Teaching through Games in the JMU Classroom (Panel Discussion)

Reacting to the Past is an innovative, research-backed method of bringing integrative, active learning into humanities, social science, and STEM classrooms. It harnesses the power of play to get the best from students. Come hear faculty talk about their experiences using this method with JMU students, incuding benefits and drawbacks.

Keywords: active learning, game-based learning

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Rebecca Brannon, College of Arts & Letters, History; Alison Sandman, College of Arts & Letters, History.

Location: To be announced

The Office of What? An Overview of the Office of Sponsored Programs (Panel Discussion)

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) is eager to support your proposals for external funding and to ensure that they comply with sponsor guidelines and university policies and procedures. Seeing the inherent value of your scholarly pursuits, research interests, and public service projects, OSP’s services are aimed at providing informed guidance and support to faculty and staff members as they navigate the myriad requirements and guidelines associated with grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. This session will focus on the pre-award support services, as well as guide participants through the various steps of identifying funding, proposal submission, award, and closeout.

Keywords: external funding,grants, research

Area: Scholarship (e.g., diverse forms of scholarship, productivity, collaboration, scholary skills, funding)

Facilitators: Sally Dickenson, Research and Scholarship, Office of Sponsored Programs; Loralin Welch, Research and Scholarship, Office of Sponsored Prorgams.

Location: To be announced

Engaging Families to Teach about Intellectual Disability (Panel Discussion)

Through semester-long engagement with students with disabilities and their parents, undergraduate students build vulnerable relationships that cultivate a new sense of kinship and what it means to be part of a human community. Students are positioned to critique their own assumptions and critically reflect on the relational and social responsibility they have to promote and encourage environments where self-determination and self-actualization can occur for all. This session will highlight the communal engagement that occurs across instructors, individuals with disabilities, family members, and JMU students, while also identifying the emergent features of learning that have occurred as a result of a dialogical pedagogy.

Keywords: disability, engaged learning, collaborative pedagogy

Area: Organizational culture and development (e.g., belongingness, networking, inclusivity, reflection, relationships)

Facilitators: Kendal Swartzentruber, College of Education, Training and Technical Assistance Center; Brandon Stees, College of Education & College of Health and Behavioral Studies, I'm Determined Project; Kevin Stees, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Director of JMU Brass Band.

Location: To be announced

"Standing on the Side of Justice": Appealing to Our Shared Values (Roundtable)

Particularly in the humanities, our pedagogical efforts to appeal to issues of social justice can be seen or interpreted as partisan. How do we navigate this tension of introducing issues of social justice in our classroom without alienating students who may perceive this work as contrary to their own ideologies? JMU's Ethical Reasoning in Action Program presents us with a common language in the 8 Key Questions that can provide a way forward in this pursuit of justice and equity in the classroom. This session will highlight strategies for grounding social justice issues in shared values to enable students to voice disparate perspectives and to avoid self-censorship.

Keywords: social justice, critical pedagogy, ethical reasoning

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Sarah Taylor Mayhak, College of Arts & Letters, Communication Studies; Katrina Libera, Academic Affairs, Ethical Reasoning in Action; Lori Pyle, Academic Affairs, Ethical Reasoning in Action.

Location: To be announced

Overcoming Copyright as an Impediment to Scholarship (Roundtable)

Sometimes, the sudden burst of enthusiasm for new scholarship or a scholarly project is dampened by concerns about using other people's intellectual property. Copyright—and especially its duration—is complex, and the remedies that exist to address the issue, such as the Doctrine of Fair Use, even more so. In this Roundtable, participants will discuss any copyright impediments they may have encountered or copyright concerns they have regarding current scholarship. JMU Libraries' Copyright Coordinator will discuss these examples as relevant, topical problems regarding the intersection of copyright and scholarship and seek to provide solutions.

Keywords: copyright, intellectual property, fair use, permissions

Area: Scholarship (e.g., diverse forms of scholarship, productivity, collaboration, scholary skills, funding)

Facilitators: Howard Carrier, JMU Libraries, Research & Education Services.

Location: To be announced

Inclusive Practices in Faculty Peer-Mentoring Relationships (Roundtable)

As Osman and Gottlieb (2018) note, “Effective mentoring can contribute to wellness and career growth and satisfaction. However, the same social forces and interpersonal dynamics affecting all relationships can compromise mentoring relationships.” During this roundtable, participants will explore how to establish and nurture positive and inclusive faculty peer-mentoring relationships in the context of a predominantly white institution like JMU. Participants will consider motivations for mentoring, as well as preparing for and engaging in the mentoring relationship in ways that promote inclusive practices. The facilitators of this session are past participants of a CFI Madison Career Fellowship group on developing mentoring skills, with a particular focus on how faculty identities and biases can affect peer-mentoring relationships.

