Courses

Faculty development seminars are designed to support and encourage faculty as they pursue excellence in their various roles of teaching, research and service, as well as the professional goals of scholarship, promotion, and tenure. The courses, which follow, are available by request for faculty groups. Each course is taught by a senior person, (usually people who have taught at the college level themselves), with a doctoral degree in their field and /or special expertise in the content being presented. These courses are designed specifically for Hopkins faculty who are seeking to improve their skills in the program track areas which follow:

Skills for Course Planning and Organization

Designing an Effective Course (one-day) - Rick Sullivan
How can you plan a course efficiently so it works to promote student learning? How do you design learning experiences to organize and impart information in a way that promotes learning, retention, attitude formation, and skill development? This workshop will overview the techniques which excellent teachers use to decide how to organize content, prepare syllabi, design supporting materials, create learning activities, deliver interactive presentations and evaluate teaching and learning for the purpose of improving programs and instruction. This course is also a good place to begin design efforts if you plan to put a course on the web or other computer-based strategy.

Using Graphic Organizers to Increase Understanding (half day) - Robby Champion
Learn 10 different graphic organizers that you can construct during class while you lecture on the overhead projector, the whiteboard, or on a chart or do a question and answer to help students better see the interconnectedness of the content. Please bring your text or course outline to use as a reference in the application of course activities.

Rubrics: a Graphic Organization and Grading Tool for Student Projects (half-day) - Robby Champion
Learn how to use "rubrics" to organize and construct a grading tool that clearly communicates to students the qualitative differences between levels of grades. How does "A" work differ from "B" work, and so on? Please bring your text or course outline to use as a reference in the application of course activities.

Focus on Learning

How Human Beings Learn (half-day)- Robby Champion
This workshop highlights what we know from recent research and "best practices" about how human beings learn, what teaching practices impede learning, and what techniques the best teachers use to maximize student engagement in the learning process.

Transforming the Traditional Classroom Into a Community of Learners (half-day) - Richard Solomon
In this workshop, we will experience, discuss, analyze and reflect upon a variety of strategies that can transform the traditional college classroom into a community of participating, cooperative, respectful and thoughtful community of learners. Learn to direct your teaching to the entire range of students from the mature student who has experienced success in the past, to the young person who lacks confidence in his/her ability. During the workshop we will discuss: What is a community of learners? How can we build better teams and learning communities? What are the social skills necessary for community building?

The Nature of Giftedness: Meeting the Needs of the Gifted Learner (half-day) - Linda Brody
This course will review the characteristics and needs of gifted individuals. Methods for identifying gifted learners and educational strategies that help them achieve their full potential will be considered. Participants will discuss the implications of working with gifted students in their own teaching environments.

Skills for Improved Teaching

Improving Your Instructional Delivery (one-day) - Donald Shandler
The objective of this course is to provide basic techniques to improve instructional delivery through a competency-based approach to learning. Emphasis will be placed on how to: develop an effective learning event, rehearse and "stage for effectiveness", master the mechanics of setting up a learning environment, select effective visual aids, manage the learning environment to avoid common problems, and design and plan to improve instruction.

How to Design and Use Small Group Learning in Class (half-day) - Robby Champion
Learn different possibilities for small group configurations and learning tasks, how to establish ground rules for small groups, how to give directions for small group tasks, how to monitor and coach small groups as they work in class, and then how to deal with the reporting out from small groups.

Dealing with the 10%: Challenging Situations in the Classroom (half-day) - Robby Champion
Learn and practice techniques for dealing with the 10%, that is, those student in-class behaviors that interfere with everyone's learning: the Eaters and Sleepers, the Perpetually Angry or contentious, the Lost and Confused, the Whisperers or talkers, and so on. Improve your sense of classroom ownership, and improve your instruction by learning techniques to appropriately address these kinds of student behaviors.

Getting More out of Discussion Sessions (half-day) - Robby Champion
Ever feel disappointed in class discussions? What can you do when students won't contribute, or when the discussion is dominated by only a few? Learn and practice techniques to design and facilitate discussions so that they become more productive as a learning tool. This workshop presents practical suggestions to achieve specific learning outcomes during a discussion, incorporate student contributions, involve the entire class, and stimulate more critical thinking.

Getting More out of Question/Answer Sessions (half-day) - Robby Champion
This workshop provides you with strategies for improving the results that you get from class question and answer sessions. The focus is on planning questions that foster critical thinking and on the process of questioning. Learn how to deal better with wrong or partial student answers, how to encourage divergent thinking, and how to use questioning for chapter review sessions. Please bring your text or course outline to use as a reference in the application of course activities.

How to Design and Use The Case Method of Teaching (half-day) - Eliot Cohen
Learn how to increase student learning through the use of the case method of teaching. A short case study dealing with a teacher confronting an outraged adult student ("The Case of the Offended Colonel"), will explore some of the challenges and rewards of case teaching. Common issues in case preparation and instruction will be explored, with particular attention to the pedagogical skills required to "read" student response, and react to it.

