Pedagogy Circle

The Department of History, Philosophy, Politics & Economics collaborates with the Center for Faculty Excellence to co-sponsor a Pedagogy Circle meeting each semester.

Spring 2024 Pedagogy Circle Meeting

Topic: Meeting Students Where They Are & Maintaining Academic Standards

March 6, 2024, 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Virtual via Zoom (register to receive Zoom link)

REGISTER TO ATTEND

The session will begin with brief presentations by Professors Jane Rose, Kenny Kincaid, and Deepa Majumdar. Here are some suggestions for framing our conversation:

• What happens to academic standards if we continue meeting students where they are – without limit?
• What happens to serving student needs if our academic standards are unrealistic?
• How do we accomplish both goals? By balancing them?
• Should our solutions vary by field of study and course level?
• Anything else!

You are encouraged to share your ideas and experiences at this virtual Zoom-Synchronous event.  Please have the Agenda & Activity Sheet available during the session.

What is a Pedagogy Circle?

The purpose of this faculty-driven forum is to encourage discussion about the more humanistic issues at stake in the contemporary classroom: why facts matter, how to balance democracy with decorum, fair grading in the humanities, enforcing attendance, etc.

It is neither a faculty club nor a teaching clinic. Nevertheless, the hope is that the Pedagogy Circle will foster faculty collegiality. This forum is intended to encourage faculty discussions on what they love most—issues and problems relevant to their teaching practices.

Participants bring valuable insights and input to these meetings but also benefit through shared teaching tips, etc. This forum is open to all faculty (including LTLs and CLs)—especially incoming faculty who are new to teaching.

Past Pedagogy Circle Meetings

Spring 2023 – Meeting students where they are & Maintaining Academic Standards: Can they co-exist? (featuring Dr. Janusz Duzinkiewicz and Dr. David Pratt)

See resources below for more information on this topic:

• Dwyer, H., & Cardamone, C. ( 2021). Balancing flexibility and rigor to advance equity in course design. Teaching@Tufts.
• Matthew, E.G. (2022). Make American education rigorous again. The Hill.
• Heick, T. (2019). How to add rigor to anything. TeachThought.
• Allen, R. (2012). Support Struggling Students with Academic Rigor. ASCD, 54(8).
• Castillo-Montoya, M. (2018). Rigor revisited: Scaffolding college student learning by incorporating their lived experiences. New Directions for Higher Education, 181, 37-46.
• Bowman, N.A., & Culver, K.C. (2018). Promoting equity and student learning: Rigor in undergraduate academic experiences. New Directions for Higher Education, 181, 47-57. [PDF also attached]
• Kohn, A. (2004). The case against “tougher standards.”
• The “Who’s In Class” Form – a resource to get to know your students (so you can meet them where they are); from What Inclusive Teachers Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching.

Fall 2022 – Towards Inclusive Curricula: Succeeding despite Challenges (featuring Dr. Gokarna Aryal)

• For a broad definition of inclusivity and to consider how aspects of identity can impact academic environments, view the Academic Wheel of Privilege*. *Source: Elsherif, M. M., Middleton, S. L., Phan, J. M., Azevedo, F., Iley, B. J., Grose-Hodge, M., … Dokovova, M. (2022, June 20). Bridging Neurodiversity and Open Scholarship: How Shared Values Can Guide Best Practices for Research Integrity, Social Justice, and Principled Education. https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/k7a9p.

Spring 2022 – Critical Thinking and Inclusive Curricula (featuring Dr. David Detmer)

• For more information about critical thinking and inclusive curricula, please see:
  1. Importance of Critical Thinking in Curriculum Development
  2. Critical Thinking: Where to Begin
  3. Does College Teach Critical Thinking? A Meta-Analysis
  4. It’s Time to Get Serious About Teaching Critical Thinking
  5. Decolonizing the Curriculum
  6. Revolutionizing my Syllabus: The Process

Fall 2021 – Toward Inclusive Curricula: Using Humor in the Inclusive Classroom (featuring Dr. Wendy St. Jean)

Spring 2021 – Toward Inclusive Curricula

• For more information about creating inclusive curricula, please see:

1. Decolonizing the curriculum
2. Decolonizing the Curriculum: The BLM Approach to History
3. Revolutionizing my Syllabus: The Process
4. What would it mean to decolonize the curriculum? 
5. ‘Students want to confront it’: academics on how to decolonise the university

Fall 2020  – “Teaching in a Time of Twin Crises: Pandemic + Racism”

• For more information about pandemic plus anti-racist pedagogies, please see:

1.  Pandemic Pedagogy: Will Remote Teaching Improve Education?
2. Lessons Learned from Teaching Online: Pedagogy in a Pandemic
3. Pandemic Pedagogy
4. Pandemic Pedagogy and the Limits of Compassion (available exclusively to Chronicle subscribers)
5. Barriers and Strategies by White Faculty Who Incorporate Anti-Racist Pedagogy
6. Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Stonehill College
7. Anti-Racist Pedagogy Resources

• Spring 2020 – Why Subject Matter Mastery matters – does in-class discussion help or hurt?-POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 CLOSURE
  • How to Hold a Better Class Discussion: Advice Guide
  • Why American Students Haven’t Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years
  • Why One University Went All Out on Teaching Reading
  • We Have a National Reading Crisis
  • There’s a Crisis of Reading Among Generation Z
  • Discussion as a teaching tool — pros, cons and teaching tactics
• Fall 2019 – The Socratic Method – does it work in these times?
  • View pros/cons generated during discussion
  • View Reflections on the Socratic method by Prof. J. Duzinkiewicz
• Spring 2019 – What Makes Great Teaching?
  • View ideas generated during discussion
• Fall 2018  – Teaching Portfolios: Promoting Reflective Practice
• Spring 2018 – Plagiarism
• Fall 2017 – Grade Inflation