine a matter of concern for community organizations. Collaborating with directors of the local YWCA and the Red Cross, we agreed upon a topic dealing with the challenge of volunteer recruitment and retention. Collaboration between students and community partners continued at various stages of the research project. At the end of the semester the student teams combined their literature reviews, findings and analyses into a single paper which they then presented to the board of directors of each agency. Feedback from all project participants was encouraging– PAR can be a useful method for incorporating civic engagement into the learning experience.

Helping Students Become Knowledge-Able through Assessment

Derek Herrmann, University Assessment; J. Cooper Cutting, Psychology; Nancy Latham, Curriculum and Instruction; Daniel Wilson, Technology

Additional Materials

Helping Students Become Knowledge-Able Through Assessment

This session is designed for anyone who has responsibility for degree program assessment within their Department/School or College. Assessment provides documentation of student learning, and at ISU, assessment of undergraduate and graduate degree programs primarily occurs within their home units. A panel of three individuals from different Colleges will discuss the assessment processes and procedures in which they are involved and/or coordinate. In doing so, they will provide their insights on doing assessment well, as well as the challenges that they have encountered, all in an effort to share their experiences and inform others of potential assessment models that can be used (and are used) here at ISU. Session attendees will learn about three models of program assessment, including information about the goals and learning outcomes, direct and indirect evidence of student learning, and use of the results within these assessment models. Attendees also will have the opportunity to ask questions of and discuss these models with presenters and other attendees.

Moving Beyond the Database Demo: Helping Students Interact with and Create Information

Jennifer Sharkey, Milner Library; Dane Ward, Milner Library; Chad Kahl, Milner Library

Teaching students to delve into the information environment and navigate its complexities is essential in today’s information environment, and librarians are multi-dimensional in their interests and skills regarding teaching and student learning. In this session, librarians will discusses how they approach teaching students to interact with and create information (in all of its variants) in deeper, more meaningful ways than simply learning how to use an academic database.

Political Bias & Political Misinformation in the Classroom

Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication

Additional Materials

Political Bias & Political Misinformation in the Classroom

This presentation examines instructor political bias and methods for handling political misinformation in the classroom. Examples and techniques used in the ISU classroom will provide the basis for the presentation, but ideas, concerns and questions will be encouraged from the audience.

Students Enjoying the Classroom? A Simple Approach to Change Their Experience

Doan Winkel, Management and Quantitative Methods

Additional Materials

Flip the Experience

Imagine students actually enjoying the classroom experience. Imagine students actually attending an 8:00 a.m. class by choice, because they are motivated to learn. This is happening right here on ISU’s campus – by flipping the classroom. Flipping the classroom (also referred to as reversing or inverting the classroom) is a newly rediscovered trend in education. This session will discuss how this methodology has been implemented in three undergraduate courses. Highlights will include how to introduce this methodology to students (via the syllabus), how specifically to flip (reverse, invert) the classroom, what to do during classroom sessions, and how students have reacted thus far. No matter your discipline, no matter your age, no matter your comfort with technology, in this session you will learn how to transform your classroom experience so your students can actually engage in and own their own learning, and so you and they can enjoy the experience.

Team Teaching: the Good, the Bad, and the Unanticipated!

Jodi Hallsten, School of Communication; Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundations; Wendy Troxel, Educational Administration and Foundations

Team teaching can improve both the quality of teaching and students’ overall learning experience in the classroom. However, because it is unlike a traditional classroom experience for everyone involved, team teaching presents unique challenges. This session’s panelists have varied experiences team teaching in both undergraduate and graduate-level courses. They will share valuable insights about team-teaching, including what works well, what doesn’t work well, and the surprises they experienced along the way. Additionally, information will be shared from the feedback provided by students specifically regarding their learning experiences in a team-taught course. If you’ve ever considered team teaching a course, let this panel help advise you as you contemplate how to make it the best possible experience for you and your students.

Using Social Media as a Learning Tool in the College Classroom

Shelly Clevenger, Criminal Justice Sciences
Research conducted with Dr. Renee Lamphere who currently teaches at University of North Carolina Pembroke

Facebook, a rapidly growing social media, has been immersed into the daily lives of college students. Educators have recently begun to use this form of social media as a supplement to their college courses to enrich learning. In this session, I’ll report on some research that examined the use of a course Facebook page for five individual undergraduate criminology classes to determine whether students found it to be an effective learning tool and/or enhanced their experience in the class. On this page, the instructors posted course information, polls, videos, and news articles. Also, students were able to talk with each other and the professor through messages and posts. This presentation will reveal the quantitative, as well as qualitative results of this research, indicating the experience the students had with the course Facebook page.

Classroom “Pinterest”: Using Social Media to Develop Critical Inquiry in Computer- Assisted Writing Classrooms

Lisa L. Phillips, English

Case studies in recent digital and new media scholarship suggest that educators can increase active learning in the classroom by deploying social media resources that students often use in non-academic settings. The idea is to take advantage of students’ “voluntary participation” in social network sites and use that as a “knowledge-abling” base to, as Clay Shirky puts it in Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, construct “personal, communal, public, and civic” engagement (2010, 161). In this session, the presenter will discuss the use of “Pinterest” in her computer-assisted writing classrooms in spring 2012 and fall 2012. The panelist will talk about her successes and failures using this social media setting in writing instruction, provide troubleshooting tips, and discuss ways to incorporate social media networking into your teaching to improve students’ “knowledge-abilities.” Ultimately, audience members will be invited to explore the ways in which social media use may be productive in their own teaching and learning.

