Here are the CTL events from Spring 2012:
Talking Teaching at Common Hour
In two “Talking Teaching” sessions for the spring 2012 semester, the Center for Teaching and Learning invited faculty to think further about rigor. What is it, precisely? Do statistical measures of grade distribution measure rigor? How do we know when we are rigorous? How meaningful are cross-disciplinary comparisons? Where in faculty and student culture does a commitment to rigor arise, and how can it be fostered? What does rigor contribute to desired educational outcomes for our students?
Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Talking Teaching at Common Hour Event; Wean Terrace Rooms BC, Mather Hall
The first Talking Teaching discussion session offered an overview and discussion of the data (or lack of data) underpinning the central claims of grade inflation as a proxy for measuring academic rigor. Do statistical measures of grade distribution measure rigor? What is academic rigor? Rachael Barlow from the Social Science Center and James J. Hughes from Institutional Research and Planning helped guide us through the statistical quagmire of conflicting evidence.
Thursday, March 15, 2012 from 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Talking Teaching at Common Hour Event; Wean Terrace Rooms BC, Mather Hall
In our next and last session on academic rigor we are asking what constitutes academic rigor and whether or not statistical measures of grade distribution can measure rigor? That is, are grades a good proxy measure for academic rigor? How do we know when we are rigorous? How meaningful are cross-disciplinary comparisons? Where in faculty and student culture does a commitment to rigor arise, and how can it be fostered? What does rigor contribute to desired educational outcomes for our students? Please join us and our faculty-led panel — Professor Dan Blackburn (Biology), Professor David Reuman (Psychology) and Professor Maurice Wade (Philosophy) — on Thursday March 15, 2012 at Common Hour in the Wean Terrace Rooms BC for an insightful exchange of views and, of course, for pizza.
Tuesday, April 12, 2012; Trinity Faculty SoTL Contributions ; 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Talking Teaching at Common Hour Event; Wean Terrace Rooms BC, Mather Hall
For the final Talking Teaching discussion of the spring semester, three faculty members present their own research contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Please join Professor Kathleen Archer (Department of Biology) and Professor Lin Cheng (Department of Engineering) for an insightful talk about their research projects and learn what techniques — conventional or otherwise — each adopted in their projects.
Academic Rigor
The academic world, Trinity not excluded, has been abuzz for many years about academic rigor. In 2002, Alfie Kohn argued in the Chronicle of Higher Education that “[i]t is largely accepted on faith that grade inflation — an upward shift in students’ grade-point averages without a similar rise in achievement — exists, and that it is a bad thing. Meanwhile, the truly substantive issues surrounding grades and motivation have been obscured or ignored.” Almost ten years prior to the Kohn article, Clifford Adelman published a little-known report for the U.S. Department of Education that suggested grades actually declined somewhat between 1975 and 1995. Other commentators claim colleges are less rigorous than in the past, and some studies seem to support this view. Here at Trinity, the question has arisen in conjunction with studies of grades across the disciplines; in reports offered to the faculty; in the recent faculty retreat; and in discussions around assessment.