The IDEA Center

with Virginia S. Lee

Inquiry-guided learning promotes learning through students’ active investigation of questions, problems, and issues, often for which there is no one, single answer. It fosters complex student learning outcomes such as critical thinking, habits of independent inquiry, responsibility for one’s own learning, and intellectual growth and maturity. Advanced by the 1999 Boyer report as a “natural fit” for research universities, inquiry-guided learning blends faculty strength in research with contemporary understanding of how students learn. Faculty at non-research universities will also enjoy experimenting with this demanding constellation of teaching and learning strategies.

For instructors accustomed to traditional models of teaching, inquiry-guided learning requires a significant and exciting shift in perspective about the teaching and learning process. The learning outcomes it advances are more complex. And promoting learning through inquiry also suggests a broader repertoire of teaching and learning strategies and assessment methods.

with Barbara J. Millis

Students engaged in higher order thinking typically manipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning and implications, such as when students combine facts and ideas in order to synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize, or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation. Manipulating information and ideas through these processes allows students to solve problems and discover new (for them) meanings and understandings. Such higher order thinking occurs when faculty deliberately structure tasks to capitalize on student peer coaching and interactions where they encounter the alternative viewpoints that challenge existing beliefs and assumptions. Writing-to-learn activities embedded in course objectives involve peer responses, an audience beyond the faculty member, and relevant, meaningful activities. In this workshop, faculty will experience at least three specific activities that promote higher order thinking.

with Barbara J. Millis

Both scientists and teachers have been increasingly aware of the research related to the biological basis of learning and its impact on teaching and learning in higher education. This workshop will explore some of that research, discuss its implications for teaching and learning, and then model some specific practices that will enhance the learning process. This highly interactive workshop will draw eclectically from practices also associated with classroom assessment, cooperative learning, and writing across the curriculum. Participants will become familiar with the tenets of cooperative learning and its power to enhance learning—and more!—when it is carefully sequenced to promote deep learning.

with Barbara J. Millis

Games can be an effective way to motivate students to learn course material; to encourage them to come to class prepared; and to assess student learning. However, few books or articles on games emphasize and model their genuine academic value. Too often games are merely “icebreakers” or “team building” activities. All the group activities and games modeled during this interactive workshop are focused squarely on academic content and formative assessment. An emphasis will be on student “ownership” of the games’ answers and on responsible group learning.