Continuing the Conversation with Dr. Michael Wesch

 

Creating Knowledge-Able Students through Research on the Library

Gina Hunter, Sociology and Anthropology; Colleen Shaw, Milner Library

Over the past several years, undergraduate anthropology students have practiced ethnographic research at Milner Library, turning a space of study into an object of study and turning the traditional consumers of knowledge (i.e. students) into primary producers of knowledge that can be harnessed by other campus stakeholders. In this joint faculty-student presentation, we discuss the pedagogy of the course-based ethnographic research and present some of the key findings of students’ research projects. We conclude with suggestions for library/information-centered undergraduate research endeavors and research collaborations between librarians, faculty and students at Illinois State University.

How to Use Storytelling Helping Students become Knowledge-Able

William Shields, Geography and Geology; H. Tak Cheung, Biological Sciences

There is large body of research on the use of storytelling in education. It’s a teaching strategy that can be found in many education settings, including general medicine, dentistry, the military, aviation, and business. These groups use storytelling to teach key principles and to extend critical thinking and problem solving. This presentation will review the use of storytelling to help non-major students master concepts and principles in two General Education Inner Core Science courses: BSC 101 (Fundamental Concepts in Biology) and GEO 102 (Principles of Geology). The storytelling strategy includes drawing on students’ prior knowledge, creating cognitive dissonance regarding their misconceptions, illustrating applications in their lives, and promoting self-reflection. In this presentation, examples from these two courses will be used to demonstrate the different types of storytelling strategies that are used. These include case-based storytelling, narrative-based storytelling, scenario-based storytelling, and problem-based storytelling.

ILSTU Views: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age

Steve Hunt, School of Communication; Alauna Akins, School of Communication; Katy Feddersen, School of Communication; Mary Sorenson, School of Communication

ILSTU Views uses digital media displays as part of an integrated campaign at Illinois State to promote a better understanding of social issues. Each ILSTU Views kiosk uses a touch screen, computer, and USB camera, with the system linked through a central website to social media (e.g. Facebook). The displays are located around campus. The kiosks offer students and other members of the community opportunities to respond to questions, vote in polls, and leave comments. Discussion in a range of classes seeks to encourage students and others to critically assess and interact with important social issues represented on the kiosks.

Maximizing Learning: Student Involvement in a Program Evaluation Process

Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundations; Kaitlin Kirk, Fraternity and Sorority Life; Jeff Nilsen, Student Involvement; Adam Dralle, Orientation and Transition Services

Additional Materials

Maximizing Learning

This program will discuss the teaching and learning experiences of a team of Illinois State University graduate students and a faculty member as they completed an assessment of the College Student Personnel Administration masters degree program. Members of the team received a grant to complete the assessment, received training through the university IRB processes, and completed a multi-modal assessment over the course of a semester. This presentation will cover both learning and teaching opportunities for students and faculty across institutions and departments. Comprised of lecture and discussion, this session will examine both the general teaching and learning processes of the students involved as they relate to education and assessment, and also provide strategies for successful department or program evaluation using students and faculty as team members.

Reflecting on Science: Using the Primary Literature to Engage Students in Upper-level Science Courses

Tasha Dunn, Geography and Geology

Additional Materials

Reading the Literature (RTL) Assignments
Reflecting on Science

Content-heavy science courses are often dominated by lectures and labs, but an important aspect of being a capable scientist is the ability to understand and communicate scientific ideas. In this session, I will discuss how I have incorporated reading assignments into my core Geology classes to develop these abilities in students. In these Reading the Literature exercises, I assign short journal articles, which relate to a concept that students are learning in class, and provide students with a series of questions that guide their reading of the paper. I use written responses, which students submit prior to class, to guide an in-class discussion of the paper. These exercises not only serve to improve reading comprehension and communication skills, but also to introduce students to the primary literature, a source that is often ignored at the undergraduate level. Student responses are assessed based not only on conceptual understanding, but also on insight and thought. In this way students are encouraged to make connections between information and to apply their knowledge to other classes or research.

Saved By The Syllabus: Lessons Learned

Beverly J. Barham, Health Sciences

This session is an overview of syllabus design as an integral component of successful course design. Many institutions of higher education provide clear and concise direction regarding syllabus design, while other institutions may allow the instructor complete autonomy in designing a course syllabus. Either approach can be successful, but paying attention to the details of the design and content before the semester begins can often make a significant difference between a successful and an unsuccessful semester for both students and instructors.

Student Research Awards for Creatively Using Materials

David Stern, Milner Library

In this session, we will introduce the new Student Research Awards, which will be presented for class assignment products which demonstrate novel approaches to handling information resources. The intention is to recognize novel research methods and to have the winners serve as mentors, exemplars, and ambassadors to other students. Teaching faculty will identify and encourage creative research approaches that make use of either special collections materials or data creatively re-purposed from general library collections. Examples might include: hand entering (or scanning) tabular data from multiple print sources into a single database for analyses and presentations, creating analyses and reports using demographic or GIS data from online data sets, creating exhibits of rare or unusual materials, and working with Digital Humanities materials to explore new ways to mine literary resources. A group of librarians and teaching faculty will serve as the judges, calling for papers and providing up to three awards. Each award will include a certificate and a small cash prize. Winners will be highlighted on the Milner Library web site and in the library at a special Friends of the Library reception. The materials submitted will be housed within the “Friends of the Library Student Research Award Collection” in our new ISU ReD institutional repository.

