Faculty Development Workshops Spring, 2008

1     Difficult Moments and Disruptions in our Classrooms – Going Beyond Survival - an interactive workshop with role play.    Wednesday March 12, 4-6 PM Malibu 140
This workshop featured a script composed of classroom difficulties furnished by CSUCI faculty and an interactive theatre production by Catherine Burriss and her theatre students that considered different approaches to solutions. Kudos to Catherine, her students and faculty and administrators who attended and made this a worthwhile experience.

2    Knowledge Surveys – A Superb Tool for Learning and Assessment        Originally Scheduled for Thursday March 27, noon -1:00 BT 1302 but  POSTPONED DUE TO CONFLICT WITH RECENTLY SCHEDULED CAMPUS-WIDE BUDGET MEETING
Knowledge surveys focus on content learning. They consist of numerous ordered items that provide for interactive disclosure of both content and levels of thinking challenge  (e.g., Bloom levels).  Students interact with the survey at the beginning, end, and during the course through repeated self-assessments of their abilities to address each survey challenge successfully. Knowledge survey data derived at the beginning of a course provide information on student preparation and affective feelings toward the content.  Prior to the course, the survey serves as a superb organization, planning, instructional alignment, and assessment tool for faculty.

An ideal assessment tool: (1) furnishes unique data that provides some overlap with but does not duplicate that of other tools; (2) provides reliable, quantifiable data about student understanding; (3) provides data useful to students’ cognitive and meta-cognitive growth; (4) helps faculty improve course design and instruction, and (5) helps units improve curricula.  Knowledge surveys meet these criteria, capture data from both cognitive and affective domains, and provide unique information that bridges that of exams and student evaluations.

3    Student Ratings of Professors – What Do They mean?    Thursday April 3, 2:00 -3:00 BT 2505
Student ratings (often called "student evaluations") represent a topic addressed by several thousand papers. In fact, that topic constitutes the largest body of literature in higher education. It is also the most controversial topic. Student ratings and, moreso their uses, can be a source of valuable information and also a source of terrible working relationships. CSUCI is presently composing a new student ratings form. Come and find out what your CSUCI task force is doing and why.

4     Fractal Qualities of Learning, Teaching and Thinking    Originally Scheduled  for Thursday April 17, 2:00 -3:00 BT 2505 but POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS. 
 Fractals describe the order and patterns found within most natural systems—both as shapes and patterns of events in time. The fact that the brain neurology and activity are also fractal means all our human behaviors have fractal qualities. Being fractal makes that behavior just another piece of a much larger natural world. Thinking based on an understanding of fractals is the model offered here for understanding much of what happens in any educational endeavor.  

Any concept or curriculum that a psychologist, educator or faculty developer devises that involves learning and thinking will always have fractal qualities. Understanding the construct will always be aided by considering it in the light of its fractal characteristics.

Fractals offer a universal and perhaps more practical way for the general user (teacher, student, administrator) to make use of brain neurology than the conventional presentations offered by specialists. The neurology that manifests as affective, cognitive and psychomotor performance is all fractal, so it doesn’t matter what regions of the brain these behaviors arise from.

Two things are basic to thinking that is attuned to the fractal qualities of anyconstruct (a concept we'll call "fractal thinking").  (1) Those who think with this awareness of fractals analyze an issue rapidly in terms of scales that range from individuals within organizations through the organizations in which the individuals work. (In academe, these organizations are commonly classes, departments, colleges, universities and university systems. (2) They seek to understand the generator, which begins from affect that is not consciously visible and builds thereafter into cognition and cognitive performance that can be consciously articulated. The generator is the foundation upon which individual careers are built.

5. Open House Discussions on Replacement Student Ratings Form  Tuesday the 22nd (Earth Day!), from noon to 3:00 P.M. At noon, 12:40, 1:20, and 2:00, a five to seven minute presentation on the process and logic for constructing the new form will occur. Afterwards, questions can be answered, and comments and suggestions taken. The place is the Dean's Conference Room in Bell Tower.

6.  Repeat of Open House Discussions on Replacement Student Ratings Form  Wednesday Evening the 23rd  from 5:00-7:00. P.M. At 5:00, 5:40,  and 6:20 P.M., a five to seven minute presentation on the process and logic for constructing the new form will occur. Afterwards, questions can be answered, and comments and suggestions taken. The place is the Dean's Conference Room in Bell Tower.

7.    Topic of your choice. Tell me what you would be most useful to you. E-mail suggestions/desires to ed.nuhfer@csuci.edu     Thursday, April 24, noon - 1:00pm BT 1302 - We reserved this time for additional Open House Discussions on Replacement Student Ratings Form.

Conferences off-campus in nearby SoCal

   Where                          When              URLs to Explain Details of What
Sonoma State           March 26 -28  http://cats.cdl.edu/catsconf2008
Cal State Fullerton   March 20         http://business.fullerton.edu/events/AssessmentConf/
Cal Poly Pomona      March 21-22   http://www.iats.com/conferences/west2008_info.html
Cal Poly Pomona      April 12            http://www.csupomona.edu/~facultycenter/symposium/index.shtml