Curriculum Development
-
Bridges, Obstacle Courses, and Snowdrifts: What are we building for our students?
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler In my day… (or so the story starts), we had it tough. Whether that difficulty involved walking uphill in knee-deep snow, punch cards or hours in dusty stacks, there was something that challenged us as students. Now as educators we get to decide where we build obstacle courses so students understand what it means to face adversity, or where we build bridges that simplify and celebrate efficiencies just as The Bridge Builder did in Will Allen Dromgoole’s poem. This choice of repeating or removing obstacles reveals the beliefs we have about those experiences and the value we place on that difficulty. Do we see merit…
-
Reducing Confusion and Improving Teaching by Sharing Who We Are as a Discipline
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler The Book: The University and its Disciplines: Teaching and Learning Within and Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries. Edited by Carolin Kreber (2009). Routledge, Taylor and Francis* Each time I meet with individuals from across campus I am reminded how disciplines are not just collections of faculty, rather they encompass specific ways of knowing: What constitutes evidence? What questions do we ask? What ways do we conduct research and to what end? Such answers form the epistemological foundation guiding our scholarly activities. However, this foundation is often implicit, not explicit, and thus a mystery for students. The result? The encounter of student and instructor can degenerate into an…