Adventures in Civic Engagement

Maria Schmeeckle, Sociology and Anthropology

Additional Materials

Adventures in Civic Engagement
Adventures in Civic Engagement Handout

After completing CTLT’s 2011 summer workshop, ReInvent Your Course (Civic Engagement track), I decided to explore new ways to get my students involved in my sociology course, Children in Global Perspective (Sociology 318). In this session, I will describe my use of public blogs, three kinds of service learning, and a field trip to Chicago to further my civic engagement goals. Former students from the class will share how the course outcome of “Voice and Action” was achieved through these civic engagement activities. Visual examples of blog posts and service learning and footage from a documentary made about our field trip will be shown. I will also discuss new ideas about how to approach civic engagement activities for subsequent semesters, which include the American Sociological Association Wikipedia Initiative and Google Earth assignments. Our field trip and documentary were supported by a CTLT Teaching and Learning Development grant.

Changing Learning Using Cases: See One, Do One, Teach One

Laura Erskine, Management and Quantitative Methods

Additional Materials

See One, Do One, Teach One

In the context of the decision-making course I teach, class discussions and lectures do not provide students with enough exposure to the processes and consequences of making management-related decisions. For that reason, I use the case method of instruction. Once students are familiar with the case method, they are assigned (in groups) to a local non-profit organization. Student groups interview an organizational contact to explore current and recent decisions faced by the organization, choose a specific issue, and write (and then teach) their own case study. Over a 7-week period, student groups provide a variety of deliverables that I assess formatively. Students begin with an opening paragraph and receive peer and instructor feedback. Subsequent steps include a case plan, a rough draft, a teaching note, and the classroom facilitation of their case. In this session, the entire case writing project will be described and outlined. Participants will gain familiarity with the case method and will learn how to implement this project in the classes they teach. As a group, we will talk about experiential learning, civic engagement, and making connections to theory. Participants will leave with an outline of the project, samples of student-written cases, and instructions and rubrics for implementing this assignment.

Collaborative Classrooms: The Learning Outcomes of Students and Pre-service Teachers in an Alternative Education Setting

Erin Mikulec, Curriculum and Instruction; Adam Herrmann, YouthBuild of McLean County

Additional Materials

Collaborative Classrooms: The Learning Outcomes of Students and Pre-Service Teachers in an Alternative Education Setting

An integral part of any teacher education program is the early field experience component. However, these early field experiences must be meaningful ones rather than simply another requirement to complete. As Caprano, Caprano and Helfledt (2010) state, “teacher preparation programs must recognize that more systematically structured intensive field experiences involving reflection and inquiry that link theories with personal learning experiences are necessary” (p. 134). Teacher educators can develop field experiences that challenge pre-service teachers to begin to think more about the needs of their future students by working with alternative educational settings and agencies. What makes these experiences even more meaningful is a working relationship between the clinical site and the institution. By fostering and developing relationships, field experiences become an integral part of the classroom discourse, delving into and connecting theory and practice. We will discuss the expectations, experiences and learning outcomes of pre-service secondary teachers completing their early field experience in an alternative educational setting as well as the same expectations, experiences and learning outcomes of the students at Agency. Finally, we will discuss the process of developing the relationship between the University and Agency from the instructors’ perspectives.

Creating the Perfect Storm: Making Peer Assessment Work in Required Courses

John MacLean, English

Additional Materials

Creating the Perfect Storm: Making Peer Assessment Work in Required Courses

I always thought peer assessment sounded great in theory. While not appropriate for every project or paper, I saw (and see) that peer assessment has clear benefits for both students and teachers, including: developing critical thinking; reinforcing the skills and content needed for the project being assessed; increasing and diversifying the audience; increasing the amount (person-hours) of evaluation of each student’s project; and saving grading time, allowing teachers time to engage students more strategically. The problem I had with peer assessment was getting it to work practically, especially in required first year courses. Students did not seem to evaluate carefully. They tended to be very generous in awarding A’s – and then offered very little critical evaluation or justification for the grades they gave (e.g. “Great job!”, “I really liked it.”). Recently I found that a *combination* of several practices worked much better in helping students do careful, critical, justified peer assessment. In this presentation, I will outline these practices and review a set of peer assessment instructions I have used. I hope that during the discussion participants will suggest other practices that have worked well in their classes.

One Giant Leap: A Recap of Instructor Experiences Transitioning from Face-to-Face Delivery to Hybrid Online Instruction of Pre-Student Teaching Coursework

Stacy Kelly, Department of Special Education

Hybrid courses blend face-to-face interaction such as in-class discussions, active group work, and live lectures with typically web-based educational technologies such as online course learning modules, assignments, discussion boards, and other web-assisted learning tools. This presentation will recap instructor experiences transitioning from traditional face-to-face instruction to a hybrid format of instruction during a semester when teacher candidates complete their pre-student teaching field experiences in remote off-campus locations. Not only did the method of presenting course content evolve, but several logistical obstacles were overcome in implementing online elements of the course for students in remote off-campus locations. In the redesigned hybrid online courses, 90% of the instruction was online and 10% of the course content was presented during face-to-face class sessions. This balance maximized student well-being and faculty demands while advancing strategic plans for online instruction. Students were enrolled in the redesigned hybrid online courses for the first time in the fall 2011 and again during the fall 2012 semester. Plans are underway for the hybrid online coursework to continue each fall semester for the foreseeable future.

