Teaching and Learning at SECOLAS

Thanks to the generous support of CETL, supplemented by personal funds, I was able to attend and present at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) in New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 16-18, 2009. For a long time, I have been active in this organization, which brings together a wonderfully collegial group of scholars from the Southeast, provides a venue for a broad range of presentations, and is notable for nurturing both graduate and undergraduate student professional development. In the past, there have been one or two panels in which established and senior faculty share their best practices and materials for teaching Latin American and Caribbean Studies. There are also usually professional development panels on, for example, managing study abroad. This year, whereas there were panels on study abroad and publishing (which I attended), there was no pedagogical session as such. The panel on which I was placed and was asked to chair was titled “Teaching and Learning about Race in Latin America.” The panel presentations were three: “The Construction of Racial Categories in Latin America,” by Ivan Valverde, PhD candidate at the University of Florida; “The True Color of Crisis: Representations of Race in Veja Magazine, 1976 – 2000,” by Nicolette Wilhide, PhD candidate at Vanderbilt University; and my own, “Sharing the Riches of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture at HBCUs and Beyond.”

Mr. Valverde’s presentation was a very useful synthesis of the outcomes of “race” formation and racial projects in Spanish America, and his Power Point show would be usable and accessible in an undergraduate course. Ms. Wilhide’s presentation was from her promising work on representations of Brazilians of African descent in Brazil’s most widely read news weekly. This is difficult ground to tread because, in the last two decades, media representation and presence of Afro-Brazilians has received excellent attention from Brazilian and some non-Brazilian scholars. Yet, Ms. Wilhide stands to make useful contributions to the debate. For one student and, I think, for both, this was the first conference presentation, so this actually turned into a mentoring experience for me. Both were professional in every way, and it was a privilege to assist in their “maiden voyage.”

My presentation drew on my experience over about seventeen years, including here at WSSU in the teaching of Afro-Brazilian studies. My goal is to update the 2002 work of my colleague John D. French, whose “Sharing the Riches of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture: Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching Syllabi and Handouts” responded to growing curricular demands that paralleled, though lagged behind, the explosion of scholarship on Afro-Brazilian studies published in English since about 1993. That year, there were two crucial conferences on the topic in the United States at the University of Florida and the University of Texas. Then, in 1997, the V Congresso Afro-Brasileiro took place in Salvador, Brazil. The international scope of these meetings helped set the transnational terms of debate and the research agendas for the coming years. My presentation recapped the fruit of this scholarship up to the present, showed how one can map that content onto several sorts of Brazilian and Diasporic studies courses (on course mapping, see http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/cet/workshops/mapping/index.htm), demonstrated how to align those courses with institutional goals, and, finally, ended with some perspectives on where the field is headed: There is ongoing binational federal support for program development. We hope that the FIPSE/CAPES US-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program continues with US Department of Education funding. There is also a new initiative taking shape, with is the Joint Action Plan between the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Government of the United States of America to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality (JAPER). The plan’s MOU was signed in March 2008 between the US State Department and SEPPIR, the Brazilian federal antidiscrimination secretariat. By creating a civil society committee operating parallel to the government agency committee, the plan seeks to foster academic and NGO activity. We will see if (a) autonomy of the civil society committee can be maintained, (b) what the nature of collaboration among academic and activist/service organizations will look like, and (c) what scholarly and training activity, among other outcomes, grows out of the plan.

My presentation also discussed my Web-based project to build a community of and for teachers of Afro-Brazilian Studies. I had delayed posting this blog entry because I had hoped to populate and publicize this online community, and announce details here. However, I am only now having time to meet with Dr. Galvis at CETL for how to make the best use of Ning as an academic networking site. Soon, I expect to post all of my materials on Afro-Brazilian studies not published elsewhere and invite colleagues in the filed to so the same. I will announce the launch on this blog later.

A lively discussion with the audience ensued, including definitions and references of terms. Parenthetically, the term “Afro-Brazilian” is used in this field as a translation of the Portuguese afro-brasileiro for a range of reasons. “African Brazilian” does not resonate and is not used by either scholars or activists. Indeed, africano brasileiro or brasileiro africano would have other denotations in Portuguese. Alternate terms used by academics, activists, and the press include "African-descended / African descendent" (afrodescendente) or "Black" (negro).

