Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia

The Colloquia are held each Monday from 1:00 - 2:00 pm via Zoom.  For access to the Zoom meeting, or other more information about the colloquium, contact Zach Wrublewski:  zwrublewski@huskers.unl.edu

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Spring 2021

January 11, 2021 - April 12, 2021: This semester, we've been working through Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel. Make It Stick has given structure to many of our discussions so far — with our early meetings centering around how the science behind learning might directly influence our philosophical pedagogical practices (in general), ways in which fostering better learning in our students might help with student motivation, and, specifically, how we might strengthen student retrieval of information in philosophy classes.

Our most recent discussions have revolved around the ideas of interleaved practice and instruction, as well as varied practice (and instruction that promotes varied practice). Further, we've talked a lot about choosing appropriate goals for our courses, and how specific goal choices might affect which types of content and assessments we incorporate into our courses, paying specific attention to the topics discussed earlier in the semester.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Fall 2020

September 14, 2020: This week, we continued our discussion of issues related to teaching during the pandemic. Much of our discussion focused on how to enforce attendance policies when some of our students are taking our classes remotely. We also talked methods for teaching students how to write well, and particular types of skills on which to focus in order to properly prepare our students for the major kinds of assignments we tend to implement in our classes

September 7, 2020: This week, we discussed issues related to teaching during the pandemic. In particular, we talked about ways in which to engage students in remote-learning contexts, as well as how to foster positive 'backchannel' discussions while teaching in remote or hybrid situations.

September 1, 2020: This week, we kicked off TC for the semester by laying out the basics for this semester's meetings. We also discussed issues relating to maintaining healthy discussion environments in our courses, issues with engaging in group-work while following social-distancing guidelines, as well as ideas about how to adequately respond to making a mistake in class.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Fall 2019

November 6, 2019: This week, many of our members described their experiences at the recent AAPT workshop held in conjunction with the Kutak Center's Ethics and Broader Considerations of Technology Bazaar. Among many topics, we spent the most time discussing how to properly align one's assessments with their course goals, as well as specific types of assessments that would be useful to achieve certain types of non-ability-centered course goals.

October 30, 2019: This week, we discussed the sixth chapter of What the best Teachers Do. In particular, our discussion centered focused strategies to allow students to satisfy course goals in different ways. We also discussed how to create an environment in which students had more commitment to learning.

October, 16, 2019: This week, we analyzed the fifth chapter of What the Best Teachers Do. We focused most of our discussion around ways in which we can create a natural critical learning environment for our students, as well as potential pitfalls that might ensnare even motivated, well-intentioned teachers.

October 9, 2019: This week, most of our discussion was focused around interesting learning activities that we can introduce in order to provide our students with a variety of experiences. In particular, we spent a lot of time workshopping ideas for potential educational games we can use to teach certain topics in introductory philosophy classes.

October 2, 2019: This week, we discussed the fourth chapter of What the Best College Teachers Do. A few of the most heavily discussed topics were the nature of the types of methods philosophers typically expect to teach their students to use, and the extent to which we may have unreasonable expectations of our students given our learning objectives and course assessments.

September 25, 2019: This week, we discussed how best to help our students through tough, technical philosophical works. We also spent some time talking about what sorts of non-philosophy projects and articles to assign in order to supplement lectures on related topics in order to help foster a deep understanding of the related philosophical issues.

September 18, 2019: This semester, we've been working through Ken Bain's What the Best College Teachers Do. This week, we discussed the third chapter from this book, focusing specifically on designing good, effective courses and activities that will strengthen the skills our students will need to accomplish their goals in our courses.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Spring 2019

April 22, 2019: This week, we discussed Chapter 6 of How Learning Works. We discussed the ways in which we can foster a positive classroom environment that promotes learning for all of our students. Also, we discussed the specific results from some recent surveys of our existing classes, and how the feedback we received can be useful in organizing classes in the future.

April 15, 2019: This week, we discussed Chapter 5 of How Learning Works. We discussed the sorts of feedback we should be giving students on different types of course assessments, and ways in which we can help our students practice relevant skills effectively. Also, we discussed how well some of the suggestions from last week's meeting worked out in our classes when implemented.

April 8, 2019: This week we discussed issues pertaining to potentially instructing quiz sections differently based on the average performance of the specific students in each section, ways in which we can address the specific needs of students who are struggling a bit while also engaging students who aren't struggling as much, and methods to foster student engagement in quiz sections for classes that don't require attendance. Also, we brainstormed ways in which to help students grasp the difference between truth and justification.