Piratical Pedagogy’s Annotation Wars: The Battlefields of Intellectual Integrity

Stacy Greathouse, English

Welcome to the AARCTIC. It’s a cold wasteland where travelers find their Accountability, Authority, Reasonableness, Credibility, Trustworthiness, Integrity, and Confidence are at stake on the desert of intellectual integrity. It’s a war zone, and one that student authors and scholars face constantly. In this session, the presenter will describe a unit of study called the Annotation Wars. The objectives of this unit, taught in a composition class, are to: define the types and purposes of credible citation; analyze what makes any author or person a reliable ally in different situations; evaluate artifacts and texts for use in various compositions; engage in community composition; provide constructive, insightful, and thorough criticism for peers; and examine one’s self as a credible, reliable, trustworthy, confident contributor to a community. This unit is an example of the tenets of a personal teaching philosophy that I call Piratical Pedagogy. We accomplish these objectives by way of hybrid activities that include competitive and collaborative classroom and discussion board interactions, maneuvering through the physical space of a library, interactive group work and democratic voting, and ending with a Choose-Your- Own-Adventure class demonstration.

Stereotype Threat and Learning Part 1: Challenges for Becoming Knowledge-Able

Mayuko Nakamura, CTLT Bill Anderson, Family and Consumer Sciences; Archana Shekara, School of Art; Osaore Aideyan, Politics and Government

Additional Materials

Cultural Identity in Design :: reason : reflect : respect

Stereotype threat refers to individuals’ concerns about confirming a negative stereotype of one’s own social group identity. Stereotype threat has been documented to influence motivation, behavior, and the performance of students who are negatively stereotyped, such as girls in advanced math courses and minority students in academic settings. Despite being knowledge-able, the students who are affected by stereotype threat face social contingencies that interfere with their learning processes, provided that they actively try to disconfirm negative stereotypes. Please join us for a lively discussion with ISU faculty who explored this topic in a “Cultural Diversity Teaching/ Learning Community.” This insightful presentation will introduce conferees to this important topic by sharing various situations when stereotype threat negatively affected students’ learning. The panelists will also share their experiences and observations of stereotype threat in educational settings.

Take a Page from Your Coach’s Playbook: Teaching of Technical and Tactical Skills

Jeremy Hawkins, Kinesiology and Recreation

Additional Materials

Take a Page from Your Coach’s Playbook: Teaching of Technical and Tactical Skills

A common complaint about recent graduates in applied fields is that they lack decision-making skills. Coaches face the same challenges in sport, and overcome it by teaching technical and tactical skills separately, helping their athletes know what to do when. The purpose of this workshop is to apply these coaching techniques to other skill acquisition fields, using athletic training clinical practice as an example. Through lecture and small group discussion, participants will identify how they can better prepare students for decision-making situations, empowering students to make a correct decision with confidence.

Theatre as a Platform for Learning: Cross-Disciplinary Performance Projects

Kevin Rich, School of Theatre and Dance

The School of Theatre and Dance has redesigned its MFA Acting program to target students with a dual interest in classical training and civic engagement. Students will train to become teaching artists as well as theatre artists, by serving as the outreach company for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival on a year-round basis. Incoming Artistic Director Kevin Rich will share his experience with giving students the opportunity to “learn by doing” through creating projects in the classroom that become performance pieces for the wider community. He will then facilitate a brainstorming session on ways theatre can be used as a platform for learning other disciplines, with the intention of generating ideas for future MFA Acting projects that engage the university beyond the department of Theatre and Dance.

Tweeting, Trending, and Hash tags

Noelle Selkow, Kinesiology and Recreation

Additional Materials

Tweeting, Trending, and #Hashtags

Are you considering incorporating Twitter into the classroom, but not sure how? Are you curious about what the Twitter hype is all about? During this session, I will share how I have incorporated Twitter into the classroom during the fall semester. I will give a very basic tutorial about Twitter, including the use of hash tags and Twitter lingo. I will provide examples of successful uses of Twitter that could be applied across disciplines. These include posting current news, links to articles, reminders, and general dialogue. Towards the end of the session, participants will work together to come up with an idea of how Twitter can be incorporated into their classrooms. By the end of the session, I hope each participant will understand how Twitter works and leave eager to implement Twitter in his or her course.

Using podcast to Help Students to become Knowledge-Able in a Non-major Biology Course

Danny Hajek, WGLT; H. Tak Cheung, Biological Sciences

Additional Materials

Using podcasts to help students become knowledge-Able in a non-major biology course
Using Podcasts to Help Students Become Knowledge-Able in a Non-Major Biology Course

Podcasting is best known in delivering radio programs, but it also has many advantages as a teaching tool and gives students the option to listen at their convenience on whatever device they choose. This presentation is based on the podcast series Your Place In The Universe, produced by Daniel Hajek (ISU, 2011) and Dr. H. Tak Cheung. The episodes, running between five to ten minutes long, were developed to reflect and reinforce the class curriculum for BSC 101, Fundamental Concepts in Biology, a General Education Inner Core Science course. Over 50 episodes were produced, with topics ranging from nutrition and obesity to DNA and the conscious mind. Each segment incorporates narration, music and sound effects. This project demonstrates how the podcasts have helped students enrolled in BSC101 become knowledge-able. It supports an appreciation of the relevance and application of biological concepts in everyday life. The project also helped one student develop skills and experience in broadcast journalism and land an internship position with National Public Radio upon his graduation.

