Lane Community College -- Fall In-service 2005 Information

SLI:
September 15, 2005, CML 102, 103 & 104, 8:30a-12p

The Strategic Learning Initiative supports faculty throughout the college who engage in strategic, systemic efforts to improve instruction and the learning environment. Our goal is to best serve students’ learning needs through ongoing innovation. The SLI continues to:

Apply advances in our understanding of student learning processes and motivation to enhance learning . Since 1999, the SLI has invited speakers to discuss cross-disciplinary teaching practice, the role of the brain in learning, and sponsored forums on pedagogy and new technologies.

This fall Dr. Mary Furgol, Professor of History at Montgomery College in Maryland, has accepted our invitation to speak at In-service. Dr Furgol, was named 2003 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

“For me, teaching is about passion, belief and pragmatism,” said Dr. Furgol. “Passion for the subject, belief in the student’s ability to engage in and make that subject his or her own, and the pragmatism involved in constantly looking for ways to innovate and to create assignments and classroom environments which encourage learning and the development of higher thinking skills.”

Dr. Furgol was born and educated in Scotland. She attended the University of Edinburgh where she received her MA and PhD in history. Since 1992, Dr. Furgol has taught full time at Montgomery College’s Rockville Campus. She became chair of the History and Political Science Department in 1996. In 2003, she became director of Montgomery Scholars, an academically rigorous two-year honors program for a select group of Montgomery College students who wish to transfer to the nation’s top universities.

Apply advances in technology : Since 1999, the SLI has supported faculty webmaster positions whose role as teachers allow them to understand how pedagogy fits in with the practice of new technologies, focusing particularly on online enhancements and course delivery;

Continually review and adapt the format of instruction, instructional programs, and instructional delivery systems to meet the changing needs of our students and create educationally sound formats, programs and instructional delivery systems to meet the needs of students not previously served by the College. Since 1999, the SLI has supported the incubation of projects like Reading Together, which expands teaching and learning opportunities beyond the classroom and partners students and staff in sharing reading experiences with selected books;

Support a college-supported practice of learning scholarship among the faculty to create and assess ongoing improvements in instruction. Since 1999, the SLI has provided annual grants to disciplines for publications and events to facilitate familiarity with the current thinking on teaching in those disciplines and this coming year anticipates sponsoring conversations to promote academic research and assessment of learning.

Come listen to Dr. Furgol challenge our thinking further, as well as learn what continuing innovations SLI plans to support this coming year.

Interdisciplinary Learning Projects:
September 15, 2005, Bldg. 19, Rm. 245, 1p-4p

This afternoon session will offer faculty the opportunity to participate in three of Lane’s interdisciplinary projects that were incubated by the Strategic Learning Initiative (SLI) and now have matured into institutionalized programs at Lane.

Learning Communities has entered a new stage in its development, and this hour will be dedicated to learning about developments in 2004-05 and planning for the future. In 2005-06, Lane faculty will launch new learning communities which will include courses in dance, art, physical education, and education. Popular and mature learning communities will continue to offer interdisciplinary approaches to topics ranging from multiculturalism to environmental sustainability.

One new direction is the development of a First Year Experience program whose curriculum will be anchored in the learning communities approach. As part of its long-range goal to offer the learning community experience to every student at Lane, Learning Communities has undertaken a partnership with the Success and Goal Attainment Committee (SAGA) and the Sustainability in Curriculum Committee to develop a program for first year students, called FYRED UP! Join this discussion to find out more about the exciting new directions for learning communities.

Service Learning has been in practice on Lane’s campus and in the Eugene community for several years with service projects completed in courses such as Global Health, Birds of Oregon, Poet in the City, Forest Biology, and History. Join our in-service session as we highlight the current projects in various disciplines and discuss ways to increase civic awareness in our students’ lives and our course curriculum. We'll also share how Service Learning can connect with other SLI projects such as Learning Communities and Reading Together. Application materials will be provided, and participants will be encouraged to meet with members of the Service Learning Leadership Team to develop projects for the 2005-06 academic year.

Reading Together will undertake reading Blessing the Boats, poems by Lucille Clifton and Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. Join us for an hour of discussion and planning for the speakers, events, films and teaching ideas focused around these books and their subject matter.