Pedagogical Partnership Program
The CLTR will be continuing its Pedagogical Partnership program during the 2024 - 2025 academic year. This program is informed by similar programs originally developed at BrynMawr College by Allison Cook-Sather, that included student consultants as partners in the classroom. This original work in the SaLT (Students as Learners and Teachers) program, focused on connecting students, faculty and staff in various forms of co-creation and co-learning. Building on this work, the CLTR seeks to create spaces where faculty, students and academic staff can partner to co-create equitable teaching and learning.
During the Fall 2024 semester, a new cohort of student partners will be participating in an orientation course to assist in preparing them for partnership roles with faculty members in the Spring 2025 semester. We will also be engaged in outreach to faculty members who are interested in exploring pedagogical partnership, and possibly participating in the pilot. Below are links to documents providing more information about the program. Please reach out to cltr@colgate.edu with any questions you might have.
Faculty Learning Communities
Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are collaborative, cross-disciplinary groups of faculty members who come together to engage in ongoing, reflective discussions and activities focused on enhancing teaching and learning. FLCs provide a supportive environment for faculty to engage in shared inquiry, explore specific issues together, and develop new pedagogical approaches. During the 2024 - 2025 academic year the CLTR will be facilitating an FLC focused on Exploring genAI for Teaching and Learning.
Please review the document linked below to learn more about the work of this faculty learning community and to apply to be a participant.
Morning Grind with the CLTR
Please come join CLTR staff and Colgate colleagues for some coffee and conversation about teaching and learning. The Grind sessions are a bit "open mic" in spirit, and don't tend to have topics identified in advance...but the conversation is always interesting. You can come anytime and stay for as long as you'd like.
Spring 2024 Morning Grind dates are:
- February 6, 2024 in McGregory Hall 101A from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.
- March 27, 2024 in McGregory Hall 101A from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.
Teaching Tables
Teaching Tables represent more structured and moderated conversations around specific topics that are brought to the CLTR from faculty, students and staff. If you have a teaching need, wish to explore a new technique, want to hear from a faculty panel on a specific topic, etc. just let us know. You propose the topic and perhaps suggested presenters and we do all the work to set things up. To suggest an idea please email cltr@colgate.edu.
Toward Inclusive Pedagogy: Exploring Universal Design for Learning
8 February 2024
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Lathrop 107 (lunch provided)
With ever increasing learner variability among our students, embracing strategies to make the learning experience accessible and inclusive is even more important. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching framework which aims to enhance teaching and learning for all students. Join us for an open conversation about how the UDL framework can increase engagement and access to courses across the disciplines. Participants will be invited to share experiences, observations and questions about UDL as we discuss how this framework for inclusive teaching strategies can minimize unnecessary barriers in the learning process.
To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Structuring Class Discussions for Equity
27 February 2024
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Lathrop 107
Class discussions are a common pedagogical approach used to surface student thinking, engage multiple perspectives, and simply to vary the flow of class activities. Providing a clear structure or format for class discussion can help to ensure more equitable distribution of space or “air time” for the participants in a discussion. In this teaching table, faculty are invited for open conversation about their approaches for structuring class discussions in equitable ways. The session will be facilitated as a “Conversation Cafe,” which is a Liberating Structure format. Liberating Structures are intentionally designed to re-structure conventional group interactions and discussions in ways that can be more equitable for all participants. A short presentation will start this session so that participants can eat lunch before engaging in the Conversation Cafe.
To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
Accommodations Adjustments for Learning: A Student Panel
28 March 2024
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Lathrop 107
In the past few years, higher education has experienced increased demand to address a diversity of learner needs, while also creating spaces where all students are supported and feel welcomed. Like many college campuses, Colgate has witnessed this trend, and is responding to an increase in the number of students requesting learning adjustments through the Office of Student Disability Services. These adjustment plans address a diversity of learning needs, and are implemented to ensure all students have equitable access to educational experiences. At the same time, there can also be differences in the ways students experience these adjustments. How do students encounter classrooms and coursework where they have a learning adjustment? What are student perspectives on the adjustments they receive? What do students hope faculty members understand about their experiences? Please join us for this facilitated student panel discussion, and participate in an important conversation about teaching and learning at Colgate.
To help us plan for an appropriate amount of food, we kindly ask you to register for the event.
A Podcast of One's Own
11 April 2024
11.30-12.30
Little Hall 201 (lunch provided)
Scholarly work has always shaped public discourse in formative ways; however, shifting conversations about the role of intellectuals in public life, about the democratization of expertise, and about new digital platforms have created a dynamic topography from which to consider knowledge and research. Avery Trufelman, critically acclaimed host of, most-recently, Articles of Interest (named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker), will lead this lunch-session for staff and faculty about how she thinks about podcasting as a genre and tool for storytelling, scholarship, and pedagogy. Trufelman will facilitate a pragmatic space for us to consider the role of audio in our classrooms as texts, assignments, and sites of departure. Register for the event.
Reading Groups
As a follow-up to New Faculty Orientation, the CLTR will be facilitating a reading group in the Spring 2024 semester using James Lang's book, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. This will be a great opportunity to connect with colleagues, share ideas and potentially implement some small changes in your teaching. All faculty are welcome to participate, so please contact the CLTR (cltr@colgate.edu) if you would like a copy of the book.
Dates and times are listed below, and all sessions will be held in McGregory 101A
- Friday, February 16, 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
- Friday, February 23, 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
- Friday, March 1, 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch will be provided and we kindly ask you to register for the sessions you’d like to attend so we can order an appropriate amount of food.
Teaching and Learning Workshops
CLTR staff partner with faculty and facilitate workshops on a range of teaching and learning topics. We also collaborate with colleagues in the Learning and Applied Innovation (LAI) group in ITS to conduct workshops addressing the meaningful use of technology to support instruction. A full list of sessions can be found on the workshop calendar page. Please reach out to the CLTR with any ideas you have for a workshop you'd like to see us offer.