Changing Libraries: Implications for Teaching and Learning

Dane Ward, Milner Library; Jeff Barr, Milner Library; Angela Bonnell, Milner Library; Michael Sublett, Geography and Geology

In this changing information environment, how we interact with and create knowledge, particularly in the classroom, is constantly evolving. Embracing these changes, libraries are becoming increasingly active and more fully integrated in the University’s teaching and learning process. This session will highlight the library as a center for student learning in partnership with academic faculty and other programs. The discussion will focus on shifting concepts of accessing, using, and creating information in the digital environment; using the library as an introduction to field work in a public space; and considering collaboration efforts among various student learning initiatives.

Funding for Civic Engagement in the Classroom: The Community Engagement Learning Grant Program

Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Patricia Jarvis, Psychology; Jennifer Friberg, Communication Sciences & Disorders; Maria Schmeeckle, Sociology and Anthropology; Wendy VanderNoordaa, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences; Connie Dyar, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Additional Materials

Funding For Civic Engagement in the Classroom
The Community Engagement Learning Grant

This panel is for faculty who want to facilitate transformative learning and incorporate civically-engaged learning outcomes into their courses. Panelists will provide information about Community Engagement Learning Grants which are intended to support incorporating the principles and goals of ISU’s core value of civic engagement into students’ curricular experiences. The grant program is co-sponsored by the Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, American Democracy Project at ISU, and CTLT. The grants are intended to reimburse faculty for expenses directly associated with course based events, activities or projects that develop students’ civic and community knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and prepare them to participate in social change. Grants support community engagement projects such as service learning assignments, guest speakers, travel expenses for class trips, and material for in-class activities/assignments. Past and current grantees will describe the grant process, their projects and course integration, correlated learning outcomes, and students’ reflections.

Modernizing the Way that ISU Interacts with Technology

Pete Weinstein, Lean Enterprise Architecture and Processes (LEAP); Emily Derege, Lean Enterprise Architecture and Processes (LEAP); Lindsay Thompson, Lean Enterprise Architecture and Processes (LEAP)

The systems that support Illinois State University’s academic programs and services have not kept up with the many demands placed on them by students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff. As a result, President Bowman and the Vice Presidents have determined that we need to transition to a more flexible and modern academic architecture. This update is being implemented by the LEAP Department and will include student applications, registration, grades, financial aid, student billing, and numerous other systems. When completed, the institution’s academic infrastructure will be simple to access, easy to use, and will seamlessly integrate with other systems on campus. The goal is to give Illinois State a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining high quality students and faculty. This presentation will introduce the LEAPForward Initiative and discuss the timeline, methodologies and goals. In his State of the University Address, President Bowman encouraged members of the ISU community, who regularly interact with student information data and systems, to provide input and participate in focus groups to support the initiative. Join our session to learn more about LEAPForward and find out how to get involved.

Pedagogical Discourse in the Classroom: How New Teachers Can Push Students to Think Harder

Ryan Edel, English

Additional Materials

Discussing Pedagogy in the Classroom

Our students arrive at college to learn, but we can tell they are stressed-out and sleep deprived. As teachers in higher education, we have a genuine obligation to provide our students with both rigorous intellectual challenge and the sympathetic support to prevent them from “burning out” from frustration. However, it’s difficult finding the right balance for each student, particularly for new teachers. For some starting teachers, empathy for students can transform into canceled assignments, lowered assessment standards, and misplaced feelings of guilt. For others, the need to “appear tough” may lead to punitive grading, inflexible policies, and excessive workloads. In this presentation, we’ll consider ways that new teachers can open a constructive dialogue with students regarding the nature of learning. By openly discussing pedagogy with our students, we can establish our own authority as teachers by showing them how each assignment contributes to their overall understanding of the field. Further, by presenting our own uncertainties and then inviting students to give constructive evaluation of our course material, we can help them establish a more personal investment in their own learning.

Stereotype Threat and Learning Part 2: Opportunities for Becoming Knowledge-Able

Diane Dean, Educational Administration and Foundations; Miranda Lin, Curriculum and Instruction; Nicholas Hartlep, Educational Administration and Foundations

Stereotype threat refers to the way that individuals experience anxiety when fighting to not confirm a negative stereotype of one’s social group identity, something dependent upon social contingencies. In this second of two sessions on stereotype threat, we will expand our exploration of the topic by discussing strategies and the implications this phenomenon has for teaching. Please join us for an interactive session led by ISU faculty who have explored this topic in a Cultural Diversity Teaching-Learning Community. We will begin with a quick overview of stereotype threat for those who cannot attend the Part 1 session, and then explore the implications this threat has in your college classroom(s). The diverse panel will engage with the audience to brainstorm strategies to minimize its effects in order that students are able to flourish as “Knowledge-Able” learners.