Keywords: peer mentoring, inclusive practices

Area: Career Planning (e.g., professional advancement, career development, work-life integration, mentoring, milestones)

Facilitators: Angela Webb, College of Education, Middle, Secondary and Mathematics Education; Shin Ji Kang, College of Education, Early, Elementary, and Reading Education.

Location: To be announced

Science On a Sphere: Simplified Content Creation for Every Discipline (Scholarly Talk)

Science On a Sphere (SOS) is a spherical display system that is not limited to science applications. SOS was originally developed by NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) as an educational tool to explain complex environmental processes. JMU’s Science On a Sphere is located in Memorial Hall and is used extensively for teaching and outreach. Many images and animations for the approximately six-foot diameter sphere are available as datasets through NOAA, but increasing faculty and students have expressed interest in creating their own content. A JMU project was recently initiated to develop an improved content creation tutorial for faculty and students in any discipline who have no experience with GIS. This presentation will highlight the current usage of SOS, available datasets from NOAA, available data sources for content creation, and ways in which QGIS can be used to create content.

Keywords: Science On a Sphere, QGIS

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Dhanuska Wijesinghe, College of Science & Mathematics, Geology and Environmental Science.

Location: To be announced

Fruitful & Flexible Formats: Fitting Debate around Class Constraints (Panel Discussion)

In Fruitful & Flexible Formats: Fitting Debate around Class Constraints, JMU Debate Across the Curriculum faculty associates explore the process of structuring classroom debate activities by giving thoughtful consideration to the particular objectives, goals, and constraints of a given course. Debate pedagogy has been demonstrated to help students with communication skills, problem solving, group collaboration, advocacy, research, empathy, and much more (Camp & Schnader, 2010). However, teaching through debate is not a one-size-fits-all approach. This panel will present empirical examples of successful classroom debates using a variety of formats, including large-class size techniques, full class debates, small group debates, Town Halls, caucuses, and more.

Keywords: debates, civic learning, critical thinking

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Alysia Davis, Honors College; Kathy Clarke, JMU Libraries; Paul Mabrey, Learning Centers.

Location: To be announced

Fostering Intercultural Competence through Virtual Exchange (Roundtable)

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) entered higher education as a tool in the early 2000s and has grabbed the attention of university leadership through its potential for facilitating 21st-century outcomes such as advancing critical thinking, intercultural competence, and technology skills. Additionally, COIL has been proffered as a means for internationalization and a mode for expanding international engagement to students who are not able to travel away from campus. In this session, facilitators will lead a discussion of the best practices that have emerged through research in virtual exchange, which show promise for increasing intercultural competencies, engaging students in more complex ways of seeing course content, and promoting facility with technology that is commonly used in business. Facilitators will also describe the COIL initiative at JMU and solicit interest from participants who might like to engage in virtual exchange.

Keywords: virtual exchange, COIL, globally connected teaching and learning, 21st century skills, intercultural learning, blended learning, transformative learning

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Jennifer Wiley, Center for Global Engagement; Michele Estes, College of Education, LTLE; Felix Wang, Center for Global Engagement.

Location: To be announced

A 360-Degree Approach to Applying Growth Mindset in the Classroom (Roundtable)

This roundtable will focus on how faculty from all disciplines can apply a 360-Degree Learning Environment framework (Carson & Fifer, 2014) for promoting a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006) in their classrooms. Also inspired by Fink’s (2003) Taxonomy of Significant Learning, strategies for promoting meaningful and productive learning outcomes (e.g., greater knowledge acquisition and retention, critical thinking ability, and enjoyment) in undergraduate students will be reviewed along the following categories: (a) course activities and assessments, (b) modeled leadership and self-disclosure, and (c) environmental manipulation. Through the use of oral presentation, group discussion, and example classroom resources, the presenters will share ideas and tools that have worked for them in their own classrooms. 

Keywords: growth mindset, classroom culture, Fink's taxonomy

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Sarah Carson Sackett, College of Health and Behavioral Studies, Kinesiology; Lori Gano-Overway, College of Health and Behavioral Studies, Kinesiology.

Location: To be announced

Teaching, Fast and Slow: Aligning Teaching with Cognition (Scholarly Talk)

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, author Daniel Kahneman describes how cognitive biases and heuristics shape the way we think. These thought patterns can lead students astray while they are trying to learn course material or taking tests. In this session, we will explore how to apply these ideas and other insights from the learning sciences to help students improve their learning through formative assessment. We will also introduce Peer Instruction as an easy-to-adopt, evidence-based strategy that can serve as a first step for instructors who are either new to or uncomfortable with active learning.

Keywords: cognitive biases, peer instruction, active learning, pedagogy, formative assessment

Area: Teaching (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, course design, learning)

Facilitators: Michael Kirkpatrick, College of Integrated Science and Engineering, Computer Science.

Location: To be announced