Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning - CETAL

Interesting article in The Chronicle - "Redefining success: Embracing alternative assessments in higher education"

Redefining success: Embracing alternative assessments in higher education Exams create enormous amounts of anxieties that overburden the extraneous and germane aspects of cognitive load.

"Finding a Vantage Point: Using Student Reflection to Enhance Learning and Engagement" will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Peninsula II of the Northern Center.

Maria Bergstrom will be discussing how instructors are often frustrated by student approaches to learning that seem shallow and even transactional (learn the content, pass the test, get the grade). Students also experience frustration when they don’t see or understand how material in one course connects to other courses, or to the students’ future goals or career aspirations. Reflective activities can be used in any course in any discipline to guide students into deeper engagement with course material and also to broaden students' understanding of how that material connects to their larger academic context and future goals. Reflection is also an important means by which we can bring student voices into the classroom, encouraging students to become active meaning-makers rather than passive receivers of knowledge.

Maria will share her own experiences with a variety of reflective assignments and give an example of a basic template for developing reflective activities in a wide range of disciplines. Participants will have the opportunity during the session to brainstorm/draft a reflection exercise for a course they teach and workshop it with a small group of peers. The approach to reflection described in this session could be used in a variety of teaching modalities, including in-person, hybrid, or online courses.