April 1, 2019: This week we discussed chapter 4 of How Learning Works. We discussed the areas of our courses in which expert blindness is likely to affect our teaching, and potential methods we might implement in order to minimize these effects. Also we work-shopped some ideas for assessments that might help our students with the complex skills required to be successful in our courses.

March 25, 2019: This week we did not hold a Teaching Colloquium meeting. Instead Professor Harry Ide led a syllabus workshop.

March 18, 2019: SPRING BREAK

March 11, 2019: This week we discussed the third chapter of How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et al. We discussed potential types of motivation which may engage our students. Also we identified and discussed some philosophy-specific difficulties with motivating our students in the ways that will be most conducive to their learning and success in our courses.

March 4, 2019: This week we discussed ways in which to motivate student participation, particularly in early-morning course sections. Also, we analyzed the benefits and drawbacks to giving students rule-governed procedures for completing different types of philosophical tasks (with different learning objectives).

February 25, 2019: This week, we discussed the second chapter of How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et al. During the discussion, we focused on ways in which students organize their knowledge, and how this organization affects their learning in philosophy courses. Further, we thought about ways in which we can both foster beneficial organizational structures with the presentation of course material, and ways in which we can administer course assessments in light of the likely organizational structures of our students' knowledge. We also returned to the discussion of concept maps, analyzing ways in which they may help with these goals.

February 11, 2019: This week, we discussed the first chapter of How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et al. During the discussion, we focused on ways in which students' prior knowledge affects their learning in philosophy courses, and how we can effectively utilize this information to be better teachers. We also analyzed the potential usefulness of concept maps as both an activity which might be helpful in gauging the prior knowledge of our students, as well as an activity that fosters learning new knowledge in our students.

February 4, 2019: This week in Teaching Colloquium we discussed methods for helping students understand moral principles and how to help them understand how to analyze these principles. One specific problem area we discussed was the potential difficulty students may have when attempting to understand, generally speaking, what sorts of examples would accord with a particular principle, and what sorts of components an example would require to be a counterexample to a particular principle. We also talked about various strategies to employ to help with this potential problem.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Fall 2018

October 1, 2018: This week in Teaching Colloquium, we discussed general methods and activity types to help with student participation in class. We also constructed the general framework of a specific activity to help with teaching ethical principles relevant to consent and communication.

September 10, 2018: Today the first meeting of the Teaching Colloquium was held. During the meeting, Mark Selzer presented some of the ideas he took away from the AAPT conference earlier this year. We also discussed general strategies for teaching early morning courses, and discussed the structure for the meetings that will follow.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Spring 2018

March 12, 2018: This week in Teaching Colloquium we explored the potential effects of personalizing examples. Mark Selzer and Zach Wrublewski presented a schema for teaching specific philosophical principles through crafting a helpful progression of examples (which is the general topic of our proposed AAPT workshop presentation.)

March 5, 2018: This week in Teaching Colloquium we discussed 1) intrinsic motivation, 2) methods for helping struggling students, 3) helping students with study habits, and 4) classroom safety and security.

February 26, 2018: This week in Teaching Colloquium we discussed 1) writing tips for introductory students, 2) strategies to mitigate the "backfire effect," and 3) strategies for improving attendance and participation in classes.

February 12, 2018: AAPT Submission Workshop. This week in Teaching Colloquium we will be holding a workshop for a proposal by Aaron Elliott to the upcoming American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) Bi-annual Conference. The submissions are due in mid February.

February 5, 2018: AAPT Submission Workshop. This week in Teaching Colloquium we will be holding a workshop for a proposal by Mark Selzer and Zachariah Wrublewski to the upcoming American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) Bi-annual conference. The submissions are due in mid February.

January 29, 2018: This week in Teaching Colloquium we discussed strategies for working with both introverted and extroverted students, strategies for working with international students and non-native English speakers, the merits and demerits of implementing participation grades for introductory courses, and ways to eliminate bias when assessing participation grades.

January 22, 2018: AAPT Submission Workshop. This week in Teaching Colloquium we will be discussing and revising our submissions for the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Bi-annual conference. The submissions are due in mid February.

Graduate Student Teaching Colloquia Spring 2017