Teacher Questioning as an Indicator of Change

Marilyn Morey, Curriculum and Instruction; Elif Safak, Mathematics Education

Additional Materials

Teacher Questioning as an Indicator of Change

Questioning is an essential tool teachers can use to guide learning, to better understand what their students are thinking and what connections they are making. However, documenting teacher change via the questions teachers ask and the context in which they are asking them is complex work. This presentation reports a study that investigates how an analysis of teachers’ questioning could be used as an indicator of change in teachers’ classroom instruction. During a 3-year Master’s degree program at Illinois State University, 22 teachers taught and video-taped three lessons; one at the beginning of the program, a second mid-way through the program, and a third at the end of the program. For the purpose of the study, the teacher videos and their transcriptions are affording us the opportunity to analyze teacher questions in an attempt to see if we may detect changes in teacher questions as an indication of teacher change over 3 years. The reported findings show that, over time, some of the teacher’s questioning improved in terms of types of questions asked and general questioning strategies. Teachers shifted their focus of questioning (e.g. teacher vs. students, processes vs. products) and became persistent to follow up student responses.

“The Classroom of One”: Internships from the Professional Perspective

Tom Lamonica, School of Communication; Sara B. Wills, Manager of Agency Recruiting, COUNTRY Financial; Kate Sies, Development Associate, OSF-St. Joseph Medical Center; Kyle Kreger, General Manager, Normal CornBelters Baseball

Additional Materials

Field Experiences in Communication Professions

The Field Experiences program in the School of Communication has attempted to capitalize on the teaching/learning ideal of “the Classroom of One” by making internships the bridge linking college experience to professional life for students. The interns learn one-on-one from professional supervisors who care as much about the students’ professional development as they do about their performance. This panel features the “instructors” from those “Classrooms of One”—internship supervisors– to facilitate discussion about the expectations, experiences and outcomes for those instructors/mentors. The panelists include people who have been both classroom instructors and professional internship supervisors as well as current professionals who have been part of the internship program when they were students.

Well What Do Ya KNOW?!

Alauna S. Akins, School of Communication

Times are changing. Students are changing. Therefore, the nature of the relationship between teaching and learning is ever evolving. I believe an important component of developing knowledge-able students during their collegiate career is to facilitate their walk on the journey of knowledge of “self”. I have found surprising ways to use technological services to help students embark upon this journey of self-discovery. I plan to discuss specifically how the use of vlog entries (video “confessionals” using YouTube), blog entries (students using WordPress to create e-portfolios), and a banking system for point allocation has helped students become more introspective and critical in their self-assessment of their own growth and development as college students. Moreover, the well-timed use of these methods has helped me learn more about what my students already know and what they need to know!

Academic Dishonesty in Distance Education in Nursing Programs

O. Ed. Reitz, Mennonite College of Nursing

The competitive nature of the current academic environment in higher education may present more incentives to commit academic dishonesty (AD) than ever before. It is felt that the recent proliferation of distance learning programs and the accompanied advances in internet technology may increase the number of plagiarism incidents and the potential for prohibited collaboration between students taking online exams. The current body of research on AD in a distance learning environment has been limited and inconclusive especially regarding AD in nursing distance education programs. This article is designed to address this limitation. Thus the purpose of this article is to answer the research question, “In the evidence-based nursing research from 2005 until present, what factors are associated with academic dishonesty and distance education?” Key themes are identified and their implications for nursing education are examined.

Behind the Kluge Prize: the Mediated World of the Guarani

Richard Kane, Family and Consumer Sciences

Additional Materials

Behind the Kluge Prize: the Mediated World of the Guarani

Cardoso was recently awarded the Library of Congress’ prestigious Kluge Prize for advancing the understanding of the human experience. Cardoso’s research on dependency and development was articulated in 19th century historical terms that were based on his study of slavery in southern Brazil. Cardoso’s findings, however, conceal those of his minister of culture, Francisco Weffort, who traces the origins of Brazil back to the Jesuit Order which created a “utopia” for the Guarani Indians on their vast Reduction system in the south of Brazil beginning in the 16th century. This presentation highlights The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum of 1599, or the plan of study which would have been used to educate all Guarani children in the colegios on every Reduction around the beginning of the early-modern era until their expulsion in 1767. By highlighting the Guarani pedagogical experience, I seek to deepen the historical perspective Michael Wesch gives us about learning in new media environments, and the differences between mediated and unmediated worlds. I will share my own experiences with the Guarani and discuss some of the implications and opportunities at hand for Curriculum & Instruction, Family and Consumer Science education, Management and other globalizing disciplines.

Beyond the Classroom: Learning about People with Disabilities Through a Student Disability Service and Advocacy Organization

Nicole Uphold, Special Education; Stephanie DeSpain, Special Education; Emily Watts, Special Education; James R. Thompson, Special Education

Focus group interview data was collected to understand college student perspectives regarding the relative value of experiences and activities offered through a student-based, disability service and advocacy club. The club is a student organization that is unique to ISU, and over the past decade it has adopted a greater focus on disability rights and full inclusion/participation of people with disability in society. It is comprised of members who have identified work with children and adults with disabilities as a career goal (e.g., special education majors; speech and language therapy majors) as well as members where there is no direct relationship between careers involving people with disabilities and their field of study at ISU (e.g., business majors; agricultural majors). Results from the focus group interviews showed that club activities have enhanced the education of students preparing for careers that involve work with people with disabilities, as well as students whose major field of study and career direction were not directly related to work with people with disabilities. Findings will be discussed in terms of experiences outside of formal professional preparation that have the potential to meaningfully influence the attitudes and perspectives of university students.

