Graduate Student Professional Development Opportunity

The group will address approaches to questions such as:

· Why don’t my students seem to remember important information from previous        courses?

· Why does an equation they dealt with successfully in one course confuse them in

              another course?

· Why are they not making connections between/among courses?

Lee Shulman, former president of Carnegie Center for the Advancement of Teaching, describes amnesia (forgetfulness), fantasia (misconception), and inertia (lack of transfer) as the three pathologies of mislearning.* Shulman believes we can decrease these negative learning results through small changes in our teaching. How do we construct learning opportunities for students that avoid mislearning by encouraging transfer of learning?

The Transfer of Learning community will introduce graduate students, interested in college teaching, to instructional design which targets barriers to learning in their classrooms. The learning community will meet weekly for six, ninety minute sessions. By the end of six weeks, participants will understand why transfer of learning is inherently a difficult and unnatural process, and how it can either be inhibited or enhanced through instructional design. Participants will also design a learning module, using the Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe) template.

As proof of participation in a professional development opportunity, eligible participants will receive a certificate from the Center of Teaching Excellence. In order to receive the certificate, at most two meetings may be missed due to other professional commitments. As courtesy to peers and to facilitate participant learning, all participants are expected to prepare for each session before the meeting, and actively participate in facilitator-led peer-group discussions and activities. For more information or to register, please contact Jean Layne at j-layne@tamu.edu.

*http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/pub/sub.asp?key=452&subkey=618