Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education

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Winter 2013

In This Issue:

I. Introduction, in which Ken Bain, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of History, University of the District of Columbia, frames the contributions to this issue with a discussion of how to “grow” — how to inspire and support — deep learning.

II. Deep Learning and Immersive Education with a Dedication to Justice, in which law professor Matthew I. Fraidin and students Ibidun Roberts, Jeannine Winch (University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law), and Larissa Chernock (Georgetown University School of Law) share thoughts about clinical legal education, a primarily experiential approach to teaching lawyering skills, values, and legal doctrine. The piece begins with an introduction to the substance and methods of clinical legal education by Fraidin, and then Roberts, Winch, and Chernock, three former students, respond to his comments and share their experiences as clinical students.

III. In Search of the Unpredictable: Complexifying the Classroom in the Age of Globalization, in which Anne Dalke (Term Professor of English) and Elizabeth McCormack (Professor of Physics), Bryn Mawr College, discuss their collaboration on designing and co-teaching a new course on “Gender and Science: Re-envisioning & Revising the Relation,” and their experience, in preparation for re-designing the course, in a faculty seminar on “natural learning environments,” which was facilitated by Ken Bain through The Andrew W. Mellon Teaching and Learning Institute (TLI).

IV. Student-Faculty Partnership for Deeper Learning, in which Ariana Huberman, Visiting Professor of Spanish, Haverford College, and Shuning Yan, Student Consultant, Bryn Mawr College, reflect on the initiatives and ideas that resulted from a semester of partnership through the Teaching and Learning Institute (TLI) Faculty Pedagogy Seminar at Bryn Mawr College in the Fall of 2012. In this essay Huberman and Yan present strategies they developed to foster deeper learning in Huberman’s Spanish Literature course.

V. Deep Learning With Beautiful Questions: Student Engagement and Teacher Renewal, in which Edward J. Brantmeier & Kerri Lawrence, from James Madison University, explore deep learning and deep teaching with beautiful, foundational course questions. Within this larger frame, Brantmeier speaks to his renewal as a teacher-scholar and Lawrence speaks to her deep learning and application of critical peace education as a first year, elementary classroom teacher.

VI. The Invitation, in which Rosi Song, Associate Professor of Spanish, Bryn Mawr College, discusses the evolution in her thinking about developing syllabi for her courses. Using Bain’s notion that one should create “a promising syllabus,” Song explores the complexities of doing so.

VII. Renewing Curiosities, Marveling at the Wonders of Biology, and Promoting Deep Approaches to Learning with Non-Science Majors, in which Carol A. Hurney, Sofia Ganev, and Alexandra Higgins, James Madison University provide reflections from a faculty member and two students on their experiences in a general education biology course at James Madison University. They begin by reflecting on their perceptions of the role of asking questions in learning and ways to foster deep approaches to learning. They then explore how to overcome the situational factors faced by faculty and students in introductory classes by fostering student interest, curiosity, and ultimately, deep approaches to learning.

VIII. Querying the “Natural”: Re-thinking Classroom Ecologies, in which Jody Cohen and Anne Dalke, Term Professors, Bryn Mawr College, explore and complicate the notion of “natural learning environments.” Drawing on both theorists’ and students’ perspectives, they argue for pedagogies that “respect the diversity and disequilibrium that can characterize human action and interaction.”