"Teaching Introductory Students"
Tuesday, March 15
Mary Walczak, Chemistry and 2004-05 CILA Associate; Jim Farrell, History and American Studies; and Gary Muir, Psychology/Neuroscience
Research on learning has shown that there are fundamental differences in the ways that experts and novices classify and interpret information. This CILA Faculty Conversation will focus on how we approach teaching introductory students in order to move them from novices towards experts. We will describe examples from our introductory courses in American Conversations, American Studies, Chemistry, History and Psychology with an emphasis on helping introductory students "unlearn and relearn" approaches to education, make connections between these disciplines and their lives, and see the wonder of the questions that these disciplines can help answer.