Overview
The Washington State University President's Teaching Academy presented Dr. Thomas A. Angelo, an internationally renowned expert on assessment. Dr. Angelo has consulted at over 250 colleges worldwide. His best-known publication is Classroom Assessment Techniques:
A Handbook for College Teachers with more than 75,000 copies in print. His keynote address to WSU faculty is available on video below.
Keynote Address
Pressures, Promises, Pitfalls, and Pathways: Lessons from 20 Years of Assessment in U.S. Higher Education
Wednesday, April 11, 4 pm
Smith Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE), Room 203
Keynote Handout
All regional and professional accrediting agencies -- and virtually everyone else -- now agree that assessment's main purpose should be to improve student learning quality. Despite a few notable successes, however, most assessment efforts to date have failed to produce demonstrably more and better learning. After 20 years of relatively little progress, why are we still struggling with assessment and how can we improve our return on investment?
In this session, Dr. Angelo will address the persistent pressures and promises that continue to sustain the “Assessment Movement,” note some pernicious pitfalls to avoid, and consider promising pathways and practices – including several in evidence at WSU. Underpinning the session is an assessment model built on seven key ideas -- a synthesis of theories, research findings, and strategies from a variety of disciplines – illustrated by related guidelines and practical strategies.
Workshops
Seven Levers for Higher and Deeper Learning: Research-based Guidelines and Strategies for
Improving Teaching, Assessment, and Learning
Faculty Workshop #1
Wednesday, April 11, 11:30 am - 2:20 pm
Todd Hall Addition, Room 268
How much would you trust a physician, engineer, athletic coach, or nurse who didn't keep up with and apply lessons from relevant research in his/her field? Or one who couldn't apply basic principles of good practice to new situations, with new client populations, or in using new technologies? Probably not much. Yet many faculty and academic administrators remain (relatively) unaware of current research -- in psychology, cognitive science, and education -- on teaching, learning, and assessment and on its relevance to our daily practice. This interactive workshop will explore seven research-based guidelines and provide examples of simple, powerful applications to improve teaching, assessment, and student learning in and beyond our (virtual and actual) classrooms.
Making Real the Scholarship of Teaching: Developing Your Own Classroom Research Agenda
Faculty Workshop #2
Thursday, April 12, 11:30 am - 2:20 pm
Todd Hall Addition, Room 268
In his influential 1990 monograph, Scholarship Reconsidered, Ernest Boyer urged higher education to develop a "scholarship of teaching" to parallel the long-dominant "scholarship of discovery" embodied in traditional, discipline-based research. Boyer singled out Classroom Research (CR) -- defined by K. Patricia Cross as "cascading intellectual inquiry by classroom teachers into the nature of teaching and learning" as one of the most promising ways to realize this scholarship of teaching. And in these past two decades, many teachers have realized that promise. In this session, we'll quickly review the defining characteristics of CR, consider several examples, and work through a systematic process to plan a practical, useful Classroom Research project to carry out in one of your own classes.
Graduate Student Workshop
Thursday, April 12, 9 - 11:20 am
Todd Hall Addition, Room 268
Pulling It All Together: Making Coursework Clear, Coherent, Connected, and Consequential
This session focuses on helping students successfully take more responsibility for their own learning. We will consider simple, effective ways to help learners understand course objectives and content clearly, study effectively, and make necessary connections among key topics. You can expect to leave this session ready to adapt and apply practical techniques to organize lectures and presentations more effectively, strengthen assignments, improve assessment and testing, and clarify grading standards.
Schedule
- Poster Session
April 11, 3 pm, CUE Atrium.
- Keynote Address
April 11, 4 - 5 pm, CUE 203.
Reception following address in the CUE Atrium.
Keynote Handout - Faculty Workshops
April 11 & 12, 11:30 - 2:20 pm, Todd Hall Addition, Room 268. Lunch included.
Workshop #1 Handout
Workshop #2 Handout - Graduate Student Workshop
April 12, 9 - 11:20 am, Todd Hall Addition, Room 268.
Workshop Handout
Sponsors
- WSU President's Teaching Academy
- Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President
- Office of Undergraduate Education
- Office of Student Affairs
- Student Advising and Learning Center
- Center for Teaching Learning, and Technology
- Engineering Education Research Center