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The Center for Teaching Excellence will introduce a new end-of-academic-year event on May 13 to promote discussion on issues in teaching and learning at Boston College and in higher education.
Excellence in Teaching Day, the successor to eTeaching Day, will feature plenary sessions with nationally recognized scholars as well as hands-on workshops on topics and themes such as “Learning to Teach Inclusively,” “Teaching Information Literacy” and “Engaging Students in the Sciences.”
In addition, BC faculty members who have made creative and innovative use of technology in their work with students will be recognized with the annual Teaching with Technology awards.
The morning session will be devoted to talks by Mike Wesch, a former Carnegie Foundation “US Professor of the Year” recipient who researches the impact of social media and digital technology on global society and education, and University of California at Berkeley Professor of Psychology Silvia Bunge, a neuroscientist whose lab examines negative and positive environmental influences on brain and cognitive development.
CTE Director John Rakestraw says Excellence in Teaching Day is aimed at giving faculty members the opportunity to address “specific challenges and possibilities for growth in their own teaching, and to learn from colleagues and experts about new strategies, techniques and technologies.
“Essentially, the goal is to focus on the question of ‘What does excellent teaching mean?’ – not only in the context of BC’s legacy and mission, but in terms of the larger world,” said Rakestraw, wrapping up his first academic year as head of the CTE, which brings together Instructional Design and eTeaching Services and programming and resources for faculty previously offered by the Connors Family Learning Center and collaborates with other groups on campus to support teaching and learning at BC.
“We have two fascinating perspectives on teaching and learning in Mike Wesch and Silvia Bunge. They will both speak for a while but also talk with one another and respond to questions from the audience. This will enable faculty members to think about how the issues and topics being discussed apply to what they see in their own experiences at BC.”
Biographies of Wesch and Bunge, and other details on Excellence in Teaching Day, including the afternoon workshops, as well a link for registration are available through http://www.bc.edu/bcteach.