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UD hosts regional conference on teaching
10:46 a.m., April 13, 2006--“Learning So Everyone Teaches,” the 2006 Lilly-East conference on college and university teaching, took place Friday and Saturday, April 7 and 8, at UD's Clayton Hall. Drawing 180 university professors and graduate teaching assistants from the East Coast, 60 of whom teach at UD, the conference provided strategies to boost teaching effectiveness at the college level and offered participants a forum in which to network and share successes. Gabriele Bauer, assistant director of UD's Center for Teaching Effectiveness and one of the team members who was instrumental in attracting the conference to the UD campus, said that UD faculty turnout at this year's event showed the University's dedication to instruction and its ongoing interest in providing quality education to students. “It was very clear from Provost Daniel Rich's opening comments at the plenary session that the University is very interested in teaching and learning on campus,” Bauer said. “He made the point that UD is a research-focused institution that puts tremendous value on learning, and that every instructor needs to stay focused on educational trends, on enhancing teaching and on collegial learning.” Bauer added that the Office of the Provost also showed their dedication to instruction and faculty development by reimbursing UD participants for 90 percent of their conference tuition costs. “All faculty participants attended the conference because they are committed to improving the quality of their teaching in their classrooms,” Bauer said, “and they were a very appreciative audience.” According to Bauer, UD presenters also showed their caliber in the quality of their presentations at the conference. “All presentations that were submitted were reviewed by three outside reviewers at different learning institutions, so they were carefully judged for quality,” Bauer said. She added that Lilly conferences are different from other educational conferences because they bring several nationally and internationally known experts to speak under one roof. “This conference provided a wonderful opportunity to UD faculty,” she said. Based on feedback so far, Bauer said that the conference was very successful, and will take place on the University campus again next year, from April 12-14, at Clayton Hall. “We're very lucky to attract the conference to our campus for another year,” Bauer said. She added that the efforts of Martha Carothers, interim director of the Center for Teaching Effectiveness, and John Courtright, director of Undergraduate Studies and the University Honors Program, were highly instrumental in helping to secure the event, as were University administrators in the Office of the Provost, the Office of Professional and Continuing Studies and Conference Services. “Based on feedback and this year's attendance numbers, we expect next year will draw an even larger turnout,” Bauer said. To stay current with next year's conference offerings, interested candidates should visit [www.udel.edu/lillyeast]. The Lilly conferences, which have been expanding in scope and size since the first one began at Miami University in 1980, are designed to give college and university teaching professionals the opportunity to share best practices and recent teaching innovations they've designed or fine-tuned. UD's Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) offers services to teaching professionals and teachers-in-training to help them with classroom challenges. Each semester, the center offers seminars and workshops that range from multi-day specialized courses lunchtime lectures. The center encourages mentoring, and frequently asks experienced faculty to co-facilitate sessions for less experienced colleagues. For more information on CTE seminars or workshops, call 831-2027. Article by Becca Hutchinson |
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