UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

TLC

TLC From The TLC: Growth Mindset & Universal Design

Did you know that the majority of students with accessible education services (AES) accommodations have either a learning disability (LD), or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or both LD and ADHD? These two articles discuss the benefits of utilizing a growth mindset approach when teaching students who experience ADHD and LD. The surprise? These same growth mindset and universal design strategies also benefit learning outcomes for students without disabilities.

The Creativity of ADHD:  More insights on a positive side of a “disorder”, by Holly White in Scientific American. (Read this article in 5 minutes.)

There is a Better Way to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities, by Jo Boaler and Tanya Lamar in Time Magazine. (Read this article in 4 minutes.)

Are you interested in an introduction to Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindsets in learners? Check out her TED talk (10-minute video).  If you are looking for efficient strategies to incorporate in your course to support growth mindset, check out: A Growth Mindset About Mistakes: Support students in identifying a mistake and developing skills to learn from that mistake. (Read this article in 3 minutes.)

Would you like to incorporate growth mindset and universal design principles into your courses, or have general questions? Please email Melanie Gangle, AES program manager, at gangle@up.edu.

TLC Brownbag Session: When Students Stop Showing Up, Feb. 13

The Teaching & Learning Collaborative invites all faculty to a brownbag conversation in the Murphy Room from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday February 13, exploring the topic “When Students Stop Showing Up.” Gina Loschiavo (Care Team coordinator) and Brenda Greiner (SARC director) will highlight campus resources that enable faculty to keep being faculty when a student stops attending a class; CAS associate dean Andrew Downs, Pamplin School of Business associate dean Lisa Reed, and English professor Molly Hiro will offer faculty members’ perspectives on this thorny issue. Convivial, frank conversation will round out the session. For more information, contact Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu).

 

TLC Tip of the Week: Interactive Polling Tools

Election season is upon us, and the airwaves are full of conversations and commercials seeking to influence your vote. Take a break from the election chatter to learn about a different type of voting: interactive polling as a teaching tool. Interested in learning more? Check out this week’s Teaching and Learning Collaborative blog post to read about integrating Poll Everywhere into classroom instruction to increase participation and seek quick feedback to assess student learning.

For more information contact Stephanie Michel, library, at michel@up.edu.

TLC Tip of the Week: Making Group Work Work

U of P

As the term unfolds, many professors will be asking students to work productively in groups. While there’s lots of evidence to support collaborative learning, both in terms of knowledge gained and essential work skills honed, many professors are also faced with groups that don’t gel or fall under the dominion of one hyper-achiever, and the occasional student who is willing to ride on colleagues’ coattails. Then there’s the question of group versus individual accountability.

Nikki Schulz, engineering (pictured), and Ross Hanig, business, suggest checking out the teacher-designed web site CATME.org, which offers many suggestions for overcoming obstacles that can keep learning groups from functioning optimally. The site provides quick inventories that allow professors to form groups which are more likely to be productive, tips from the trenches for managing the noise and extra movement groups generate, keeping track of individual contributions,  working through personality conflicts, and getting students to make equitable contributions to their final course projects. Like any tool, it can’t answer every possible problem, but it is field-tested and a good place to start if you find yourself up against the same issues and complaints regarding group work. And as with most TLC tips, pursuing CATME.org for the length of time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee at your desk may pay some excellent dividends.

For more information contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu.