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On Thursday, October 27, the Committee on Teaching Development hosted the first “Innovative Pedagogical Strategies Happy Hour.”

Karen Leigh-Post started us off with a 15-minute presentation entitled “Sit Up Straight: An Alert and Receptive Mind is Essential to Learning.” (ppt) Karen reviewed some of the physiology of the vestibular system — from whence comes our sense of balance and spatial awareness — and made the point that by monitoring our vestibular sense, we have a means by which we can actually stimulate “an alert and receptive mind.” A lively discussion followed, complete with balancing practice.

The Committee looks forward to hosting more of these events. If you have ideas for programs you’d like to see or discussions you’d like to have, contact the Committee’s chair.

We may not be ready for this yet, but a new ProfHacker post, “From the Archives: On Syllabi and Course Design,” collects links to many useful and interesting tips to get us thinking (and rethinking) how our courses work.

If you’re not familiar with ProfHacker, it’s worth a look. From the Chronicle of Higher Education, “ProfHacker delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education, Monday through Friday.” Some good stuff here.

From one of the Chronicle‘s Brainstorm blogs comes this list of summer reading that may improve your fall teaching. There’s some good stuff here.

What are you reading this summer?

Moderator: Karen Leigh-Post

Panelists: Kathy Privatt, Ken Bozeman, and Matt Michelic

The sessions opened with a quick look at the evaluation forms now in use at Lawrence. A discussion of potential evaluation comments and how they may be used to improve teaching followed.

A bibliography of articles on current thinking about the effects of gender, race and nationality on coursework and as well the impact of required vs. elective coursework was distributed at the event.

The session was recorded and is available for listening on campus only.