From the other sessions that I attended, I got some good activity ideas from a short-term art history course in Mexico (“Study Abroad and Service Learning: Christopher Newport University and Mexico City,” Dr Elizabeth Morán, CNU). The ideas, which included basically a scavenger hunt and scrap book, are well suited for culture courses or academically-oriented tours in-country. This is an idea that can be incorporated into the Brazil exchange if we are fortunate enough to get another cycle of FIPSE funding. Since the theme of the conference was “Crisis and Recovery in the Americas,” so it was appropriate that there was a panel on post-Katrina recovery. The whole panel was excellent, but the pedagogical “take-away” from the panel was information about service-learning opportunities coordinated by Tulane but open to students everywhere. Information is available at Tulane’s Center for Public Service, http://tulane.edu/cps/ (“Post-Katrina Migration to New Orleans and Service-Learning Initiatives at Tulane,” Dr. Jimmy Huck, Tulane University).

Finally, I always feel that the local arrangements chair and staff deserve thanks for putting on any conference that I attend because it is exceedingly hard work. In this case, Dr. Jimmy Huck of Tulane and his team of staff and students deserve hearty praise. The SECOLAS Web site is http://www.southalabama.edu/secolas/.

Understanding how speakers use language

I attended the Annual African Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL) between April 8th and 12th. This is a conference that brings together scholars who focus on African linguistics including the teaching and the acquisition of African languages. I presented two papers: the first paper which was co-presented with colleagues from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign was on phonological borrowing from the English language into Logooli, an African language spoken in East Africa and the other paper was on the languages that the youths use in the rural and urban centers of Kenya. In my first paper I sought to find out what phonological rules the borrowed lexical items follow. Do they adapt to the target language phonological roles or do they impose their rules on the recipient language? The findings show that for the most part the tonal pattern rules of the receiving language takes over. However, there are still other cases which show opposite results.
In my second paper I examined language use among the youths in both urban and rural areas of Kenya arguing that language use among the youths is very dynamic. I showed that speakers’ perceptions on language use do not necessarily mirror the true language use. However, in order to fully understand the discrepancies one needs to examine other variables such as the topic, relationship between the speakers and other extra linguistic factors through a mixed methods approach.
I also attended several other sessions which focused on how students in American classes learn foreign languages. One paper by a participant from Michigan State University discussed how students whose first language uses the grammatical gender system have a problem learning foreign languages which use the noun class system. This was an important paper for me because it focused on Swahili which I teach at WSSU.

Increasing Student Engagement

Notes from The International Conference on College Teaching and Learning in Jacksonville, Florida, April 13-17, 2009, by Joanne Chesley, Ed.D., CETL.

I attended several sessions related to student engagement/ student retention. Here is a summary of what I learned from the studies presented (which I will cite/detail upon request):

• Student satisfaction impacts retention, even if it does not impact grades.
• Students need deep integrative learning that they can apply to many situations. They need learning that helps them see the world differently.
• To get a good picture of what high student engagement should look like, we should study 'educationally effective institutions' to discern the 7 best practices; 1) student faculty interaction 2) active learning 3)immediate feedback 4) time on task 5) high expectations 6) respect for diversity 7)enforced cooperation (can be achieved via team based /problem based learning).
• The university should participate in one of the major satisfaction survey processes such as NSSE, National Survey of Student Engagement. These will let you know how engaged your students are in the academic life of the university as well as the social life. Only 13% of college students report participation in extracurricular activities. The more engaged, the better the student's grades. The more satisfied generally, the more they stay to graduation.
• Students persist to graduation when they have: 1) excellent 1st year experience courses 2) common intellectual experiences 3)learning communities 4) writing intensive courses and 5) effective relationships with faculty/mentors. These are called high impact practices. These practices force interaction with peers and faculty, ensure more feedback from professors, encourage appreciation for diversity, encourage cooperation, and ensure the opportunity to have concrete experiences (vs. theoretical, nebulous, extraneous). These practices have an even greater effect on students who are considered to have high risk factors (for dropout).
• At many universities, 10-15% of the enrolled students drop between registration and census date (10days into the semester). We should try to find out what this is all about. This may indicate something about the environment or the red tape they have been through, or the fear they are beginning to feel. Some of these same feelings will remain among those who choose to stay, but may continue to impact them negatively. Focus groups held with students who did quit prematurely report that relationships /rapport is the biggest factor missing in their early experiences on campus.
• Successful completion (C or better) of well-structured developmental courses contributes to greater college success than that experienced by those who did not even take developmental courses.
• Universities must experiment with a wide range of initiatives based on varying retention factors, in an effort to find what works. Some say that anything else equals malpractice. Refusing to change our teaching habits, curriculum assessments, and resources should not be an option.
• The teaching practice most connected to student persistence is immediate and meaningful feedback to student work.

I also attended sessions on Team Based Learning, Client Based Learning, the Pedagogy to Androgogy continuum, and Using I-clickers for engagement, feedback and assessment.
I have tape recordings of most of these sessions, and will loan them at your request. I also have the compendium of selected conference papers that you may borrow as well.

