1.+Lilly+Conference+2011

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[|Lilly Conferences] are retreats that combine workshops, discussion sessions, and major addresses, with opportunities for informal discussion about excellence in college and university teaching and learning. Internationally-known scholars join new and experienced faculty members and administrators from all over the world to discuss topics such as gender differences in learning, incorporating technology into teaching, encouraging critical thinking, using teaching and student portfolios, implementing group learning, and evaluating teaching.

"Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching"
The 2011 Lilly Conferences will highlight evidence-based learning and teaching. Evidence-based learning is the key to the development of critical thinking. Using evidence in teaching is scholarly teaching and producing evidence in teaching is the basis of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Press EDIT to post your general reflections about the Conference

From Dr. Susan Hal (maternity instructor)l:

I am so lost for words. The conference was my first and it will not be my last. I just loved the networking with others and learning so much in being an effective teacher. I presented a poster on simulation as a strategy to teach maternity students. I can not tell you how many came to my table and offered input or listen to what I had to say. I learned from them and they left away saying I am going to use that strategy at my workplace. I learned how to engage my students by offering various strategies. We must keep our students interest in learning by letting our students become more involved (student centerness rather than teacher centerness). It has been awhile since I had so much fun at a conference.The food was great. I wished I would have stayed overnight in Greensboro. I was so tired Friday night that it was so hard to drive back and be back for the first session on Saturday morning.

Susan Hall Maternity Instructor Winston Salem State

From Dr. Guy Martin (Social Sciences):

From February 4 to 6, 2011, I attended (for the first time, both as participant and panelist) the Lilly Conference on College & University Teaching on the theme “Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching” at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC as a part of a 52-members strong WSSU delegation entirely sponsored by the University.

The theme of the conference reflects that approaches to teaching and learning should be based on scholarly activity. As disciplinary approaches use scholarly work to investigate and advance knowledge, pedagogical innovation should also advance by building on the works of others.

About Plenary Sessions Each of the five (5) plenary sessions that I attended elaborated on the main theme of the conference: “Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching.” Thus, in the opening session, Craig Nelson (Indiana University) examined key pedagogical changes that make real differences in achievement and retention in almost any college or university classroom without lowering the standards for achievement. In plenary session # 22, Charles Blaich (Wabash College) reviewed his findings and those of his colleagues in the Wabash National Study, the faulty assumptions they made about how assessment data would help campus efforts to improve student learning, and the changes they made as their collaboration with campuses made assessment data useful. In plenary session # 89, Jennifer McCrickerd (Drake University) presented some recent work regarding learning in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, while drawing on the experience of the participants to provide a basic groundwork for understanding what practices and dispositions are conducive to successful learning and teaching by modeling an engaging classroom experience. In plenary session # 111, Ray Purdom (UNCG) used short clips about hula hoops from the movie The Hudsucker Proxy as well as clips from other movies (such as A Beautiful Mind) to demonstrate how we (as teachers) can use the media to enhance teaching and learning, and also to free students stuck in a “bottleneck” because they have difficulty learning basic concepts. Finally, in the closing plenary session, Ed Neal and Todd Zakrajsek (UNC-Chapel Hill) presented a variety of evidence-based principles than can help improve pedagogical effectiveness, including surprising evidence that some of our cherished perceptions of facilitating student learning are false and, if not harmful, are at the very least counterproductive.

How I Benefited from Attending this Conference I greatly benefited from attending this conference in various ways. First, it enhanced and refined my teaching skills by introducing me to new, original and innovative ideas and teaching methods and techniques such as showing more empathy towards my students, sharpening my students’ critical thinking skills, using group and team-based work, introducing more visual materials in my courses, and, more generally, finding ways of making my courses more lively and interesting. In addition, the conference afforded me a unique opportunity to network, exchange ideas and share best practices with colleagues from a wide variety of academic institutions, disciplines, nationalities, and regional, ethnic and racial backgrounds. On the whole, I would say that this conference (which I attended for the first time) greatly contributed to my professional and personal development, and I hope to be able to attend the 2012 Lilly Conference next year.

From Dr. Anna Lee (Behavioral Sciences and Social Work)

Attending the Lilly Conference was a great experience. I especially liked that an array of disciplines were represented. It was encouraging to engage in meaningful discussion with other faculty about teaching methods and strategies. The sessions were useful in that the interactive nature of the conference enhanced the information presented. I found that not only was the information from the speaker useful, but the audience input was useful as well. In addition, I felt that the depth and breadth of the topics covered were impressive. I would definitely attend this conference again.