Building Strengths Out of Weaknesses: A Collaborative Approach

Denise Wilson, Mennonite College of Nursing

The typical course involves course objectives, course content and evaluation methods to determine if the student has met the objectives and is ready to progress in the curriculum, or in the case of the final course of the Family Nurse Practitioner sequence, ready to graduate and take a national certification examination. Of course students hope that their strengths in the course will outweigh the content in which they are not so strong….their areas of “weakness.” But when they do not, we as faculty usually meet with the student to discuss the weaknesses and make suggestions for improvement. But what do we really DO to change these weaknesses into strengths? This poster will present an innovative pedagogical activity which brings together pairs of students—one with a “weakness” and the other with a “strength”—to collaborate on the development of a capstone project that benefits not only the student pair, but all members of the class. This activity, done within a graduate-level nursing course, can easily be used in courses within other disciplines.

Comparing Class Attendance and Performance in Undergraduate Students

Joseph R. Matson, School of Music

This poster illustrates the relationship between students’ attendance and students’ grades, in undergraduate classes 2009–2012. In every case, the data show a strong, negative correlation: students with the highest number of absences had the lowest average grades. One graph also measures students’ attendance in one class session against students’ grades on a quiz during the following class session. On all ten quizzes analyzed, students who attended the class session before a quiz earned a higher average score than the class average. Teachers apply widely varying attendance policies in their undergraduate classrooms, ranging from policies where attendance is not taken to policies where attendance has a major impact on students’ final grades. The goal of this poster is to start conversations with teachers about how to use attendance policies to improve performance in undergraduate students.

How Many Beers? Knowledge-Able in Making Choices through Curricular Activities

Anne F. D’Elia, Biological Sciences; H. Tak Cheung, Biological Sciences

According to the 2012 ISU Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, close to 55% of the students surveyed were involved in Binge Drinking two weeks prior to filling out the survey. However, students have little or no knowledge of the physiological responses of alcohol in their body as well the danger of alcoholism. This is probably one of the most important lessons that students can learn in the classroom with direct application to their academic and social lives on a college campus. In this presentation, a curricular activity in a non-major biological course was designed to help students to reflect on their alcohol use through biological understanding. This curricular activity is based on the constructivist theory in prior knowledge, cognitive dissonance, guided application, and personal reflection. This presentation will demonstrate how the understanding of the biochemical processes of alcohol metabolism can lead to the recognition of the negative effect of alcohol and the risk of alcoholism based on both genetic and environmental factors. The goal of these curricula activities is to allow students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the effect of alcohol in their lives. It helps them to develop strategies in managing their alcohol consumption based on this understanding.

Improving Professional Skills Through Out-of-Class Experiences in Psychology

Alycia M. Hund, Psychology; Daisy Bueno, Psychology

Educators and employers agree that professional skills such as problem solving, communication, and teamwork are necessary for success in adulthood. Recently, researchers have begun to focus on mechanisms by which adolescents and emerging adults learn and refine these skills. According to Larson (2000), structured voluntary activities are the ideal context for developing professional skills because they provide a unique combination of intrinsic motivation and deep attention. This research project focused on the development of professional skills and attitudes through out-of-class experiences in psychology. We used qualitative strategies to identify themes evident in reflection papers written by undergraduate students involved in out-of-class experiences including teaching assistantships and research apprenticeships. Thirty-seven undergraduate students submitted reflection papers documenting their experiences and learning in out-of-class experiences. We used qualitative analyses (i.e., grounded theory) to identify specific professional skills and the teaching and research experiences that facilitated their emergence. Over 75% of students reported growth in professional, communication, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills (i.e., perspective taking, oral communication, helping others, confidence). Likewise, 97% of students involved in teaching and research mentioned gaining a greater understanding of these contexts and content domains, documenting significant expansion of professional skills and attitudes through out-of-class experiences in psychology.

Learning Outcomes and Professional Implications of Participating in a University Equestrian Club and Team

Erin Mikulec, Curriculum and Instruction; Kathleen McKinney, Endowed Chair - Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

While there are a number of studies that focus on the professional and learning outcomes of participating in student organizations, (Arminio, Roberts, & Bonfiglio, 2009; Bush & Miller, 2011; Case, 2011; Chundur & Zieleniewski, 2009; Ginsburg, Cox, Joyner & Lawson, 2011; Hatch & McCarthy, 2005) there has been little to no research on these same outcomes in an equestrian- oriented setting. This presentation reports on the results of a study conducted with members of a Registered Student Organization (RSO), the Equestrians, at a large Midwestern university, as well as schools with similar organizations within the region and at the national level. The researchers used an anonymous online survey to collect data from the three groups of participants. The surveys include demographic information and both closed- and open-ended questions. The questions focused on students’ perceptions of what they learned, beyond equestrian skills, from participation in the organization. The respondents reported that their participation in the Equestrian organization increased their development in terms of leadership, teamwork, organization, work ethic, oral communication, and critical thinking. Though there are limitations to the research, the strengths include a multi-institutional sample, a focus on out-of-class learning, quantitative and qualitative data, and action research.

Making Theory Work

Nicholas Bowden, Economics

Making Theory Work is a collection of Microsoft Excel tutorials derived from microeconomic theory. Microeconomic theory consists of two foundational branches, consumer theory and theory of the firm. The Excel tutorials were developed as part of the curriculum for ECO 239 Managerial Economics, which is centered on microeconomic theory of the firm. Theory posits mathematical models of the firm and then explains how a firm chooses the value(s) of decision variable(s) to optimize the model. The simplest model of the firm describes how a firm chooses its level of production given market demand for its product and firm cost structure to maximize profit. The Excel tutorials were constructed to reinforce the intuition of the theory and to teach practical computer skills. In the tutorials, students take the theory from lectures and the text and construct simple mathematical models in Excel. The models are used to calculate the outcomes over a range of alternative values for the decision variable( s) in order to determine the optimal decision.