US Youth Soccer Association Conference

I recently attended and presented at the United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) Conference in San Jose, California. At this conference there are two types of presentations, one deals with new coaching techniques, and the other sessions deal with marketing and management issues about the sport industry in general.

I attended several coaching sessions out of curiosity, but did attend several administrative sessions as well. Yet, the most beneficial sessions I attended dealt with new marketing strategies that could help me improve my teaching and knowledge of that field, and bring it back to the classroom and to my students.

One of the sessions covered the importance of catchy phrases or slogans in order to create a marketing campaign. During the session the value of Nike’s “Just do it” campaign was analyzed and explained as to why it has been successful. After it was analyzed, it was compared to the different slogans and campaigns used by one of its competitors - Reebok - over the years, and why it has not succeeded as expected. This is important when students ask in the classroom for more concrete and practical examples, rather than just theoretical answers.

Another session I found interesting dealt with information technology and how it can be used in order to provide a better product or service to a consumer, it dealt mostly with what the presenter called “operational excellence”, and how organizations as well as teachers must be willing to change and adapt in order to create/develop a competitive advantage, or to simply stay ahead of the competition.

I attended several presentations, but overall the most important issues I learned that I can bring to the classroom are:

· Make learning fun and enjoyable
· Develop self esteem in each student
· Motivate the student to attain and achieve excellence
· Develop a desire for lifetime curiosity and learning
· Develop leadership skills
· Instill self-responsibility

My presentation itself deal with how important it is to integrate different target markets, in particular Hispanics, and how their culture and background is important to know when trying to reach and to educate them.

In short, this conference was indeed a worthwhile event for me to attend, and was grateful to have learned many aspects of the sport industry that can be brought to the classroom, and at the same time be put to practical use.

Southern Organization for Human Services

I had the opportunity to attend the Southern Organization for Human Services (SOHS) 34th annual conference from March 25-28, 2009 in Tampa, Fl. SOHS is an organization devoted to helping educators and students in human service related fields increase visibility and hone their professional skills. This year's conference theme, New and Emerging Issues in Human Services, seemed very timely given the changes our Nation is going through currently. As president of this organization, I also had an opportunity to learn first hand some lessons in leadership. In addition, 7 students from WSSU attended, and 5 were able to present.

I have always viewed conferences as such an unique opportunity for students to learn about their field, network, and learn professionalism that cannot be taught in the classroom. As such, since I knew I would be attending the conference, I encouraged several students to consider attending. They went one step further and decided they wanted to present. I was thrilled, as this presented another teachable opportunity: what is a call for proposals; how to submit one; researching your idea; working collaboratively on your presentation; and finally, presenting in front of your professional peers. We had two proposals accepted. One on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (faculty lead of Dr. David Dawson), and one on the use of technology in teaching and learning (faculty lead-Shawn Ricks).

We spent several months preparing our research and fundraising for the conference. Both presentations were very well attended and well received. All of the students representing WSSU attended all breakouts and general sessions. They even had the opportunity to go to the University of South Florida to discuss Graduate school options.

The TBI presentation covered the longterm ramifications of Traumatice Brain Injury on veterans of war. The two student co-presenters presented their research along with Dr. David Dawson from WSSU. At the end of their presentation, they were encouraged to submit an abstract to the National Organization for Human Services' journal for publication!

The students and I also participated in a service learning project with a local head-start agency. The project tied in conference themes of pre-K education and community service. As an organizaton, we went to a headstart agency with a donated book for each child. While some students read to the children, others painted and planted flowers out back. The children were thrilled to have company and asked many questions during the stories and while working alongside the students and faculty that attended. For those of us who participated, it reminded us that we typically know very little about a community when we visit it for a conference. We were in the field actually doing what we were talking about in the field. It was the ultimate service learning project in my opinion. The feedback was unanimous--this was a pivotal experience for those that attended and everyone requested that we duplicate this experience at next year's conference.

Our recent conference experience reminded us of the many avenues in which transformational educational experiences occur. I am grateful for CETL's support and look forward to future chances to learn alongside my students.

GeographyConference - Las Vegas

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. The conference included more than 6,000 geographers from around the world and is a mix of presentations on cutting edge academic research and sessions on best practices for teaching and learning.

I was able to participate in both aspects of the conference by organizing a session/presenting some of my research on local government boundary change and attending several session dedicated to teaching and learning. My session on boundary change was well received and included an opportunity for questions and answers that generate a lot of interesting discussion. Additionally, I was approached by a representative from the Planners Press to discuss publishing my work. This unique opportunity would not have presented itself if I didn't attend the conference. The funding that I received though CETL made this possibility and reality.

