Learning Community Celebration Dinner & Accomplishments 2006-2007
May 21, 2007
The following is a brief overview of the accomplishments that were shared during the Learning Community Celebration Dinner, hosted by the Center and the Office of the Provost on May 3rd, 2007. This year, 164 faculty, graduate students, and administrative staff participated in 12 learning communities. The Center thanks all facilitators, participants, and the Office of the Provost for their continued dedication to and support of learning communities as a means for transformative professional development.
Active Learning in the Natural Sciences
Discussing, designing, implementing, and adapting new interactive engagement learning strategies for the large enrollment and/or introductory level science course
Grant Writing
Engaging in extensive peer review of members’ grant proposals, resulting in revision and development and submitting four federal-level grant proposals and several state and local grant proposals
Initiatives for the Future (IF)
Integrating futures thinking exercises into twelve courses, Office for Educational Outreach catalog, and BEST Partnership Customized Training catalog, while creating a visioning strategy for the “Shaping the Future of the Firelands,” community revitalization project
Life Science Scientific Teaching and Reform
Discussing, designing, implementing, adapting, and presenting new, interactive learning strategies focused on teaching reforms and teaching scientifically
Mentoring & ePortolio
Developing mentoring skills and strategies, including team and peer models through the creation of electronic identities and the implementation of professional development plans throughout the academic year
New Faculty
Sharing, discussing, and applying focused pedagogical strategies that can transform student engagement and learning; exploring university learning resources available for students and faculty such as the Writing Center, Chapman Residential Learning Community, IDEAL, scholarly communication, and teaching portfolios
Pedagogies in the Arts and Humanities
Researching and planning the Arts Pedagogy course to be offered summer 2007 to BGSU graduate students and sharing strategies for teaching non-arts majors in the various disciplines
Publication
Fostering interdisciplinary collegiality through reading, discussing, critiquing, editing and revising faculty members’ conference presentations and essays in-progress
Reflective Teaching
Reflecting on teaching and students’ learning through collaborative problem-solving—culminating in the development of new activities, assignments, and teaching portfolios
Research and Teaching
Engaging in discussions about research and writing goals and the challenges inherent in research and teaching, including group authorship of a manuscript on “The Ripple Effect,” submitted to the peer-reviewed Journal on Excellence in College Teaching
Research in Science & Mathematics Education
Engaging in critical discussions of research about how people learn and presenting STEM education research, leading to the creation of collaborative research paper presentations, publications, grant proposals, and a spin-off seminar on research and statistics in STEM education
Transition to Digital
Gaining an awareness of BGSU technology resources, increasing knowledge and experience using various tools to actively engage students inside and outside the classroom; developing a collaborative, peer-reviewed conference presentation on technology-related learning communities 
This year’s faciliators (L to R): Jodi Haney, Karen Sirum, Mary Natvig, Andrew Hershberger, Mark Earley, Kay Strong, Lara Martin Lengel, Amy Robinson (not pictured: Kris Blair, Paul Cesarini, Radhika Gajjala)
For more information on this past year’s learning communities, visit The Center’s CTLT Learning Communities webpage. Applications for new learning communities will be available here for download in June.
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