Moving from Marketization to Marketing of Higher Education: The Co-creation of Value in Higher Education

Kimberly M. Judson, Marketing; Steven A. Taylor, Marketing

As universities continue to compete for students and resources, pressures to engage in marketization practices continue to grow. A distinction is made between typical university marketization practices emphasizing sales and student satisfaction and current marketing theory emphasizing value co-creation. The problem that emerges is a self-reinforcing emphasis on short-term consumer considerations, often at the expense of longer-term intellectual growth. An argument is made for institutions of higher learning to engage in value co-creation consistent with current marketing theory, rather than marketization. A framework is proposed to guide university marketing considerations by emphasizing students’ cognitive abilities, psycho- social states, attitudes/values, and moral development through education, rather than simply focusing on student satisfaction. The framework is offered as a starting point for discussions in the evolution of marketing education.

Personality’s Top 40: An Assignment to Motivate Students to Apply Personality Concepts to Their Favorite Songs

Eric D. Wesselmann, Psychology
Research conducted with Matthew P. Kassner & William G. Grazaino, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University

College students receive few academic experiences requiring them to generate their own examples of class concepts, or apply these concepts to personal experiences. Some college educators have created activities that encourage students to apply course concepts to material outside of classroom contexts (i.e., popular culture media) and found that these activities increased students’ confidence with understanding the material and their ability to apply it to other contexts. We created an activity in an upper-level Personality Psychology course: interested students created an “entry” for a contest in which they chose a popular song that illustrated a course concept. The entire class then evaluated these entries in class and voted for their favorites in a tournament- style bracket system. Ultimately, the students who created the top three entries received extra credit. We created items on the Final Exam that assessed knowledge about concepts illustrated by each entry. Students were more likely to answer these items correctly than a randomly selected subset of items unrelated to the entries. This increased performance occurred regardless of whether the students created a submission or simply voted. This activity could be adapted for other courses both within and outside of psychology.

Testing our Teaching: One ISU Course vs. the A.P. History and Government AP Exams

Stewart Winger, History; Elizabeth Doorn, History

Recently, several prominent scholars (e.g., “Academically Adrift” by Arum and Roska) have claimed that there is weak evidence that a college education increases college students’ knowledge and abilities. One method of assessing whether our students are making real and measurable gains as the result of college courses is to compare pre-course to postcourse assessments. This project does just that using standardized tests to assess (1) whether students who had taken a prior college-level history course scored better than those who had not, and (2) whether the current course results in measurable score improvements. This past semester students in History 135, Survey of United States History to 1865, took versions of the AP U.S. History exam both at the beginning and at the end of the semester in order to see what gains they might make against this one standard measure. Students were tested only on material reflecting the first half of the U.S. History survey, and all students scored the equivalent of a 1 or a 2 coming into the class. To receive AP credit at ISU, students are required to achieve a score of 3, 4, or 5. In addition, students also took a truncated version of the AP U.S. Government exam, with results segmented based on whether and where (community college or ISU) each student had taken a college-level U.S. Government course before. Here ISU requires a 4 or a 5 in order for incoming students to receive credit. The presentation will share the results of the studies and provide evidence about the effectiveness of college-level history and government courses on student learning. The results should be interesting in light of the national debate about the added value of a college education. While the sample is small, this project is sure to stimulate important discussion.

Understanding the Relationship between Students’ Learning Styles and Their Learning Expectation in the Student Coordinated Fashion Show

Hae Jin Gam, Family and Consumer Sciences; Jennifer Banning, Family and Consumer Sciences; Elisabeth Reed, Family and Consumer Sciences

The Apparel, Merchandising, and Design Association (AMDA) is a student-led organization at a Midwestern university. The organization is open to all students at the university, though membership is primarily composed of students in the Apparel Merchandising and Design major. The majority of the AMDA club’s efforts and financial resources are dedicated to an annual fashion show. The AMDA fashion show is a unique event because it is student directed and coordinated. As such, it is the premier opportunity for students in AMDA to cultivate and enhance skills in leadership and professional practice that will better prepare students for their future careers. This study explored students’ perceived learning experiences through planning, producing, and executing the annual fashion show. Identifying specific ways in which students benefit from self-directed learning opportunities such as the fashion show will help faculty advisors to further develop student leadership skills.

What’s the “Difference”?

BreAnna Evans, Curriculum and Instruction; Anni Krummel, Curriculum and Instruction

BreAnna interviewed twelve Lesbian and Gay teachers from various states across the country. She was able to see themes based on teachers who were out on campus and those who chose to hide their sexual identity. BreAnna addresses these themes and issues of safety and identity within the educational field. Anni interviewed and observed teachers with bi-racial students. She will share the themes from her interviews while focusing on teacher perceptions and categorizing bi-racial children. These doctoral students’ goals are to inform others about these populations and how to accept differences within schools. Not only do they research these areas, both students are living examples of their studies; BreAnna, a lesbian, and Anni, a mother of a bi-racial child. They both want to give educators and students opportunities to ask questions while also sharing research and other teachers’ experiences.