‘Critical Thinking’
EdTech Spotlight: Clickers, Critical Thinking, and Legal Education
Feb. 22, 2016—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director. Cross-posted from Derek’s blog, Agile Learning. The other week I blogged about one of the educational technology working groups the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching is hosting this year. That group is exploring the use of digital timelines in teaching. Another group, which I’ll discuss in this post, is looking at...
Responding to Changing Technologies – A Report from the CFT’s 25th Anniversary Symposium
Sep. 23, 2011—by Derek Bruff, CFT Acting Director In my last post, I shared some highlights from the first hour of our discussion of changing technologies at the CFT’s 25th anniversary symposium earlier this month. The discussion raised several challenges in responding to our changing technological world, including: meeting student expectations for technology use in higher education,...
Developing Intercultural Competency through Blogging – A Conference Report
Jan. 24, 2011—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director Back in November I attended the 30th annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University in Ohio. I thought I’d share some session highlights with my Vanderbilt colleagues. Here’s the second in a series of posts about the conference. Blogs as a Unique Environment for Critical Thinking and...
A&S Course on the Iraq War Features Professors Who Were There
Jul. 23, 2010—The Spring 2010 College of Arts & Science magazine features a story titled “War in the Classroom” about a fall 2009 humanities course exploring the Iraq War. The course was team-taught by Katherine Carroll, assistant professor of political science, and Michael Newton, professor of the practice of law at the Law School. Carroll served in...
Highlights from “Teaching First-Year Students” Conversation – What Is Deep Learning?
Apr. 21, 2010—On April 1, the CFT held a conversation on teaching titled “Teaching First-Year Students: Cognitive Challenges of the First Year.” About twenty-five faculty, staff, and graduate students participated in the discussion. Panelists at the session were Doug Christiansen (Dean of Admissions), Susan Kevra (French, American Studies), and Adam List (Chemistry). One of the questions...
Episode 15 – Ellen Fanning on Undergraduate Journal Clubs
Apr. 7, 2009—In this episode, we feature an interview with Ellen Fanning, professor of biological sciences. In the interview, Ellen describes her methods of helping undergraduate biology students learn to read scientific literature, develop scientific reasoning skills, and gain an interest in science that lasts beyond their coursework. Ellen uses a journal club format that she has...
Episode 1 – An Interview with Michael Bess
Dec. 28, 2007—In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Michael Bess, Chancellor’s Professor of History here at Vanderbilt. In this interview, Michael describes his use of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that “anyone can edit,” to help undergraduate history majors learn how to think and reason like historians. Episode 1 – An Interview with Michael...