The teaching and learning sessions that I attended focused on a variety of topics. The one session that I took the most away from was focused on making geography come alive for students. The session highlight many new technologies that are available for use in the classroom and also discussed the use of relevant DVD's. Today's students are so interactive we can not just lecture and expect them to learn all they need to know. Students want to see, hear and feel the topics. So incorporating DVD's, the internet, and assignments that take the student outside the classroom are all important. Geography is all around us and part of our everyday life (whether we realize it or not) so it is important to provide real-world examples that students can connect with.

TLC San Antonio

I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Teaching and Learning conference in San Antonio, Texas. This conference is actually two events in one: One strand is for higher education and the other for business. Although these two disciplinary areas seem different, I found sessions in both areas that were beneficial to my academic practice. For example, use of the Socratic method in teaching the problem-solving and decision-making process was presented in the business strand, but I found it useful for one of the courses that I currently teach.

Essentially, that presentation proposed that students can be taught how to use the Socratic method to stimulate critical thinking and better decision-making in group situations. Students could use questions to:

• Ask an individual to provide instances or justifications for the position advocated
• Interject a counter-example in response to an individual’s position or point
• Ask whether anyone in the group agrees with the position advocated
• Suggest a parallel example
• Illuminate a specific concept or position using an analogy
• Play the role of devil’s advocate to an articulated position

In my own teaching experience, I have found that students sometimes feel frustrated when I (as the instructor) respond to their questions with more questions. I believe this is because students often want "just the answers" rather than having to think critically beyond the facts. Perhaps teaching them hows and whys of the Socratic method and actually having them implement it would motivate them to think more and be less resistant to questioning. I am looking forward to trying this out next semester.

Another session that I found useful was on Collaborative Learning. Specifically, it addressed the problems involved with group projects. The presenters offered the following suggestions for improving the group process:

• Give students specific group management role and responsibilities, such as manager, encourager, cheerleader, coach, question commander, checker, or taskmaster.
• Give each member of the team a different, interdependent research and problem-solving role. This can ensure that students work together rather than in parallel.
• The instructor needs to have input into how the groups are formed; sometimes best friends make poor group members.
• Low-ability students often benefit most when paired with medium-ability students rather than those of highest ability.
• Train students in interpersonal communication skills ahead of time so that they know what behavior is expected of the group and require discussion of group functioning, focusing on how students should talk and listen to each other.
• Consider assessment strategies carefully, looking for ways to reward the group while also emphasizing individual accountability. Avoid giving the entire group one grade.

Each semester, I teach a senior level research methods course that has a group project as a significant component. Effectiveness of the group process varies widely, as you can imagine. Some semesters, I have groups that function extremely well. Others can be experiences in great frustration. I have constantly looked for ways to improve the group process, and have resisted the temptation to eliminate the group aspect of the project. I sincerely believe that students should possess good groupwork skills by the time they graduate from a university. I have already implemented some of the techniques that were presented. For example, I have all group members submit a peer evaluation that helps me to find out who did what (and who did not do what). Part of a student's grade is based on her/his individual performance in the group. I found the concept of pairing low-ability students with medium-ability students (rather than high-ability) intriguing, and I now understand the rationale. Low-ability students often get lost when working with high-ability students, whereas medium-ability students motivate them to function at a higher level. Up to this point, I have let students choose their own groups, so I have had no control over how well the individuals are matched up. I will try to assign groups in the future based on the suggestions given and see what happens.

I attended several other sessions that provided useful information and tools for my teaching. Some, such as one on using PowerPoint games to develop vocabulary skills helped me to think of different ways to utilize familiar technology. Others, such as ones on leadership models and skills were useful for updating content in some of my courses.

I did make a presentation at the conference: "Knowledge about HIV/AIDS and resulting student behavior among students at an Historically Black College/University". It was well received, and fortunately, I was not asked any questions that I could not answer. The study looked at the level of of knowledge about HIV/AIDS among students, the differences in the accuracy of that knowledge by gener, and the relationship between knowledge and behavior. What we (myself and three other authors) found was that although students had a high level of knowledge (more accurate for women than for men), their behviors did not reflect that. Students practice high risk behaviors in spite of the fact that they know better. Our suggestions were to focus more on teaching about the consequences of high-risk behavior rather than just the factual information about the disease. We also felt that the role of the campus environment in encouraging high-risk behaviors needs to be investigated. We recommended that qualitative studies through focus goups be the preferred inquiry method for these investigations. I do not wish to delve further into the content of the study here, but if anyone is interested, you can contact me for more information.

