Featured Luncheons

Oct 20, 2005 Leadership in the Trenches: An Organizational Learning Approach to Enhance Success

Presenter: Carl Burns

Date: October 20, 2005

Time: 11:30 am- 1:00pm

Place: Havener Center ~ Ozark Room

Carl will be presenting an overview of an organizational learning approach to promoting success of students, faculty, and staff. Distinguishing characteristics of this approach will be discussed, and applications within higher education will be briefly presented. Most of the discussion will focus on discussing possible applications at Missouri S&T and the implications of those applications.

Carl Burns, Ph.D.is Director, Counseling & Academic Support Programs and Program Director Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation.

Archives- Brief overviews of the presenters and topics discussed.

How People Learn the Latest Research- Mel George (11/04) video

From Teaching to Learning by Neil Fleming- Neil Fleming (9/04)

STEM Education in 2010 or Sooner- Richard Felder (02/05)

What Campus Leadership Can Do to Improve Student Learing- Eric Mazur (10/04)

How People Learn - The Latest Research - view video

Date: Nov 09, 2004

Presenter: UM President Emeritus Mel George

UM President Emeritus, Mel George, brought the fascinating topic of how people learn to the leadership community. Using the text How People Learn from the National Research Council as a foundation for his discussion, Mel highlighted some of the barriers to effective learning. He challenged the audience to think beyond the typical, traditional barriers to consider those less conventional. Using the information from How People Learn and a variety of other studies, Mel identified barriers to learning as the preconceived misconceptions of students and an inability of students to conceptualize data. He also offered effective strategies to counter these barriers.

This discussion was taped so the entire campus could benefit from the information presented. Click here to view the video.

Melvin D. Georgeis President Emeritus of the University of Missouri, President Emeritus of St. Olaf College, and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, University of Missouri-Columbia. After receiving a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University, George joined the faculty of the University of Missouri in 1960. He became Associate Dean of the Graduate School in 1967, then moved to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1970 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He returned to the University of Missouri as system-wide Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1975, serving as Interim President in 1984 before moving to St. Olaf College in Minnesota as President in 1985. Following his retirement from St. Olaf nine years later, George served for nearly two years as Vice President for Institutional Relations at the University of Minnesota. He returned to Missouri in 1996 and served a second time as Interim President of the University of Missouri system in 1996-97. During the period 1994-96, he chaired the National Science Foundation's review of undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education, culminating in the report "Shaping the Future: New Expectations in Undergraduate Education in SMET.� George also chaired (1997-99) the Missouri K-16 Coalition, a statewide group appointed by the State Board of Education, the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and the Curators of the University of Missouri to make K-16 education in the state more seamless, with higher expectations for student learning, beginning with mathematics. George has served as a member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Research Council and currently serves on both the Advisory Board of the NRC's Center for Education and the NRC's Division for Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. He often serves as a panelist for NSF programs in education and as a consultant to institutions of higher education. He has several times taught a University of Missouri Honors College course on "Mathematics and Music� and continues to speak on topics of teaching and learning, especially in the areas of science and mathematics.

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Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (STEM ) Education in 2010 or Sooner

Facilitated by Richard M. Felder

March 11, 2005

12:30 pm to 2:00 pm

Havener Center

Higher education in technical disciplines is currently in a turbulent period. Chronic industry complaints about skill deficiencies in recent graduates, government commission reports supporting those complaints, and in engineering an outcomes-based accreditation system that became mandatory in 2001 all call for major transformations in the ways curricula are structured, delivered, and assessed. High student attrition rates in recent years and a growing ability of on-line universities to compete successfully for college applicants heightens the impetus for reform. As might be expected, many faculty members and administrators are less than enthusiastic about proposed changes, arguing that the existing system functions well and needs no radical revision.

The ongoing debate involves four focal issues:

• How should STEM curricula be structured?
• How should STEM courses be taught and assessed (and what role will technology play)?
• Who should teach?
• How should the teachers be prepared?

This talk outlines the opposing positions on each of these issues�?the traditional position, which has been the predominant approach of the past five decades, and the alternative position�?and offers predictions about the probable outcomes. It also establishes the need for solid research to confirm the effectiveness of alternative instructional methods and materials.

Dr. Richard M. Felderis Hoechst Celanese Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. He is coauthor of Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes (3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2000), which has been used as the introductory course text by most American chemical engineering departments for almost three decades, and has authored or coauthored over 200 papers on chemical process engineering and engineering education and presented hundreds of seminars, workshops, and short courses in both categories to industrial and research institutions and universities throughout the United States and abroad. His honors include the R.J. Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Extension, the AT&T Foundation Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, the Chemical Manufacturers Association National Catalyst Award, the ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education, the AIChE Warren K. Lewis Award for Contributions to Chemical Engineering Education, the ASEE Chemical Engineering Division Lifetime Achievement Award for Pedagogical Scholarship, and a number of national and regional awards for his publications on engineering education.

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What Campus Leadership Can Do to Improve Student Learning

Time/Location: Oct 22, 2004 213 UCE

Presenter: Eric Mazur

Campus leaders listened intently to Mazur as he shared one of the approaches used at Harvard to increase student learning. Mazur highlighted two primary factors that would facilitate progress toward learning improvement; a culture that empowers and encourages faculty to discover effective teaching techniques and implementing a reward system for teaching excellence.

"One of the most prevalent reason ineffective teaching persists is the lack of a reason to assess one's teaching," explains Mazur. Other factors that can become barriers were linked to the lack of a formal training process, ill-defined learning goals and mis-interpreted student assessments.

Mazur admitted that developing this type of culture was not an easy task for most universities but he encouraged his audience to consider a couple of ideas such as creating the expectation that teaching excellence is important, providing a means for faculty professional development and creating rewards at the department and individual level.

Eric Mazurholds a triple appointment as Harvard College Professor, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, and Professor of Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University. Dr. Mazur has served on numerous committees and councils, including advisory and visiting committees for the National Science Foundation, has chaired and organized national and international scientific conferences, and presented for the Presidential Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Mazur is author or co-author of 137 scientific publications. He has also written on education and is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively. More information on Eric Mazur can be found at http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/emdetails.php .

Co-sponsoredby New Faculty Teaching Scholars and the Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation.

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From Teaching to Learning

Time/Location: Sept 27, 2004 213 UCE

Presenter: Neil Fleming

Neil Fleming was our special guest speaker at the Leadership Luncheon Series for September. Neil facilitated a discussion over breakfast, yes breakfast, with various campus leaders on the paradigm shift from teaching to learning that is occurring in American Universities.

Survey resultsrated the overall effectiveness of this workshop as "Good." However, all survey responders whole-heartedly agreed that our campus paradigm needs to shift to a great degree towards learning-centric? Obstacles to making this shift include an inadequate reward system for good teaching and the concern that this focus might become too time-intensive for the instructor.

Neil Flemingis retired Director of the Education Centre at Lincoln University, New Zealand. His major challenge there was improve the quality of learning and teaching through his own research and active staff development programs. He specializes in faculty workshops on student learning styles, evaluation, curriculum development, teaching improvement, professional development, assessment and innovations in learning. His biography as well as information on the VARK systems can be found at http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=biography.

Co-sponsored by New Faculty Teaching Scholars and Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation.

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