Twelve-Step Recovery Program for Teachers Addicted to Lecturing (half day) - Neil Davidson
Excessive, out-of-control lecturing is an addiction common to many secondary teachers and professors. What are the tell-tale signs of a "lectureholic?" What can be done about this problem? How can you get your lecturing "under control" and balance your lectures with active learning strategies? Our recovery program for lectureholics is adapted with slight liberties from the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous. (Based on our article in College Teaching, summer 1997). This experiential session will employ a balance of mini-lectures, class discussion, six cooperative learning procedures, and other active learning methods. A series of activities will address the key questions presented above as well as other steps in our recovery program.

Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (half day) - Neil Davidson
This experiential presentation will focus on practical cooperative strategies for teachers to help students increase their understanding of basic concepts, develop problem solving ability, and master "essential" skills. Participants will experience several cooperative-learning procedures with varied goals and activities. Attention will be paid to selected implementation issues such as how to get started with cooperative learning in the classroom, how to organize a class for cooperative group work, and how teachers can support on another in applying cooperative techniques.

Teaching Well, Saving Time (half-day) - Barbara Walvoord
The workshop begins with a review of the literature and reflection by each participant about what it is to "teach well" in his or her discipline and situation. How can teachers devise classroom strategies that promote learning within the context of their own content area? And how can these effective methods be accomplished in a time-efficient and sustainable way. This workshop offers practical suggestions that faculty at research universities have used to improve their teaching while focusing on the research and service that is so important to success.

Skills for Improved Evaluation of Learning

Grading and Responding to Student Work (half-day) - Ginny Anderson
Grading and responding to student work is one of the most labor-intensive things faculty do for student learning. This workshop focuses on making every moment you spend grading count for student learning. How do you plan classroom activities to elicit what you want from students? What types of comments work best? How can you design peer evaluation? How can you assign grades efficiently and fairly, and still maintain a reasonable workload?

Evaluating Clinical Performance (half-day) - Toni Ungaretti
This workshop focuses on incorporating research-based elements of effective teaching into a systemic approach to the evaluation of clinical performance. Participants identify crucial objectives and competence criteria as the basis for an evaluation framework. Emphasis is placed on student-centered learning, teaching and evaluation "on-the-run", clear communication of objectives, data-based decision-making, and the identification of teachable moments. Participants simulate data gathering and feedback sessions. They are provided with strategies for effective communication, mentoring, monitoring, and feedback. Finally, specific recommendations are examined for continuous and final written and in-person evaluations.

Using Technology for Better Teaching

Using the Internet/WWW for Classroom Assignments (half-day) - John Baker
In this session you will learn to communicate more effectively with your students using technology more effectively. Use the Internet and World Wide Web for data search and retrieval, e-mail, data transfer, remote log in to other sites, and news groups. Consider the possibilities for implementing high tech methods in your classroom in this interactive session.

Building a PowerPoint Lecture (half-day) - John Baker
Participants will overview a demo of how PowerPoint Software may be used to create an effective presentation using tools for artwork, graphs and templates to create slides, handouts, and notes pages.

Professional Development

Creative Workload Management: A Workshop To Improve Time and Task Management (one-day) - David Melvin
Having the ability to accomplish more work in less time is a goal that everyone shares. This course challenges the individual to think creatively about time and work. The art of creative planning as a planning tool of personal choice is explored. Learn to separate "things to do" from critical tasks and projects, and how to set up and manage planning formats. Learn to recognize the tyranny of urgencies and to focus on what is really important, as well as to recognize and overcome procrastination. Understand the things that can be controlled and recognize when influence strategies are needed. Learn how to balance the need to be free of interruptions and the fact that we are paid to be interrupted. Finally, learn how to master the necessity of efficient information storage and retrieval.

The Fundamentals of Project Management (one-day) - David Melvin
The fundamentals of project management are presented and discussed including: generating and gaining commitment to the scope of the project, planning to achieve criteria set for time, cost, and quality, and scheduling tools including estimating, logic diagramming, and Gantt charts. Finally, techniques for implementing, controlling and monitoring the project's production and completion will be presented. Learn to review milestones to ensure successful phase and project outcomes and to review personal goals against the set agenda.

Developing a Marketing Strategy for Your Program/Department (half-day) - Carol Bloomberg
In today's more competitive environment, many faculty face demands to become more entrepreneurial in promoting their departments, programs, educational services, clinical activities, part time programs, and innovative work. Even the most outstanding program can no longer depend on word of mouth advertising for success. Any program that hopes to achieve its goals must develop a marketing strategy to position itself within its chosen market. Next, a sound marketing plan can get the word out to the identified population with high accuracy and a more efficient use of advertising dollars. Produce the results you need to meet your established program goals and learn to design a marketing strategy that will deliver the impact you need for success.

Leadership Skills Assessment for Faculty (two half-days) - Linda Dillon Jones
To know yourself well is the first step in achieving your leadership potential. A clear understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses allows the individual to adjust his/her professional behavior early in a career and to choose more productive alternatives. This workshop provides individuals with the opportunity to receive an evaluation of how boss, peers, and subordinates perceive their performance on a variety of leadership competencies that contribute to success within their scope of influence. This course requires a six-week time allowance for the distribution, collection, and analysis of materials. For this reason, a preliminary half-day session is held to distribute assessment instruments, and a second half-day session is held to provide the results of the assessment and to create a personal developmental plan.