Faculty Fellows 2014-2015
ThinkAchieve Faculty Fellows 2014 - 2015
ThinkAchieve Faculty Fellows is a year-long faculty cohort program facilitated by UTC faculty who are experts on a teaching strategy or approach that promotes student critical thinking and active learning. With this program, faculty participate in a half-day workshop on Wednesday, April 30th or Thursday, May 1st 2014 and at least three meetings with their cohort during each semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. The program culminates with a campus-wide presentation by each cohort in April or May 2015.
Selections for each cohort will be made by the ThinkAchieve Awards Committee. A broad representation from the colleges will be a priority in the selection process. To apply for a cohort, click here for the application form. Cohort participants will receive $500 for participation. Active involvement in all components of the program (workshop, academic year meetings, and campus-wide presentation) is required. Full time and part time faculty are eligible to apply.
The 2014-2015 Faculty Fellows Programs are:
Fallacious Arguments and Teaching
Talia Welsh, Associate UC Foundation Professor, Philosophy and Religion
In this cohort, we will explore how to identify fallacies and avoid using them to create more critical readers and thinkers. Fallacies are various commonly used arguments that fail under critical scrutiny. They are commonly used in the place of critical arguments since they help sway public opinion without requiring a careful assessment of the speaker’s own knowledge. Through this program, we will learn the most common forms of informal fallacies. We examine how fallacies operate in the news media and other common media sources. We will then investigate course material and identify how teaching fallacies would be applicable for each participant’s course. We will create assignments and evaluation tools to help teach students better critical thinking through the identification of fallacies.
Cohort members are: Rowan Johnson (English), Claire McCullough (Computer Science), and Michael Thompson (History)
The Flipped Classroom: Getting Students More Involved in their Learning
Will Stern, Instructor, Health and Human Performance
Ready to implement the flipped classroom in your course? The flipped classroom approach has garnered a lot of attention lately, but is much more than simply posting videos for students to view before class. Instructors must seize the opportunity during class to engage and guide students for improved learning through interactive activities and projects. In this faculty cohort, we will transform old lecture materials into new learning activities to be done by students outside of class, design creative and engaging in-class activities and projects for students to complete during class, and develop assessment activities specifically designed for the flipped classroom model. Through peer evaluation and the piloting of flipped lessons, faculty will actually teach multiple flipped lessons during this program.
Cohort members are: Ann Buggey (English), Amy Doolittle (Social Work), Gary Maynard (Sociology), Eric O'Neil (Biology), Shelley Pritchard (Education), and Chris Smith (Nursing)