A Student-Centric Approach to Teaching

Wednesday, August 30, 2023
1:10 PM - 2:00 PM

Center for Teaching Excellence
Thomas Cooper Library, Room L511

This session is being delivered in a face-to-face format. You'll need to come to the offices of the Center for Teaching Excellence to attend. There is not a virtual option available to attend this presentation.

 

Late arrival and/or early exit from the workshop invalidates receiving credit. 

 


Details

The traditional lecture receives bad publicity as a lifeless sermon where students go to catch up on sleep or finish homework for another class. Students end up relying on self teaching, office hours, or tutoring to fill in patches in the void of knowledge where possible. Some material is never properly learnt, especially for notorious subjects such as physics.

 

However the outcome can be quite the opposite if an instructor follows a few recognized practices:

  1. Foster an atmosphere in which students feel safe and know that they will absolutely be taken care of.
  2. Get to know the students and their names, so that they don't feel like a number in the class, but a member of a family.
  3. Share your own experiences, good and bad, so that they see you as a whole person.
  4. Learn the subject like you never have before.

 

It is usually assumed that an instructor typically knows the subject like the back of his/her hand. This has not been my experience, neither as a student nor a teacher. Knowing a subject for personal consumption is different. If an instructor painstakingly researches and understands every nook and cranny of the subject, and its broader connections with other fields, he/she will be able to anticipate many of the doubts and roadblocks students are likely to face.

 

Conveying the beauty and profoundness of a subject leaves students with an impression that lasts a lifetime. In this seminar I will share my experiences and methods (evolved over 50 semesters) that I use to implement the above strategies.

 

This is an elective session for a certificate of completion in Fostering Proactive Learning Environments.


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Participants must attend a workshop in its entirety to receive credit for the workshop in their training records. Late arrival and/or early exit from a workshop invalidates receiving credit. If technology issues require rescheduling of a workshop, participants must attend the workshop at the rescheduled time to receive credit. These policies apply to all CTE workshops/events, including workshops that qualify as requirements/electives for a certificate of completion.


Facilitator

kunchur milind

Milind Kunchur
Professor
Physics and Astronomy
College of Arts and Sciences


Milind N. Kunchur is a Governor's Distinguished Professor and Michael J. Mungo Distinguished Professor. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has won a CASE & Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professors of the Year award. He has also received the George B. Pegram Medal, Ralph E. Powe Award, Donald S. Russell Award, Martin-Marietta Award, Michael A. Hill Award, Michael J. Mungo Award, and held a National Research Council Senior Fellowship. He is the 2023-2024 president elect for the SACS regional section of the American Association of Physics Teachers.