Overall, this conference was a very worthwhile event, and I came back with much to think about and put into practice.

Himanshu

TL Conference

I attended the TL Conference in Greensboro, NC and had the opportunity to present. The conference was very worth my time. I have already implemented some of the teaching strategies presented in one of the presentations. It came off as a blast! This was a wonderful opportunity.

Wanda Lawrence
WSSU, Division of Nursing

Reflections on Lilly Conference Presentation

It was Friday afternoon at the Lilly Conference, which was held adjacent to a major mall. I thought that several of would-be conference attendees would take a long lunch or early dinner over in the mall. Each session time had about twelve or more presenters. So I was pretty blown away to see thirty-five faces staring back at me during my presentation in Greensboro last month. My subject dealt with preparing faculty to stay abreast with technology and how we "baby-boomers" are struggling to keep pace with our millennial college students, who use technology as easily as we used to use typewriters. Now theres a word you don't see often any more. As I looked out into the audience, I determined that most of the attendees in my session were boomers with a few youngsters (early thirties) sprinkled in. The sheer number of attendees was an indicator to me that a significant portion of our post-secondary faculty still struggle to keep pace with the technological developments that are now beginning to "wag the dog."

It has always been my contention that technology should be used to enhance our instructional delivery. Now-a-days, it appears that technology is driving the instruction. How do we prepare faculty to adequately navigate the latest technologies for instruction? The plethora of ancillary duties our faculty are strapped with beside their teaching load, committee work, advising and keeping up with the research in their content areas; finds the faculty member hard-pressed to do more.

There should be technology-on-demand sessions; where faculty sitting at their office desks can link to to teach themselves the latest technology and have guided and independent practice sessions. Help should be readily available from the technology staff, not just during normal business hours because most faculty work is done after hours on research and tinkering with the latest tech. tools. Adequate infrastructure is a necessity. Have all faculty been equipped with the soft and hardware to accomplish higher-level functioning with techno-platforms? What is the commitment of institutions of higher learning to prepare faculty; and also to monitor and then acknowledge in meaningful ways their progress and competency in learning new technologies? I had great interraction with the audience as I posed basic questions to them about how they are prepared to navigate technology waters at their institutions. It was good to know that many faculty are trying to get onboard with technology. Now the universities must do their part! Griff

Lilly Conference 2009 and the LERN Assessment Conference

I am very grateful to both Dr. Cynthia Bell and my colleagues Drs. Coco-Ripp, Bradford, and Lawrence for including me in their panel on Action Research, as well as to the CETL office for financing our participation in the 2009 Lilly Conference. Since my degree is not in education, I have been trying to take advantage of the opportunities I've had for professional development, and I feel I have benefitted a great deal from my experiences with LERN, GOAL, the Action Research project, the OK Fellows, and the new write-to-learn project. I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in this case, as I have had a pair of unusually hectic and demanding semesters, and I was not able to contribute a great deal to the panel's preparatory work, or even see much of the conference.

While my Action Research project was personally very enlightening, I was a little anxious to see how it would hold up at the conference, as the attendees were sure to have broader experience in the field and a more sophisticated understanding of the process I had studied than I did myself. Our panel was well-received, however, and my personal feedback was generally positive. I was especially happy for the opportunity to "talk shop" with my colleague in theory and aural skills at Appalachian State. She has been involved in a very interesting study using Tablet PC's for dictation tasks, and I look forward to her presentation at the end of the week at the College Music Society's Mid-Atlantic Chapter Meeting, which I'll be attending.

I had hoped also to participate in the LERN online conference on multiple assessments during the first week of March, particularly since that has been the focus of my work in the current semester. I was informed, however, the institutional membership had lapsed, and, while I tried to see about to renewing it in time for the conference, this did not turn out to be feasible. I have enjoyed the LERN conferences in the past, but I understand that financial restrictions are becoming very tight, and it would certainly not be reasonable to renew the institutional membership for just one faculty member. I hope that in better times we can not only renew the membership, but also get more faculty involved in the LERN activities. I am particularly attracted to them since they're online and asynchronous. This allows me to listen to the lectures and participate in the discussions according to my schedule, as well as to pause and replay lectures to make sure I have understood all the important points. While many of the topics are intended for distance learning programs, there is a weatlh of useful material for face-to-face classes as well.

Once again I am grateful to my colleagues and coaches for the opportunity to participate in the many professional development programs here at WSSU, and particularly for my involvement in the 2009 Lilly Conference. I was impressed by the conference, and having had a positive experience, I'll certainly be interested in attending next year.